With an investment of more than two million dollars in technology, Ciudad Cayalá, in Guatemala, has managed to implement the concept of "Safe City" the route of any visitor or resident is monitored by an innovative and complete system.
By SECURITY SALES
One of the best designed and best-status cities in Central America is guatemala. Described as a pristine city, Ciudad Cayalá has colonial buildings, large pedestrian sectors, green areas and most importantly: there is security in its streets.
Designed by urban planner Leon Krier, Ciudad Cayalá is located in Zone 16 of Guatemala's capital city; this project began in the eighties with the purchase of land, but it was recently when the first condominiums began to be built.
The goal was to create an independent virtual city within the capital, oblivious to crime and the common problems of the city.
Engineer Héctor Leal, General Manager of Cayalá, mentions, for example, that with this plan "it was possible to restore the confidence, tranquility and quality of life that has been lost in other cities of the country."
Initially, the first residential areas that were built stood out for their imposing white walls; this closed city model aroused some criticism related to social segmentation and the isolation of the Guatemalan upper class.
The residential area Las Ramblas is an open area that is integrated into the commercial and office area of Ciudad Cayalá, Las Ramblas, Nova and the future residential phases of the project do not have walls, they are integrated open areas.
And it was precisely in the sector of Las Ramblas where the security systems in open areas were tested, given that the challenge is to maintain the same existing safety standard in all phases of the project that make up Ciudad Cayalá.
Integrate technology, infrastructure and people
In Ciudad Cayalá there are more than 1500 residences, more than 400 offices and commercial premises and more than 50 lofts. Sometimes more than 20,000 visitors are received in a single day.
Clearly, one of the main objectives of the project is to offer a safe place for inhabitants and visitors, which is why from the beginning the concept of "Safe City" was adopted.
"In Ciudad Cayalá the concept of virtual security rings is handled, the people who enter are being monitored without perceiving it, there is not the physical wall but the technology, the human resource and the processes," says Luis Pedro Rodas, Commercial Director of Revolution Technologies REVTEC, S.A. integrating the security solution in the project.
This also applies to people entering on motorcycles, at the entrance the guards ask them to take off their helmets, and this is how they move within the city.
"To carry out a challenge of such magnitude, the XProtect Expert software version 2014 of Milestone Systems was selected as the technological platform that, together with human resources and processes, will provide the information to take actions to prevent security incidents," explains Luis Pedro Rodas.
As for the security equipment, the Axis P3364-VE (12mm), P3364-VE (6mm), P3384-VE 9mm, Q1604-E, Q6032-E PTZ and Q6114-E PTZ cameras were used for the project. Some cameras are licensed by Cross Line Detection.
The Commercial Director of REVTEC also comments that it is planned to integrate cameras of other brands from the previous phases to the Milestone Systems platform.
All cameras are connected to the platform, which in turn is interconnected with the three monitoring centers. For the storage of the video Ciudad Cayalá uses the EMC² Isilon, where more than 30 days of recordings are stored.
"Another benefit of the platform is the little storage space that is used, occupying for 118 cameras that have a single recording server connected, and a storage space of less than 5Tb for the 30 days of recordings" explains Luis Pedro Rodas.
All cameras are connected to a LAN network composed of fiber optic rings at 1Gb and 10Gb in the Backbone, there are several nodes from where the network is distributed to the cameras by UTP and are energized by means of PoE.
With an investment of more than 2 million dollars in technology, Ciudad Cayalá has managed to implement the concept of "Safe City" the route of any visitor or resident is monitored by combining more than 120 elements of human resources, processes and technology, to obtain information and take actions to prevent any security incident.
From 2011 to date, there have been no security incidents in Ciudad Cayalá.
More about the project
The Challenge:
Adopt a management system that allows to provide security and tranquility to visitors and tenants of Ciudad Cayalá.
The Solution:
Implementation of Milestone Systems' XProtect Expert software, as an open IP video management platform for continuous video surveillance of city projects.
The Advantages:
- System compatibility with installed safety equipment, regardless of its brand.
- Optimization of resources thanks to the greater capacity of the system and its servers.
- Easy integration with human resources and processes, to obtain valuable information that helps to take actions and prevent incidents.
About Milestone Systems
Milestone Systems is a global industry leader in open platform IP video management software. It was founded in 1998 and currently operates as an independent company within the Canon Group. Milestone's technology is easy to operate, reliable and has been successfully tested in thousands of customer installations around the world. Milestone Systems supports a wide range of networked equipment and integration with other systems. It is marketed through authorized and certified partners in more than 100 countries. Milestone solutions help organizations in risk management, protecting people and assets, optimizing processes and reducing costs.
