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A new Vicon Kollector digital recording unit has been installed at the Public Record Office in Kew, south-west London, home of Domesday Book. The sealed chamber that houses the precious medieval document is a key area of this large and complex site. In addition, Vicon 1/3" CCD cameras and Surveyor 2000 dome systems are installed to monitor car parks and other public access areas 24 hours a day.
Installation was carried out by ADT in Sunbury. ADT were successful in bidding against five other leading companies in the industry for the contract to upgrade the PRO’s security systems.
Among the PRO's requirements were the need for higher resolution images over greater distances, improved night vision and high-performance digital image acquisition and storage systems.
The specification called for the integration of a number of existing systems with the Vicon digital system, and was carried out successfully.
The Nova V1344 matrix controls the video switcher, pan-and-tilt, lens and auxiliary functions and can control switching for up to128 cameras and 24 monitors.
The presence of valuable documents on site such as Domesday Book signalled the need for a recording system with a refresh rate of at least 4 frames per second (fps) per camera. According to an ADT spokesman, the 8 frames-per-second per camera refresh rate of Vicon's Kollector DVR impressed both installer and end-user alike – particularly as the image resolution is so high compared to other systems.
Jack Lincoln is Head of Security at the Public Record Office. He comments : "Our purpose in looking for a digital system was so that we could offer the police higher quality images as evidence in the event of an incident. The Kollector is an impressive piece of equipment. It's very user-friendly and it gives us double the fps rate we originally specified. The recordings are of good resolution and similar to real-time video recording."
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