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Located next to the Manchester Ship Canal – highly appropriate, as during World War II the area played a major part in helping to bring supplies inland to the peoples of the North West – this hugely impressive structure was opened late last summer to tell the story of war and its profound influence on peoples' everyday lives throughout the 1900s.

Built over two years as a £30 million adjunct to the well-established Imperial War Museum in Lambeth, south London, the building has been created out of three 'shards' (or pieces of a shattered globe) to reflect the way in which "war has devastated our world". In Libeskind's view, these pieces contain "the poetry and pathos" of war. In essence, the Air, Earth and Water Shards represent war in the air, on land and at sea. Simple but highly effective philosophising.

Visitors (of whom there are projected to be upwards of 400,000 each year) enter through the Air Shard, a magnificent 55-metre high leaning tower. Contained within is a viewing platform some 29 metres up that can only be accessed by lift. A wonderful experience for those who aren't afraid of heights, as not only can you see right the way across Manchester and Salford, but you can look through the steel mesh floor to the World War II searchlight that has been stationed at ground floor level to 'guard' the entranceway.

The main public galleries of the museum are housed on the first floor level of the Earth Shard, a gently curving surface supporting the Special Exhibitions Gallery and the major permanent exhibition. Here, visitors can peruse a series of iconic objects including an original AV-8A American Hawker Harrier jump jet, a T34 Russian tank and a perfectly-restored Royal Horse Artillery 'E' Battery field gun. In addition, there are no less than six 'Silos' where exhibits including original helmets and uniforms tell the story of the Experience of War, Women and War, Impressions of War, the Empire, Commonwealth and War, Science, Technology and War and the Legacy of War.

The memory is plumbed deeper still by the push-button accessible Time Stacks. Here, trays of selected objects (including medals) appear in rotation behind sensor-secured glass windows. A neat idea to engage the mind.

Visitors are also invited to take in 'The Big Picture', a large-scale audio visual experience that uses over 60 projectors throwing images on to 20 screens, some of them over five metres in height. There are three different shows – 'Why War?', 'Weapons of War' and 'Children and War' – in the Main Exhibition Gallery, all encouraging those watching to reflect on how war can mould our very existence. A sobering thought given the current political situation in the Middle East.

On the day that SMT visited, the show was all about how the building was constructed (apparently, Libeskind's 'pitch' to win the job actually involved him smashing a glass orb inside a cloth, and telling the assembled Imperial War Museum mandarins that he'd piece the fragments together to define the building form. He hasn't let them down!).

Last but not least, the third, lower slung Water Shard offers views across the Manchester Ship Canal to the famed Lowry Centre. This part of the building is designed to house a restaurant and offices for Imperial War Museum staff and those of Operon, the building services design and facilities management provider that has been brought in to oversee the day-to-day running of the museum.

A strategy for security
Not surprisingly, given that so many priceless artefacts are on display (including the ship's bell from the Lusitania, which sank on 7 May 1915), security provision is paramount.

With the initial design and installation having been completed by ADT Fire and Security, the Imperial War Museum North's in-house operations manager Alan Smith and Operon facilities specialist Paul Meredith have tasked Dave Earley – security manager for £30 million-turnover Operon – with checking over the security provision, and suggesting any necessary enhancements.

Earley is very much the man for the job. Having served in the Royal Navy as a chief petty officer, he wanted to use skills learned there in the private security sector. Earley managed to secure a job with contractor Pegasus Security as a mobile patrol supervisor in 1995 before moving on to the Hilton International Hotel chain (and a posting as security adviser for the Manchester Hilton next to the city's airport).

"We practised good security techniques, and enjoyed a very close liaison with Greater Manchester Police," states Earley (a level of trust, in fact, that is now bearing fruit in his current role).

Crucially, Earley is a security manager who believes totally in empowering all members of staff to be, as he puts it, "security aware".

"Porters, cleaners, reception staff. They're your eyes and ears on the ground along with the security officers, so they must be trained to be vigilant at all times," suggests Earley.

