The brand new campus, which opened last September, serves 2,000 students and 450 staff on a daily basis.
The campus has modern, flexible classrooms and extensive professional facilities, including art studios and workshops, forensic science laboratories, hair and beauty salons, IT suites, photography studios, media editing suites, sound and recording studios, a performing arts theatre complete with a sound and lighting control room, dressing rooms and green room as well as dance studios and audience seating space for up to 120 people.
The new facility complements West Herts College’s Construction and Engineering Centre in Kings Langley and the Dacorum College campus in nearby Hemel Hempstead.
The college features leisure and social spaces alongside fully-equipped working areas and classrooms that include the latest teaching tools and technology designed to cover a wide variety of subjects. .
Security for staff and students: the prime consideration
With state-of-the-art facilities throughout, security for staff and students alike was a prime consideration when it came to design, construction and operation of the campus.
To complement and protect the cutting-edge building and its high-value contents, college managers were eager to employ the latest CCTV technology as part of an overall security plan at the site, as Chris Brown of Panasonic Premier Integrator (PPI) company AIS explained.
“We were given the opportunity to tender for the project via the construction company BAM, who was responsible for the build,” said Brown.
“Initially, they had specified a traditional analogue installation. However, as a PPI and being able to take advantage of close manufacturer support and demonstration equipment, we were able to display the key advantages of an end-to-end IP solution.”
On winning the tender, AIS specified a dedicated fibre backbone that was installed by the building contractors to the integrators’ own specification. Along with fibre links to each camera location and PoE network switches, this formed the basis of image transmission from the cameras to an on-site equipment room that was also included in the construction phase.
“Here, we installed two Panasonic WJ-ND400 NVRs that supply images to be transferred to the college’s Wide Area Network (WAN), giving key members of staff and the security team the ability to remotely monitor live and recorded images.”
Use of an integrated CCTV network
The use of an integrated Panasonic i-Pro CCTV network and fibre backbone rather than a coax transmission method realised a minimal impact on the outstanding architecture of the building, and allowed the discreet inclusion of 33 WV-NS202A cameras and 84 WV-NF284 models. These now cover all key aspects of the interior of the college, including all corridors, stairwells, reception atriums, meeting rooms and restaurant areas.
The modern architecture on campus features illuminated corridors opening into naturally lit, glass-sided atriums with contrasting lighting. To manage security in these conditions, WV-NS202A cameras featuring Super Dynamic 5 technology have been deployed. They’re specifically able to deal with any subject within a wide variety of lighting conditions.
Super Dynamic 5 performs gradation compensation of contrast on an individual pixel basis, ensuring detailed scenes throughout the college environment are captured and transmitted to the equipment room/security office for recording and monitoring.
Power-over-Ethernet
For easy installation and IP configuration, each Panasonic camera features Power-over-Ethernet (PoE), supplying power and transmitting images via a single cable. No separate power supply was required, allowing AIS’ engineers to simply connect each camera to a PoE switch.
Also featured at the site, eleven Panasonic WV-NW960 weather-resistant network dome cameras and five WV-NW502 cameras cover the college’s courtyard and all perimeter areas.
Equipped with Super Dynamic 5 technology, the WV-NW960 combines 30x optical zoom and 128x wider dynamic range to provide continuous 24-hour surveillance. When darkness falls at the college, the cameras automatically switch from colour to black and white mode for greater sensitivity.
When daylight arrives, they then automatically revert o colour mode. With a minimum illumination of 0.04 lux in b/w mode and 0.5 lux in colour, a crystal clear image can be captured even in any unlit areas of the grounds.
Very latest learning facilities
The new campus also features a public street complete with gym, spa, cafe and comprehensive restaurant facilities. Social areas include spaces for relaxing and studying in groups, plus a central square where students are able to meet, relax and enjoy some well-earned ‘downtime’ between classes.
The college’s Panasonic i-Pro CCTV network is a key tool in an overall security package at the site that also includes access control and intruder alarm systems linked to the CCTV network.
Upon activation, adjacent cameras are automatically selected and moved to a pre-set position to cover any event.
“Whether it’s a request for entry via the access control intercom or an intruder detection, the Panasonic technology automatically captures essential scene coverage via the nearest camera,” added Brown.
“Instantly bringing the situation to the attention of the operator, it also ensures the circumstances of any activation by the integrated system are recorded for future investigation.”
Virtual patrols of the site
The ability to ‘virtually’ patrol the site at the touch of a button has proven to be an invaluable asset to the overall security structure at the college, and acts as a foundation for its security guarding team, giving full and accurate reporting of any situation right from the outset.
As the students enjoy the latest in academic facilities, they can do so in the knowledge that they’re being protected by a passionate and committed security team backed by the latest CCTV technology.
Undoubtedly, this is a combination that will nurture countless waves of students through their varied studies over the coming years.
Shortlisted for an environmental sustainability award
West Herts College’s Watford campus has now been shortlisted in the 2011 Sustain Magazine Awards.
Designed by The Weedon Partnership, the campus was designed with sustainability in mind and has successfully achieved the smallest carbon footprint the budget would allow.
The internal space of the flagship campus was designed for intensive use, which resulted in a physically smaller building, able to undertake a wider range of activites. A smaller building footprint inherently has a smaller carbon footprint, but this is enhanced by other sustainablity features.
Almost none of the campus is air conditioned, instead being reliant upon natural ventilation (a process that’s assisted by the buildings’ large thermal mass). This is called the ‘cathedral effect’: the building structure is designed to absorb the heat during the day, keep working areas cool and then dissipate heat during the night when vents open automatically to ensure the structure is ventilated and thermally cooled.
Low-E glass has been used to ensure that solar gain during the day is minimised. Solar heating has been installed on the roof, and a green roof has been installed to provide an insulation layer which reduces heat gain in the sumer and heat loss in the winter.
The building also benefits from a biomass boiler and rainwater harvesting. There’s also an internal lighting system which has autmoatic switches, activated by ambient light or movement.
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