Dartford Borough Council

Dartford Borough Council opened their contact centre to give customers easy access to most services with a single point of contact. To help ensure the safety of both staff and customers the council decided that a surveillance system was required, recording activity during opening hours.

Solution

The council already had an extensive data network, so with the addition of a few extra outlets it was very easy to deploy network cameras where required. We specified several Axis Communications network cameras, utilising the Power-over-Ethernet switching hardware already on-site to further simplify installation. With the use of PoE, Dartford are also able to support their surveillance system with a UPS, meaning that in the event of a power failure their system can remain active.

Recording is handled by Axis Camera Station software, which allows for simultaneous monitoring of up to 25 cameras and has a recording capacity for 100 cameras. Dartford run Axis Camera Station under VMware, which means they don’t need a dedicated file server for it. Installation was carried out by two Network Technologies engineers over one weekend, to minimise disruption to the council.

We find Network Technologies an easy and transparent company to deal with, their communication and standard of work is good, and we are happy to recommend them to others.

David Munday, Networks Manager, Dartford Borough Council

Result

Given that we were able to utilise the existing network infrastructure and PoE functionality, we were able to provide a brand new, high-quality surveillance solution for a relatively small amount of money. The council were delighted with the general image quality of the cameras and the ease of use of the recording software.

The future

Dartford’s surveillance system is incredibly flexible: additional cameras can be added indoors or outdoors, wherever their network goes. Cameras were added to the main reception area soon after the initial installation.