Summary

Brisbane City Council is the largest local government organization in Australia. During a ground-up restoration of Brisbane City Hall, the council chose the Security Center Omnicast™ video management system and unified other security systems to ensure the safety of staff and guests.

Brisbane City Hall is one of Australia’s most stately public buildings. While it opened in 1930 and is now listed by the Register of the National Estate, Brisbane City Hall was built on wet ground which over decades led to subsidence, concrete cancer and problems with corrosion in aging wiring. The entire site closed at the end of December 2009 for a ground-up restoration where the City Hall was completely gutted and rebuilt. As part of this process, a $3 million integrated electronic security system was installed, which is monitored from an in-house control room.

The company

Brisbane City Hall had to be open to the people and it had to be a place for the people. This meant that Brisbane City Council needed to be able to keep the site open or lock it down. That really was the essence of this solution, operationally. Another key operational element of the site is that it’s large, complex and busy, yet it only has 2 security officers 24/7. Running at this level of efficiency, these officers needed to be empowered by technology to work as effectively as possible. The security team needed an intelligent solution with proactive detection and reporting capabilities.

The challenge

“Security Center does exactly what we hoped it would do and it’s future proof, so we can build on it and integrate multiple sub systems. All in all, everyone is very happy with the outcome.”

Paul Rishman, Corporate Security Manager, Brisbane City Council

Results

At the heart of the new security solution is the Omnicast video management system which manages 120 channels of AgentVi video analytics in real time. Omnicast also manages a selection of around 200 Axis Communications 720p HD IP cameras. Another system handles access control alarms. The unified platform also includes Ekahau, an RFID-over-Wi-Fi real-time location system, that helps operators track the movements of key personnel (and assets) across the site.

In terms of efficiency, their security operators are reaping the benefits of their new video management system. During specific events, operators can hit preset viewing tabs and the Genetec system will populate the screen with specific camera views. The solution also gives the team a lot of scope for integration of other Council buildings and surveillance systems in the future, as well as allowing redundancy of operations between multiple sites.

The solution

Unified operational view

The video management system is integrated with AgentVi analytics, an access control system, and an asset management system. From a unified view, operators can see everything that’s going on.

Intuitive 3D map interface

Using the Plan Manager map interface of Security Center, the security team can receive video tied to alarms within a 3D representation of the room where the even is unfolding.

Ready to expand with Federation

"We have a number of control rooms monitoring around 900 cameras at buildings across the city and the plan is to integrate them using the Federation™ feature", said Rishman.

Features that empower operators

Security operators use pre-set views to monitor critical areas. “It might be any group of camera views our security team decides will help. It’s drag and drop – very easy to use”, said Rishman.

Security Center Omnicast