By Royal appointment

More than 400 years on, this famous old building on London's renowned Threadneedle Street has been refitted once more. Re-opened to the public last November, The Royal Exchange now plays host to an exclusive collection of retail outlets as well as tailored offered space for well-to-do City types.

As part of the refurbishment, a new integrated security system featuring state-of-the-art CCTV, access control and intruder alarm technology has been installed.

The installation contract – itself worth more than £100,000 – was carried out in just under three months by Intruder International plc, an independent security systems company that boasts national coverage.

Gerald Harris, centre manager at The Royal Exchange, has overall responsibility for security on the site. He also oversees the day-to-day running of The Courtyard on the ground floor where the building's ten retail outlets are located (although a few of the stores cover both the ground and first floors). "This is most certainly not any ordinary shopping centre," states Harris, in the same breath listing leading designer label Prada and jeweller Tiffany & Co among the retailers who now inhabit the new-look Royal Exchange. "Our tenants," stresses Harris, "demand a high degree of security."

Deterring would-be shoplifters
The tenants' high expectations in terms of security provision would appear to have been met. To this end, Gerald Harris has an impressive array of security technology at his disposal with which to support such a claim.

CCTV is certainly crucial to The Royal Exchange management team's efforts to both detect and deter shoplifters. "One of our biggest challenges is to prevent theft," opines Harris. He's extremely confident that any shop thieves will be caught by the building's dedicated security cameras.

"The clarity of the pictures produced by the systems we've had installed here is really tremendous," marvels Harris. "You can almost read the writing on a suspect's packet of cigarettes. The images are that good."

Furthermore, the crystal clear images produced are apparently easy to download and distribute to concerned parties. "If there are any intruders, and we can capture them on video, we're then able to download the image, print it and then circulate it among all our tenants, as well as send it to the police," says Harris. Images may also be downloaded and circulated by e-mail.

All video footage generated at The Royal Exchange is stored on a Loronix CCTVware digital CCTV system which boasts a gigantic 390 Gb of hard disk space. The hard disk is housed in a fridge-like container that doesn't take up a great deal of space in the building's dedicated security Control Room. That's just as well, though. At present, the Control Room is temporarily housed in the basement. It would certainly be difficult to accommodate an analogue recorder along with rack-upon-rack of video tapes. Gerald Harris is quick to point out that a bespoke Control Room is in the pipeline.

In use, the CCTVware system transmits and digitally records images from the cameras onto hard disk at a rate of one frame per second on a round-the-clock basis. Using Wavelet technology, live video may be viewed at a higher rate of up to six images per second. The system records continuously to ensure that all security-related incidents are captured. All images are stored on the system for 31 days before being over-written.

According to Loronix managing director David Watts, retrieving and reviewing video footage is both quick and easy for the security staff working at The Royal Exchange. "It's certainly far quicker than if analogue systems were being used," suggests Watts. "With this system, video images may be instantly retrieved and viewed by date, time or other criteria using a standard Pentium PC. No human intervention is necessary."

Mark Phillips, managing director at Intruder International, believes the Loronix system met The Royal Exchange's requirements better than any other recording system currently available on the market. "CCTVware is extremely reliable and versatile," says Phillips, "providing the high quality image storage and retrieval capability that the management team was searching for."

For his part, Gerald Harris is equally impressed. "It really is amazing security technology," states Harris. Indeed, the surveillance system has already proven its worth, only last month generating video evidence that helped to convict someone trying to steal merchandise from one of the shops. By adopting a hard disk-based digital recording system, The Royal Exchange has followed the lead of another famous City institution – The Bank of England – itself situated just over the road. The Bank of England's security team now uses a digital, PC-based recording system for all of its CCTV footage.

Integration at The Royal Exchange
A key feature of The Royal Exchange's security system is the way in which the CCTV set-up has been integrated with the intruder alarms provision. The CCTV system is integrated with a Galaxy intruder detection system via RS232 communication links.

Gerald Harris explains: "For the most part, the cameras are set to rove around, but if there should be a break-in then a dedicated camera will zoom in on the affected area."

Lee Abraham, projects director at Intruder International who oversaw The Royal Exchange installation, adds: "In the event of an alarm, images from the relevant cameras appear on the flat screen LCD monitors housed in the Control Room." Abraham's organisation helped to train The Royal Exchange's Control Room staff in how to operate the integrated system.

