Unique CCTV Challenges at Brighton Dome

Venues for music events, theatre, films, celebrations or anything really have some interesting challenges when it comes to security and CCTV coverage.  Lots of people tightly packed into a space present opportunities to thieves, vandals and bad behaviour all round.  Add in alcohol, darkness and mood lighting and you have a CCTV nightmare.  Not only that, imagine if the building is Grade I listed, historical and full of oddly shaped nooks and crannies.  That was the challenge faced by Brighton CCTV when they were asked to upgrade the CCTV to an IP system at the Brighton Dome and Corn Exchange.

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Security Concerns

Large popular venues will always be subject to thieving, pickpockets and anti-social behaviour.  Brighton Dome is not the sort of venue which is typically frequented by people who get drunk and behaved badly but it can be a target for thieves as there are some events which don’t require tickets so pickpockets can easily mingle with the crowd.  Other events attract large groups of children and young people who can cause damage to the historic building without really realising what harm they’re causing.  Like all venues, having comprehensive CCTV is also very useful for establishing the facts in health and safety incidents and personal injury claims too.

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Complete Coverage

Because of the historic nature of these buildings and the fact they have been converted from their original use, they present a challenge when it comes to complete CCTV coverage.  Odd angles and unusually shaped spaces meant we had to fit a very large number of CCTV cameras to cover every angle and they sometimes needed to be fitted into awkward spaces.  There was also a requirement for low light cameras because many of the events take place in low light and darkness which could be taken advantage of by people up to no good.

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Keeping in Character

Obviously, appearance if very important in such a beautiful historical building but it is also a requirement of a Grade I listed property that everything looks a certain way.  That presents a huge challenge when installing CCTV as all the cameras need to be discretely placed and the wiring hidden away.  All our plans for the installation needed to be approved by English Heritage and the whole network infrastructure needed to be upgraded from analogue to IP.  This is where being a CCTV specialist rather than a company that offer CCTV as an add on service or part of a package was very helpful as we had the experience, especially in working on listed buildings in Brighton, to carry out this tricky work to the very high standard required.

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Venues and listed buildings present unique challenges and, when they come together, it requires a high level of expertise and experience to get the job done right.  At Brighton CCTV, we are very happy to rise to these challenges so if you need CCTV installed or upgraded in a venue or listed building or a listed building that happens to be a venue, give us a call on 01273 782 323.