The Challenge
Kirklees Council in Yorkshire has invested in a major new security and access control system for tower block tenants in Huddersfield.
The Solution
Combining traditional analogue matrix technology with the latest digital capability, the new system has been designed to offer residents of two 16-storey tower blocks, Holme Park and Bishops Court in Kirklees, near Huddersfield, 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 each of the two lifts in each tower block and on each floor, as well as externally over entrance and exit points.
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 security system in both buildings. Two-way audio and access control means the Council has been able to make 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 system integrators BBV takes up the story: "Although we were only looking at two buildings, the scale of the system and the numbers of cameras involved called for a matrix-driven solution."
BBV's proprietary "Pick-a-Point-IP" mapping system is essentially a bespoke 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.
Normally, staff would have to remember the exact code of the camera they were looking for and key it in. With the Kirklees system, which assigns alias descriptions to cameras, they simply click on the camera shown on screen, using either the mouse or the joystick driven keyboard, to access images in seconds.
While the bespoke technology behind assigning camera aliases is quite complex, the user interface is designed to be very intuitive and greatly simplifies and speeds up image retrieval. Security staff can pick and click cameras from the site database to view images - without having to know which of the 14 BX2 units the camera is linked to.
If, for example, an incident has occurred on the fourth floor of Bishops Court, the concierge can use the Graphical User Interface to press floor 4, select the relevant camera from the on-screen map and press playback.
For such a large system, it has been remarkably straightforward to install and is proving equally easy to run.
Andy Batley at system installers Garndene explains: "Pick-a-Point offers a highly cost effective and time-saving way of growing very large ystems as efficiently as possible."
"It replicates the traditional functionality of an analogue matrix by allowing multiple video servers to run on the same central network but without having to install hundreds of metres of co-axial or twisted pair cable with all the expense and inconvenience this entails."
"It also offers a centralised solution with no limits on system size - new units and camera can be added on into the system without having to do any re-wiring. Although 184 cameras are linked up currently, the council wanted a system which offered flexibility to expand later up to a total of 256."
30 days of pictures are captured on each BX2 with an integral CD writer used to copy images. By digitising analogue camera pictures and saving them in a digital format, the Council benefits from all the usual benefits - long-lasting picture quality, reliability and no tape management issues.
