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TECHNOLOGY SURVIVAL IN THE GREAT INDOORS Fire/life-safety issues for large venues such as shopping malls, arenas and big-box stores run the gamut. Installing contractors must grasp how to balance the tradeoff among system types, costs and coverage, as well as negotiate the sometimes confl icting goals and demands of others involved in decisions. by Roopa Shortt mericans like everything bigger: bigger hotels, bigger stadiums and bigger convention centers, to name but a few examples. But bigger is not always better as evidenced by the demise of truff ula trees in the recent movie adaptation of Dr. Seuss' "T e Lorax, " supersized servings contributing to an obesity epidemic, and the challenge of protecting large indoor properties. Fortu- nately, where the latter is concerned, better technology and smarter planning can off er greater protection. Integrated multidetection devices, such as those sensing heat, smoke and carbon monoxide (CO), are emerging to take a more inclusive approach to protecting indoor spaces. Voice evacuation systems for sharing important instructions are gaining traction and are borrowing intelligibility principles from similar public address system devices. T ese technologies, as well as aspiration systems and other newer devices, have great potential for detecting danger and improving egress in some applications within large indoor properties. T e sophistication of protection in large indoor venues varies widely. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Fire Analysis and Research Division, 15 of the 17 64 / SECURITYSALES.COM / OCTOBER 2012 large-loss fi res in 2010 occurred in these structures. Many of these did not have automatic suppression systems; some didn't even have functioning detection equipment or "human error" overrode the protective systems. T ese 15 structures, which included several public assembly buildings and large facilities, resulted in a total property loss of about $369.8 million. Here is a summary of some of the other data: • A deliberately set fi re at the 1.4-million-square-foot Roseville Galleria shopping center in California caused $110 million in damage. • Two fi res were reported in churches, including the historic, 8,000-square-foot Provo Tabernacle in Utah, which reported a $15 million loss. • A 300,000-square-foot Louisiana restaurant and a 37,000-square-foot South Carolina golf course country club each had damages of $10 million. Large-loss fi res capture attention due to the sheer magnitude of the fi re and life-safety challenge: How do you choose the right technologies to detect fi res and protect people and property within facilities that could be the length of a football fi eld or more? What is the proper tradeoff between