One of London’s newest luxury hotels, the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel, pictured, has installed a 187 camera CCTV system for monitoring activity in all its public areas. Some 151 of the cameras are Samsung SCD-2080E dome cameras which Moni Dhanjal, Facilities Manager at the hotel, chose after research. He said: “Nothing is more important than the safety of our guests and we will never hesitate to invest in technology which will help us detect and deter criminal activity.
“We nevertheless need to ensure that we get the best value from our investment in any capital equipment and so I was tasked by our senior management to source cameras that had all the features and functionality we required, but which were affordable.”
Like most hotels, the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel, wishes to project a warm welcome to its guests and allow them to flow freely around all public areas. This ‘open door’ policy inevitably brings the risk of opportunistic thieves; and organised gangs. Moni Dhanjal said: “Our video surveillance is one of a range of measures which we have put in place to detect unwanted visitors. It sends out an important message to would-be thieves and vandals who might be tempted to try to steal guests’ personal property or hotel equipment.”
The CCTV is also being used to check health and safety compliance. The monitoring of the hotel swimming pools, for example, can allow hotel managers to ensure that there is enough staff on duty at busy times and to respond appropriately to an emergency.
The Samsung SCD-2080E dome camera is able to capture high resolution colour images at 600 TV lines in daylight by day, and 700 TV lines monochrome images in low light. Other features include eight motion detection zones, 12 privacy masking zones and Highlight Compensation technology which identifies and neutralises excessively bright areas in an image to reveal the detail behind it. Third generation Samsung Super Noise Reduction (SSNRIII) technology eliminates image noise in low-light conditions without, the makers say, creating ghosting or blurring and offering it is claimed up to 70 per cent reduction in bandwidth requirements or video storage space, compared to standard cameras.
The images from all the cameras are sent back to the hotel’s control room where they are monitored 24/7 by security personnel. Moni Dhanjal said: “With a large number of areas open to the public, as well as multiple floors, corridors, staircases and lifts, we needed to install a relatively large number of cameras to ensure there are no blind spots, and particularly so in locations where thieves are likely to be active. In the few months that the video surveillance system has been in operation. it has become clear that we have achieved our objectives and that our security personnel have a very powerful tool to help them carry out their responsibilities effectively.”
About the hotel
The Grange Tower Bridge Hotel, which as its name suggests, is within walking distance of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, has 370 rooms and suites spread over 14 floors. It has several restaurants, ten conference rooms, a half Olympic size swimming pool and a spa area. The hotel has renewable solar and photovoltaic panels, and has an on-site borehole to reduce water consumption – making it one of the most energy-efficient hotels to open in recent years.
