Audley End Miniature Railway
Protecting visitors, staff and assets with the help of a Wisenet video surveillance system
A Wisenet video surveillance system manufactured by Hanwha Techwin is being used to its full potential by the operators of the Audley End Miniature Railway in order to ensure that the 100,000 plus people who visit the Railway every year are able to safely enjoy all its facilities.
Located close to Audley End House in Saffron Walden, Essex, the Miniature Railway, was built in 1964 by the then Lord Braybrooke as a hobby. It has since become a major tourist attraction with train enthusiasts able to enjoy steam and diesel train rides through the beautiful Audley End Estate Woodland designed by Capability Brown, whilst young visitors can venture through a ‘Fairy and Elf’ walk.
IP Network Solution
Originally installed as a replacement for an old analogue CCTV system following a number of security incidents, the new IP network based Wisenet system is now also being used to keep a close eye on the trains moving around the 2.4 kilometer track and visitor car parking areas. In addition, it is also helping with the management of the queues of people waiting to buy tickets and to ensure compliance with Health & Safety regulations.
The video surveillance system, comprising 14 Wisenet cameras and a Network Video Recorder (NVR), has been installed by IT infrastructure specialists, Eastern Voice and Data, who also designed and installed the Miniature Railway’s network and Wi-Fi.
Single Source
“We have previously installed Wisenet cameras for other clients and have been impressed with their robustness and reliability, as well as the quality of the captured images,” said Russell Marriott, Director of Norwich based Eastern Voice and Data. “As a result, we were able to confidently recommend to Audley End Miniature Railway that all cameras should be selected from the Wisenet camera range. We then worked closely with the Hanwha Techwin pre-sales team to select the most appropriate camera model for each location.”
Cameras
Among the 14 cameras installed are 5 QNO-7030R Bullet and 6 QND-7010R Dome cameras. These are all able to capture 4megapixel high definition images of objects regardless of the lighting conditions, with the help of built-in IR illumination.
Part of the Wisenet Q camera series, the cameras also feature defocus, motion and tamper detection, hallway view and lens distortion correction, whilst support for Power over Ethernet (PoE) has negated the need for Eastern Voice and Data to have to provide separate power supplies and cabling to each camera location.
Images captured from all the cameras are recorded and stored on a 16 channel Wisenet XRN-1610S NVR, which is equipped with a PoE switch.
“Our old CCTV was well passed its ‘use-by’ date and lacked the functionality required to help us maintain a safe environment for our visitors and staff, as well as deter would be intruders and vandals,” said Bob Ottaway, General Manager of the Audley End Miniature Railway. “We are now able to closely monitor all activity throughout the site during opening hours, and with the help of the Wisenet Mobile App, we can also be remotely alerted via smartphones and tablets to any suspicious activity when we are closed.”
About Hanwha Techwin
Hanwha Techwin (formerly Samsung Techwin) is a leading supplier of video surveillance solutions for IP-video, analogue and hybrid systems. Building on the company’s history of innovation, Hanwha Techwin is dedicated to providing solutions with the highest levels of performance, reliability and cost-efficiency for professional security applications, such as continuing development in advanced edge devices and video analytics. www.hanwhasecurity.eu
Our old CCTV was well passed its ‘use-by’ date and lacked the functionality required to help us maintain a safe environment for our visitors and staff, as well as deter would be intruders and vandals,” said Bob Ottaway, General Manager of the Audley End Miniature Railway. “We are now able to closely monitor all activity throughout the site during opening hours, and with the help of the Wisenet Mobile App, we can also be remotely alerted via smartphones and tablets
to any suspicious activity when we are closed.
Bob Ottaway,
General Manager of the Audley End Miniature Railway.
The Theatre Royal Norwich
High Call Volume Business
The Theatre Royal Norwich is East Anglia’s premier theatre, selling around 370,000 tickets annually. Plus it operates a restaurant, function rooms, educational courses and the full range of services you would expect.
There are up to 16 operatives to handle the large volume of calls that are received.
The Problem
The theatre needed to upgrade it’s phone system to allow them to see how many calls were in the queue at any one time, full reporting data such as time spent waiting in the queue, plus allow the different operations within the theatre to operate independently of each other – and of course they needed 24/7 support!
The Solution
Eastern Voice & Data helped design and install a bespoke package that would deliver exactly what they needed, including a flash alert system to warn staff when predicted call queue lengths were being exceeded.
The system offers a host of advanced features – individual extensions can set their own custom menu options for callers to follow; callers can leave a message or have their call forwarded to another extension or even an outside line such as their cell phone. The system can support up to three different languages, enabling callers to choose the language of their preference when they call in. This system integrates with a range of business telephone systems and has certainly become an asset to the Norwich Theatre Royal in offering an effective customer service operation.
Although the development of the system was a gradual process as it was an entirely bespoke solution, the whole installation was undertaken during a single day with minimal disruption to the theatre’s operation.
Pre training also ensured that staff could ‘hit the ground running’ as soon as the system went live, minimising the disruption of the transition period even further.
We would like to thank Eastern Voice & Data for supplying the Panasonic equipment which forms the basis of our new telephone system and enabling such a seamless transfer from our old to our new configuration. The system was built and programmed in advance and switched over early one morning in time for the Box Office to open as usual. Every telephone in even the remotest parts of the building was replaced and we were complete on time and within budget.
Jane Claridge,
General Manager, Theatre Royal Norwich
