The West Yorkshire housing association WDH, which manages more than 31000 homes, has awarded Openview Security Solutions a contract to install security and fire protection systems for a pilot scheme at Low Cross Court, a high-rise building with 34 dwellings. Romford-based OpenView was awarded the contract after winning an open tender to the CCTV, door entry, access control, fire alarm, sprinklers, fire stopping and other fire safety products under a management and control system.
Daniel Boardman, WDH’s Property Compliance Manager: “We specified the use of the highest grade technologies with built-in future-proofing to ensure that maximum benefits were achieved over the longer term for our tenants. This pilot was an essential part of the programme to determine the suitability and feasibility of the different systems before rolling them out to the remaining high-rise buildings as part of our ongoing Strategic Improvement Programme. It will help in delivering our vision to create confident communities and improve the lives of local people.”
Castleford-based WDH invited OpenView to tender after seeing how the company’s install for Your Homes Newcastle (YHN), across a city-wide IT infrastructure. The housing body wanted to find out if a similar system would work in Wakefield. WDH evaluated technology and employed an independent consultant to develop the scope of works for the pilot scheme where the integrated systems would be tested.
OpenView carried out the integration of systems. They included IP-based 4K Avigilon CCTV cameras, cloud-based access control from KMS and a Citrix-based web portal that provides online access to the installed systems. Fire protection includes fire alarm, sprinklers, fire stopping and automatic opening vents for the dispersal of smoke in the event of a fire and Part 6 automatic fire detection from AICO Smart Solutions. All systems are connected on a Cat6 IP network infrastructure.
The new system enables identification of incidents. For example, in the event of a fire in a dwelling, WDH operators can identify the precise location and call the tenant to verify, before initiating an agreed sequence of events.
Andy Ward, Sales Director at OpenView, added: “Deploying state-of-the-art fire and security systems in high rise buildings is helping WDH to meet and exceed its obligations regarding the safety of tenants. The system not only offers the highest level of security, but also provides the organisation with the flexibility to add smart living solutions such as telecare services without any infrastructure upgrades.”
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