Mission Critical Fire Protection Podcast powered by ORR Protection

Episode 26 - Discussing data centers and integration with Dal Brazzel

August 31, 2021 ORR Protection Season 1 Episode 26
Mission Critical Fire Protection Podcast powered by ORR Protection
Episode 26 - Discussing data centers and integration with Dal Brazzel
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

In Episode 26 of The Mission Critical Fire Protection Podcast, Lee Kaiser sits down with Dal Brazzel ORR's South East sales manager. Dal discusses his tenure in the fire suppression industry and talks about mission-critical fire protection with Lee.

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Thanks for joining us. To learn more about mission-critical fire protection, visit MCFPexperts.com.

INTRO (00:07):

Welcome to MCFP meet the experts where ORR Protections, VP of engineering, Lee Kaiser interviews, industry insiders on all things Mission-critical fire protection.

Lee Kaiser (00:19):

You're with Dal Brazzel Dallas, a sales manager for our Southeast region here in the United States. He's an area manager and a number of account managers, reports to him. And we're very happy to have you here today Dal. I want to ask you a couple of questions. The first one being, how did you get into fire protections, not a big industry. How did you start in fire protection and kind of tell us your story?

Dal Brazzel (00:41):

So I always liked electronics. Um, and when i went to college for electrical engineering, had no idea that the life safety fire alarm business existed. Uh, so my first professional career out of college was actually working in an industrial engineering role, uh, for a plant that closed shortly after, um, after, after I went to work for them. So it was kind of looking, playing in the field and I found a fire alarm company and the rest is history. It was about 20 Years ago.

Lee Kaiser (01:06):

Oh wow you've been in for 20 years. That's great. So I know that, ORR it's not your first company. Um, you've got a lot of experience in the industry and a lot of different products, even that you've touched. So I imagine that you've seen a lot of projects. Uh, tell me about one of your favorite projects that you've ever been involved with.

Dal Brazzel (01:25):

Well, so in general, I like the construction side of the business. You know, I like to see buildings go up. I like to get the boots muddy and, uh, kind of wear the hard hats. So any project I like to affiliate my name and feel like if I drive by a building, I can say, you know, I had some involvement with the construction of that building. So, you know, I've worked on high rise office buildings. I've worked on sports, arenas, data centers and, and, um, you know, some specialized areas, but probably some of the coolest stories have been, um, you know, government department of defense projects and department of energy projects, um, you know, research and labs, things like that.

Lee Kaiser (01:57):

Why, why is that cooler than a big high-rise,

Dal Brazzel (02:00):

Uh, just different systems. Um, you know, it's, uh, I worked on a project called distillation neutron source years and years ago when I was with BezDev. Uh, and it was a facility for the department of energy department deffense that basically they blow, uh, neutrons out of atom's for, uh, atomic mapping and, and, uh, you know, it's not something you see, private industry doesn't have the money to build that kind of a facility, but, you know, the federal government can spend a lot of money.

Lee Kaiser (02:24):

So, you know, your career is, is yet to be long here. Uh, what ever you're dreaming of any other types of projects as you'd like to do that you haven't had a chance to do yet?

Dal Brazzel (02:34):

You know, I really I've had in my career primarily in fire alarm and air sampling smoke detection, I've had the opportunity to work in a lot of different types of projects. And I don't know that I have one particular type that's more exciting, but, um, you know, I don't have as much experience on the suppression side of the business. Uh, so, you know, I'd probably like to, you know, close a big whale on the, on the suppression side of the business FM 200 individual Three.

Lee Kaiser (02:57):

Yeah. Yeah. Those are pretty amazing projects and they don't come up that frequently, but that would be really great. That is probably on my list too, to do, you know, one of those big whale gaseous projects. So, um, what, you know, you've mentioned VesDa and fire alarm. What, what kind of technologies do you really feel that you're an expert in?

Dal Brazzel (03:20):

Well, so definitely, you know, the I've been in the business about 20 years. Uh, 10 of those years were working for manufacturers near sampling business. So I worked for VesDa for many, many years, and I worked for several of their competitors. So, you know, probably one of the few people in the U.S. thats worked for multiple air sampling manufacturers. Uh, so I've got a lot of experience there, uh, applications engineering. Um, and then, uh, the last 10 years before joining, ORR I was more on the integration side of the business working for, uh, low voltage integrators, selling fire alarm systems. So, you know, I've got a lot of experience, uh, with NFPA 72 and the fire alarm codes, uh, from hotels and hospitality to data centers and high rise commercial office building. So probably aspirating smoke detection and fire alarm.

Lee Kaiser (04:02):

What do you think in the future, since you've been, you've seen so much of that progression of air sampling and fire alarm, what do you think the future holds maybe five years, 10 years down the road, what are fire protection systems going to look like? Do you think they're going to change?

Dal Brazzel (04:15):

Yeah. So I think we'll see a lot more integration of a fire alarm or life safety systems with other building systems. Um, so I think potentially, you know, obviously integrating fire alarm and security fire alarm and mass notification, which is kind of already starting to take place. I think we'll start to see a lot more integration of fire alarm into, um, you know, other systems. So today you've got occupancy sensors for lighting control, so that the lights, uh, turn off when you leave a room or they dim, um, so having the ability to have the lighting, the occupancy sensor there say there's still an occupant in this room. So when the fire department comes into the building and there's a fire, they can say, Hey, I still see an occupant in room 13-22. We need to go out and try to evacuate that room as opposed to just blindly evacuating, um, the building. I think, you know, as buildings get smarter and smarter, we'll see more integration with other other buildings systems.

Lee Kaiser (05:03):

Yeah. I think that's a really good call. I th I think you're right. I think that change is going to happen. Well, Dal, thanks for spending a few minutes with us. Again, Dal Brazzel sales manager for us in the Southeast of the United States. Thanks so much for lending your talents and your knowledge.

Dal Brazzel (05:18):

Thank you, appreciate it.

OUTRO (05:19):

Thanks for joining us to learn more about mission critical fire protection visit MCFP experts.com.

 

Introduction
Interview
Outro