Heron International?s latest leisure development is Heron City Paterna in Spain.
Some five kilometres from Valencia city centre, the venue includes an 8,000- seat 24-screen cinema, and is arranged on two levels around a public square with restaurants and other concessions. Andrew Burnie, Heron International?s Operations Director, said: ?As you can imagine post 9/11, the sensitivity to safety, security and ease of access for the public heightened irrevocably. Right from the start it was a demanding and challenging brief. We wanted an experienced and professional security company to manage and supply the latest technology to interface seamlessly with the current operations at Valencia By embarking upon an early and joint planning process with UK security company CSS we were able to satisfy all the design and technical considerations and work out the complicated logistics of executing this complex project in Spain.” CSS was brought in at the design stage of the project?s final phase that opened in May 2002. The main considerations were: safety-first, for pedestrians and vehicle users; large areas being accessed by visitors daily with many parts having limited lines of sight; interfacing security devices correctly throughout, linking CCTV and access control with central control rooms to alert Heron City staff to potential problems; and the security system had to be cost-effective, and reduce manpower costs for both operator and tenants. Roberto Fiorentino, CSS Managing Director, said the installers were given access to critical information at the planning stage. “I can?t stress too much how important it is to be working at the right decision-making level in order to ensure that the client ends up with what they wanted to begin with. That does sound obvious, but it all does come down to effective and relevant communications. We worked closely with Operations Director, Andrew Burnie, who was able to share his detailed knowledge of the site at the time of the onsite survey. The detailed on-site survey recommended the equipment required to secure the complex. This included successfully integrating high-tech security equipment and linking this to a central control system to capture images through CCTV cameras and digital recorders.”
About Heron
Heron International, a private company with headquarters in London and an office in Madrid, was founded in 1965. It has invested in and developed over 929,000 square meters (10 million square feet) of commercial and retail property and over 15,000 residential units in the UK, continental Europe and the USA.
