WDH is committed to investing in more new homes to meet the growing need for affordable housing.
WDH is one of the UK’s housing associations which manages more than 31000 homes. The organisation is committed to investing in more new homes to meet the growing need for affordable housing. It also focused on strengthening local communities by reducing benefit dependency, supporting current and future forms of tenure and maximising the social return on investment.
Challenge
In order to provide maximum benefits to tenants, WDH wanted to pilot the use of the latest high grade technologies for security and fire protection. This pilot at Low Cross Court, a high-rise building with thirty four dwellings, would help determine the suitability and feasibility of the different systems before rolling them out to the remaining highrise buildings as part of its ongoing Strategic Improvement Programme.
Solution
WDH contacted OpenView after seeing how the company has enabled Your Homes Newcastle (YHN) to deploy a suite of smart living solutions across a city-wide IT infrastructure. The organisation wanted to find out if a similar system would work in Wakefield. It subsequently carried out a detailed evaluation of all the latest technology solutions and employed an independent consultant to develop the scope of works for the pilot scheme where the integrated systems would be thoroughly tested and evaluated.
OpenView was awarded the contract after winning an open tender to install the CCTV, door entry, access control, fire alarm, sprinkler system, fire stopping and additional fire safety systems controlled by a full management and control system.
OpenView ensured the full integration of all systems, including 4K Avigilon CCTV, IP-based smart living solution, cloud-based access control from KMS, with a Citrix-based web portal that provides online access to all installed systems. Fire protection measures included fire alarm, sprinkler system, fire stopping and additional fire safety systems including automatic opening vents for the dispersal of smoke in the event of a fire and Part 6 automatic fire detection from AICO Smart Solutions. All systems are connected on a Cat6 IP network infrastructure.
Smart lift integration was also included to allow the lift to be called by the intercom and access control systems when needed. The lift was also linked into the fire systems to ensure that it could not be used in the event of a fire.
The new system enables the rapid identification of incidents that require urgent action to be taken. For example, in the event of a fire in an individual dwelling, operators can quickly identify the precise location before calling the tenant to verify the situation before initiating an agreed sequence of events.
Deploying state-of-the-art fire and security systems in high rise buildings is helping WDH to meet and exceed its obligations regarding the safety of tenants. The system not only offers the highest level of security, but also provides the organisation with the flexibility to add smart living solutions such as telecare services without any infrastructure upgrades.
Product Adopted:System Integration