Creating a safe environment for patients, staff and visitors is a constant challenge throughout the NHS and particularly so within mental health facilities. With this in mind, 19 mental health units located throughout the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust estate have been recently equipped with IP network based video monitoring systems manufactured by Samsung Techwin.
The safety of its staff, patients and visitors, is fundamentally important to the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, and with this in mind, it has invested in video monitoring systems at 19 mental health units in order to unobtrusively monitor patient activity.
“We are committed to the ‘safewards’ initiative’, a key aim of which is to reduce the rates of conflict in in-patient mental health settings,” said Mark Milliard, Capital Projects Manager at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. “We believe that the use of smart technology, such as IP network based video monitoring systems, can play a large role in helping us achieve this objective.”
Creating a safe environment for patients, staff and visitors is a constant challenge throughout the NHS and particularly so within mental health facilities. With this in mind, 19 mental health units located throughout the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust estate have been recently equipped with IP network based video monitoring systems manufactured by
Samsung Techwin.
The safety of its staff, patients and visitors, is fundamentally important to the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, and with this in mind, it has invested in video monitoring systems at 19 mental health units in order to unobtrusively monitor patient activity.
“We are committed to the ‘safewards’ initiative’, a key aim of which is to reduce the rates of conflict in in-patient mental health settings,” said Mark Milliard, Capital Projects Manager at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. “We believe that the use of smart technology, such as IP network based video monitoring systems, can play a large role in helping us achieve this objective.”
Migration to IP
Milliard, who has worked within NHS Estates since 1986, has over recent years overseen the migration of the Trust’s analogue CCTV systems to Video over IP solutions.
“The analog systems that were installed a number of years ago became increasingly unreliable and we made the decision to upgrade them with IP network based systems,” explained Milliard. “A key advantage of being able to transmit images over the network is that it provides the flexibility for any authorized user to view live or recorded video captured by any of the cameras from their PCs. We realized that this would provide us with much more flexibility in terms of how we monitor activity at the mental health units, compared to the analog video surveillance systems which could only transmit captured images to a central location.”
In compliance with the trust’s obligation to achieve best value from its investment in new technology, Milliard initiated a tender process and invited a number of installation companies to submit proposals to install and service video monitoring systems at each of the 19 locations. The tender document specified which cameras should be installed.
WiseNetIII cameras
“It made sense to source the cameras from just one manufacturer and from an ongoing maintenance point of view, to deploy the minimum possible number of different camera models,” said Milliard. “I decided, therefore, to carry out my own research as to which manufacturer had a product portfolio which could best cover all our requirements, as well as offering us the value we were looking for. Part of the value formulae had to include a rock solid reputation for reliability, as well as cameras with advanced technical features which would allow us to capture and monitor high definition images, regardless of the location or environmental conditions.”
Milliard’s extensive evaluation of a large number of manufacturers resulted in a shortlist of two, from which Samsung Techwin emerged as the winner.
Milliard established that only three Samsung Techwin cameras would need to be specified to provide coverage of areas both inside and outside all 19 mental health units. All three models are part of the Samsung Techwin WiseNetIII camera range and include the SNV-6084R vandal-resistant 2MP Full HD network dome camera, which has built in IR LEDs to enable images of any activity to be captured, regardless of the lighting conditions. Milliard also selected the SNO-6084R weather resistant bullet cameras which are equipped with a motorized varifocal lens and built-in IR (infrared) illuminators. The third model to be specified by Milliard was the SNV-6012 2MP Full HD vandal-resistant flat dome camera.
Installation Success
The installation of IP network based video surveillance systems at the 19 mental health units has been carried out in phases and, following the completion of a tender process, the contract for phase three of the project was awarded to Ipswich-based ACW Electrical Suffolk.
“As this was the first time we had installed Samsung Techwin cameras, we arranged for our engineers to attend a Samsung Techwin training course so that they would be able to configure each camera for optimum performance. The good news is that the cameras were extremely easy to install, which added to our ability to complete the contract without any delays or issues.”
The images from all of the cameras are recorded onto Samsung Techwin SRN-1670D NVRs. These have been designed to have the look and familiarity of a DVR, whilst delivering all the benefits of a network video recorder. Unlike most NVRs, which can only be programmed remotely, the SRN-1670D can be locally controlled with the help of a mouse and a very easy to use on-screen display. The SRN-1670D has the capacity for five SATA HDDs, offering the potential for a massive 10TB of on-board storage. It can record audio across all channels and has a built-in DVD Writer and USB ports for easy export of video evidence.