Background

Charity steps-in with accommodation and support services in areas of higher need

As part of the international YMCA movement, YMCA Heart of England operates across multiple sites in Birmingham, Solihull, Rugby, and Coventry to support local people and their communities with a wide range of services, from supported housing to youth services. From its busy premises, typically located in areas of higher social need, the charity provides help for vulnerable people moving towards independent living, and supports young people to build a better life through targeted youth work provision, training and volunteering opportunities.

Challenges

Protecting service users, staff, and volunteers - and allowing more efficient operations

YMCA Heart of England relies on a team of staff, supported by volunteers, to run its much-needed programme of activities.

At all its premises the charity uses video surveillance to ensure the safety of it’s staff and service users – including young people without family support networks – and to make it easier for staff to keep services running smoothly. However, these systems were proving increasingly hard to work with. At the 80-room Birmingham premises, for example, a mix of ageing CCTV equipment was delivering unreliable footage and was cumbersome to use. So, specialist systems integrator Unison Integrated Technology was invited to recommend an affordable upgrade route. Based on their experience of successful projects in the hospitality and education sectors Unison immediately recommended an IDIS end-to-end solution.

Solution

IDIS end-to-end solution ensures HD monitoring of all key areas

The mix-and-match video at the Birmingham centre was replaced by an efficient IDIS DirectIP® solution comprising a 32 channel DR 6332PS-S NVR; 19 x DC-D4213WRX Full-HD vandal-resistant IR domes; and 11 x DC-E4213WRX Full-HD IR bullet cameras. The end-to-end IDIS tech was easy to implement thanks to true, plug-and-play design, allowing the installation project to be completed without interruption to day-to-day activity at the centre.

The 2.8mm fixed lens 2MP dome and bullet cameras, equipped with true WDR and IR LED, were set up to capture crisp, clear images of the building exteriors, entrances and internal corridors and communal areas day and night. And the DR 6332PS-S 4K NVR delivers throughput of up to 960ips real-time recording and live monitoring with no visible latency.

Unison also opted to replace all the legacy cabling, which was poorly installed and in bad condition, upgrading to a futureproofed Cat6 infrastructure. This new robust infrastructure will allow YMCA Heart of England to take advantage of increased video resolutions in the future, making it easy for them to adopt powerful but affordable IDIS deep-learning analytics for a range of automated detection functions that trigger highly accurate alarms and notifications.

Results and Benefits

Unison to deliver IDIS upgrades across the whole YMCA Heart of England

Staff, volunteers, residents, and visitors at the Birmingham centre now benefit from improved security, safeguarding and efficiency, with IDIS Smart Failover technology. In the event of an NVR and camera disconnect or network instability, SD cards in the cameras temporarily record and automatically transfer data NVRS after recovery, ensuring a full record of events. Following the successful Birmingham installation, Unison was asked to upgrade video at other sites in Coventry and Northfield. The whole implementation was completed in just four weeks. Reducing waste and costs, at Northfield 48 third-party legacy cameras were retained and are now operated smoothly and efficiency using the IDIS Center VMS. Unison is now working with YMCA Heart of England to upgrade video at all its premises.

"The customer contacted us after reading outstanding reviews from our projects using IDIS technology. And they were so impressed with the results we delivered at their Birmingham centre, they asked us to upgrade all their premises – we could not recommend a better surveillance technology for them than IDIS"

Matthew Rodden

Unison Integrated Technology