In Phase One of the project, a new CCTV system was installed at the Smith Centre in Kensington, a leading-edge science conference facility run by the Science Museum. The GB pound 1 million Centre was opened in 2006 with the aim of encouraging greater private sector support for science by bringing together key figures in business, science, academia and culture.
The CCTV system at the Smith Centre was originally conceived as a stand-alone installation, but ESPlus was tasked by the client with upgrading the plans by introducing full IP functionality, and linking all the cameras via Broadband back to the Science Museum.
The National Museum of Science and Industry’s head of security Malcolm Fewtrell suggests that the same approach will now be taken with two other nationally important sites run by the Science Museum – namely the National Railway Museum in York and the Science Museum Library and Archives based in Wiltshire.
“At the outset, we knew we wanted a top-of-the-range system, with the highest quality image capture and recording, but we hadn’t decided to go for full integration at that stage,” asserted Fewtrell. “Working with ESPlus, we have seen how well the IP system works and on the strength of that we’re now planning full integration between all our sites.”
The advantages of full integration
Fewtrell firmly believes that the advantages of integration – and a smarter, more efficient approach to monitoring – will be particularly important to the Science Museum’s Security Department.
“At the moment, our York and Swindon teams operate their own, stand-alone systems. Of course we can download footage between sites within minutes as and when we need to, but we can’t view or operate the CCTV in real-time. When we integrate the systems, I’ll be able to organise our security teams more efficiently by monitoring all the CCTV from one dedicated Control Room.”
A central Control Room will be established at one of the sites – possibly in Swindon – with local Control Rooms providing back-up and operational management.
The key objective of this greater efficiency is to redeploy staff to where they can be most effective – in other words, in the galleries.
“Our Warders have a customer service responsibility,” explained Fewtrell. “In fact, very often they are the main staff members with whom our visitors engage. They also have to be on hand to deal with any incidents in the galleries, which may involve administering First Aid or dealing with anti-social behaviour right through to major incidents. This isn’t going to be possible if they’re stuck in the Control Room.”
CCTV, EAS and access control
ESPlus – a leading provider of CCTV, EAS tagging, access control and integrated security solutions – has already protected thousands of priceless manuscripts and books by installing two EAS systems at the National Railway Museum’s archive Search Engine, and the Science Museum’s Library and Archives at Swindon.
The company is currently also installing a CCTV system which will give detailed coverage of all areas of the public reading rooms, as well as the storage areas at the Swindon site.
Director Phil Willis told info4security: “The camera system is designed to provide discrete but full protection for the books, and to act as a deterrent to anyone tempted to steal or vandalise items. Monitoring staff will be able to see all activity in the library via real-time and recorded images. Investigators can identify exactly what has happened if an incident occurs anywhere in the library.”
