In a three-year deal, with the option to extend for a further two, Advance has been awarded a major contract to provide CCTV operators for a new state-of-the-art Communications Centre owned and run by the Metropolitan Borough Council of Calderdale.
The GB pound 550,000 Control Room will monitor CCTV cameras, feedback from security radios and emergency telephones. The aim is to cut crime across the Borough and make Calderdale a safer place in which to live and work. All images taken from the CCTV installation will be transmitted to the Communications Centre, which enjoys direct video links to the West Yorkshire Police, the use of airwave radio communication and Shop Watch radio operated by Halifax Town Centre Management.
Further plans to extend the scheme include the monitoring of housing estates, health centres, rail and bus stations and roadside speed cameras are in the pipeline should the operation prove to be a success. In the meantime, Advance will be in charge of the recruitment, training and monitoring of security officers to man the Communications Centre, thereby ensuring that the high-tech equipment is in experienced hands.
In a separate three-year contract worth just shy of GB pound 250,000, Advance has been chosen to provide static security guarding services to the White Lund Council Depot in Lancaster. The depot, which houses the Council’s transport equipment, will receive the benefits of 24/7 security guarding and CCTV monitoring.
Speaking about the contract wins, Advance Security’s managing director Richard Bailey explained: “We’re delighted to have been awarded the Calderdale and Lancaster contracts. We are fully confident of our ability to transfer the experience we’ve gained in the private sector to public sector contracts.”
Nomination for honours
Hot on the heels of its success in the 2008 British Security Industry Association’s Inspiration in HR Award, Advance Security has been shortlisted for three categories in this year’s Security Excellence Awards (organised by info4security, SMT and Security Installer).
Rightly acknowledged as the ‘Oscars’ of the security world, the Security Excellence Awards are designed to raise the profile of the industry while also promoting and rewarding those individuals and companies achieving the very highest standards and outstanding success.
Advance Security has been shortlisted in the Contract Security Manager of the Year (Willie Lynch, National Australia Group) and the IT Initiative of the Year categories, with Advance Technologies shortlisted for the Small-to-Medium Security Installer of the Year Award, which will go to the individual or company that has shown the highest standard of workmanship and customer support throughout the year.
Richard Bailey commented: “It’s tremendous to discover we’ve been shortlisted in these categories. Having recently won the BSIA’s Inspiration in HR Award for our approach towards HR, we’re proud that our continued commitment towards innovation and a dedication to providing first-class customer service have also been recognised by our peers within the industry.”
The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony, which takes place on Thursday 9 October at The Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, London.
BAE Chairman’s Award 2008
To cap a remarkable period for the company, Advance Technologies – a dedicated division of Advance Security – has just been nominated for the 2008 BAE Chairman’s Award for Innovation.
BAE Systems is a global organisation engaged in the development, delivery and support of advanced defence and aerospace systems. The prestigious annual award is presented to BAE employees, colleagues and industry partners who use innovation to significantly improve company processes, practices, technologies and products, helping in the contribution towards global success.
Advance Technologies has been nominated for the installation of an access control system at BAE Warton in Preston which has replaced various operational security access systems across the site with one centralised solution (effectively streamlining processes and improving security access measures). The GB pound 1.2 million project is the largest installation of an access control system ever delivered to BAE and the implementation was rolled out over a 12-month period (fitting in with changing workloads and site footprint requirements).
The results of the nomination are due to be revealed in September.
Pete Chegwin – director of Advance Technologies – told info4security: “The Technologies Team at Advance has had to employ considerable creativity and know-how to deal with arising challenges and meet project deadlines. The system was tailored to meet BAE’s specific security requirements, exceeding specifications in certain areas. We finished the project in time and under budget.
Secure, collaborative working
BAE Systems has developed its advanced XTS-400; a high assurance data guard incorporating cutting-edge software technologies to the UK security environment. The solution enables both the defence sector and Government to share sensitive information across a wide range of secure network boundaries, while still maintaining a high level of assurance; thus delivering secure collaborative working – both nationally and internationally.
XTS-400(TM), originally developed for customers in the US, is now installed (with its predecessor versions) in more than 700 systems across US Government customers for policy-controlled information sharing. The XTS-400 data guard with its keystone operating system STOP 6 has now received accreditation to Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 5 augmented, the highest level of assurance of any general-purpose operating system independently evaluated on both sides of the Atlantic. This means that users such as the military, security and emergency services who need to share information, but who do not all require the same levels of access to sensitive data, can access material without time-consuming physical transfers between networks.
In the wake of the UK EAL certification being awarded, BAE Systems programmes director Mo Stevens explained: “This is a significant step forward in demonstrating UK/US co-operation and interoperability. The sharing or exchange of sensitive information across classifications enables improved situational awareness and more rapid decision-making. XTS-400(TM) allows communities of interest the capability to share any information required, in often intense situations, with a high level of information assurance, thus reducing to a minimum the possibility of data loss.”
In the UK, the XTS-400(TM) has previously been used at Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstrations in support of simulated above secret operations and data replication. It will feature in a forthcoming trial of solutions for improved information sharing between the UK and US Governments.