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Hochiki is leading the way in the design and manufacture of innovative life safety solutions

Hochiki is leading the way in the design and manufacture of innovative life safety solutions - Rohit Harjani, Country Manager Indian Sub-continent, Hochiki

Kindly share with the readers the genesis of Hochiki in India?
Hochiki started in India by appointing distributors way back in 1978. We did some great installations in India but in 2015 Hochiki Europe UK Ltd decided to open a Branch office in India which could easily do the billing in local currency. We are effectively a year and half old with local billing and nearly 40 years old in terms of having our products sold in India.

What are the products offer Hochiki offers for the Indian market?
Our product portfolio includes fire detection systems, ‘Firewave’: intelligent addressable wireless fire detection systems, SIL approved intelligent addressable wired devices, intrinsically safe devices (ATEX), Firelink: aspirating smoke detection, Firescape: emergency lighting and escape route lighting system, and many other products.

What is the importance of seamlessly embedding fire safety mechanism in India?
There are many different views on this topic and various organisation stake stand on the basis of the experience they had while using various systems in the past. Fire safety is not a small field, moreover there are various laws and practices that need to be followed whereas in security systems it is still manufacturers’ declaration. I personally feel that various non-integrated fire and security systems should be put together on IBMS platform which is currently in usage. It should be widely used.

What are the evolving landscape of fire safety globally and its impact on India?
As we are moving towards concentration in cities, the need for fire alarms is growing. The rural areas also getting busier in terms of business and warehousing therefore mandatory laws are being pushed even in those areas. This creates a need for fire detection and protection equipment and most areas now need advanced technologies due to complex structures being built. Fire detection is the base for any firefighting equipment to authenticate fire beside naked eyes. Countries like Norway and UK base every-thing on fire detection due to which most fires are controlled at nascent stages. There has been a lot of R&D going on in the field of Escape Route Lighting System dedicated for evacuation in case of any emergency including Fire emergency. Intelligence was added by Hochiki to make this system more effective. Nowadays systems are designed where analytics, complex calculations, AI, etc, are being tried and being tested for usage in fire industry and the standard bodies like LPCB, Vds in EN54 and UL and FM are looking to write and update standards for the betterment of humanity.

What are the technological advancements in the area of fire technologies for the Indian market?
Companies across fire and security industry are investing substantial part of their incomes in R&D activities to introduce new and technologically advanced products. Some of the recent advancements are – intelligent wireless fire detection devices, embedded features across the entire system and introduction of intelligence in systems other than fire alarm systems, eg, intelligent emergency lighting systems.

How is Hochiki addressing the shortage of skilled manpower in India?
Hochiki has taken this as a priority. We at Hochiki conduct 4 days of training every month at our Gurugram office which is our main office. This training is kept free of charge. This way the engineers/non-engineers get trained and develop skills on fire detection systems.

What are your future plans for Hochiki? Are you planning to set up manufacturing plants, products launch or tie-ups in the near future?
We have informed our management about India and its viability to manufacture. The management will definitely look into our proposal to set up a facility in India. As regards new product launch, we have recently launched a touch screen fire alarm control panel. This will be available from 2 to 16 loops.

 

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