Belfast-based Harland and Wolff operates one of the largest dry docks in the world and focuses on ship and offshore unit design, building, repair, conversion and decommissioning. With customers wanting to ensure that a state-of-the-art CCTV system was in place before bringing their vessels to the dry dock and the need to comply with the latest port security legislations, Harland and Wolff wished to upgrade its legacy surveillance systems across two docks, the ship repair site and the main heavy industries site.
Rather than working in silos, the systems had to interact and images had to be accessible to staff anywhere on the network, at anytime. In order to support this flexibility, having sufficient bandwidth was essential. With a 90 acre site, the company was also faced with the challenge of ensuring that the area was adequately monitored for health and safety purposes.
IP system
Harland and Wolff turned to Telindus to design and implement a new CCTV infrastructure and surveillance system for the site perimeter. Working with Alvarion, Cisco and DVTel, Telindus connected 39 cameras across the two dry docks and the ship repair site, as well as the main yard and internal and perimeter floodlighting towers, using Ethernet, fibre and wireless connections.
With staff able to access images from anywhere, the new IP system enables surveillance cameras to be utilised for business as well as security purposes. Project managers and customers can monitor the progress being made on their ships whether they are on or off site. Static cameras have been positioned for clocking in and out purposes and the dock gates can be monitored for leaks. Equipped with PDAs and laptops, Harland and Wolff’s sales and marketing team can also show potential clients worldwide the facilities available in real-time by logging onto the network rather than simply handing them a brochure.
