Up until ISC West, Bosch Security Systems North America's fire business had primarily been focused on small conventional systems. They were known for working with companies that were primarily burglar alarm companies who also installed small fire systems, and their product line included conventional panels, some multiplex equipment and lots of detectors, stations and notification devices.

Now, according to Charles Davis, Bosch's product marketing manager for the company's U.S. fire business, the company is changing its strategy.

At the ISC West 2009 show in Las Vegas, Bosch launched its FPA-1000-UL, a UL-listed analog addressable fire alarm systems panel. It's the company's first true addressable panel (previous U.S. offering from Bosch had expansion modules to add addressable lines, but weren't addressable panels in their entirety). The 1000 panel has two SLCs which currently accommodates up to 254 points; the company plans to release an upgrade later this summer which would double the number of points. It even plans for the future with a hazardous gas notification circuit -- a feature which Bosch added to accomodate for future carbon monoxide detection requirements.

"For the most part, the strategy had been smaller panels," explained Davis.

"The strategy going forward is going to be geared toward building systems solutions. We're making a huge investment in terms of R&D. This panel is the first of that infrastructure going forward."

The panel, besides being addressable, is also Web-connected to allow remote activity to the panel. That allows for remote service checks by the fire systems dealer. It can allow the tech to be on-site for final installation checks while the dealer's fire system engineer is at the home office working on the panel's programming.

Of course, Davis notes that the Web-connected nature of many of today's panels has raised questions by AHJ inspectors who want to ensure that it doesn't defeat the purpose of a fire panel.

"There are going to be AHJs that are concerned about the Web connection," explained Davis. "They are concerned about people remotely changing the panel, silencing the system, or shutting it down without being on site. And that's a big no-no. To prevent that, we have put rules in the programming to force user to be at the panel for certain activities. There are also several layers of security to prevent hacking."