Exeter based consultants, Peter Brett Associates, designed the original system for this project and worked closely with the Siemens team to incorporate TCP/IP network technology within the specification they provided to DTZ. According to Richard Benney, Associate for Peter Brett Associates, "We opted for IP-based technology for this important project on the grounds of performance, flexibility, value for money, and also because it would provide the best possible degree of future proofing."
Siemens was selected as the project supplier on the basis of the organisation's competitive and technically comprehensive tender, and also because both DTZ and PRUPIM and Peter Brett Associates had been very favourably impressed by the service delivered by Siemens on previous projects.
At The Heights, Siemens is providing a total of 19 exterior and interior column-mounted and wall-mounted PTZ dome cameras. These are distributed between the five three-storey office buildings, totalling 32,800m2 of accommodation, which make up the current phase of the development.
Siemens is also providing the electrical systems to support the CCTV installation, and the dedicated TCP/IP network that covers the whole site. The main sections of the network are implemented using Gigabit optical fibre, and are complemented by smaller segments of Category 5 copper cable, allowing an optimum balance to be achieved between performance, flexibility and cost.
Images from all cameras are streamed via the network to the site's security lodge where monitoring and control facilities, together with a network video recorder (NVR), are being provided. The NVR has a total capacity of 2 Terabytes, which will allow the images, recorded at three frames per second, to be stored for 31 days before they are overwritten.
Each of the five buildings on the site will also have its own monitoring facilities for viewing images from the internal and external cameras directly associated with that building. Only the main security facility, however, will be able to view images from all of the site's cameras.
Some additional emergency modification of the site-wide infrastructure was undertaken to link the camera locations into the existing duct system. Thanks to expert handling by Peter Brett Associates and the rapid response from Siemens installation team, this did not seriously affect progress and the scheme was delivered to the client's satisfaction, within the expected programme timescales.