Avigilon secures 20 Old Bailey

21 Oct 09

By Anthony Hildebrand

Farebrother Chartered Surveyors has deployed the Avigilon High Definition surveillance system at its building at 20 Old Bailey, located across from the United Kingdom’s Central Criminal Court, which deals with the country’s most contentious criminal cases.

The Farebrother management team at 20 Old Bailey selected the Avigilon HD Surveillance System because of its image clarity, necessary to provide the City of London Police with useable footage for evidence in the event of an incident.

“We are able to provide the City of London Police with high quality footage to be used as evidence if required,” said Jon Batt, partner in charge of the facilities and corporate estate management team at Farebrother Chartered Surveyors.

“Our previous analogue-based surveillance system was unable to provide the clarity and detail required to meet our needs. We selected the Avigilon HD Surveillance System because of its performance and image quality.”

With the assistance of Argonaught Network Technologies Ltd, a provider of surveillance system design, installation, and service, the management team at 20 Old Bailey installed Avigilon five megapixel cameras on the exterior of the building to monitor traffic, the parking lot, and the main entrance.

With ten floors and a 30-car parking lot, 20 Old Bailey houses a business management consultancy, two merchant banks, and an international airline, and is the office for 1,900 workers and 25,000 visitors annually.

Batt also kept 20 analogue cameras from his previous surveillance system, which he plans to replace with Avigilon HD cameras as budget permits.

To integrate the old analogue cameras into the new Avigilon HD Surveillance System, Batt deployed several Avigilon Analogue Video Encoders.

With access from four monitors, the security team manages the Avigilon HD Surveillance System using Avigilon Control Center network video management software with HD Stream Management.

The 20 Old Bailey management team also installed four Avigilon HD network video recorders to store up to 30 days of continuous surveillance footage.

Avigilon claims the system’s performance and ease-of-use has reduced police investigation time by 25 per cent.

“Unfortunately, tenants at 20 Old Bailey have a heightened understanding of threat because of their location across from the Central Criminal Court, which not only deals with dangerous criminals, but also sometimes draws intimidating crowds,” said Dave Tynan, vice president of global sales and marketing at Avigilon.

“With the Avigilon HD Surveillance System in place, tenants can be assured that they are well protected in the face of any possible danger.”