When Café en Seine was totally redesigned and refurbished, Create Security Solutions was called in to provide an extensive but discreet video surveillance system for the protection of customers and staff. Create worked with Hikvision to design and install the network video system.
In the very heart of Dublin’s city centre Café en Seine has had a redesign, featuring several dining areas and a host of bars and bespoke event spaces – plus an indoor Parisian street garden, with room for 250 guests for special events.
An intelligent video monitoring solution was required so Create Security Solutions was called in, and system designers Mark Woods and Niall McDonnell set about devising a system which would address Café en Seine’s specific needs.
Mark Woods, who is Create’s Managing Director, said the system had to be able to deliver a variety of results, whilst also blending into the art deco aesthetic of the redesign. It was required to be able monitor the venue’s till areas, and to record any customer and staff health and safety issues, as well as the conventional function of after-hours surveillance for break-ins or theft.
“At the same time,” Mark explains, “the whole of the network design, the topology, cable lengths and routes, the network video recorder and camera settings needed to minimise the impact on the network’s bandwidth as much as possible.”
The solution Create devised was based on network topology using Hikvision H265+ encoding technology, to reduce bandwidth loads. The other crucial factor was “plenty of time”. Time was important, because the system had to be installed simultaneous with all the redevelopment work which was taking place to the premises.
“We had to stay on the same page as all the other workers on the site,” Woods said. “Obviously there are elements of a system like this that can only be installed at the appropriate moment, when contractors and decorators have reached the point that we can put our kit into place. So we needed to keep an eye on their work, and follow-up as they progressed. It meant that we were assembling the system piece by piece – but those pieces weren’t necessarily in sequence, as different contractors worked on different aspects of the premises concurrently.
“We had to ensure that all 127 cameras we installed would blend into the interior, that they’d look unobtrusive and be able to see everything we needed them to,” says Mark. “The challenge we had was to ensure we positioned the cameras in the optimum place to get the best image, while also making certain nothing would encroach on the camera’s field of view. That included speakers, trees, and chandeliers and other lights. Café en Seine’s pretty generously decorated, from the floor to the high ceilings, so this was a fairly complicated part of the process itself.”
Create’s Alex Koltunov was lead engineer on the project, and he oversaw the installation of the Hikvision kit. This included the cameras, all discreet network mini domes which blend into and complement the interior design of Café en Seine.
The cameras record to four 32-channel network video recorders, sited in a comms room three floors above the diners. In the manager’s office is a 32-inch monitor. Using a mouse and switcher all 127 cameras can be viewed from here.
“We wanted to ensure that there was a minimum of equipment in the manager’s office, but that full control of the system was still possible,” Woods explains. “It’s an efficient use of the space, without CCTV control equipment dominating the room. Because of this and the system itself, the customer’s really happy with the installation.”
