Fire alarm installation is a regulated design exercise, not a shopping trip. Gemini AMPM designs, installs and commissions detection to BS 5839-1:2025 under BAFE SP203-1 registration (ID 302260), building on Advanced MxPro panels and Hochiki devices — so the category on your certificate matches the risk in your building.
BS 5839-1:2025 defines system categories so that a fire strategy can be priced and proven. Category M is manual call points only. The L categories protect life: L5 covers a defined risk, L4 the escape routes, L3 escape routes plus the rooms opening onto them, L2 adds specified high-risk rooms, and L1 puts detection almost everywhere. P1 and P2 protect property, often to satisfy an insurer. Your fire risk assessment sets the category; the design has to deliver it without gaps.
That’s why the process matters as much as the kit. Under BAFE SP203-1 each stage — design, installation, commissioning — is certificated, so responsibility never falls between trades. Gemini holds all three modules, which means one contractor answers for the drawings, the containment, the cause-and-effect and the final certificate. See our accreditations for the scope in black and white.
We build on Advanced MxPro panels and Hochiki detection because both are open protocol and proven at scale. MxPro panels network across large or multi-building sites and carry the cause-and-effect logic — which sounders fire, which doors release, which plant shuts down — while Hochiki sensors have decades of false-alarm resistance behind them. Open protocol matters after handover too: you’re never locked into one maintainer because only they can programme the panel.
Installation is planned around a working building. Cabling runs are agreed before anyone lifts a floor tile, devices go in to the drawings rather than to habit, and commissioning tests every device, every zone and every interface before witness testing with you. You leave the job with certificates for design, installation and commissioning, as-fitted drawings, a zone plan by the panel and a logbook — the full paper trail the standard expects.
The category comes from your fire risk assessment and, for new or altered buildings, from Building Regulations guidance and any conditions your insurer sets. Offices commonly land at L2 or L3, sleeping risks push towards L1, and warehouses may add P cover for property. We won’t quote from a floor area alone: the design stage of BAFE SP203-1 exists to turn that assessment into a documented category, and the certificate we issue states exactly what was delivered.
Because anyone can claim competence, and BAFE exists to test it. SP203-1 is the UKAS-accredited scheme for fire detection and alarm systems, split into design, installation, commissioning and maintenance modules, each audited independently. Many enforcing authorities and insurers now expect it as evidence that the Fire Safety Order’s competency requirements are met. Gemini AMPM is registered under ID 302260, so every certificate we issue traces back to an audited, third-party-checked process rather than a self-declaration.
Yes, and most of our installations happen exactly that way. Work is phased so existing detection stays live until its replacement is commissioned zone by zone, noisy works are booked around your operations, and temporary cover is arranged where a risk assessment demands it. Wireless and hybrid options can remove most of the cabling disruption entirely in sensitive areas. The building never goes unprotected, and staff or residents are never left listening to unexplained test sounders.
A named engineer, not a call centre, comes back within 24 hours. Tell us the building and what you’re dealing with, and we’ll scope it properly.