Oxford University Press (OUP) is the largest university press in the world and a department of the University of Oxford.
Based in Walton Street in the centre of Oxford, the listed building has had recently installed Network Video Technologies (NVT), unshielded twisted pair (UTP) video transmission. Approaching their preferred installer, ISD-Tech, OUP management asked to look at ways of improving their CCTV, essentially, by increasing its quality of images from all areas of the site. Patrick Sheldon-Battle, Facilities Manager at OUP says: “Our existing cameras, supplied by a number of different manufacturers, transmit their video images back to our control room via traditional coax cable. Although the cameras are quality items, and their locations covered the scenes we needed, they weren’t delivering the quality of picture detail we required for both monitoring and recording.”
Nicky Stokes, Managing Director of ISD-Tech takes up the story: “After a thorough survey of the site and comprehensive technical evaluation of OUP management’s requirements, to ensure signal quality, we suggested the use of an existing Cat5 UTP cable network in combination with NVT UTP Hybrid Video Transmission products.”
Specifying NVT technology to provide the backbone of the revitalised surveillance system, both ISD-Tech and the OUP security team could be confident of capturing improved video quality, versus that delivered by the existing coax network. Patrick Sheldon-Battle adds: “Changing the video transmission method of the system has resulted in all-round better quality images, without the problematic electrical interference we were continually experiencing from our site electrical services. The upgrade to NVT has allowed us to maximise our camera investment and performance at this historic site, guaranteeing all visual information is delivered for effective monitoring and archiving.”
UTP advantage
The fast set-up of NVT products plus the intrinsic characteristics of UTP cable helped to minimise engineering time on site, disruption to the daily operation of OUP and overall project duration. It also yielded cost savings. Use of the CAT5 UTP network also allowed a more sympathetic installation given the building is listed. The unusual layout of the building meant camera transmission runs vary from a few metres to 1000m. However, thanks to the UTP products, consistantly clear and interference free images from every camera in the network are delivered to the gatehouse control room. Using two NVT NV-1613S Compact 16-Channel Passive Transceiver Hubs in the control room and NVT NV-214A-M Passive Transceivers at each of the existing cameras, ISD-Tech completed the system whilst working around the publisher’s daily business. With images from all internal aspects of the site, the car park, courtyard area, loading bay and entrance and exit points, Patrick and his staff now operate a system that can provide an overview of the site at the touch of a button. “Helping us to deal with daily activities far more effectively, the images are used for both security and site management purposes. Thanks to the increased image quality and reliability of the NVT transmitted images, we can now identify vehicles and persons all around the site.” OUP now have a built-in upgrade path to system expansion, should extra cameras be needed to cover other areas of the site. Patrick adds: “Upgrading our CCTV system to NVT UTP video transmission has allowed us to make the most of our existing camera system, delivering the best quality of image for monitoring and recording purposes, whilst giving our camera network a whole new lease of life.”
