One of the largest hotels in Fortaleza, Brazil, which welcomes thousands of people every year and holds hundreds of events, has reinvented itself and converted its analog security technology to IP technology with Vivotek and Genetec (Stratocast).
By Security Sales
At the conclusion of the project, the Gran Marquise will have 250 Vivotek network cameras installed, integrated and connected with all other hotel devices in Genetec's Stratocast video security-as-a-service cloud solution.
Hotel Gran Marquise
The Gran Marquise is a five-star hotel of 18 thousand square meters located on the seafront of Fortaleza (Ceará).
With a history of 23 years, the hotel has a large infrastructure of 230 apartments ranging from 29 to 131 square meters, two presidential suites and 21 floors in total, of which 14 are dedicated to rooms and 7 exclusively to events, recreation and administration. It is one of the most sought-after destinations among national and international authorities, artists and athletes, such as Bill Clinton, former president of the United States, Vladimir Putin, current president of Russia, singer Paul McCartney, rapper Snoop Dogg, and the wrestlers of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. In addition, the Gran Marquise was the first hotel in Brazil to obtain ISO 22000 certification, which ensures adherence to the most demanding standards of quality and food safety.
The Challenge: Enabling Management Unification
The Grand Marquis determined that it was already necessary to renew its security system. The hotel had 500 analog cameras and 22 digital video recorders installed. However, this extensive system was limited to providing low-quality images and required a heavy workload to locate and retrieve images of a recorded event. "We checked our services and saw that we had good internet, great rooms, perfect service, but if a customer requested images from the security cameras, the only thing we could offer were noisy images," said Jussieudo Gomes, Head of the Security and Information Technology Division at the Gran Marquise Fortaleza Hotel. To solve this dilemma and improve hotel management and security, a plan was formulated to develop a pilot project with Vivotek, a global provider of network cameras, PoE switches and network video recorders, and with Genetec™, a global provider of IP surveillance software, access control solutions and vehicle license plate recognition.
Divided into four stages, the goal of the project was to achieve total unification of management, security, and marketing and commercial operations. In the first phase, 250 analog cameras were replaced by only 48 Vivotek network cameras. Genetec's™ Stratocast™ software, a cloud video recording tool without resorting to local servers, was also installed, allowing you to monitor and share images with fully encoded data. Two models of network cameras were installed throughout the hotel: the IB8369A, a 2-megapixel camera capable of capturing high-quality video, with infrared illuminators with a range of up to 30 meters with superior image quality day and night.
The camera also features Smart Stream II technology, which allows you to optimize image quality for the most important regions of any scene; thanks to it, the consumption of network bandwidth and storage requirements are reduced by up to 50%. The other camera installed was the FD8166, an ultra-small fixed dome network camera, only 90 mm in diameter.
"Due to the 'L' shaped layout of the hotel, we previously had five analog cameras installed on each floor: two in the hallway, because the distance from one side to the other was too long to monitor with a single analog camera, one in front of the elevator, one covering the 'L' and one more than to cover the service area. Now, each floor has only three cameras: one camera covering the 'L' and the elevator, another covering the hallway and one more covering the service area. At the reception the same thing happens: we place a different camera on the ceiling, and with just this solution we managed to cover the lobby, the bar, a part of the reception and the staircase of the restaurant," explained Gomes.
In the second phase, Genetec's™ Security Center solution was implemented in the interior areas of the hotel. With this platform, the Gran Marquise managed to unify operations by combining all IP surveillance systems into a single interface. Now all the controls in the accesses with video surveillance are connected through the cloud. The third and fourth stages are still under development. The goal is to install 250 network cameras in total and unify the security system with the access controls and the fire alarm system. KiwiVision analytical software was also installed, a system of automatic counting of people through cameras and 3D sensors, and detection of objects added or removed from a scene. This way it is possible to automatically detect if a dangerous object has been left or if something has been stolen from a particular area.
"The new security system is here to improve the image quality of the surveillance, the design of the hotel and the speed of response to the client. Before, if we needed an image we had to devote great efforts to searching for entire files and spending hours watching videos to be able to select and retrieve the relevant event, not to mention the impact that power outages and malfunctions had on power supplies, recorders and hard drives," added Gomes.
The new system produces immediate and tangible results The new IP surveillance infrastructure has proven its effectiveness during a wedding held at the hotel. The bride had been in the spa area enjoying the luxurious Bride's Day service. However, when he went to dress for the ceremony, he did not find the jewelry he had prepared for the wedding. Security personnel immediately intervened to investigate the incident. "With the description of the bag in which she wore the jewelry and knowing the time when the bride last saw her, we managed to locate the images thanks to the synergy between the Vivotek camera and the Genetec system, and then continue to the precise point of relevance in the video. We noticed that the bride was carrying the bag in the car, but that when she got out of it she was no longer carrying it. When they showed him the photos, he went to the car and the bag was there. If it weren't for the new IP surveillance solution, we wouldn't have been able to find out what happened; the bride would have remembered it and found the jewels only after the ceremony, and her day would have been ruined. This whole investigation process, from finding the images to solving the case, took only 15 minutes, but it saved a very important day," the security chief said.
Public-private partnership
The new security system at the Hotel Gran Marquise is part of Genetec's initiative to combine the public with the private, in this case by sharing images recorded in the cloud with the police. The military police, the government of the state of Ceará, the ABIH (Brazilian Association of the Hotel Industry of Ceará) and the hotel are partners in this project.
The purpose of this public-private partnership is that, with the follow-up carried out by private companies, the public sector can achieve a more effective and rapid action to curb criminals in monitored places. This public-private partnership is based on the belief that the exchange of surveillance between private enterprise and the public sector will allow for a faster and more effective reduction of criminal activity in the monitored areas. In this way, it is possible to expand the areas monitored and reduce crime without direct investment from the public sector. The recorded images are transmitted in real time to the police, thus establishing a two-way relationship that benefits both sectors.
"The objective of public-private cooperation projects is prevention. It is possible to increase public security with little investment from the private sector," said Denis André Côté, Manager of Genetec Brazil. Thanks to these initiatives we will begin to see the benefits of the scope of total surveillance systems beyond those companies that take the initiative to invest in them, and we will begin to serve a wider audience.
