Milestone Customer Story
October 2012
The Andria Cathedral
Background
The Cathedral of Andria, in the Puglia Region of Southern Italy, is a priceless artistic and historic
treasure, for which a CCTV video surveillance system was requested. Dating from approximately
the 12th century, the cathedral contains a famed precious relic, “The Holy Thorn”, believed to be
from the Crown of Thorns forced on the head of Christ before his crucifixion. It also holds the tombs
of two of Emperor Frederick II of Swabia's wives, Yolanda of Brienne and Elizabeth of England, as
well as a 13th century icon of the Madonna and a 15th century bust of Francesco II del Balzo, Duke
of Andria, attributed to Francesco Laurana.
Customer challenge
Given the importance of
the building and the
historical treasures it
contains, church authorities
commissioned a special
technologically advanced
surveillance system that
would also permit
monitoring during night
conditions.
Solution
The Andria Cathedral is
equipped with 32 Sony
video cameras, fixed and
pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ), both
high definition (HD) and full
HD, which thanks to special infrared LEDs achieve night vision even in pitch darkness. In addition
to serving as daytime and nighttime security video, the system allows the faithful in the lateral
naves to see the religious functions held in the presbytery and the side chapel, displaying the high
quality live images of religious services to the two side naves. The images are relayed to six 40"
screens attached to the central columns and, if required, can also be video-projected in a large
adjoining chapel. The system can also be used to show DVDs, audio/video guides, and cultural and
tourist presentations, a service that is much appreciated by visitors. The following Sony network
video cameras have been installed: 18 SCN-DH 160, 7 SCN-DH 180, 2 SCN-CH 280, 2 SCN-CH
180, 1 SCN-CH 120 and 2 SCN-EP 580. The video from all of the cameras is archived in Milestone
XProtect® video management software (VMS) and viewed live through XProtect® Smart Client
interface.
Results
Church authorities have pronounced satisfaction with the video surveillance system and with the
spectacular high quality of the images.
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Milestone Customer Story
October 2012
Quote from Sony
“Operating in sites of major historic and cultural significance is especially satisfying, all the more so
in cases like this, where the religious dimension is also deeply important. The system installed in
the cathedral by Tecnoimpianti Pizzolorusso, with whom we have a long-standing and fruitful
collaboration, boasts 32 HD and full HD cameras, including two Speed Dome full HD cameras
mounted on the columns
in front of the presbytery.
The system stores all the
video surveillance data in
a special server managed
by Milestone XProtect®
Professional software,"
explains Alfredo Donadei,
Senior Channel Account
Manager, Video Security,
Sony Europe. “For even
greater security and data
management, the server
has been equipped with
four hard disks of various
capacities, configured in
RAID modality.”
Quote from customer
“The church authorities are extremely satisfied, not only with the security performance of the
system, but also with the extraordinary quality of the images transmitted,” says both Gianluca and
Francesco Pizzolorusso, owners of Tecnoimpianti Pizzolorusso Srl, who installed the system.
“Sony is a worldwide benchmark performer in the field of video surveillance, and we chose it
because of its outstanding image quality, unobtrusive equipment and unbeatable price-quality
ratio.”
The system was engineered and supervised by Ing. Pasquale Losito.
www.milestonesys.com
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