Hanwha Techwin safeguards guests at The Londoner Hotel

The hotel features many high-value pieces of artwork and furniture located throughout its communal and guest spaces. Many high-profile guests also frequent The Londoner. This poses some unique security challenges for the  Edwardian Hotels London security team.

Not only do physical assets need to be highly protected, but the team requires a quick way in which to investigate events, and for the surveillance system in place at the site to seamlessly fit in with The Londoner’s discerning interior design. With many people visiting and working on-site, having an intuitive and detailed surveillance system is of paramount importance.

Tarik Khamliche, managing director of SLAM Systems (the systems integrator for the project) explained: “There was a clear focus on sourcing the best cameras and VMS in order to ensure optimised security The Londoner with no blind spots and that events can be investigated easily. Simultaneously, camera devices needed to blend in well with the different themes and unique colourways in each bar, restaurant and corridor.”

Having worked with Hanwha Techwin for several years, and with the Wisenet X Series and Wisenet WAVE VMS having been tested in other hotels in the Edwardian Hotels London portfolio, the team decided that the Wisenet X Series 5 MP network cameras and Wisenet WAVE would be ideal for protecting The Londoner.

In total, 560 cameras have been installed across the site with six servers working to store, back up and also analyse footage. As no downtime can be afforded, each server is configured to back-up another if it fails.

Clear images

The Wisenet X Series cameras are supplied with Hanwha Techwin’s proprietary Wisenet 7 chipset that enables features such as eXtreme Wide Dynamic Range and 100% lens distortion correction. This delivers high quality, clear images to The Londoner’s security team such that all events occurring – and the details of what has happened – can be monitored.

The Wisenet WAVE VMS offers a reliable, easy-to-use system for The Londoner’s security team to quickly search footage, look at specific areas in the hotel and support investigations post-event. Alerts are automatically sent to Mohamed Elsabahy (Group CCTV manager for Edwardian Hotels London) if cameras, servers or hard drives fail to enable rapid response and avoid unnecessary downtime.

Through Wisenet WAVE, cameras across all hotels in the collection which have the VMS installed can be configured and viewed remotely if necessary. “Through WAVE, I can remotely access any hotel’s video system and review its footage without spending time travelling to the site,” explained Elsabahy. “This saves a lot of time and effort, and makes events much more accessible as I can quickly view what’s happened through my laptop or smart phone.”

Time and effort

The biggest benefit to The Londoner’s security team has come through saving time and effort when investigating an event. The ‘Smart Search’ functionality enables operators to quickly see when activity has occurred in a pre-defined area such as part of a corridor, the corner of a bar or in the zones near entrances and exits. They can quickly search through all footage to find those recordings most relevant to an investigation. This is a feature that’s vital for a hotel of such scale.

Future plans for the site include integrating the video surveillance system with the laser protection system that currently protects expensive spirits in The Londoner’s bars. Doing so will create a single system that empowers the team to protect what are some of The Londoner’s most important assets.

*Further information is available online at www.hanwha-security.eu