4 August 2016

Mersey Wharf is a 33-acre Business Park and Wharf in Bromborough. Located on the Wirral in northwest England, the rejuvenated facility has adopted two-way IP audio-video intercom designed and manufactured by Castel. Security at the site is at a premium and the operators needed an IP-addressable solution at a main entrance station where visitors can call tenants on the estate. They also wanted to control entry at multiple single-gate, barrier and turnstile access points elsewhere on the perimeter. Mersey Wharf Business Park has two operational berths with a quay length of 230 metres. The project made unusual demands on Castel because the equipment’s location required robust units. The client’s technological sophistication also required IP units that could integrate seamlessly with access control and CCTV. The Business Park owners opted for Castel’s Xellip full IP/SIP intercom and audio-video solution. For the central entry station to Mersey Wharf Business Park, the client specified Castel’s ten-button CAP IP Intercom (Xellip) with integrated colour video camera. The unit’s 316-grade stainless steel front panel, IP64 rating and impact resistance to IK09 all provide protection against the site’s harsh marine environment. The intercom features three LEDs that ensure compliance with the Equality Act (formerly the Disability Discrimination Act). Remote monitoring and operation Calls that are not answered by Mersey Wharf Business Park tenants are transferred to the central control lodge, which is operated 24/7 and, if necessary, they can also be diverted to a remote location. The operator’s employees can use a licence-free App from Castel’s own SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) server to observe activity remotely and grant or refuse access using their smartphones or tablets. The control lodge and other on-site security locations across the port use CAP IP XE 7-inch monitors. As with all the Castel equipment for the project, these monitors are PoE (Power over Ethernet) units and they allow tenants and employees to view and communicate with visitors using a touchscreen that can be desktop or wall-mounted. The screens are usually deployed locally at the Business Park, but an embedded webserver also allows them to be monitored, operated and even configured remotely if required. At individual turnstile and small gate entrance points used by members of staff or lone contractors around the Business Park perimeter, the client opted for Castel’s CAP V1BP one-button intercom station units with integrated MIFARE card readers. Future multi-site integration As an IP solution, Xellip ensures interoperability with VoIP telephones and IP video surveillance. By using full SIP and standard codecs for audio and video, Xellip will be able to meet the company’s group plans for the centralisation of facility management technology at its multiple sites across the UK. Mark Hagger, Castel UK, said: “The sheer scale of this project shows that when required we can also be an enterprise system for estates of unusual size, be they marine or in the further education, government and healthcare sectors. Castel won this contract through being a scalable open-protocol IP product with PoE components, minimal peripherals to complicate system design and the ability to share Cat5 with other disciplines.” Mersey Wharf Business Park has extensive development areas, with prestige offices for rent and warehouse and industrial units for a wide variety of uses.