Earley also honed his skills during a spell with the St Helens and Knowsley NHS Trust, where he was the chief security adviser for two hospitals – St Helens and Knowsley and Whiston on Merseyside – as well as four smaller offshoot buildings. Here, Earley 'cut his teeth' by completing a bespoke camera specification, borrowing from a similar audit he'd completed for Hilton International. Although he specified what turned out to be a hugely successful 76-camera, analogue-based installation, there was a barrier to its use that had to be overcome.

"Our biggest problem was convincing members of staff that it isn't CCTV Big Brother," sighs Earley. "We held several 'Open Days' so that hospital staff could come along and literally see for themselves what we could visualise on the monitors, alleviating any of their suspicions. It was us telling the staff that security was there to assist them. That idea worked very well."

Also responsible for ensuring that all members of staff were trained in Health and Safety issues and powers of arrest, Earley's major difficulty from a security perspective was in the Accident and Emergency Departments, where the theft of medical equipment was a regular occurrence (the proceeds from its subsequent and illegal sale being used to purchase drugs, etc).

"You have to think about the building design and its implications for security right from the word 'go'," he stresses. "It's no use waiting for an incident to happen and then doing something. As a manager, you have to be Front of House, advising staff and dealing with problems. That's how you gain their respect."

Earley moved to Operon in May 2002, at least in part because of a "total disaffection" with the Private Finance Initiative. "There was no way of knowing where we'd be as managers under the PFI schemes, but that's far from the case at Operon."

In his current role, Earley is tasked with carrying out security audits for a number of blue chip clients on behalf of Operon Security. He'll look at CCTV, for example, and ask whether or not its operation is registered with the Information Commissioner.

"For security officers, we need to find out if they're trained, and to what standard," continues Earley. "Do they have a detailed set of assignment instructions, and are they fully up-to-speed with the on-site chain of command?"

Initial stages at the Imperial
When Earley was first brought in by Operon, all security systems were already up-and-running. Designed and installed by ADT Fire and Security, the camera system for the Imperial War Museum North comprises external PTZs (mounted on standard steel columns to oversee the car park and building perimeter) and 20 internal fixed cameras. The latter primarily cover the exhibition spaces and the museum shop, which is located on the ground floor.

The internal CCD-style cameras courtesy of Panasonic are wall-mounted on special bracketry, and designed for use in low light levels (the Main Exhibition Gallery is dimly lit, with spotlights deliberately used to delineate the larger exhibits for accentuation).

During the day, general surveillance and periodic camera patrols are performed. while at night camera patrols of the exterior take place every 15 minutes or so (alongside continual general surveillance). Positioning of the pan and tilt cameras is set on a regular patrol, and re-assigned to cover the east and west wing ramp doors as and when deliveries arrive.

Located on the ground floor, the Control Room houses four multi-screen monitors in addition to a couple of full-screen spot monitors supplied by Panasonic and Sanyo, and controlled by a Molynx keypad and 'trackball' control console. Manned at all times, the Control Room houses the tape 'library' (comprising cabinets that are locked at all times, and only accessible to authorised personnel) which is managed in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Data Protection Act.

At present, the Control Room doesn't totally conform to BS 7499 standards, but Earley and Smith are looking to remedy that. In particular, Earley wants to do something about the window at one end of the space (which backs on to a corridor, allowing members of the public to see what's on screen).

"Alan Smith's a client that gets to grips with problems, recognises them and is determined to do something about them. That's the ideal situation as far as I'm concerned," adds an enthusiastic Earley.

Earley is somewhat critical of the installation as it stands, though. "In my opinion, whoever completed the specification didn't assess the building sufficiently well enough. Many of the internal cameras have not been aligned to cover the right areas (he cites those in the Air Shard which have had to be realigned for visitor safety – really the biggest potential problem in this part of the building).

"Personally, I'd have installed dome cameras for such large spaces, and I've already suggested that we procure some of these if budgets allow," adds Earley.

To be fair to ADT's installers, the cameras were positioned relatively early in the build process (certainly in the Main Exhibition Gallery and the museum shop, at any rate) and structural columns built into the design thereafter. "One of our biggest problems in retrofitting is that we cannot do anything to alter the shape of the building, which is very angular," states Earley. In the short term, some careful re-positioning should rectify the difficulties engendered by 'blind spots'.

