Hauppauge, NY and Chicago, IL --Vicon Industries Inc., a maker of integrated IP video surveillance and access control systems, and SimplexGrinnell, a supplier of fire and life-safety systems, have begun installation of an IP-based security system for the new Franklin County Courthouse, currently under construction in Columbus Ohio. Scheduled to open in early 2011, the structure will be the first LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) courthouse in the state of Ohio and the only county courthouse in the U.S. expected to receive gold-level certification.
The building’s glass facade, one of the key components of its energy-efficient design, creates challenging indoor lighting conditions that require the use of over 70 wide-dynamic-range cameras. The cameras used, impact-resistant Vicon Roughneck V910D-WDR-IP5 domes, are designed to accommodate viewing of areas with extreme lighting contrasts, such as backlit people and objects located within the courthouse’s sun-drenched corridors with reflective marble floors. In total, the courthouse makes use of over 170 Vicon IP cameras, all of which are viewed, controlled and recorded by an NVR-based ViconNet video management system. Recorded video is securely stored within a RAID-5 level device. The ViconNet system is fully integrated with a building-wide Software House C-CURE 9000 access control system and WonderWare® detention software for use within the building’s holding cell areas.
The security system is monitored from two control centers within the new courthouse, one monitoring general building security and the other exclusively monitoring the detention area and holding cells. A parallel set of control centers exists in the old courthouse building and the county jail. All four control centers make use of ViconNet Virtual Matrix Controllers that allow for viewing and control of up to 32 video streams simultaneously, displayed across multiple monitors. The integration with C-CURE 9000 and WonderWare software automatically links ViconNet video to corresponding access control or detention-related events, facilitating the immediate viewing of events as they occur and providing for easy future call-up.
Installation of the entire security system is being provided by the Columbus office of SimplexGrinnell, working in coordination with Franklin County Public Facilities Management. SimplexGrinnell is an authorized dealer of Vicon security solutions.