Mission
Well known Sonesta hotel and tower in Cairo, needed to replace an aging, failing legacy analogue-based CCTV camera estate located in its main hotel. Sonesta hotel's IT department therefore took over the management of the legacy cameras with a view to upgrading the whole system to IP video, over a two year period. To meet its targets Sonesta hotel needed a system that was capable of lasting at least 10 years. Therefore it required a network camera manufacturer which had global support capability, as well as retail sector expertise and a strong focus on research and development to future-proof the new investment.
Solution
After a painstaking evaluation process, Sonesta hotel selected Axis network cameras. The company specified AXIS Network Cameras in the hotel floors, as part of the complete IP video upgrade, with most floors fitted with 7 cameras. Additionally, exit doors of some floors were equipped with AXIS Network Cameras. A total of over 88 cameras will have been installed by the end of the installation. IP video upgrade program in 2016. Six stores with known loss prevention issues were earmarked for a hybrid CCTV-IP solution to help deliver rapid results. In these stores AXIS Video Encoder Blades were fitted into existing local CCTV servers, enabling current CCTV cameras to be integrated into Paul Smith’s new IP-based video surveillance system. 64 analogue cameras have so far been brought onto the network in this way. .
Result
Sonesta is replacing an ageing and unmanageable CCTV estate with a state-of-the-art IP video system. This provides 100% store-wide coverage and HDTV 1080p images in all its fully owned stores globally. AXIS is designed to fit into the same size ceiling void as a standard spotlight and is so discreet that it is often mistaken for a spotlight rather than a powerful HDTV network camera. Sonesta hotel is able to gather high quality images capable of use as evidence in a court of law. In the future it will also provide a platform to integrate video analytics software for dwell-time analysis, heat mapping, and people counting.
