Due to system failures, the Heartlands Hospital – a 900-bed acute teaching Trust hospital in central Birmingham, and Solihull Hospital (a 400-bed operation some 12 miles further south) both lost their existing CCTV coverage in December last year.
Prior to the failure, security teams at the Solihull and Heartlands NHS Trust had been operating a combination of a PC-based digital recorder alongside a number of traditional analogue multiplexers and VCRs. Before the breakdown the systems had become more and more unreliable, thus the decision was made to switch to a fully-digital surveillance set-up. “We didn’t have time for staff to spend weeks learning another complicated PC operation, or for installers to spend days integrating new technology with old,” suggested Mike Tolley, security consultant for the project.
Armed with a GB pound 396,000 grant from the Home Office – donated as part of its Crime Reduction Partnership initiative – and Tolley’s advice, the Trust’s security and facilities manager Dave Smith opted to install the Digital Sprite recording system designed by Dedicated Micros.
Two 16-way Digital Sprite multiplexers have been installed by Custom Technology Solutions at the Heartlands Hospital, and one at Solihull. They control 28 and 14 cameras respectively. Cameras are located at all exit and entrance points, over car parks and in key internal locations (including the A&E wards, frequently the focus of violent attacks on both staff and property). Images are fed through to the main CCTV Control Room at the Heartlands
The digital recording capability is supported by 24-hour manned guarding at both sites. As the security lodge at Solihull is not a round-the-clock operation, both systems are networked to allow images from Solihull to be accessed by monitoring staff at the Heartlands Control Room.
According to Mike Tolley, this is the first step towards a fully-integrated system which will see the hospitals networked with both the town/city centre management and the West Midlands Police.
“We are looking at setting up a fibre optic link between Heartlands and the local police station at Stechford so that they can view live images of incidents, and make snap judgement calls on the need for a police presence on site,” commented Tolley.
Decoding and encoding at the Vatican… by Baxall
Rome’s world famous Vatican City is the world’s smallest independent state, boasting a population of just 850. However, that population increases fivefold during the working week, with a heavy influx of visitors flocking to see the Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s Square and the Basilica.
An analogue CCTV system has been in operation there for some time now, but it only allowed one operator to view specific camera images at any given moment. What was needed was a system that enabled local and remote monitoring simultaneously via the city’s existing network.
Enter Baxall’s Destiny IP encoders and decoders… Each Destiny IP encoder is linked to a multiplexer so that any camera on the system can be viewed and controlled – either as a single, full screen or as a quad-style display.
Control is via a simple GUI that allows for PTZ functions to be determined as appropriate, as well as camera-to-monitor switching.
Each decoder supports four ‘viewing’ stations (which may be any PC using Windows 98, 2000 and NT software), and is designed around IP technology.
Conway looks out for Merton
CCTV equipment courtesy of Conway Security Products has been installed by Photon (TG) throughout the London Borough of Merton. The installation is part of a major surveillance expansion in the South London area, and involves a combination of housings taken from Conway’s EH range as well as the IHC4 housing (designed to be part of the vandal-resistant product series).
Cardiff takes off with CEM
CEM Systems has supplied an integrated access control and photo badge production system to the security management team at Cardiff International Airport.
Installed by main contractor Beacon Security, the Access 2000 system includes more than 50 InfoProx readers to control people movement within the airport. Each reader is controlled using a Series 9040 controller. This allows the individual points to be configured remotely thanks to the full Ethernet connectivity of the controller.
End users should note that CEM’s Access 2000 boasts an extended range of business applications, including biometrics support, check-in desk enabling, passenger segregation, airbridge monitoring, passenger reconciliation and navigational display of alarm information.
Saintly solution for St Peter’s
Petards Vision – an innovator in the development and supply of advanced surveillance solutions – has provided Runnymede Borough Council with a CCTV Control Centre for increased security at the St Peter’s Hospital.
The Control Centre features Petards’ Advantage.Net, a command and control solution for monitoring the 60 cameras located across the site.
Advantage.Net allows callers to have direct access to the Control Centre via Help Point push-button stations. At the same time, visitors will be seen by the monitoring staff, who will then be able to zoom in on any suspicious items that are being transported.
Pfizer swallows a CCTV pill
Organic Synthesis Plant (OSP) 4 is the fourth in a series of bulk drug substance manufacturing plants to be built at Pfizer’s Ringaskiddy site in County Cork, southern Ireland. Over 400 people are employed at the plant, producing 20 different types of pharmaceutical drugs to combat illnesses including heart disease and arthritis. It stands to reason, then, that security must be tight.
CCTV specialist Baxall has come to the rescue here, its authorised distributor Firecrest Safety Systems installing 40 of the company’s CDSP9000 colour cameras throughout OSP 4 for process monitoring, safety and security reasons.
Most of the cameras – which are said to provide “crisp and clean images across a wide range of illumination conditions” due to their high resolution and four colour balance mode – are installed in flameproof telemetry housings.
The cameras are controlled via a Baxall Pyramid matrix switching system, which has the capacity to take feeds from 144 cameras in and 32 monitors out (although for this particular project only 18 monitors are in use). In addition, six Baxall CDSP9713 cameras and two domes have been installed in the main car park.
Checkpoint Meto: bringing thieves to book
Book theft is estimated to have cost this part of the retail sector no less than GB pound 746 million in 2000 alone. As a result, last year the Booksellers’ Association began to recommend that all major High Street retailers such as Waterstone’s and Hammicks head towards installing acousto-magnetic (AM) security systems.
Before following the recommendation, Ken Pettengale (loss prevention manager at Ottakar’s) investigated alternative solutions. As a result, Ottakars has taken the bold step of advancing current industry debate on theft prevention by committing to radio frequency detection technology.
Ottakar’s has had Checkpoint Meto’s radio frequency (RF) technology installed at all of its stores. The most notable security benefit from RF identification tags is that they’re unobtrusive and difficult to spot.
The tags are completely flat, and may be integrated into the cover of books at source.
A cash-counting security Alliance
Omal Banking cash counters from Volumatic are speeding up cash counting at branches of the Alliance & Leicester financial services group right across the UK
Cashiers and accountants at Alliance & Leicester branches count a huge volume of cash on a daily basis, whether it has been deposited by customers or simply as part of their nightly cashing-up routines.
To speed up the process (the quicker the money is locked away either on or off site, the better), the plc’s supply chain manager Stuart Innocent has specified Volumatic’s Omal Banking cash counters.
Designed for the introduction of the Euro, the counters are easily adaptable for dual or single currency (an essential for the banking industry, as local currency must be accepted for ten years after it’s removed from circulation).
The cash counters are said to improve the accuracy of counts, while also speeding up the withdrawal/deposit process at teller stations. The portable units have footprints that are 20% smaller than most of those systems already on the market.
Client Alliance & Leicester has also taken on board the Omal 75D friction note counters. These neat units count bank notes at operating speeds of between 600-1,500 notes per minute, alerting the operator to any problem notes by way of easy-to-read error messages.
One of three models in the Volumatic friction note counter product range, the 75D can hold up to 500 notes at a time and features note width sensors for detecting undersize notes such that totals are not incorrectly summed.
Volumatic supplies its cash management and security products to end users in the retail, banking and leisure sectors.
