Luxury and Security Meet

Choosing the proper video management system is a thoughtful choice

• By Mary Wilbur
• Sep 01, 2013

An icon on Chicago’s skyline, The Langham, a luxury hotel, is only minutes from the commercial Loop district and within walking distance to the leisure amenities of Grant Park and the famed Magnificent Mile, the city’s premium retail and dining hub. The Langham occupies the first 13 floors of a 52-story skyscraper designed by celebrated architect Mies van der Rohe, residing in what was once the IBM building on Wabash Ave. The hotel is committed to keeping its residents safe and secure within its walls, where there are 268 luxurious guest rooms and 48 spacious suites. As one of only five, 5 diamond hotels in the city, the owners from Hong Kong wanted to make sure that it remained a luxury hotel destination, even after substantial refurbishment was completed.

Scott Superfine, senior project manager at M&R Electronics, a certified Salient integrator in the Chicagoland area, won the subcontracting portion of the refurbishment from the prime contractor to upgrade low-voltage systems, voice data and life safety.

The entire installation of video surveillance and low-voltage equipment had to be flawless as the building was declared a Chicago Landmark in 2008 and was entered into the National Register of Historic Places. Plus, the owners of The Langham, Chicago wanted to continue the traditions, values and legendary service established by The Langham of London in 1865.

“We placed 180 Axis cameras in the facility, using Salient Systems’ Complete- View VMS software,” Superfine said. “We see CompleteView VMS as the perfect marriage of high-quality, video surveillance equipment. We see these cameras as fairly seamless, and the entire install was an incredibility flawless integration.”

The end user also chose to deploy CompleteView throughout the hotel where management is able to monitor floors LL2 through 13 in its own command center, outfitted with two, 55-inch monitors and two, 22-inch monitors. In addition, the command center is equipped with Salient’s Alarm Client, giving operators the advantage of monitoring and recording through the use of an event-based system.

“We’re excited The Langham Hotel has been able to enhance their security monitoring operations with CompleteView’s powerful, alarm-based, monitoring features,” said Brian Carle, director of product strategy at Salient Systems. “Using CV SpotLight and Alarm Client, security system operators can focus on the potentially-relevant, event-based video. When designated alarms occur, CompleteView can pop up video on single or multiple displays and play an audio alert assuring attention is focused on the event.”

Superfine said the event-based, notification system allows for 2x2 tiles (4 images) on the monitor to view the most recent activity from selected cameras. AlarmClient picks up the images and plays them in sequence from the first four cameras that are recording, until it has played all the sequences.

“It certainly draws the attention of the operator,” Superfine said. “An operator will pull up an event in real time, which is an extension of motion recording and repurposing.”

Repurposing is scheduled and event-based, where motion recording will reuse the real-time view and save it for a record, all while allowing the operator to see what is going on in actual time. It comes in handy to allow an operator to see first-hand anything that causes an alarm, notifying them that something is outside the norm.

The hotel offers its guests numerous niceties including world-class culinary experiences, a wellness and fitness experience, and elegant venues for enchanting events. The Langham, Chicago is an ideal location for large functions, innovative business events and intimate meetings, all within 15,000 square feet of private event spaces, comprising 12 function rooms. Guests are assured specialized service and state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment, which also must be secured. Because of this, security at the hotel is taken seriously, and the marriage of VMS and cameras were vital to the overall success of the refurbishment.

“CompleteView provides a rich integration with Axis cameras that allows users to take advantage of many of the camera’s advanced feature sets,” Carle said. “Capabilities such as on-camera motion detection, input events, light control as well as edge-based storage can be utilized with CompleteView, providing flexibility in a number of deployment scenarios.”

The legacy of the hotel is one of sophistication and elegance, where promises of any event or celebration will be remembered for years to come. All of these opportunities for guests are equal to the sophistication of the security equipment deployed inside the hotel.

“To stand out, hotels must differentiate themselves with high levels of service, and security is an important piece of that,” said Fredrik Nilsson, general manager, Axis Communications Inc. “The Langham’s decision to install an IP-based surveillance system demonstrates the value in a fully-digital solution. By leveraging both encoder and IP-camera technology, the hotel is able to provide its guests and staff with a priceless amenity: peace-of-mind.”

This article originally appeared in the September 2013 issue of Security Today.