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Star City manager praises installation of Vicon’s digital video management system

A Vicon digital video management system is at the heart of the UK's largest entertainment centre's CCTV system.

During 2008, Star City in Birmingham will be adding an indoor rock-climbing centre to its leisure attractions as part of a major refurbishment programme.  It already boasts a 30-screen cinema complex, a 36-hole indoor Adventure Mini Golf complex, along with numerous restaurants, bars and the UK's largest casino. Also opening soon will be Kebabish Original and Oodles "n" Noodles restaurants.

Centre Manager Mark Wilson said: "Having commenced on this exciting improvement project, we recognised the need to upgrade from what was an out of date analogue based CCTV system, which we had been using since the Centre opened, to take full advantage of the recent advances in digital video technology."

Star City relies on its CCTV system to ensure that the thousands of people who visit the centre every day can enjoy all of the superb facilities whilst being safe and secure.  Mark added: "Our approach to security is based on the concept that ‘prevention is better than cure' and there is no doubt that the  very latest CCTV technology makes it so much easier for us to deter as well as detect any criminal activity."

The contract to install the new CCTV equipment was awarded to ADT who worked closely with Vicon to design a digital video management system.  The DVM system will allow Mark and his colleagues to fully capitalise on the video captured by the 98 cameras located around the centre.  ADT installed six Vicon Kollector-Pro digital video recorders, which are networked together and controlled by ViconNet V4.0, Vicon's powerful digital IP-based video management software platform.

Mark believes that the upgraded system has allowed him and his colleagues to "[...] take control of the CCTV system... the great advantage of a digital system is that any colleague who is authorised to do so, can retrieve recorded video from any workstation on the network.  We are no longer confined to just monitoring cameras from a fixed control room location.  There is the added advantage that a digital based system makes it incredibly easy to quickly search the recorded video for specific incidents and provide the police with evidence should the need arise... Paul Smith of ADT who designed and installed the system, has done a brilliant job in helping us source the ideal equipment to help us achieve our immediate objectives, but we need to have one eye on the future and Vicon were able to assure us that ViconNet can offer us virtually unlimited expansion capabilities."

ViconNet V4.0 offers the potential of a hybrid system allowing Star City to add IP digital cameras to work alongside standard analogue cameras.   As and when the number of cameras grows, Star City will have the additional option to introduce Vicon's Virtual Matrix Controller which combines the functionality of a traditional matrix switching system whilst offering the advantages of digital video management.

Mark is delighted with the results so far achieved and has given ADT the go ahead to proceed with the next upgrade phase of the CCTV system, which will see the replacement of existing cameras with a combination of Vicon fully functional Surveyor domes and fixed cameras.