On the Case

Hotel gets five star security

Gem Security Centre Ltd has installed an unobtrusive access control system using Bewator Cotag equipment at Newport’s internationally-renowned luxury hotel, The Celtic Manor Resort.

Controlled by Bewator’s PC-based Granta version 4 system, a total of five PR500 readers were installed at the five-star resort – three in the main hotel and two in its sports centre.

Hotel facilities manager, Russell Phillips, says: “We had three main requirements for this access control project. The system had to be able to import and export data from our existing sports club membership database; it had to be expandable to deal with future security issues; and it had to look good.

“Only the Bewator systems were able to fulfil these needs in a cost-effective way.”

Security and communications consultancy GTX Net, advised Celtic Manor Resort on the project.

The system can grant automatic access to the sports centre for leisure members – for whom its facilities are freely available. Members or guests using the centre’s pool can wear lightweight tokens around the wrist while swimming without affecting their ability to be read.

Jim Caola, MD of Bristol-based Installer, Gem, said: “This is a very highly-finished, luxury environment with cherry hardwoods and marble surfaces. The hotel did not want a surface trunking or conduit on the marble walls nor were we allowed to change the appearance of the doors. We fitted discreet PR500 proximity readers, matched the finish and appearance of the exit buttons to the existing switchgear and totally concealed all the wiring. As a result the client is delighted with the installation”.

Watching finances

Altron Communication Equipment supplied nine of its AW1545 camera poles to the Financial Centre, a new prestigious riverside location in the centre of Glasgow.

The centre provides offices aimed at the main financial institutions and companies and the installation was part of the Glasgow City Council Street Watch CCTV Programme.

The poles are manufactured in a special brushed stainless steel finish to complement the environment of the development on the banks of the River Clyde. They are based on the standard 8-metre model in special brushed stainless steel, featuring a four point locking door, flush doors and locks.

Said Derek Guyer from Semple PLC the principal contractors to the Financial Centre:

“Not only were Altron able to supply us with the special finish to ensure the poles blended with the environment but also they were able, once again, to supply the total quantity on site on time, to meet our strict deadlines”

Images from the CCTV cameras are relayed back to the council’s main central monitoring station as part of the city’s highly prominent Street Watch programme.

Spuds in view

Kent and Sussex Security has expanded a digital surveillance system at the 12-acre site of the Romney Marsh Potato Company, New Romney, Kent.

CCTV dome cameras supplied by Honeywell Security (formerly VCL) protect the 120 staff at the company, the oldest supplier of pre-packed potatoes to Tesco.

The system’s expansion allows cameras to enhance operations in a number of ways.

The cameras have improved safety already by alerting the company to some unsafe practices: Some staff and visitors were entering the warehouse areas through the large vehicle doors designed for forklifts, instead of using safer separate entrances.

Staff were also observed taking a short cut by climbing over a cage that protects one of the robot ‘picks’.

Geoff Hilton, MD of Kent & Sussex Security said that in addition to the Honeywell Security Orbiter Lite domes, other cameras provide a perimeter deterrent and monitor the site buildings, plant, and the fleet of refrigerated/curtain sided lorries.

Kent & Sussex Security’s specification involved an initial five high-resolution switchable colour/monochrome dome cameras (now expanded to eight). One of these domes cleverly monitors two production areas through an opening cut into a dividing wall.

A 17 inch video monitor is in the production office, while the system is controlled by a 16-camera digital video recorder with a 150Gb hard disk capacity capable of storing over one month’s recordings, 24 hours a day.

College security tightened

Executive Security Locksmiths improved the security at Somerville College, Oxford, following the installation of the Abloy master keyed locking system in the university’s catering department.

The system comprises Abloy Protec cylinders, mechanical lockcases and door furniture, Abloy door closers, panic bars and ShearMag electromagnets.

Said Pat Jefferies, National Sales Manager at Abloy Security “It’s not very often an opportunity like Somer-ville College comes along – nine times out of ten we’re a component supplier, providing only part of a system,”

Abloy Security surveyed the property together with Abloy Centre and Executive Security. “Somerville College however was very discerning about what they wanted – a comprehensive security framework and a registered and restricted key system.”

The all-metal, symmetrical key is thin, light and strong, while offering no resistance when inserted, eliminating key wear and breakage. It features a new construction for the discs that is said to provide outstanding levels of security and a new disc blocking function that makes the cylinders almost impossible to manipulate. All the keys are registered under the Abloy Ruby Level key registration system.

Executive Security Locksmiths recorded all the registration criteria with keys marked for identification. Only the centre that issued the keys originally can provide any additional or replacement keys allowing for full protection together with local service.

