The author delivers in this edition, the second and last approach of a complete report about the convenience of IP video surveillance in some of the main cities of the world.
In the first installment, the author referred to the growing threat of crime and terrorism, as well as the need to ensure public safety and control traffic offences, which has led to an increase in the demand for high-quality surveillance. In the same way that the supervision of video surveillance must be flexible, expandable and adaptable to the changes that may occur in the future, in addition to being able to be easily expanded to adapt to the environment of urban centers, always in continuous evolution.
Below the author exposes the numerous functions and benefits that IP video offers for the surveillance of urban centers.
Hybrid Systems and Migration: Hong Kong Traffic
IP video technology has been used to augment the functions of Hong Kong's extensive traffic surveillance system. The existing analog system was expanded with the addition of 48 IP video cameras, to create a fully integrated hybrid 250-camera solution. The addition of an IP-based distributed network provides a platform for full migration to this system in the future.
The migration project included the development of custom-made software to create an integrated user interface for both the existing analog and IP video systems. This software was integrated with IP video management, which offers powerful virtual matrix switching functions, alarm management and video analysis tools.
Like other large analog systems, Hong Kong's surveillance system consisted of a series of isolated video control rooms, which were not interconnected to form a surveillance system controlled from a central location. The IP video solution has created a fully scalable and distributed system that will enable the future integration of these remote control rooms into a unified system, allowing Hong Kong's traffic police to centrally manage and control the region's traffic problems.
It is planned to expand the system to more than 700 cameras. The first phase of this expansion has been completed with the addition of a 48-camera IP-based system to control the city's northern district, which previously lacked surveillance.
This region is located near the border with China and has significant traffic problems due to the 2 million people who cross the border daily. Although the new expansion of the system has been carried out to monitor traffic, the police also use it to monitor public events in the area. This shows how easy it is to integrate the additional surveillance modes into the new system, something that would have been too expensive with analog equipment.
Mobile Surveillance: City of Lansing, Michigan, USA
The IP video solution is at the core of a revolutionary surveillance system that has radically changed the maintenance of order in the city of Lansing, the capital of the state of Michigan. The adoption of IP video technology has allowed the police department to develop a fully integrated public video surveillance (PVS) system that spans much of the city.
Both emergency controllers and police vehicles use video management software to access live and recorded video. Each of the police department's 60 vehicles features a laptop with high-speed 3G broadband technology that allows officers to view and control any camera in the system.
Access to real-time video is a huge advantage for emergency controllers, as it allows them to respond more effectively to any incident. For example, after receiving a street fight notice, the controller can receive footage from the camera closest to the event and see how many people are involved and whether they are armed. This makes it possible to adapt the response to each specific situation.
Much of the achievements made with Lansing's surveillance operations are due to the compression technology provided by the category-leading IP video system. The ability to provide high-quality video with low bandwidth requirements allows you to stream streams captured by cameras across different network technologies, including ShDSL, fiber, wireless mesh and 3G broadband.
Emergency posts: Penang Island, Malaysia
The comprehensive IP video solution is essential to the integrated public security system of Penang Island, Malaysia's most populous. Its capital, Georgetown, attracts large numbers of tourists and, like other urban centers of the world, must face a complex security environment, with criminal activities and traffic problems.
Emergency post
The surveillance project consists of 31 PTZ dome cameras connected via a wireless IP network to monitor the entire Georgetown area. The cameras focus on the places of greatest and busiest criminal activity, such as tourist areas, banks, gas stations, intersections and shopping malls.
The flexibility and power of the integration functions of the IP video solution allowed the installation of emergency posts in tourist areas. By using a transmitter/receiver module, which can transmit both high-quality video and audio and allow digital data input and output, a stand-alone video intercom solution was developed.
When a person activates the emergency button, a two-way communication with one of the control room operators is opened through a camera and microphone hidden in the stall. The video intercom of the stand automatically appears on a video management station and the nearest PTZ camera focuses and widens the area of the stall. This is possible thanks to the wireless network.
Only the use of cables is required to supply power to each of the posts. The PTZ dome cameras are also connected to the transmission modules and the audio function serves to make announcements of public interest through the speakers mounted with each camera.
Reinstallable Cameras: Swindon, UK
IP video technology provides a unique reinstallable surveillance system for downtown Swindon. The system is controlled by its urban centre management team, which helps police and other partners reduce anti-social behaviour, shoplifting and other criminal activities. As in other cities, its previous system did not allow monitoring of the most remote areas, where criminals moved to avoid cameras, a problem that the Swindon team was very interested in solving.
The solution was to develop a system of reinstallable cameras using wireless IP video technology to provide remote surveillance and obtain testimonial quality videos.
The video management software allows simultaneous viewing and recording of images from any of the reinstallable cameras. The videos recorded by the cameras, strategically installed, are transmitted wirelessly through the line of sight and various relay base stations to the control room. This allows the reinstallation of the cameras between the base stations without the need to reconfigure them.
The vandal-proof camera housings were specially developed for this project, and contain a camera, a video transmission unit, a wireless transmitter, a power supply, and an optional rechargeable battery so that the cameras can be installed in locations without local power supplies.
Summary
The main feature of all these case studies is the breadth of the areas where the systems have been implemented. In these situations, cost-effective and reliable surveillance can only be achieved through the use of a distributed IP video solution. Case studies demonstrate that it is possible to integrate IP video into other security systems, and that they can coexist with older systems to provide a simple migration path for the future, which is an important benefit for those end users who are considering installing an IP video solution.
*Oliver Vellacott, CEO of IndigoVision, founded this company in 1994. Previously, he had held the position of product manager in the field of smart cameras. Oliver studied piano at the Guildhall School of Music before graduating in Software Engineering from Imperial College London and subsequently received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh.
