The University of Sussex received its Royal Charter in August 1961 and, 40 years on, has become a leading teaching and research institution, renowned for its research excellence.
Situated on the edge of the Sussex Downs in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the university campus covers 280 acres on the outskirts of Brighton. The single-site campus is described as a large, self-contained village with lecture theatres, seminar rooms, libraries, accommodation, restaurants, bars, shops and sports facilities all within easy walking distance.
Security challenges: what are they?
The security challenges facing the university are not atypical of a general campus site. Anti-social and criminal behaviour is not uncommon and can take place in the car parks, within teaching buildings or the student union areas, while access to the campus has to be kept as open as possible without enticing any would-be thieves.
Specified originally in 2003 by the university’s management team in conjunction with specialist installer AM Fire and Security, the CCTV system is a Bosch-driven solution primarily based on dome cameras to cover critical areas across the entire site.
Trevor Clifton-Sprigg of AM Fire and Security explained: “There are 120 cameras in total, with 35 external cameras, most of which are domes from Bosch’s EnviroDome and FlexiDome Series. The system runs over IP, with the use of Videojet 10, Vip X1, Vip X2 and Vip X1600 video servers for migrating the existing analogue cameras to IP.”
Day/night cameras with automatic switching
EnviroDomes are an integral part of Bosch’s AutoDome range, featuring the innovative motion tracking capability Auto Track. Rugged in design and ideally suited for perimeter surveillance, car parks and other outdoor applications, EnviroDomes feature day/night cameras that automatically switch from colour to monochrome when light levels decrease to give extra sensitivity, while high-resolution cameras with optical zoom of up to 25x capture the finest details.
The cameras are controlled and monitored centrally at the University of Sussex’s security office in a building known as York House, with resilience monitoring at a separate location should a problem occur.
“In addition,” continued Clifton-Sprigg, “there are multiple client PCs at the individual buildings running VIDOS viewing software, allowing each building user to view their own cameras and recordings.”
Specification for the recording system
The recording equipment itself consists of two Dell servers (each capable of handling up to 64 cameras) connected to the university’s Storage Attached Network (SAN), with Bosch VIDOS NVR software (which can handle an unlimited number of cameras and user) specified to manage the recordings. Each PC uses graphical maps for fast, simple access to cameras around the site.
Roger Morgan – current head of security at the University of Sussex – told SMT Online: “The university has a good rating for security in the National Student Survey. In part, at least, this must be due to the presence of our surveillance system which is used very successfully in conjunction with security officers ‘on the ground’. It helps us to monitor activities on the campus and prevent incursion from any unwanted visitors.”
Morgan continued: “As an example of how beneficial the system is, recorded CCTV images in conjunction with work carried out by our officers on patrol led to the detention of some youths who were targeting our site and stealing bicycles from the cycle racks over a period of days.”
Best coverage in key areas at all times
Morgan and his team members constantly review the system to ensure that the best coverage is maintained in all the key areas. Changes are often made to how the buildings are used at the university, while any new buildings being constructed always necessitate a review of internal and external surveillance. The latest change to the system involved the addition of cameras to extend surveillance to a newly-built student residence.
“The new building is effectively a satellite site on the other side of the main road, on the boundary of the campus,” explained Morgan. “Cameras will cover the internal and external areas of the new site, including the subway between the campus and the halls of residence.”
Morgan was previously the head of operations for Gwent Police, and boasts extensive experience of CCTV from his work with local authorities aimed at establishing and developing systems. “The university has a good CCTV system,” he continued. “From a technical standpoint we cannot get much better. The only way we can improve the system is to develop operationally – become more proactive in our approach to monitoring rather than reacting to an incident.”
Exploitation of further features
In conclusion, Morgan said: “There are many benefits of this system that I look forward to exploiting, like the possibility of facial recognition technology for spotting known people who might target the university as walk-in thieves. The only limitations we might currently face come from not knowing what the system is capable of.”
