Founded in 1495, the University of Aberdeen is one of the oldest in the UK.  A research university, it attracts thousands of students including many postgraduates from around the world. The campus is spread over three main sites, all located within the Scottish city of Aberdeen.  Security and safety is a high priority with the Estates Department tasked to ensure that students and staff are protected by the latest monitoring technology.  The University has relied on the Bold monitoring platform for over 15 years, providing a tailored solution to meet their security needs.

Since the original deployment, the University has worked closely with Bold as the onsite security technology has evolved throughout that period.  Fire, intruder and panic alarms, as well as disabled toilet alarms, are installed in over dispersed 80 sites.  In the event of any alarm activation, the welfare of 16,000 students and 3,000 staff is taken care of professionally and quickly.

Alarms are monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by the control room operators trained in how to use Bold Gemini software efficiently and with confidence.  Alarms are signalled over analogue and digital networks to the multi-protocol alarm receivers where they are processed and transmitted to the Gemini software.  This provides the operators with the type and exact location of the alarm, and the task handling process to follow for that event, to enable them to respond according to the agreed service level.

For additional resilience and stability, Bold assisted the University with designing and implementing a dual path signalling network to backup the PSTN network.  In the event of a telecom failure, a mobile data connection transmits the line fail and the alarm event to the Bold receiver for actioning.  At the same time, many of the analogue connections are being upgraded to IP alarm signalling, with the additional benefit of reduced cost, line polling and 128 bit AES encryption.

To support the system, Bold provides 24/7 technical support in addition to an office hours HelpDesk.  This ensures that assistance is always available to the control room staff in whatever eventuality.

Billy Stevenson, Assistant Director of Estates, has worked at the University for nearly 4 years and commented, “Working with Bold is a positive experience. They have a thorough understanding of our needs and I know I can rely on them 24/7 to help with any security aspect the Estates Department may face.  My team of operators find the Bold system easy to use, it provides the functionality that we need and it is continuously being developed and updated”