Special Project 2

The London Hilton, towering 27 storeys above Park Lane, had highly specific requirements when it came to its CCTV system.

What was needed was identifiable images of everyone entering and leaving the hotel, at all times and observation level images of all public areas – a total of 150 cameras.

It was the job of London-based CCTV installers R&D Security, highly experienced in hotel security, to turn the requirement specification into a technical design, and handle the implementation.

  The main public entrance has two very discreet dome cameras, recognisable only to the expert eye, that are covering the busy pedestrian traffic through the main doors. Another camera maintains observation on the pavement area. The other public entrance follows the same principles. There are also a number of fire exits to the building, and these too are covered by cameras.

The large reception area also uses modern dome cameras discreetly covering all, from the reception desk across the seating area to the restaurant entrance. The restaurant then has its own series of cameras, completing the total observation of the area.

Each of the 24 floors of guest rooms has the same layout – three straight corridors, no more than 30 yards long, meeting at the lift area. With three cameras set neatly at ceiling height, all the doors are covered.

All cameras link at the centre into monitoring screens and VCRs. To raise the standard of identification, the tapes in the VCRs are changed every three hours. This high frequency of change adds an operational overhead, but means that there is virtually no missing of information through time-lapsing.

The Hilton's Head of Security said the system brought four important benefits: prevention of incidents; identification during an incident; information to establish what happened in any incident and as a staff training aid.

He said the security system had to be completely consistent with the Hilton image. "If security were judged by our guests to be either too lax or too obtrusive, then the special experience of staying at our hotel would be lessened, and we would quite rightly lose custom."

R&D's MD Mike Topping said the appearance of the cameras in hotel applications was of very high priority. "In the lobby area we used very attractive small high resolution dome cameras with concealed cabling, and the results are excellent." He also places high priority on the quality of the image and, where possible, he follows the Best Practice suggestions for CCTV from the Police Scientific Development Branch.

"If tapes are changed every 24 hours, each camera is recording an image with a frequency of approximately one every five seconds.

"The way we have set it up for the London Hilton, there is an image recorded every second from every camera, which is an excellent basis for a security system".

As with all security applications, the installer of a hotel system is required to move very fast in the event of a problem, to minimise downtime.

Mike used Norbain as his supplier. He said: "I need a supplier with a very good stockholding, giving next day delivery on all stock items, plus competitive pricing, which is exactly what I get."

The next investment phase is likely to be a switch to digital technology, while keeping the same camera set-up.