The Londoner Hotel describes itself as ‘an urban resort’ on a corner of Leicester Square, in central London landmark. The 16 storeys have five restaurants and bars, a subterranean wellness floor with spa and gym, and 350 rooms and suites (pictured, penthouse).
The hotel features many high-value pieces of artwork and furniture in its communal and guest spaces. Those items, and the high profile guests (‘a celebrity magnet’: Vogue), provide the security challenges for staff at owners the Edwardian Hotels London. Besides physical asset protection, any video surveillance has to fit in with The Londoner’s interior design.
Tarik Khamliche is MD of SLAM Systems, the system integrator for the project. He says: “There was a clear focus on getting the best cameras and VMS to ensure security was optimised for The Londoner, there were no blind spots, and events could be investigated easily. Simultaneously, camera devices needed to blend in well with the different themes and unique colourways in each bar, restaurant, corridor, and other spaces.”
Having worked with video product manufacturer Hanwha Techwin for several years, with the Wisenet X series and Wisenet WAVE VMS tested in other hotels in the Edwardian chain, the customer and installer agreed on the Wisenet X series 5MP network cameras and Wisenet WAVE. In total, 560 cameras have been installed across the site. Some six servers store, back up, and analyse footage. As no downtime can be afforded, each server is configured to back up another if it fails.
The Wisenet X series cameras come with Hanwha Techwin’s proprietary Wisenet 7 chipset that enables features such as eXtreme WDR (wide dynamic range), and lens distortion correction. The VMS allows users to search footage, look at specific areas in the hotel, and support investigations post-event. Alerts automatically go to Mohamed Elsabahy, group CCTV manager for Edwardian, if cameras, servers or hard drives fail to enable rapid response and avoid unnecessary downtime.
Through Wisenet WAVE, cameras can be configured and viewed remotely if needed, across all hotels in the collection which have the VMS installed. Mohamed Elsabahy says: “Through WAVE, I can remotely access any hotel’s video system and review its footage without spending time travelling to the site. It saves a lot of time and effort, and makes events much more accessible as I can quickly view what’s happened through my laptop or smartphone.”
The Londoner is finding a saving of time and effort when investigating an event. ‘Smart Search’ enables operators to see when action has occurred in a pre-defined area such as part of a corridor, a corner of a bar, or by entrances and exits. They can search through all footage to find what’s relevant. The hotel plans the integrating of its video surveillance with the laser protection system that protects expensive spirits in the bars.
