More than 250 monitors and 23 entrance panels for a new development in Richmond, south west London have been provided by Comelit UK, part of the global Comelit manufacturing group. Kew Bridge West, designed by architects Assael Architecture, comprises a mix of high-end apartments and affordable homes. Occupiers at this chic residential development have a monitor in each apartment, and other functions available with Comelit’s IP technology ViP.
The development by St James PLC (one of the brands under Berkeley Group Holdings) comprises nine blocks, linked on one site-wide IP platform. The residents will have access to a shared Central Porter Switchboard, which lets the concierge contact and be contacted by all of the apartments, as well as the entrance panels. Residents can also communicate and receive text and image messages from the concierge. Video messages can also be left at the entrance station for the residents.
Justin Hawkesford, Comelit’s Technical Manager and in-house IP specialist, said: “This was a fabulous opportunity for Comelit to showcase its range of stylish monitors and at the same time demonstrate the huge advantages of using IP-based technology, as opposed to analogue. The system at Kew Bridge West has been designed with the future in mind. Apartment Gateways can be added at a later date which would enable the residents to be ‘present’ at all times without physically being onsite. Useful functions allowing them to communicate with the concierge and visitors, being able to grant them access from anywhere in the world using a smartphone, tablet or desktop computer, has certainly revolutionised the world of door entry. System management software that also allows the concierge or operator to remotely programme the system, perform diagnostics and communicate directly with users via text or image message, will be of huge benefit to the maintenance company looking after the site and will inevitably keep running costs down. The system health-check helps streamline the maintenance process and means that any system faults can be identified quickly and measures taken to fix any issues, without the need to go onsite.”
As for external entrance panels, 23 are divided between the nine blocks and are all linked back to the concierge. As with all new residential developments, affordable housing needed to be built. For this reason, a range of entry-level monitors was also installed. For these apartments, Comelit supplied its EasyCom audio units, which offer full duplex hands-free intercom with electronic calling, call volume adjustment, loudspeaker volume adjustment and privacy of conversation. For the private apartments, 251 flush-mounted white Planux monitors (fitted with hands-free function, audio, ringtone, colour and contrast adjustment) were installed.
About Comelit
For more than half a century Comelit has been a manufacturer of video and audio door-entry systems, access control, video surveillance, telephones and telephone switchboards. Visit http://www.comelitgroup.co.uk/uk.
