Initiated due to the age and condition of the original school, the new school structure was built alongside the existing facility, on adjacent school land, throughout the 2006/08 academic years. The existing infrastructure was then transferred across during the summer holidays, with the new building ready to receive pupils at the start of the 2007/08 school year. The new school and grounds are now home to some of the finest sporting and educational facilities available in the UK, including; a swimming pool, three all weather football pitches, sports halls, fitness suite, dance studio, free weights room and numerous tennis and football pitches. The new educational facilities have been described as 'outstanding' by Ofsted inspectors and feature 8 'ICT laboratories' with an additional learning centre known as the 'Discovery zone', all with state-of-the-art computer facilities. There is also a 300-seat auditorium, exhibition area, audiovisual suite, Apple Mac suites, electronic registration and monitoring system, drama studios, and music recital rooms, all forming one of the largest PFI (Private Finance Initiative) funded schools in Europe, and a key example of the governments 'Building schools for the future" programme.

In harmony with the new educational facilities, the school's management took the opportunity of a 'new-build' to plan an effective security solution, the keystone of which would be a 180-camera CCTV system. Christine Shaw, PA to the school's Headmaster explains: "Our old building had been, on occasions, targeted by vandals of an evening and sometimes at weekends, so we were keen to get the total security package for our new facilities correct from the outset. We also wanted the CCTV system to play a number of roles in addition to security, such as heath and safety, and to act as an effective tool in supporting the daily running and administration of the school.

"This was reflected in our close work with contractors in the placement of cameras, at the planning stages. Using the experience of education staff to calculate the probable flow of pupils and visitors around the school, we were able to adjust the positioning of the cameras on the site plans, getting the desired scene coverage for each, exactly right."

The transmission of camera video to multiple control points throughout the school was originally specified over IP. However, the school's IT contractors were unhappy about the transmission of large bandwidth video over an IT network that carried other vital service information. An alternative solution was found in the application of NVT's UTP Hybrid Video transmission, using a dedicated UTP cable installation to provide performance, flexibility and expandability.

Steve Proctor, sales director for NVT continues: "The school found a big difference in the cost of differing video transmission systems. Using IP, they would have been forced down the route of expensive IP cameras that greatly increased the overall cost of the installation beyond their budget, using NVT UTP afforded the use of more economical analogue cameras. Also, unlike with IP, real-time video transmission using NVT UTP does not require network switches every 100m, adding to the total installation cost."

Installed by Chubb, NVT video transmission allowed rapid installation, critical when working to tight timescales, as Andy Martin, Sales Consultant at Chubb explains: "With the UTP cable network already installed by building contractors, we were able to easily and quickly connect the CCTV cameras using NVT transmission products. When working onsite, around other contractors, it is important that we can integrate products quickly without any hick-ups, using NVT meant that we could be sure the products worked straight out of the box, and would continue to be reliable, with piece of mind backed by NVT's lifetime guarantee."

Harnessing NVT's Power, Video, and Data (PVD) technology, also negated the need for separate power outlets to be installed at each internal camera point. Instead, low voltage power for each camera was provided via the UTP network and NVT NV-16PS10-PVD 16-channel Power Supply Cable Integrator Hubs. Located in the equipment room, these units also save time and money via a greatly simplified installation process.

Additionally, using NVT technology, the school can also benefit from 'real-time' images from the comprehensive camera network, and without the control latency associated with fully IP-based camera networks.

Michael Nicholson, northern sales manager for NVT adds: "With the specification of a NVT single cable integrated Power, Video and Data transmission solution using Cat6 4-pair UTP cable, the school could be confident of a high-performance, cost effective and less cumbersome CCTV installation from the outset."

Completed on time, the new state-of-the-art school building was ready to receive students at the start of the 2007/08 academic year, since when, the surveillance system has proved invaluable to its daily running. "It really has been one of the best purchases the school has made," enthused Christine: "In addition to the obvious security applications of protecting school property and detecting individuals onsite that shouldn't be here, the cameras have also proved their worth as an aid to more general daily issues at the school. Covering corridors, stairwells, sports hall, dinning and recreational areas, the system allows a birds-eye-view of pupil movement. Our children are very well behaved, so any deviance from the norm is easily detectable on the cameras.

"Right from the start of the school day the system is in action. With such a large building and expansive corridor network, the CCTV footage offers a 'live' gauge of student flow, allowing us to manage any problematic hold-ups, by making public address announcements, such as 'please clear the refectory area' etc.

"Break times are also a hot spot. With over 1450 pupils accessing the refectory and 300 pupils accessing the bistro area it is important that we manage the flow of pupils safely and successfully. Should any incident occur, faced with crystal clear footage of the incident, issues are usually easily resolved. This is also the case for accidental damage to the building as the local and wider community use the building of an evening and weekend. Having such a wonderful educational facility, we are keen to keep it in top condition and as such we take a serious view of any damage, no mater how minor. We have had a small number of incidents where pupils have caused drink spillages in the corridors, and pupil's dropping litter in stairwells. All these cases are denied, until I point out that we have CCTV footage that shows the incident in question, at which point pupils usually admit they were responsible for the incident even before they see the CCTV evidence for themselves.

"It is also a useful tool when discussing incidents with parents as they can be shown the high-resolution footage for themselves; we can even supply them with a copy on disk if they require it!

"If staff have to deal with incidents in corridors, the system also provides an evidential archive of what happened. This allows our staff to deal with situations confidently, knowing the actions of all parties are being recorded. When the students are going home at the end of the day, we can also ensure they all leave safely and sensibly, this includes them leaving the building and boarding the buses outside.

"We have carried out a survey of our pupils asking them what they liked and dislike about the new school. Almost every one stated that they liked the fact that we had CCTV throughout the school as it made them feel safe and secure in such a large building."

Control of the system is available to key staff around the school. The headmaster and administration area house the main control equipment, complete with large LCD monitors. Elsewhere in the building, each head of year has access to their own control facility, allowing them to monitor all areas of the building. For example at lunchtime, when it is important that each 'year-based' sitting progresses through efficiently. "This allows them to spot delays before they develop and hold up the flow of the sitting", adds Christine.

"Thanks to the efforts we made in the planning stage of the school, the camera placement and associated scene coverage has proved very successful." Christine concludes: "Thanks to the dedicated UTP network, the one adjustment to camera positioning we made was quick and simple; adding two additional cameras to an area where we required broader coverage". Acting on the request from the school, NVT PVD technology allowed Chubb engineers to simply add the cameras to the network, wiring them in to one of the 'spare' UTP pairs in the cable network, and because the camera power was supplied by the NVT Power, Video and Data hubs, this was all possible without the cost of additional fused spurs.

Thanks to coordinated planning from the building-design stage, the CCTV camera network at Wright Robinson College provides staff and pupils with a safe environment in which to work and learn; and due to the specification of NVT PVD transmission, will continue to do so for years to come.