A landmark construction in London has had improvements made to its CCTV systems, it has been revealed. The iconic Citypoint building, which is 34 levels high and has basement parking and shops, as well as a fitness centre and a number of eateries, is now being managed by CB Richard Ellis.
The firm, which is a global real estate services organisation, was appointed to this position by the building’s US-based owners. When it examined the CCTV, it realised the system had not been properly maintained for some time.Commenting on this, building manager for the management services division Lee Murray said the company quickly established that there was no plan in place to ensure that the 150 cameras that were installed around the construction were in working order.
He added: “Our audit confirmed that very few of the cameras were operating properly, although in most cases the camera lens just needed cleaning or refocusing.” And it was not just the cameras that needed attention. The video recording system also required work. It was only capable of taking poor quality footage and did not have sufficient capacity to simultaneously record images from all of the various cameras.
Mr Murray added: “The recording system … clearly had the potential to do everything we needed it to do, but like the cameras, it had not been properly maintained or upgraded to reflect the number of cameras which had been installed in and around Citypoint.”
The manager went on to say that thanks to the new CCTV systems that have been installed, the building now has a high-quality camera-based security system in place that is capable of recording any suspicious activity. Indeed, the CCTV has already been used in a number of cases, he claimed. One of these incidents involved a drunk who had caused considerable harm to the Citypoint fire doors.