2. Secure Cargo

This site is part of an ongoing development improvement of British Airways to service its clients in the area of cargo movement. The building is one of the most sophisticated projects built for the millennium as well as incorporating one of most sophisticated automated cargo handling centres currently available.

The task was to provide a facility whereby we could control the movement of staff within the building as well as monitor all of the site activity. The access control system had to be compatible with that already in existence to ensure that current staff could freely operate within the new development.

The solution was to provide a fully distributed intelligent access control system, which covered the handling area and office area. This was a sub-system fed from the main system run by the client airport wide. Output from this was integrated into the closed circuit television system that again covered the whole of the development both internally and externally to cue cameras to specific points as a result of alarm activations.

The video system incorporates the latest in digital recording technology to give increased performance and resolution. The video system is also interfaced to the local intercom system to equally call cameras up when intercoms are used.

Additionally, as a part of this project, we also installed the public address system covering the whole of the site. This incorporates touch screen control as well as the relevant background music and standard announcements, which are required throughout the site.

The project itself was extremely large and high profile. The environment was not hostile though interesting and challenging to say the least. In short, a serious challenge for one of the largest construction projects leading up to the millennium which we enjoyed tackling and gained a high degree of satisfaction with regards to the outcome.