A commercial job in Reno made me flip on wireless panic buttons

Last month I was dead set against wireless panic buttons, thought they were toys for homeowners. Then I did a retrofit at a casino gift shop in Reno where running conduit was a nightmare, and a rep from AES showed me their mesh network handles 100+ devices no issue. He said 'the wire is the weakest link anyway, that's what fails in a fire or cut scenario', and honestly that hit different after I saw the drill layout. Has anyone else had luck with encrypted wireless on big commercial sites, or am I still overthinking it?

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logan56127d ago

Funny how "the wire is the weakest link" always sounds great until you're the one trying to explain to a client why their panic button took three seconds to register because the mesh hiccuped. I've seen those AES demos too, they look slick on paper. But I've also seen a network drop out mid-alarm because someone's forklift drove past the wrong spot. Sure, conduit sucks in a casino gift shop, but so does a dead battery at 2am when you need that button to actually work. I'll take a hardwired trip over a wireless maybe any day, even if it means more drill bits.

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