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Securing luxury hotel in Dubai

One of the world’s largest man-made marinas, the Dubai Marina in the United Arabs Emirates sits on some of the most prime commercial real estate in the UAE. Encompassing a blend of private, public, and commercial interests, the Dubai Marina is also known as the ‘Tallest Block in the World’, due to the bevy of modern skyscrapers that frame its panoramic waterline.

Grosvenor House, Dubai.

Prominently located among this cluster is Grosvenor House Dubai – the first luxury hotel built in the Dubai Marina. Grosvenor House consists of two 45-storey towers, encompassing 749 rooms, suites, and apartments. Furthermore, these towers also include a wealth of exclusive bars, restaurants, and spas, as well as spacious meeting and banqueting facilities. While these amenities promise state-of-the-art luxury and service, the Grosvenor House required equally state-of-the-art security to ensure the well-being of its valuable guests.

Overcoming lighting challenges

For Mohamed Kasim, manager of security solutions at HCL Infosystems MEA. (the Dubai-based integrator for this project), the choice of a security brand for this project was simple – Hikvision: “Our goal was to build a total solution for this luxury hotel, but due to challenges such as difficult lighting conditions, it was paramount that our equipment be the best. This is why we chose Hikvision.”

In particular, the lighting condition in the main entrance area proved especially noteworthy. As such, Kasim chose Hikvision’s DS-2CD764FWD-EI 1.3 MP WDR dome camera to overcome these potential pitfalls.

Along with the main southern exit, as well as the hotel’s auxiliary exits, the DS-2CD764FWD-EI is required to face directly outside to accurately identify incoming and outgoing customers. As such, this dome camera faces the brunt of direct sunlight in the day and near total darkness in the evening. However, the DS-2CD764FWD-EI’s 1,3 mega-pixels (1280 x 960) provide the quality of image and 120 dB wide dynamic range provides the technology to overcome these issues with flying colours.

Yet, moving inside the facilities is the DS-2CC197P-A High-Definition WDR box camera. Furthermore, tasked with identifying customers, and similarly burdened with a daily changing landscape of lighting conditions; the DS-2CC197P-A’s 160x wide dynamic range technology and 540 TVL (in colour) and 600 TVL (in black & white) resolution provide the foundation for equally strong clarity and coverage in these daily lighting obstacles.

Liberally located throughout the many corridors of the hotel’s two towers are 440 units of Hikvision’s DS-2CC575P-A high-definition low illumination ICR dome camera. Obviously, since placed inside, the DS-2CC575P-A is not faced with Dubai’s blistering daytime and chilling darkness like its two aforementioned brothers. Yet, this is not to say that each environment is the same. “Since the Grosvenor House encompasses a wide variety of amenities, from bars to spas, the ambience – and by extension, the lighting conditions – varies greatly throughout the hotel. As such, we needed a flexible indoor dome that provides great quality in a variety of differing locations,” explained Kasim. Helping to provide this versatility is an ICR filter auto switch, 540 TVL (colour) and 600 TVL (black & white) of resolution, as well as a 2,8~11 mm auto iris lens and digital noise reduction to achieve the desired overall clarity.

Rounding out the solution

Rounding out this solution is Hikvision’s DS-8116HFI-S Standalone DVR. Featuring up-to 8 SATA HDD at 2 TB each, the DS-8116HFI-S is perfectly equipped to meet this hotel’s requirement for months of video storage on its DVRs. In fact, in this case, the DS-8116HFI-S is technologically positioned to deliver well more than the required half year of data storage.

On a larger scale, this is testament to the quality Grosvenor House displays in all aspects of its daily operations – from facilities to its centralised location, all cumulating in its number one Dubai customer service ranking. Recently, Dubai’s Police Department noted the Grosvenor House as a security model to be emulated and have also publically stated their approval for this Hikvision solution.

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