13 Feb 2007

As part of a £10 million refurbishment project, developers Oakmoor-Deeley and business partner CVOne enlisted the help of Bosch Security Systems to help secure Belgrade Plaza's newly renovated car park using various technologies from its sophisticated Autodome range of dome cameras.

Belgrade Plaza is said to be the largest and most exciting mixed-use scheme, which is set to change the face of Coventry's city centre.  The end result will see a combination of hotels, bars, restaurants, a casino, offices and a residential complex.

The first phase, and an integral part of the scheme was the refurbishment of what was the Leigh Mills Car Park.  This multi-storey car park, which is now called the Belgrade Plaza Car Park has been extended to provide five additional levels and now offers spaces for some 1,100 vehicles.

With the cosmopolitan feel that Belgrade Plaza aims to achieve, it was imperative that the car park is a friendly and secure environment for visitors.  The new security system comprises 30 Bosch external Day/Night EnviroDomes and six internal FlexiDomes both from Bosch's trusted Autodome range.  The EnviroDome camera is ideally suited for car parks and other similar outdoor applications; the Day/night cameras automatically switch from colour to monochrome when light levels decrease to give extra sensitivity.  Its rugged design and proven reliability ensures EnviroDome keeps working even in the harshest weather conditions.

Bosch's Flexidome cameras are capable of producing extremely sharp and detailed images.  The cameras can also handle difficult lighting conditions thanks to a comprehensive set of advanced functions.  With their robust dome enclosures, Flexidome cameras can be installed in almost any location to provide reliable surveillance with pan, tilt and zoom functionality.  The FlexiDomeXT+ is vandal proof, with a patented impact-resistant design to combat hostile attacks.  Its enclosure also offers a choice of high-quality varifocal lenses, whilst its patented bubble shape and scratch-resistant coating with UV block assures optimal optical performance.

All images from the car park's cameras are monitored locally by onsite security.  However all images are also viewed, controlled and managed at CV One's existing central control room at New Union Street.  All images will be recorded using three Bosch Divar digital video recorders.

Mark Nicholls, Head of City Centre Management, CVOne said: "It is extremely important to us that visitors to the city have a safe, secure and pleasurable experience.  With the installation of Bosch Security Systems at Belgrade Plaza we are confident that this will be achieved.  The sophisticated mix of equipment will mean that we can closely monitor the area, ensuring it is a secure environment for both residents and visitors."

"In addition, the quality of support we've received from Bosch Security Systems has been second to none.  What has particularly impressed me was their commitment to ensuring we had a quality product that supported our particular needs.  They allowed us to trial and test their equipment so that we were confident it would deliver before committing to buy it, and the follow up technical support has been fantastic."   

The Divar range combines a DVR system with multiplexer and switcher in a single, low profile unit capable of simultaneous full-colour recording and playback.  Bosch Security Systems recently extended the capabilities of its advanced Divar digital versatile recorders by doubling the built-in video storage capacity.  The latest enhanced 16-channel Divar increases internal hard disk capacity from 320 GB to 600 GB, making it possible to digitally record up to 16 cameras at 1 image per second (IPS) in standard resolution for very long periods  - more than a month, or even longer with less resolution or fewer cameras.

All Divars feature alarm handling, fast search and playback, and have built-in telemetry for directly controlling Bosch EnviroDome, AutoDome and PTZ cameras.  User-selectable functions allow particular configurations to be quickly optimised for any specific application and downloaded to other Divars allowing entire installations to share the same programming for camera set-ups, times of day, alarms, event responses etc.