Passengers verified

Norwich Airport has strengthened its security operations with the installation of CEM’s Passenger Reconciliation system, allowing the airport authorities to verify that only authorised passengers can board the aircraft. Management at the airport were looking for a cost-effective way to upgrade the existing passenger verification system using the existing cameras and scanners and one that could be changed over with minimum disruption to the check process.

The Passenger Reconciliation software allows handling agents/airline staff at Norwich to verify that the passenger who presented the ticket on entrance to the departure lounge is the same passenger who is boarding the aircraft.

It uniquely identifies each passenger as they move into the common user departure lounges and reconciles their image immediately prior to boarding.

Police security upgraded

Hitchin-based installer, South East Security used Bewator access control technology in a major upgrade of security throughout the Bedford-shire Police Force area.

It will enable the force to centrally monitor and control entry to a wide range of sites including incident rooms, custody suites, vehicle pounds and an armoury.

The system is centrally controlled and covers control points at police headquarters and at a further 15 remote sites including police stations, administrative premises and traffic post on the M1 motorway.

The equipment was supplied by Northampton-based Advanced Access, and Reading-based Norbain SD.

South East Security’s Chris Purcell said: “In some ways police security requirements are similar to commercial users: premises need to be made secure, and offices need to be accessible only to those who work in them. Many needs are more specialised, however. Sensitive records need to be protected and family and child protection suites need close security and control.

“We have installed Bewator’s sophisticated Granta version 4 operating system to give the force complete control over who is authorised to enter each area, and when they are allowed to enter it.”

Most of the access points are linked to the Granta operating system via intranet. The system also uses automatic dial-up connections to communicate with remote sites not on the network.

Police officers are able to use their warrant card as their access card. Users carry passive photo ID cards to operate Bewator PR100 proximity or HF100 Hands-Free Reading Heads which activate Bewator door controllers, locks or other devices.

Tunstall takes over

Tunstall has been selected to maintain the ‘assistive’ technology installed by housing associations and local councils throughout Gloucestershire.

The Gloucestershire Consortium, made up of a number of local councils and housing associations within the county, selected Tunstall to maintain its range of personal and home reassurance systems installed in the homes of elderly residents, including warden call systems and dispersed alarms.

Most of the equipment used was supplied and installed by Tunstall originally.

The consortium uses Tunstall’s Lifeline home units and its range of Smart sensors designed to detect potentially dangerous situations such as floods, fire, gas leaks and intruders.

If any of the sensors are triggered a radio signal is sent to the home unit which then raises an alarm with the housing scheme warden. If a resident requires information, reassurance or immediate assistance, they can communicate with the warden via the home unit.

System shows who’s where

A team of security specialists from Redstone Communications has installed an integrated IP-based access control system for speciality chemicals manufacturer, Cognis Performance Chemicals.

The system will improve access control at the 36-acre Cognis site in Hythe, Southampton and meets the health and safety requirements of major industrial and hazardous environments while enabling facility managers to know exactly who is on site at any time, night or day.

Rather than implementing a traditional, stand-alone security system with new cabling – difficult in the confines of a chemical plant – Redstone recommended an integrated approach by using a recently installed Cisco-based IP network.

Graham Dunkley, IT & Control Manager at Cognis said, “Previously we used a manual access control system. But given the nature of the chemical plant we were keen to introduce a more effective solution that would enable us to carry out a quick and efficient roll-call in the case of an emergency and gather employees together at muster stations in as short a time as possible.”

The IP-based solution has Lenel’s card reading OnGuard system, proximity card readers and door controllers at strategic site locations, muster point readers for evacuation roll-call, high security turnstiles and a central system database.

Pep Monk, Cognis project instrument electrical engineer, said:

“Using the new system makes roll-calling extremely fast and totally accurate. When the alarm sounds, everyone goes to their pre-allocated muster station and swipes their card through the reader. A report is produced immediately which indicates the whereabouts of everyone and identifies who is missing and needs to be located. This whole process takes less than two minutes, a dramatic improvement over the previous system.”

Wire free in two days

EMS Group’s wire-free 3000 StaffPoint system has been installed in one of London’s newest job centres to provide comprehensive staff protection and incident location without the need for expensive cable.

The system uses over 200 snatch cord pendants to provide personal attack protection and pinpoint location information for each staff member.

The 3000 StaffPoint pendants incorporate staff identification and location by optical technology with secure radio communications.

Site-wide radio transmissions provide a secure backup ensuring alarms are received and all information components are interconnected without the need for cable.

This wire-free approach allowed the contractors, Gratte Bros Engineers, to install two radio networked control panels, 21 ceiling mounted radio transceiver nodes and configure the 200 pendants in less than two days.

Horses protected

Atkins has been appointed by the Jockey Club to design and manage the installation of a state-of-the-art CCTV system for the stable yards at all 59 racecourses across the UK.