There's currently no signage to suggest that CCTV monitoring is taking place, but the client is in the throes of rectifying that situation to conform with the Data Protection Commissioner's wishes. A degaussing system has also been added to satisfy tape management requirements.

Intruder and fire alarm design
The intruder alarm system installed and maintained by ADT consists of internal and external door contacts in addition to PIRs.

The system is controlled directly from the main Control Room on the north side of the building. All internal and restricted internal doors are on 24-hour security cover, and will activate an alarm should a door be opened. Internal doors and PIRs are always set at night.

ADT Minerva 80 fire controllers have also been installed around the structure. Breakglass systems are as standard, and there's a mixture of both manual and key-operated manual Call Points. Smoke and heat detectors are of the Vesda variety, with all isolation and re-set regimens carried out by IWM engineers.

Alas, in many cases the height of the fire panels and access control card readers is a tad optimistic for use by disabled people in wheelchairs, a problem which Operon will have to take on board in the coming months.

Manned security on site
The 'core' officers work an eight-hour shift of 40 hours per week, commendably well within the rulings laid down by the Working Time Directive. Many of the officers used to work for Legion Security, but were transferred over to the in-house team under TUPE conditions. As a rule, the Control Room staff operate on 12-hour shift patterns.

Officers regularly patrol all areas of the museum, including the top and bottom of the Air Shard, the foyer, the Special Exhibitions Gallery, the Main Exhibition Gallery and the cloakroom area adjacent to the retail outlet.

The key to improved security has predominantly focused on bespoke training for all officers, which is very necessary in light of the fact that the museum is tasked with holding special events on a regular basis.

During the recent Commonwealth Games held in the city, for example, there was a Royal visit from the Duke of Edinburgh followed by a 500-strong delegation from New Zealand. Now that's a crowd.

When Earley came on board, the officers had already been privy to Imperial War Museum standard training in the form of basic induction and policy instruction. Following visits from GMP area officers PCs Nigel Brown and Paul Berry (crime reduction adviser at GMP's Stretford division), the decision was taken to enrol all officers on the Guardsafe training scheme run by Widnes-based manned security company Noble Security Services (UK).

"We wanted to find a way of bringing together the local police, Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council and the officers to provide the latter with a vital training link between themselves and the emergency services. A true working partnership is so important, and Trafford Guardsafe offers us just that."

Run over three-and-a-half days, the SITO-approved course meets all the requirements of BS 7499, including instruction on emergency First Aid, police liaison and general security awareness. It also looks at anti-theft techniques, how to deal with bomb hoaxes, arrestable offences, assault, breach of the peace and the law relating to force with regard to the defence of property.

If successful in the final written examination, officers receive a Guardsafe certificate and are registered as approved security personnel for work in the Trafford Borough ('On Guard', SMT, December 2001, pp20-24) (see also our panel, left: 'IWM Security: working with Greater Manchester Police').

The proof of the pudding comes when talking to some of the officers. One – Peter Morris, who's stationed on patrol in the Main Exhibition Gallery – has been greatly enthused by the Guardsafe course.

"Very informative," says Morris, "in particular with respect to the law. Everyone knows that security officers have certain powers, but it's essential to know how far you can actually go when it comes to apprehending someone. None of us had been skilled in First Aid, either, but we're all getting to grips with it now."

The officers make use of a Check Point patrolling system. In practice, when on patrol they place hand-held electronic readers on to the Check Points which records the identity of the point and the time visited. These Check Points are dotted all over the building to ensure maximum security coverage.

On commencing a patrol, the officer concerned will first read their own individual Check Point, which then identifies them with the forthcoming patrol.

For keeping in touch, officers and members of Operon's staff have been supplied with Motorola GP340 two-way radios. Call sign groups are in operation at all times, and it's a system that Dave Earley feels works very well.

Making the necessary adjustments
Like any security manager, Dave Earley is going to have to justify to the client the likely cost (an estimated £20,000) for improvements he wants to make to on-site security.

Earley is energised by the fact that client Alan Smith has been keen to listen to his concerns, and is hopeful that the refurbishment funding will indeed be made available over the next 12 months.

"We'd also like to go digital with the CCTV system at some point, but to be honest we need to get the basics right first so that's really on the back burner for the time being."