DALLAS — To protect priceless works of art, the Dallas Museum of Art turned to a solution reserved for protecting senators and congressmen. Dallas-based integrator SYSTEMSgroup has installed an access control system integrated with video surveillance with on-site monitoring.
Keeping a watch over 325,000 square feet and two buildings — the equivalent of two city blocks — the system uses 55 readers and has 1,400 alarm points. The video system uses 146 cameras, most with p/t/z capability and software capable of detecting unauthorized movement. The museum has told SYSTEMSgroup it would like to add 20 cameras per year.
The heart of the system lies in a 22-foot by 28-foot command center manned 24 hours a day with raised flooring and an expandable video wall. All of the security systems at the museum come together and are controlled there through the C•CURE 800 system, manufactured by Software House. It is a system similar to the one that secures the U.S. Capitol.
The whole system was installed in seven months with the museum remaining open — on time and on budget. SYSTEMSgroup President and CEO R. Michael Lagow looks at the system itself as a work of art. “We were very proud of ourselves,” Lagow says. “I’m a firm believer if you can do a museum, you can do anything.”
In turn, the Dallas Museum of Art’s director of security, Joe Peek, says that with museum thefts on the rise, other museums are looking to his facility. “This has raised the bar for us and all other museums,” he says.
