Background
Hotel development gets back on track to safely welcoming guests
The Zedwell Piccadilly is located in the heart of London’s West End, within walking distance of some of the city’s most popular tourist attractions and bustling nightlife. Developed to provide a range of affordable but high-quality amenities for couples, solo adventurers, business travellers, and families, the hotel is operated efficiently from 24/7 front desk reception, with self-check-in options. Guests also enjoy gym facilities and an adjacent bar and club. In a recent extension of the hotel, more rooms have been added, with a major annex in neighbouring Great Russell Street bringing the total number of rooms to over 700. Video surveillance is an important resource for the hotel’s management team and staff, helping operations to run more smoothly, improving guest experiences, and ensuring security for visitors and employees.
Challenges
Refurbishment of the iconic Trocadero building - a powerful video solution is needed too
The grade II listed Trocadero building was recently transformed with a top-to-bottom refurbishment creating a hotel offering high quality, pod-style rooms focussed on giving guests a relaxing and restful experience on a budget. However, the project was delayed by the COVID pandemic, and an important element - the installation of a comprehensive video system - was interrupted.
Video surveillance was seen as key to the hotel’s development, allowing staff to manage a large number of rooms, monitor facilities and operations, and also keep guests safe. Like any city centre location, Piccadilly can be affected by anti-social behaviour and petty crime, particularly at night. Surveillance of external areas, and the hotel’s entrances, is needed to provide reassurance for guests, and to support investigations into any incidents.
To re-boot the project, IDIS integration partner Rukey Solutions was asked to take over the job, and tasked with completing a 500-camera-plus end-to-end IDIS solution in two months, all while the hotel remained open, and with inconvenience to guests kept to a minimum. And if this was successful, the system would then be extended to over 1000 cameras.
Solution
1000 camera IDIS DirectIP solution is key to meeting the challenge of rapid project delivery
IDIS DirectIP® was key to meeting the challenge, with its promise of true, plug-and-play connectivity, and immediate, seamless interoperability of IP cameras, NVRs, and network accessories. Using a trusted, single-source vendor for all system elements makes it simple to plan, price, and deliver projects, avoiding unexpected costs and last-minute component incompatibilities.
The hotel’s new system comprises 413 x full HD IR dome cameras, offering crisp and clear image capture even in low-light, including up to 20m distances in darkness; and 40 x 5MP IR Super Fisheye Compact cameras, replacing multiple conventional fixed lens cameras and allowing the most efficient wide-area scene coverage of the hotel’s communal areas, with IDIS’ patented Smart UX Control allowing smooth dewarping and multiple display modes, as well as IR image capture at distances up to 15m. In addition, 14 HD IR bullet cameras, with IR image capture up to 30m, were installed to cover key locations including entrances, exteriors, and back-of-house areas including loading bays and stock rooms.
At the heart of the solution, making extended image storage affordable, are 10 x DirectIP 8300 Series 4K NVRs, which support RAID 1, 5, 10 and are expandable up to 240TB using eSATA storage.
Operated with IDIS Center VMS, the solution ensures affordable storage, faster footage review, and powerful live monitoring with no perceivable latency, making controlling the system more comfortable and efficient.
Results and Benefits
27/4 coverage ensuring guest safety with flexible expansion options
Rukey’s engineering team completed the upgrade on time, with no disruption to Zedwell Piccadilly operations. The project was then extended, to a full 1000-camera IDIS solution, incorporating the Great Russell Street extension. Security and safety for guests has been improved, with comprehensive coverage of communal areas ensuring a guaranteed video record of events. IDIS DirectIP, and the use or proprietary software, also gives the hotel multi-layered cybersecurity protection, including hardened protection against hacking risks.
IDIS Smart Failover protects against loss of footage in the event of network instability or drop-out, and to guarantee the evidential integrity of video data against any possibility of tampering, IDIS recorders use a patented Chained Fingerprint algorithm.
Zedwell Piccadilly benefits from a solution with the lowest total cost of ownership, with no ongoing licence fees; and the completed system is protected by the industry best IDIS Ultimate Warranty.
The solution also has flexibility designed in and with the hotel is looking to switch to a remote monitoring model, IDIS’s technology is well positioned to support this, with easy options for adding AI-powered analytics that will support operators and reduce the burden of live monitoring.
"Guests look to us for a relaxing experience and great value in the heart of London’s West End and now, with this upgraded IDIS video solution, they also have the assurance of enhanced security, safety and the most efficient possible service."
Jan Kotze
Head of Security,
Zedwell
