Largely thanks to a GB pound 79 million redevelopment, the University of Bradford is steadily evolving to become a progressive, forward-thinking educational establishment with a firm belief in offering leadership on sustainable development and community issues. Through extensive research, teaching, learning and community engagement, the university’s leading lights aim to help society anticipate, adapt to and offer alternatives to the world’s current and future environmental, social and economic problems. Highly laudable objectives, one and all.
The University of Bradford boasts around 12,000 enrolled students, of which nigh on one third are mature learners. Almost 25% are international students from over 100 countries.
Hand-in-hand with its responsibility to promote understanding of the values surrounding sustainable development, the University of Bradford has devised an ‘Ecoversity Programme’, initiated with the aim of developing a practical model for a modern, sustainable university. To assist the development of the programme, an ongoing construction and modernisation project began in 2004, one of the results of which is the recently-opened 850 square metre atrium.
Built using ethyl tetra fluoroethylene – the same highly transparent foil used for the Eden Project – it provides students, staff and visitors alike with an indoor meeting space for university and community activities.
Alongside the University of Bradford’s infrastructure investment, its management team has been keen to promote an integrated security plan, developed directly in line with the building programme.
Effective control of security
Peter Haines – estates manager (security) at the University of Bradford – takes up the story. “At the time the new development project was initiated, our existing Security Control Room was cramped and oppressive. The staggered evolution of the system had seen the influx of a myriad of equipment, supplied from a variety of different manufacturers,” states Haines. “The result of this was a disjointed control process, leaving our operators with a multitude of differing ways of achieving control tasks, none of which were very simple or intuitive.”
Haines adds: “This convoluted process was adversely affecting time management for everyone in the Control Room, and urgently needed to be addressed if the efforts of my Security Team were going to keep pace with the university’s expansion plans.”
With previous experience of overseeing university Control Room designs in the past, Haines was uniquely placed to foresee the issues that would arise from such an expansive project, and to know exactly what technology would best fit the bill when it came to establishing a successful control solution.
With this in mind, Haines turned to specialist Panasonic Premier Integrator Clear Image. “From previous experience, I know that it’s important to have a single point of contact for any security project. Once the university’s construction contractors had built the Control Room alongside the other new university buildings, their job was finished. It was Clear Image we asked to furnish the space and complete the surveillance system.”
The ultimate specification
Haines and his officers now operate from a bespoke, dedicated Control Room that offers the highest level of system functionality so vitally important to the university.
“Our experiences with the previous Control Room led us to target the procurement of a surveillance system that would provide a single and concise root to all system functionality. Indeed, this was a number one priority for us, and a priority that has been amply addressed by the new Panasonic-based CCTV solution.”
From the Control Room, the University of Bradford’s security officers can view images generated by over 90 cameras, covering strategic areas of the university’s three sites (including the car parks, the main entrances and exits of buildings, car park entrances and exit barriers, corridors within the university buildings, lifts, main footfall routes through the campus, the atrium area and the cafeteria).
Jim Duncan – business development manager at Clear Image – explains: “The WV-CW960 cameras were used to significantly expand the system’s overall coverage around the exterior areas of the campus. Complementing existing cameras, their in-built SuperDynamic III technology and high-resolution imaging allows maximum scene coverage and optimum picture quality in the constantly changing lighting conditions of the tree-lined environment.”
Advanced Auto Tracking facility
A series of WV-CW970 cameras have also been employed at strategic locations, allowing operators to take full advantage of each unit’s advanced auto tracking feature. These cameras can provide highly accurate automatic tracking of individuals and objects based on colour, shape and contrast.
PTZ capability enables the cameras to automatically keep a given target object centred within the field of view.
In addition, specific objects can be locked-in for automatic tracking by the University of Bradford’s CCTV operators, freeing them to perform other essential tasks while a potential incident is developing (such as alerting other members of the Security Team to the situation).
Haines explains: “As in any Control Room that’s tasked with monitoring an extensive number of camera images, our operators cannot oversee all of those pictures all of the time. This is where the auto tracking models come into their own, providing a virtual operator ever-alert to suspicious activity.”
Continuing the theme, Haines adds: “In my experience, the cameras also yield much more usable results than a standard camera operating under a pre-programmed PTZ tour. This is simply because automatic tours aren’t intuitive and can move away from an incident in progress, often missing critical footage. With our new WV-CW970 cameras we can be absolutely confident this will not happen.”
Image transmission solution
In addition, camera images generated by units covering the School of Health Studies and the School of Management (located at different sites across the city) are readily available to be monitored in the Control Room.
“For the main city centre campus, images are transmitted back to the Control Room via a mixture of coax and fibre,” states Haines.
“Images from the School of Health Studies and the School of Management are encoded onto the university’s own Wide Area Network (WAN) at each site via local WJ-HD316A digital recorders and relayed into the Control Room via an IP-based solution. This IP approach, coupled with the use of an existing network for selected cameras, meant that we avoided costly cable infrastructure costs to connect the two remote sites. It also allows the DVRs archiving images locally at each site to be interrogated remotely by authorised users from areas other than the main Control Room.”
Operational security in action
Operational security issues tackled at the university include the monitoring of on-site traffic and access to the site via remotely-located barriers that protect each campus.
“We have quite a flow of daily traffic into the university’s authorised car parks, and a large amount of general deliveries to manage across the site,” opines Haines. “In this respect, it’s vital that our operators have a clear view of exactly who’s requesting access.”
Facilitating this, coupled with camera placement at each barrier is an audio intercom that allows precise audio and visual confirmation of access requests.
“We’ve also found the cameras covering the barriers invaluable if a driver is denied access to the site, to ensure that they leave the barrier controlled area without impeding the flow of other legitimate incoming traffic.”
Operators staff the university’s Control Room on a 24/7 basis. There’s also a 24-hour emergency telephone line available to students should they feel the need to alert security staff to a situation or incident on campus.
Supporting students and staff, the emergency telephone line provides peace of mind, with professional security assistance being on-hand via the university’s security guarding team. Working in five shifts of eight, members of the team cover all three campus areas 24 hours a day. When on duty, each team member is in constant communication with the Control Room via a dedicated radio system.
“Student liaison is very important to us at this university,” comments Haines. “Continual two-way communication has resulted in us being able to identify the best strategic placement of many of the recently-installed cameras around the site.”
Beginning of term issues
With over 3,000 new students arriving each year, Haines and his security operatives are at their busiest in the September-October period. As well as assisting newcomers to navigate the sites, members of the Security Team need to be extra vigilant in respect of trespassers.
Without a valid reason for being in the university’s grounds, a given individual will be escorted off-site. “However,” adds Haines, “recognising our greater responsibility to the wider community, we can alert city centre businesses via the ‘Shopwatch’ scheme, ensuring any suspicious individuals are not simply moved on to commit crime elsewhere.”
Where an apprehension leads to prosecution, evidential quality video footage may be burned from one of the WJ-HD316A digital recorders direct to DVD (providing effective, audited evidence for use in Court).
A true security partnership
“CCTV no longer has a singular area of responsibility,” concludes Haines. “Now, it also addresses wider issues such as public well-being and Health and Safety. Here at Bradford, we aim to create an enhanced feeling of safety and security for all our students and staff. This process can be greatly assisted if they have an understanding of what we do, and how we go about the security management task.”
That’s why Haines invests time and energy in promoting the security service, ensuring new students and staff know about the powerful technology being used to protect them.