The National Exhibition Center (NEC) is located on a 610-acre site, eight miles from Birmingham city center recently deployed a smart IP-based surveillance system comprising of 208 Axis Communications HD cameras and Genetec VMS to monitor the safety and traffic of the venue. The system integrator for the project was Axis partner, Vindex systems, who selected the network PTZ and fixed cameras for the solution.
The National Exhibition Center (NEC) is located on a 610-acre site, eight miles from Birmingham city center recently deployed a smart IP-based surveillance system comprising of 208 Axis Communications HD cameras and Genetec VMS to monitor the safety and traffic of the venue. The system integrator for the project was Axis partner, Vindex systems, who selected the network PTZ and fixed cameras for the solution.
The center offers more than 186,000 square meters of covered exhibition space spanning 33 conference suites and 20 interconnecting halls, in addition to over 160 acres of hard standing ground and 75 acres of woodland. The venue welcomes approximately 2.1 million visitors each year to over 140 diverse trade and consumer events - including long-standing shows like BBC Gardeners' World, BBC Good Food Show and Spring Fair, plus over 400 live events and conferences. The NEC has stated that it wants to be the ‘venue of choice' for the UK's leading events.
“We have worked with the NEC to deliver an integrated solution to improve the effectiveness of its security and traffic teams,” said Paul Austin, Director at Vindex. The Axis cameras selected by Vindex were subjected to a camera ‘shoot-out', alongside other manufacturer's cameras on site to prove their effectiveness and quality in a live environment.
Vindex selected the deployment of 130 Axis indoor PTZ domes, five indoor fixed domes, and eight HD cameras with integrated ten optical zoom lens. They also provided NEC with 25 HD cameras equipped with PIR sensors, made available to exhibitors to hire during exhibitions to provide them with real-time streaming of the event. Another 40 D/N fixed domes were deployed to cover the exhibition center's main entrances in order to meet the challenging light conditions due to the amount of glass used in the lobby. The solutions were also deployed to enable integration with Genetec's VMS platform, which is vital in centrally managing the security and traffic operations for the site from a newly created ‘Venue Operations Center'. The integrated solution provides all operators with intelligent, high quality, intuitive information in order for them to make informed decisions based on the time of day and activity on site.
“The centrally managed and integrated solution provided by Vindex has already proven to be an effective tool,” said Gary Masters, Traffic Operations Manager, Security, NEC. High quality camera images have been vital in the group's efforts to reduce crime incidents and ultimately help improve effectiveness of its security and traffic management team.