IndigoVision’s end-to-end IP Video system has been installed at Butlins, Bognor Regis to provide a site-wide integrated CCTV solution. This is the first project of a UK-wide rollout of IndigoVision’s IP-CCTV at many of the holiday resorts owned and operated by Bourne Leisure Group, which include the well known brands of Haven, Warner and Butlins.
The Butlins resorts are as popular as ever, with 1.5 million guests per year visiting the 3 sites at Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness.
Butlins at Bognor Regis is typical of the demanding security environment that holiday resorts can create. During the weekend there will be more people in the bars and clubs at the resort than would normally be seen in many town centers across the UK. CCTV is not only used to ensure the safety of guests and staff but also to help alleviate the traffic problems at peak times.
The new IndigoVision IP Video system was installed by Astro Communications as a part of a security refurbishment using the park wide wireless network from Wicoms. The original CCTV surveillance was provided by three different analog/DVR systems offering particularly poor video quality that was not suitable for use as evidence. Using ‘Control Center’, IndigoVision’s IP Video and alarm management software, the security team now has a single integrated solution that can control, monitor, and record high-quality evidential video from all 34 cameras at 25fps, 4CIF. The system will also provide live feeds to the local Police Station in the event of an incident. The security team can now more effectively manage the resort using CCTV and quickly and easily retrieve recorded footage in the event of an incident. This was recently highlighted when a high-profile money laundering gang, which had been operating around the South Coast of England, where caught on CCTV passing counterfeit notes. Recorded video footage from the IndigoVision system was used by the police to identify the gang members and make arrests.
"The IndigoVision system provides us with a great tool for monitoring the security of the resort," said Paul Dabner, Butlin’s Security Manager. "The video quality is superb and the facilities of 'Control Center' are far superior to what was achievable with the old CCTV system. The flexibility of the system allows us to have ‘Control Center’ workstations on managers’ desks around the resort and not just in the security control room."
The cameras are a combination of IndigoVision’s high-end PTZ and fixed IP domes with a number of specialist analog cameras connected to the network through transmitter/receiver modules. The video is recorded on 7 stand-alone IndigoVision Network Video Recorders (NVRs) with a total of 17TB of storage providing 31 days of continuous recordings from all cameras at full framerate. The NVRs are physically located at different points around the site, which helps with bandwidth loading and creates a more robust solution with no single point of failure, as is typical with traditional analog/DVR systems.
The scalability of IndigoVision’s IP Video solution means that new cameras can easily be added to any point on the fiber network, which runs around the entire site. A further 32 cameras will be added when a new hotel is finished at the resort. IndigoVision’s 'Control Center' software is licensed on a per seat basis free of charge, which means Butlins can install further workstations, again at any point on the network, for no more than the cost of a standard PC.
Wicoms CTO, Simon Davies, added "It demonstrates the flexibility and scalability of using wireless networks and it proves the cost effectiveness of our multi-channel solution where we can deploy many different solutions over the same network."