If the security system should alert the Control Room officers to an incident, the security officer team then springs into action. Officers are on duty during the day in The Courtyard to protect the retail outlets. Shop staff are able to contact the security Control Room – which is manned 24-hours per day – by direct telephone link or via a radio system.

Aside from the retail outlets, the Royal Exchange also provides office space for a number of major organisations. The Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance Group has long been a tenant, while State Street bank and law firm Sidley & Austin also occupy offices inside this magnificent building.

Like The Courtyard, the office area of the building is well-protected. Security officers are on duty in this area 24-hours per day, while access to the offices themselves is controlled by a Janus system supplied by Grosvenor Technology that features HID proximity card readers. The building's tenants use prox cards to access the office areas (as do the retailers in The Courtyard). Lee Abraham feels this set-up is ideal for tenants as they don't want or need to be rummaging around to find a set of keys each time they come in.

If someone tries to defy the proximity readers and gain unauthorised access to any of the offices, security staff will be alerted by way of the Janus system which has been integrated with the building's CCTV and intruder detection systems. "The access control system will trigger intruder alarms and CCTV cameras at the same time so that security staff can respond," adds Abraham.

Gerald Harris believes the Janus system is doing its job in controlling access to the building's office spaces. "We're not talking about a huge space here, but it needs to be very self-contained," says Harris.

He's confident that The Royal Exchange has everything covered in terms of protecting the building's current tenants, but new businesses are expected to move into the building soon and could well require additional security measures. Harris notes: "There is actually provision for a restaurant and a bar to be opened on the Mezzanine level."

Future-proofing the security systems
Future expansion is precisely why The Royal Exchange management team insisted on implementing a security system that is able to grow as end user requirements evolve and change. More cameras can be added, while the building's cabling is configured in such a way that expansion of security systems will be a relatively easy process.

"The Royal Exchange security set-up is very much a future-poof system," declares Lee Abraham. "At the moment, only around 20% of its capabilities are being used." The Royal Exchange's management team was so impressed by the security system installed by Intruder International that it awarded the company a separate contract – once again worth something in the region of £100,000 – for the external monitoring of the building by CCTV (regular maintenance is being provided as standard as part of both contracts).

Abraham adds: "The extra contract includes the installation of fixed and dome cameras around the perimeter". Some of the cameras overlook the neighbouring streets encircling The Royal Exchange. Signage informing people that CCTV is in operation has been put up in compliance with the Data Protection laws.

In addition, a total of five remote CCTV cameras have been installed on top of nearby buildings (including the Bank of England and the London Stock Exchange). These cameras have been incorporated into The Royal Exchange's surveillance system to complete CCTV coverage of the building. Radio links were used to broadcast pictures from these cameras as it wasn't possible to run cable from the cameras to the Control Room.

Grade I-listing in perspective
When laying cable for The Royal Exchange's entire security system, Intruder International had to tread carefully. Literally, as the building itself is Grade I-listed. It helped somewhat that the security systems installation was carried out late last year in tandem with the rest of the building's refurbishment, but coming up with suitable cabling routes was a significant challenge. "We had to work very closely with the building's architects," recalls Abraham.

To keep the amount of cabling required to a minimum, all the CCTV cameras are run on NVT's Category 5 cabling – an alternative to the more commonly-used co-axial cabling. "With Category 5 cabling," says Abraham, "you can transmit images from four separate cameras along one cable. It is marginally more expensive for the end user, but you offset the extra expense by saving on labour costs. Category 5 cabling is much easier to work with than co-axial cable, which is more bulky".

According to Abraham, another advantage of Cat 5 cabling is that it transmits "higher quality video images than co-axial cable."

Gerald Harris adds that the cabling has been laid in such a way as to make it easy for tenants to connect up their own systems. "The system runs like a railway line around The Courtyard at the rear of the retail outlets so that each outlet can 'tab off' what they want from the cabling."

The CCTV cameras had to be installed in a manner which respects the architecture of the building. Overlooking the two main entrances to The Courtyard are high speed dome cameras fitted into large, ornate gas lamps which hang from the walls. In addition, small discreet domes have been installed in the ceilings of The Royal Exchange's four entrance foyers.