This luxury hotel consists of two 45-storey towers, encompassing 749 rooms, suites, and apartments. Furthermore, these towers also include a wealth of exclusive bars, restaurants, and spas, as well as spacious meeting and banqueting facilities. While these amenities promise state-of-the-art luxury and service, the Grosvenor House required equally state-of-the-art security to ensure the well-being of its valuable guests.

For Mohamed Kasim, Manager of Security Solutions at HCL Infosystems MEA. (the Dubai-based integrator for this project), the choice of a security brand for this project was simple – Hikvision: “Our goal was to build a total solution for this luxury hotel, but due to challenges such as difficult lighting conditions, it was paramount that our equipment be the best. This is why we chose Hikvision.”

In particular, the lighting conditions in the main entrance area proved especially noteworthy. As such, Mr. Kasim chose Hikvision’s DS-2CD764FWD-EI 1.3MP WDR dome camera to overcome these potential pitfalls.

Along with the main southern exit, as well as the hotel’s auxiliary exits, the DS-2CD764FWD-EI is required to face directly outside to accurately identify incoming and outgoing customers. As such, this dome camera faces the brunt of direct sunlight in the day and near total darkness in the evening. However, the DS-2CD764FWD-EI’s 1.3 mega-pixels (1280 x 960) of high resolution provide the quality of image and 120dB wide dynamic range provides the technology to overcome these issues with flying colours.

Just inside the facilities is the DS-2CC197P-A high-definition WDR box camera. Furthermore, tasked with identifying customers, and similarly burdened with a daily changing landscape of lighting conditions; the DS-2CC197P-A’s 160x wide dynamic range technology and 540TVL (in color) and 600TVL ( in black & white) resolution provide the foundation for equally strong clarity and coverage in these daily lighting obstacles.

Liberally located throughout the many corridors of the hotel’s two towers are 440 units of Hikvision’s DS-2CC575P-A high-definition low illumination ICR dome camera. Obviously, since placed inside, the DS-2CC575P-A is not faced with Dubai’s blistering daytime and chilling darkness like its two aforementioned brothers. Yet, this is not to say that each environment is the same. “Since the Grosvenor House encompasses a wide variety of amenities, from bars to spas, the ambience – and by extension, the lighting conditions – varies greatly throughout the hotel. As such, we needed a flexible indoor dome that provides great quality in a variety of differing locations,” explained Mr. Kasim. Helping to provide this versatility is an ICR filter auto switch, 540TVL (colour) and 600TVL (black & white) of resolution, as well as a 2.8~11mm auto iris lens and digital noise reduction to achieve the desired overall clarity.

Completing the solution is Hikvision’s DS-8116HFI-S standalone DVR. Providing the ability to utilise both analogue and digital cameras, this camera promises to be future proof for any security solution. Yet, in the case of the Grosvenor House, an equally important trait was evident: hard-drive storage space. Featuring up-to 8 SATA HDD at 2Tb each, the DS-8116HFI-S is well equipped to meet this hotel’s requirement for months of video storage on its DVRs. In fact, in this case, the DS-8116HFI-S is technologically positioned to deliver well more than the required half year of data storage.

According to the company, recently, Dubai’s Police Department noted the Grosvenor House as a security model to be emulated and have also publically stated their approval for this Hikvision solution.