Digital video recorders will store up to 850 gigabytes of video foot-age locally at each course – replacing the existing, ten year old

p.56 system which relies on p.56 four black and white cameras at each yard. The new design provides an average of 12, top of the range, colour cameras for each racecourse.

A specialist Atkins’ team from Stockton has designed the system to provide identification of all individuals entering the stable yards and monitor people and livestock. All images will be retained for 60 days and will be of evidential quality.

The £850,000 system is being funded with a grant from The Levy Board, provided to the Jockey Club.

The work will take the rest of the year although a few courses will be delayed until March 2005 due to local restraints.

IP works at prison

GTN Systems b.v. used IP technology from IndigoVision for an innovative integrated security system installed in a Dutch high-security prison.

VideoBridge IP technology is providing the backbone for the system commissioned by The Ministry of Justice in the Netherlands. GTN designed an access control and mon-itor system that realised cost savings in excess of 20 per cent compared to traditional hard-wired solutions.

Interface modules provide the dig-ital compression and transmission of video, bi-directional audio and I/O control data over the IP-network.

Each cell has a vandal-proof cabinet that contains a VideoBridge 6000 module, power supply and I/O hardware. The only external connections to the cabinet are power and a CAT5 Ethernet network cable. Each cabinet is connected to a local network hub, which is connected to a dual redundant fiber optic ring around the building. The cabinets contain an audio intercom, for both inside and outside of the cell, door control hardware and door position sensors.

A graphical interface allows prison staff to remotely monitor the cell intercom, door access and CCTV cameras.

Cameras monitor the hallways, cell doors and general areas around the prison. Whenever a cell intercom is activated the nearest camera positions and zooms to that location.

‘In house’ system is a winner for A1

When Hampshire based A1 Security Systems installed a system for their own new premises, they took the novel decision to meet two requirements – meet security needs and serve as a reference site and demo/training facility for customers and prospects.

When A1 moved 35 staff into their new Petersfield Head Office at the end of 2003, they saw that a new system could do more for them than simply providing security.

Said Brendan Roberts, General Manager: “Obviously the best reference anyone can give about a product or service is that they use it themselves, so we are pleased to tell our customers exactly how we designed and operate our own security system. They can then come and see the system in action. This is much more helpful to them than simply looking at a brochure or CD. They are able to look at exactly what quality of images are being captured and stored, and how easy it is to set up and use the cameras and the central digital recorders.”

Norbain supplied all equipment: The system is built around two central digital recorders. Most of the cameras feed into a Vista Triplex Columbus digital video recorder (VC16STe-320). Cameras not connected to the Triplex Columbus DVR link through a multiplexer into a single channel DVR, the Vista Solo-80F.

Externally A1 installed two Vista PowerDome Colour/Monochrome VPD-2WP-PC full functional dome units. The 18 internal cameras are vandal resistant fixed cameras from the VVR range.

Paul Beck, MD of A1, said the ability to demonstrate live a wide range of cameras has led to more contracts.

“I would commend this idea for the in-house security system to all installers – there is absolutely no doubt that it works for us”.

Prestigious Welsh contracts

Chubb has collaborated with Public address/Voice alarm specialist Millbank to provide multi-purpose integrated systems into four multi-million pound new build projects in Wales.

The projects are at Swansea’s Maritime Museum, Swansea FC’s (Morfa) Stadium Newport’s Theatre and Arts Centre and the Welsh Assembly Building in Cardiff.

Millbank’s CEO Neil Voce and Chubb’s Customer Accounts Manager, Scott Philips, worked closely to ensure that each system achieved exacting specifications.

Phillips said: “Millbank’s support has been invaluable and played a vital role in winning these prestigious contracts.”

Cardiff’s £50 million Assembly Building, is getting a sophisticated VA system, comprising their 10MAX Voice Alarm Controller and SAM8 Amplifier with in built loudspeaker line monitoring system.

Newport’s £13 million Theatre and Arts Centre, has a distributed digital VxLAN system.

Swansea’s £24 million White Rock (Morfa) stadium has a VxLAN system, deployed to enable PA/VA distribution over the 20,000–seater stadium.

Swansea’s £30 million Maritime Museum, has a Millbank Verifire 12 zone Voice Alarm system, induction loops and Sennheiser Infra-Red audio guide systems.

Guarding costs slashed

The IVS Group has supplied a remo-tely monitored CCTV security solution for Timbmet, Europe’s leading hardwood importer and distributor.

Timbmet’s headquarters in Ox-ford spans a 20 acre site and houses a valuable timber processing plant, kilning operation and storage area.

A major concern was the high cost of retaining manned guards. The IVS Group recommended that the p.58 guards should be replaced with a remotely monitored, digital CCTV system, backed-up by response guarding in the event of an incident.

An initial £40,000 capital investment in the system would recoup itself within the space of a year.

