New security control room opens
On Thursday 9 December Sir Norman Bettison, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, and Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Arthur, formally opened our state of the art CCTV control room.
The room has upgraded surveillance capabilities, designed to protect staff, students and assets across the University's campus.
The two-year project required the total refurbishment of a new control room during which time a temporary control room was set up in transportable temporary building accommodation to ensure minimum disruption to security services.
32 new cameras have been installed, in addition to the existing 67 cameras in order to provide more effective coverage of key areas of campus. A converged IP addressable image transmission system is provided across the University's internal network linked to fully digital control and recording equipment.
According to Steven Exley, Head of security at the University, 'The absolute purpose of Security Services at the University is to provide students, staff and visitors with a safe environment to enhance the learning experience. We have had the best staff for some time and now we have the technology to enable them to maximise their impact. The CCTV system has been coming on line incrementally over the last month and already boasts a number of successes leading to the arrest of cycle thieves and burglars.'
Simon Whitehouse, Managing Director of SGW Security Consulting, who managed the project from design to delivery, said 'We are extremely pleased to have been involved in such an important scheme and are delighted that our partnership with the installation team at security system integrators, TIS, has ensured the system was completed on time and within budget.'