Networked CCTV System for the Shard

The Shard posted up a project to complete a CCTV project for them on floors: Ground, L3, L33, L68, L69, L72. They were looking to monitor the density of people throughout their viewing galleries.

The executive team at The View tasked the Facilities department to find a contractor who had the technical networking knowledge to deploy a solution that could work with their switch stack, and in difficult to access areas.

“Our aim was to procure, configure, test and install a state of the art CCTV system that could be used to measure footfall in the viewing galleries available to the public.” Matthew Hinge, Founder at Tech Engine Australia.

The struggles that lay ahead for Tech Engine Australia was how were these cameras going to be installed in selected places, and to utilise the existing infrastructure cabling, which most was purpose-built!

Through careful planning and attention to detail to structured cabling drawings, close attention to power, fire, alarm and the other different 100 cables per cable tray in the ceilings, the route was found per camera. The origin of the port was then selected and a new cat7 network cable was run from point to point. There was not only the other cables to work around but the small tight space, but the space was guarded by a steel mesh weighing around 7-10kgs which needed to be moved. The steal mesh needed to be slid off its rails to be able to take away from the ceiling, making it another challenge just to be able to move the cable on from one section to another.

“The installations from Tech Engine Australia at the end were exactly what we asked for. We agreed an installation price that was much less than other contractors we had asked. The CCTV installation was neat, professional, so we had more and more!” stated the facilities team at The View

Fortunately, we were given the time and space to be able to complete the work. The installations started after 22:00 when the doors were shut to the public, and went into the early hours of the morning.

Tech Engine Australia completed the CCTV installations, over 20+ cameras, and still ongoing. The View now has the ability to look from inside out their 2 door cash office, a workstation and monitor installation giving visibility for security. in addition to being able to monitor footfall in their open spaces, passageways and galleries.