The system consisted of 11 dome, infra-red cameras and connected Redwall sensors, placed in strategic locations. The motion-activated sensors enable the detection of any on-site movement and activate the nearest camera to focus in on any incident.

Digital images are transmitted via ISDN to a certified remote control centre in Manchester. The site is armed each night after the last lorry has left and the supervisor on duty has handed over security to the monitoring centre.

A public announcement system asks intruders to make themselves known to the operators from the nearest two-way communications point. If the situation is not resolved immediately, the remote operators can then despatch a locally-based guard to the incident.

Philip Trueman, group logistics manager for Timbmet, said the ongoing monitoring and maintenance charges are a fraction of the original guarding costs.

Tower of strength

Kirklees Council in Yorkshire has invested in a major new security and access control system for tower block tenants in Huddersfield carried out by systems integrator BBV and system installers Garndene.

Combining traditional analogue and the latest digital technology, the system has been designed to offer residents of two 16-storey tower blocks, Holme Park and Bishops Court, secure access to their homes.

The concierge system comprises a 256-way FBM analogue matrix, 14 BX2 digital video recorders from Dedicated Micros and a BBV ‘Pick-a-Point’ graphical user interface.

Cameras are located in the two lifts in each tower block and on each floor, as well as externally over entrances and exits.

The control centre, based in the Holme Park Court, is manned 24/7 by security guards. As both blocks are only 100m apart, twisted pair cabling has been used to link the system. Two-way audio and access control has made significant savings in manpower costs, as one concierge controls both buildings.

Residents or visitors ring a button which triggers an alarm to swing the camera round to the door, allowing the concierge to confirm identity and allow entry to the building.

Eddie Dautry-Turner from BBV said their ‘Pick-a-Point-IP’ mapping system was a graphical user interface which creates two-dimensional floor plans of all 35 levels giving the security staff an overview of the whole site and showing all the camera positions on-screen. Staff simply click on the camera shown on screen, using either the mouse or the joystick driven keyboard, to access images in seconds.

Andy Batley at system installers Garndene explains: “Pick-a-Point offers a highly cost effective and time-saving way of growing very large systems as efficiently as possible.”

30 days of pictures are captured on each DM BX2 with an integral CD writer used to copy images.

Controlling hospital

Nu-cam Systems of Northampton has carried out a complete CCTV integration at Addenbrooke’s NHS Trust Hospital in Cambridge

With the recent expansion and plans for more, Addenbrooke’s NHS Trust Hospital in Cambridge has need-ed to expand its security and surveillance monitoring infrastructure.

The hospital had traditionally monitored activity via a series of individual 12 to 18 inch monitors. The plan was to increase the number of monitors to 32, and include two large, high-resolution picture options.

This led to the installation of two sv-4000 Synelec LCD-TFT IndiSys 40 inch displays.

The Synelec display met the criteria for a TFT wall, with the ability to handle the large number of cameras, and without the risk of burn-out.

The system had to be able to handle the 66 additional cameras sited in the new multi-storey car park and have the flexibility to cope with a further 20 cameras to cover an additional building in 2006.

Cover at Ikea

ADT won the prestigious contract to provide a video system to a new Ikea store in Edmonton, Canada.

Covering two storeys and nearly 300, 000 square feet, the store is one of the largest retail spaces in Western Canada and a total of 96 Pelco cameras cover the area.

Cameras are mounted to view all access to and from the store. The interior/exterior pan/tilt domes are colour Spectra III Domes. Inside the store Pelco ICS090 Camclosure mini domes and CC3701 fixed cameras are in key positions. At the heart of the system is the Pelco 9740 matrix switch. The server works in conjunction with six of Pelco’s DX7000 digital video recorders. The whole system, is hooked into its own internal security network via two hubs.

Domes view ’phone workshop

Kent and Sussex Security used high definition Honeywell Security (formerly VCL) dome cameras to protect the service facility of mobile phone specialist SBE (UK) Ltd in Ashford, Kent.

The facility is ten times larger than the company’s former premises and the colour CCTV units now monitor the interior of the 2000 square metre premises, including the workshop repair and logistics areas where valuable spare parts are stored.

The surveillance domes boast features including an 18x optical zoom and two programmable tours, each with up to 64 presets, plus variable speed and dwell times. Working with other static cameras around the building, the domes can be monitored, programmed and controlled by SBE’s Operations Director, David Rosenberg, using a joystick keyboard situated in his office.

A 16-way video matrix, together with a combined digital recorder and video transmitter can also be networked onto the company’s local area network to provide authorised managers with access to the cameras on their PC.

The cameras provide reassurance that every effort is being made to protect equipment brought in for servicing, repair or refurbishment - currently more than 20,000 products per month.- and can also be used to keep an eye on the safety of the company’s 150 staff.