A Museum of London contract for camera, digital recording and video control equipment requirements has gone to Vicon.
Steven Cox, the Museum’s Head of Security, said: "CCTV has always played a major role in protecting our exhibits as well as assisting us in creating a safe environment for our visitors and staff. Our previous analogue CCTV system was installed many years ago and clearly needed to be updated to take advantage of the latest digital technology. It made sense to see if we could single source the CCTV hardware to ensure full compatibility of all the component parts."
Steven Cox and colleagues considered proposals from four CCTV manufacturers. "We were looking for a system that could operate efficiently and reliably across our network as well as offering long term expansion capabilities. The solution proposed by Vicon seemed to best match our requirements and the decision to work with Vicon was confirmed following an exhaustive three month trial, during which we took all the CCTV equipment through its paces." The Museum of London, one the world’s largest social history museums, welcomes visitors at three separate locations across the capital. Collectively the museum’s buildings in the City, Docklands and north London, house a collection of more than two million objects, from prehistoric archaeology to today’s fashion. One of the key requirements for the CCTV system was that it had to be able to interact with Cortech Developments’ system management software. "The trial established that our security personnel could effortlessly control the Vicon equipment via the Cortech graphical user interface," added Steven.
More than 120 Vicon dome cameras, a mix of the manufacturer’s VC-600 and Surveyor models, have been installed at the museum’s three sites. The compact and impact resistant VC-600 domes are used internally whilst weatherproof Surveyor domes are tasked to observe any external activity.
Eleven Kollector Elite DVRs and one Vicon NVR are recording and storing video captured by the domes and a Vicon Virtual Matrix is combining functionality of a traditional matrix switching system with digital video management.
During opening hours, security staff at each of the museum’s buildings can monitor live video and can, if necessary, retrieve recorded evidence stored on any of the DVRs on the network. At night, control room operators in the City of London building take over responsibility for monitoring activity at all three locations.
"The key to the success of this project has been its flexibility," said Steven Cox. "The networkability of the Vicon system has put us in total control of what we want to do with the CCTV system."
