After a successful term using an analogue Panasonic security surveillance system, the Centre's management began its search for a system upgrade when its existing lease term ended.

Although reliable, Birchwood's operations manager Claire Grundy found the old system lacking when compared with new digital systems, specifically the length of time taken to find information. Rather than spending periods of time going through VHS tapes, Grundy wanted the security staff to be able to jump to specific incidents quickly using time and date search facilities.

With its standing relationship with installer Elite Digital Systems, and previous positive past experience with Panasonic equipment, a site survey was conducted using a Panasonic demonstration van to demo the latest in digital CCTV equipment. The quality of the images from the digital cameras won over Birchwood Shopping Centre's management and the relationship with Elite continued, winning the tender decided by an external consultant to complete a total upgrade of the existing system.

Elite Digital Systems' systems solutions manager, Ian Duncanson, specified the system for the Centre to fulfil its list of objectives. These included making sure that the centre's dual use as both consumer and commercial property was met and increasing the coverage throughout the centre and its four car parks, a total of 365,000 square feet. A total of four additional PTZ dome cameras were installed over the original installation, the WV-CW960 was able to provide a zoom of 30:1 to provide better total coverage and improved detail.

The benefits in the quality of the new cameras and system were seen before the installation had even been completed when one of Elite's engineers whose vehicle was damaged whilst working on the premises, the newly installed CCTV captured the whole incident. The engineer was able to use the footage to gain the car's registration details for an insurance claim. This use of the system is something that has continued with the public actively asking its security staff to view the footage and identify the offenders.

Elite Digital Systems were required to consider not only the many monitoring challenges but also the installation challenges that are presented when installing a large system in a busy shopping centre. Ian Duncanson explains, "With the centre drawing in thousands of shoppers every week we clearly needed to work around the fact that we would need to carry out the project during opening hours whilst the shoppers were on the premises. We had to ensure minimum disruption for the retailers and public, and successfully worked in conjunction with Centre Management and the security team to ensure the shoppers and tenants alike were undisturbed by the work."

Inside the shopping centre six WV-CS950 Panasonic dome cameras were installed to cover the atriums and the large open spaces. Given the differing light entering from the glass and the opening and closing of the automatic doors, these cameras were chosen for their ability to capture top quality images when up against harsh, highly contrasting lighting conditions. Further features making them of particular use for Birchwood include Automatic Back Focus (ABF), which automatically adjusts the camera's focus when switching between colour and monochrome operation, thus ensuring continuous quality, day or night, especially useful in the winter months and after closing hours to guarantee any break-ins are clearly recorded.

On the design of the cameras Claire Grundy comments, "As well as having many benefits on the inside, the exterior design of the cameras is authoritative yet adequately discreet enough to ensure their existence deters criminal activity whilst not obscuring the Centre's interior."

For the exterior of the buildings, Elite specified eleven WV-CW960 vandal resistant dome cameras with auto tracking and five WV-CP484 fixed cameras. These were installed to protect each of the centre's four entrances, four car parks, the commercial office blocks, service yards and bus station. The WV-CW960's defiance against tricky weather conditions makes it ideal for monitoring Birchwood's exterior and its built-in sun shield is also ensures it can cope equally well in sunny conditions, permitting camera locations which are in direct sunlight.

In total, Elite engineers connected eleven Panasonic WV-CW960 all weather vandal resistant dome cameras, five Panasonic WV-CP484 fixed cameras, six Panasonic WV-CS950 super dynamic dome cameras, two WV-CP244 fixed cameras and one WV-CW474 internal vandal resistant dome camera, all are digitally recorded by two Panasonic WJ-RT416 real time digital video recorders (DVR), populated with 2.5 Terabytes of hard disc storage. This provides Claire Grundy and her team with 14 days of stored footage. Originally requesting 30 days, Claire understood the greater benefits of higher quality images and thus reduced the archive period.

In addition to the new cameras, Elite Digital Systems also equipped the centre's control room with one Panasonic 42" plasma and two 20" LCD monitors. This allowed 16 of the cameras with key locations to be monitored on the main screen and 11 split across the two LCD screens. Taking control of the cameras via a Panasonic WV-CU650 system controller, the ten strong security team can easily search through recordings quickly and efficiently. The main control room is supplemented by monitoring stations located in three of the management offices, including that of Claire Grundy. This allows the management team to view any camera at any time in case of emergencies.

The uses of the new system for Birchwood Shopping centre are multi-faceted. From a security perspective, the system allows the Centre's management to aid the local police with high quality JPEG images to assist with the prosecution of criminals. This has been proved in situations of theft from the retail stores and also break-ins to the actual centre after closing. One of the other main uses is for insurance purposes, for example the entrance mats cost a significant amount of money and have been damaged by contractors when working during the night. The cameras have allowed the Centre's management to use footage of the incidents as evidence in their insurance claims. They can also be used for the reverse whereby to protect themselves against fraudulent insurance claims from members of the public.

Ian Duncanson looks back at the project, "As a family owned private company, we were able to provide Claire and her team with a personal dedicated service and customer care. This meant we could be on site immediately to resolve any initial glitches and provide dedicated training for the security team."