Five star protection

Half an hour's drive north of Glasgow, lying on the tranquil banks of Loch Lomond in the Trossachs National Park, the DeVere Cameron House Hotel offers a luxurious visitor experience amid some of Scotland’s most beautiful countryside.

In reality, many guests choose to admire the majesty of their surroundings while taking full advantage of the hotel’s comprehensive facilities. These include a lagoon-style swimming pool, a beauty and hair salon, steam room, sauna, gym, Jacuzzi, solarium, tennis and squash courts, a children’s outdoor play area and a nine-hole golf course (a new 18-hole course is due to open later this year).

Guests can also board the hotel’s own 46 ft motor yacht, the Celtic Warrior, to experience at close hand the views and serenity of Loch Lomond. When guests have tired themselves out on the day’s abundance of activities, they can then choose to relax by dining in the hotel’s Georgian Room Restaurant (which has been awarded three AA rosettes), the luxury of the more relaxed Smolletts Restaurant or the Marina Restaurant with its beautiful views across the loch.

The DeVere Cameron House Hotel’s surroundings and facilities are not only popular with tourists. Companies choose to host their corporate entertainment events at the hotel, in addition to team building days and training courses. The hotel is the first choice venue for many blue chip companies, finds itself regularly hosting wedding parties and, on numerous occasions, the Scottish national football team.

Not surprisingly, the hotel’s management team prides itself on providing the very best in service to all guests, and on ensuring that each customer’s stay is as relaxing and enjoyable as possible. That attention to detail saw the hotel’s management and staff awarded the Hospitality Assured Standard (presented by the Hotel and Catering International Management Association).

“We want our guests to feel at home in the hotel’s surroundings,” states Vince Fenwick, Cameron House’s financial manager. “A major part of this philosophy is to make our guests feel secure when they are with us. Our original CCTV system was a big help with our security effort. However, advancements in CCTV technology and general wear and tear were beginning to show up just how old the installation had become. In addition, the extra facilities we have introduced at the hotel meant that blind spots had to be plugged.”

Effective CCTV imaging

For the purposes of conducting a comprehensive overhaul of visual security measures at Cameron House, Fenwick chose Panasonic Premier Integrator Clear Image. Jim Duncan (business development manager at Clear Image) and his colleague, Neil Alexander (regional manager) liaised with Fenwick at all times in a bid to specify a system that would fulfil the hotel’s specific needs.

To this end, Clear Image installed 16 WV-CW960 dome cameras to comprehensively cover the hotel’s external areas and vast grounds, and to deliver a cost-effective installation that offers full coverage.

The domes cover the area immediately outside the hotel, elements of its 108-acre grounds, 96 luxury log-built timeshare lodges on the banks of the loch and marina area and the hotel’s motor yacht.

Due to the hotel’s location, the cameras are required to view both brightly-lit open spaces and contrasting dark/shaded areas – notably between buildings – and all in one pre-set surveillance sweep. The Super Dynamic III technology employed by the WV-CW960 domes affords hotel staff effective, 24-hour protection allied to a high TV resolution of 510 lines. That renders effective operation even in outdoor lighting conditions as low as 0.03 lux.

The interior spaces are watched over by WV-CF224EX domes. Equipped with a 380,000 pixel, 1/4-type CCD, they can be used with both AC and DC power sources. In addition to 480 TV lines horizontal resolution, these dome units can operate effectively in lighting levels as low as 1.6 lux – thus affording visual surveillance across the varying lighting conditions of the hotel’s reception area and adjoining corridors.

Neil Alexander then explains why these cameras were specified. “Using the WV-CF224EX units for the interior was a natural choice,” he suggests. “These cameras’ size-to-performance ratio is unrivalled for this type of application and allows a high performance surveillance system to be installed without detracting from the hotel’s luxurious interior.

Clear Image paid due consideration to future-proofing the CCTV system and chose WV-CU650CJ/B controllers at both facilities to manage the systems’ WJ-SX150A camera switching matrices and video playback

“Deploying the WV-CW960 cameras for the exterior and grounds renders an unobtrusive end result. A variety of lenses have also been used for maximum scene coverage. As a result, fewer cameras were actually installed. This led to much less extensive civil engineering works being required. A more economical installation was the benefit to the client.”

Valuable detection and deterrent

Camera images are relayed to two onsite security offices. One is situated in the hotel’s management suite adjacent to the main reception and records information from the internal camera system on to a WJ-HD309 hard disk DVR. The other is located in the hotel’s marina office. Recordings are made from the external cameras for archive via a lone 16-channel WJ-HD316A DVR. Both DVRs are programmed for seven-day event recording and provide the management team with crystal clear images of any incidents.

To accommodate future developments at the hotel, Clear Image paid due consideration to future-proofing the CCTV system and chose WV-CU650CJ/B controllers at both facilities to manage the systems’ WJ-SX150A camera switching matrices and video playback. Clear Image specified the Panasonic-based system as the Cameron House management team had designed an expansion to the hotel that would require extra cameras. These cameras could therefore be absorbed into the existing ‘expansion ready’ system without the need for any further camera switching matrix upgrade.

Completed last July, the CCTV system has already been employed in the front line of security at the hotel. Vince Fenwick takes up the story. “Part of the hotel’s grounds border the busy A82 road to central Glasgow. The perimeter cameras help us to monitor our fence line.

“We recently had an incident where youths were trespassing on the property during the hours of darkness. One of them tried to make off with a golf cart. We use these vehicles to transport supplies and equipment around the site and to and from the log cabins. It was merely a case of opportunist theft that was clearly visible on our cameras as the miscreants drove the buggy around the site and eventually dumped it into the loch.”

Fenwick continues: “The whole incident was captured on the CCTV system, with the offenders easily identifiable on the high quality digital recording playback. We handed over downloaded evidential video to the police on disk. The video footage was a huge help, leading to the apprehension and prosecution of the offenders involved.”

Inside the hotel, the CCTV system is designed to protect both staff and guests alike. Fenwick adds: “During our busy periods the reception area can become very congested with guests and their luggage. For instance, between nine o’clock and eleven o’clock in the morning we can have a great number of guests checking out, as well as new guests arriving to check-in. This can render the management of the reception area an intensive task, particularly if we’re hosting a large corporate event or a wedding at the same time. Our internal surveillance installation can assist us in monitoring the footfall patterns through reception, allowing us to levy the appropriate staffing levels at any given time.”

Greatly enhanced security

The installation also has an obvious impact on greatly increasing security in the reception area. Using the WV-CU650CJ/B controller to recall images from the accompanying WJ-HD309 recorder, Fenwick and other members of staff are able to review all areas of the reception – a great asset if any transactions require subsequent confirmation.

Fenwick can also review surveillance footage captured from the entire system directly from his own office via the WJ-HD316A and WJ-HD309 recorders. Recorded footage or live feeds from any of the hotel’s cameras may be scrutinised. Fenwick comments: “This additional remote viewing facility allows me to monitor the whole site in real-time, or review footage directly from a laptop. That is an invaluable asset when it comes to day-to-day site management.”

The DeVere Cameron House Hotel now operates a high specification CCTV system that supplies essential security benefits to staff and guests alike. It has also proven to be an invaluable management tool.