In the first phase of the project, a new CCTV system has been installed at the Smith Centre, Kensington, which is a leading-edge science conference facility run by the Science Museum. The GBP 1m centre was opened in 2006 with the aim of encouraging greater private sector support for science by bringing together key figures in business, science, academia and culture.

The CCTV system at the Smith Centre was originally conceived as a stand-alone installation, but ESPlus was asked upgrade the plans by introducing full IP functionality, and linking all the cameras via broadband back to the Science Museum.

NMSI head of security Malcolm Fewtrell says the same approach will now be taken with two other nationally important sites run by the museum: the National Railway Museum in York and the Science Museum Library and Archives in Wiltshire.

"At the outset we knew that we wanted a top of the range system, with the highest quality image capture and recording, but we had not decided to go for full integration at that stage. Working with ESPlus we have seen how well the IP system works and are now planning full integration between all our sites."

The advantages of integration, and a smarter, more efficient approach to monitoring, will be particularly important to the Science Museum's security department Malcolm Fewtrell explains.

"At the moment our York and Swindon teams operate their own, stand-alone systems. Of course we can download footage between sites, within minutes, when we need to, but we can't view or operate the CCTV in real time. When we integrate the systems together I'll be able to organise our security teams more efficiently by monitoring all the CCTV from one control centre."

A central control room will be established at one of the sites, possibly at Swindon, with local control rooms providing back-up and operational management.

The key objective of this greater efficiency is to redeploy staff to where they can be most effective, out into the galleries.

"Our Warders have a customer service responsibility; in fact very often they are the main staff members that our visitors engage with. They also have to be on hand to deal with any incidents in the galleries, which may include first aid, anti-social behaviour right through to major incidents, which is something they can't do if they are back in the control room."

ESPlus, which is a leading provider of CCTV, EAS Tagging, Access Control and integrated security solutions, has already protected thousands of priceless manuscripts and books with two EAS tagging systems, installed at the National Railway Museum's archive Search Engine, and the Science Museum's Library and Archives at Swindon.

The company is currently also installing a CCTV system which will give detailed coverage of all areas of the public reading rooms, as well as the storage areas at the Swindon site, explains Director Phil Willis.

"The camera system is designed to provide discrete but full protection for the books, and to act as a deterrent to anyone tempted to steal or vandalise items. Monitoring staff will be able to see all activity in the library real-time and recorded images will allow investigators to identify exactly what has happened if an incident occurs anywhere in the library."