A shopping centre in east London sought an upgrade for its dated CCTV system.
Gallions Reach Shopping Park has 325,000 square feet of retail space. It’s home to 35 retailers, in the borough of Newham. In 2016 the owners of Gallions Reach began refreshing the Park’s landscape, and are now starting the next stage, updating the shop fronts to a more contemporary design.
Each year more than six million shoppers visit Gallions Reach, and with the A13, Docklands Light Railway (DLR), London City Airport and the Crossrail cross-London line due to open next year, all within a few minutes, more are expected. As part of the upgrades, centre manager Arnold Catterall recognised that there was a need to address the ageing CCTV. He says: “The system we had in place was aged and had numerous incompatible additions. We required a system that would serve the owners, retailers and customers in maintaining a safe and secure environment, and with the planned changes to the park, also one that was future-proof.
“As the Shopping Park is 65 acres in size, this called for quality equipment and skilled installation in order to give confidence to the on-site team, the stakeholders, and where necessary, provide evidential quality recordings.”
Catterall put the work out to tender, and the winner was the security and fire installation company Pacific Security Systems. The Maidstone-based installer advised the use of Hikvision Turbo cameras and video recorders.
Pacific’s William Mesher says: “When we first looked at the existing system, half of it wasn’t functioning, the video quality was really quite bad, and there issues with cameras disconnecting from the system. We spoke with Arnold and agreed that what was required was an upgrade which would allow them to record HD 1080 quality video using their existing analogue cable infrastructure. Hikvision’s Turbo range seemed the ideal choice.”
Hikvision says that its Turbo cameras and recorders allow images to be transmitted over almost any format; as IP, analogue, Turbo HD, and third-party AHD cameras are all supported.
Mesher says: “For this project, we wanted to provide the Gallions Reach security team with high resolution 1080p HD images. Hikvision’s Turbo products made perfect sense as they could utilise the existing analogue cabling network and still record crystal clear high resolution pictures. At the same time, their IP connectivity allows the cameras to be connected to an Ethernet network.”
Some 41 Hikvision cameras were installed, externally to cover car parking areas, and internally for shop fronts and office spaces. The cameras include the DS-2AE7230TI- A PTZ model, which uses HD-TVI transmission and up to 30x optical zoom to provide HD 1080p images to the control room. To cover exteriors and car parks, Pacific used DS-2CE56D1T-VPIR vandal-proof dome cameras. These 2MP cameras provide HD 1080p resolution images and true day/night capabilities, with infra-red coverage up to 20m from the camera.
Three dedicated 16 channel DS-7316HQHI-F4/N Turbo DVRs record the HD images, and the pictures are monitored 24-hours by onsite security.
Mesher says: “We used a Hikvision DS-6900UDI decoder to provide HD 1080p images to two 42-inch and four 22-inch monitors. The operators are equipped with DS-1600KI touch-screen network keyboards, which allow them to view and manipulate images easily and intuitively. We’ve found that they are ideal for simplifying the operator’s tasks, and are able to be connected wirelessly if required.”
The upgrade is in use for monitoring of safety and security and providing police with evidential quality video: it also offers an expansion path, the manufacturers add.
Catterall says: “Pacific suggested we install new cameras and recorders with HD capability and additional Ethernet access. Their costs were excellent, especially as they were able to utilise the existing cabling and the installation was professional. The image quality from the Hikvision Turbo cameras now ensures our visitors are monitored for their safety and security.
“Pacific kept downtime to an absolute minimum and constantly updated on their schedule and any issues encountered. The installers liaised with the on-site team to learn of their needs and trained them once the installation was complete. What they provided was a full package for customer and operator.”
