The Londoner Hotel heralds a new kind of hotel. Dubbed the ‘super boutique hotel’ The Londoner is situated on one of the world’s most iconic squares, a true London landmark, with high calibre guests to match. The building spans 16 storeys, with five different restaurants and bars, a subterranean wellness floor with spa and gym, and 350 rooms and suites.
High value, high stakes
The hotel features many high-value pieces of artwork and furniture located throughout its communal and guest spaces. Many high profile guests also frequent The Londoner. This poses some unique security challenges for the Edwardian Hotels London security team. Not only do physical assets need to be highly protected, but the team needs a quick way to investigate events, and for the surveillance system to seamlessly fit in with The Londoner’s discerning interior design. With many people visiting and working on-site, having an intuitive and detailed surveillance system was paramount.
Video surveillance solution
As Tarik Khamliche, MD of SLAM Systems (the system integrator for the project) explains, “There was a clear focus on getting the best cameras and VMS to ensure security was optimised for The Londoner, there were no blind spots, and events could be investigated easily. Simultaneously, camera devices needed to blend in well with the different themes and unique colourways in each bar, restaurant, corridor, and other spaces.”
Having worked with Hanwha Techwin for several years, with the Wisenet X series and Wisenet WAVE VMS tested in other hotels in the Edwardian Hotels London portfolio, the team decided that the Wisenet X series 5MP network cameras and Wisenet WAVE were ideal for protecting The Londoner. In total, 560 cameras have been installed across the site with six servers working to store, back up, and analyse footage. As no downtime can be afforded, each server is configured to back up another if it fails.
The Wisenet X series cameras come with Hanwha Techwin’s proprietary Wisenet 7 chipset that enables features such as eXtreme WDR, and 100% lens distortion correction. This delivers high quality, clear images to The Londoner team so they can see an event occurring and the details of what has happened.
Rapid, remote investigations enabled
The Wisenet WAVE VMS offers a reliable, easy-to-use system for the Londoner team to quickly search footage, look at specific areas in the hotel, and support investigations post-event. Alerts automatically go to Mohamed Elsabahy, group CCTV manager for Edwardian Hotels London, if cameras, servers or hard drives fail to enable rapid response and avoid unnecessary downtime.
Through Wisenet WAVE, cameras can be configured and viewed remotely if needed, across all hotels in the collection which have the VMS installed. “Through WAVE, I can remotely access any hotel’s video system and review its footage without spending time travelling to the site. It saves a lot of time and effort, and makes events much more accessible as I can quickly view what’s happened through my laptop or smartphone,” explains Mohamed Elsabahy, Group CCTV Manager.
The biggest benefit to The Londoner team has come through saving time and effort when investigating an event. Smart Search enables operators to quickly see when action has occurred in a pre-defined area such as part of a corridor, a corner of a bar, or by entrances and exits. They can quickly search through all footage to find those relevant to an investigation. A feature that is vital for a hotel of such scale.
Future plans for the site include integrating the video surveillance system with the laser protection system that currently protects expensive spirits in The Londoner’s bars. Doing so will create a single system that empowers the team to protect The Londoner’s most important assets.