National Museum of Science and Industry
We install CCTV digital IP networks and security management packages so clients can provide safe and secure environments for their staff and customers. Post installation, business continuity is supported with our Emergency Response Service, guaranteeing fix-times from six-hours.
Specialising in Critical Infrastructure, Public Space and Multi-site Commercial Operations; we have won a number of awards for delivering tailored solutions with low total cost of ownership and visible business benefits.
Date: 13.10.2011
In 16 weeks ATEC built and furnished a centralised control room housing a Virtual matrix Monitor Wall and multiple-control-panel. Legacy systems were re-routed and existing CCTV cameras were converted to digital, before they were seamlessly integrated into an IP network using ATEC’s middleware Guardlink®.
About the National Museum of Science and Industry
NMSI has inspired generations of families to take imaginative journeys from the past into the future through a range of interactive exhibitions. Footfall can reach up to 2.5 million a year and as with all municipal ventures visitor welfare is taken very seriously. In 2009, NMSI sought to improve visitor safety with constant 360 degree CCTV coverage.
Feeding into a security management system, this would reduce the need for security staff to physically investigate every alarm.
Project Challenges
Working around visitor times and corporate evening events, ATEC had 16 weeks to integrate multiple legacy systems and analogue cameras into a CCTV-over-IP network. The first challenge was to build a new dedicated control room as a wall between the daily throng of visitors and security staff, who previously ran operations from the reception area. Managing a range of sub contractors required extensive pre-planning by ATEC as only three people could work at anytime without impacting the museum’s daily business. Additionally, existing disparate alarm systems and a bank of monitors with CCTV feeds meant cabling required re-routing and re-configuring, before 160 cameras were digitalised. Rather than indiscriminately jumping from CCTV feeds, the new network with 360 degree continual monitoring commanded enough redundant storage to cope with increased data levels.
Results
- Working within an existing infrastructure, ATEC expertly integrated disparate legacy packages into a centrally controlled security management system, designed to expand across other NMSI sites.
- 160 cameras were installed with digital encoders and existing disparate alarm systems reconfigured, ready for integration into the IP network using ATEC’s middleware Guardlink®.
- As well as gluing everything together, Guardlink® was used to drive the subsystems through a centralised security management package with an easy to use Graphical User Interface.
- A dedicated control room not only buffers security operations from visitor scrums but hosts the security management system and a Virtual Monitor Wall displaying simultaneous real time footage from across the museum.
- With 360 degree vision, and a multiple control panel, staff can instantly assess potential security breaches and judge the need for evacuation without physically investigating each disturbance.
- The system backbone is server based with enough redundant storage to archive the hugely increased number of evidential quality images recorded on a daily basis for quick access and retrieval.
- Designed for incremental blocks to be easily and affordably installed, the new IP network can already be accessed from remote locations, including the National Railway Museum and a large object storage area.
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