From a French football stadium to Liverpool's Chinatown, here are some of the latest installations of which installers are justly proud
Number plate evidence
Tyco Integrated Systems has installed an automated number plate recog-nition (ANPR) system at three major ports in the Southeast to help police crack down on terrorism, drugs, fraud and theft. Cameras are installed at strategic points overlooking the ticket booths at the ports and the Channel Tunnel. They can identify number plates from several countries, providing police with the intelligence and evidential support it requires to successfully charge criminals. Any police force or official agency in the UK is authorised to access the computerised integrated system, which delivers information accurately and quickly.

Within seconds of a car drawing up at the ticket booth, its registration details are fed through to the system, which provides almost instantaneous information on the vehicle. The system has received backing from the insurance industry, and is said to have successfully prevented auto theft and fraud involving millions of pounds.

Urban dreams and private lives
Integrated Security Systems (ISM) of Crawley was called in to design and install a CCTV system as part of a BBC documentary focusing on local communities' use of science and technology to achieve their dreams. 'Dream Lives' took up the theme of CCTV technology being used to combat social problems and vandalism on a difficult housing estate in North London.

ISM chose Philips CSI's LTC range of cameras to protect the 2,000 residents on the Nightingale Estate in Hackney. Having experienced repeated vandalism and robbery around Olympus Square at the heart of the estate, where the children's playground, clubs, cafes, shops and a radio station often took the brunt of criminal activity, it was decided to install cameras across the Square, as well as personal panic alarms to improve security and safety within the shops.

A mix of vandal resistant domes and column mounted units, some with pan, tilt and zoom were chosen from Philips' LTC0600 and LTC0500 high performance range of cameras. Said to be the most reliable low light models available, the half-inch cameras enabled high-resolution video images to be viewed and recorded even in poor light conditions down to sensitivities of 0.037, eliminating the use of additional lighting. An important aspect of the installation was to use dynamic privacy software, which automatically blanked out windows with an opaque screen to protect the privacy of residents while allowing CCTV operators to track the movement of criminals.

All the images are recorded on digital hard disk, with cameras recording simultaneously. If an alarm is activated, the picture refresh rates increase from 1 to 6 frames per second giving more detailed images. The system captures compressed images and can store approximately 10 days of video recording on the hard drive. ISM provided the security management system to which all cameras and alarms are linked, and operators use touch screen controls to bring up alarm activity to enable an appropriate response. They also use a PA system to intercept problems.

Three shops in the Square were fitted with panic alarms linked to a central control point. A separate alarm in the concierge desk at Seaton Point also causes a camera inside the reception area to zoom in on the incident, providing added protection for staff working on the frontline.

French toast to CCTV
Centre General de Chauf, working in conjunction with Vicon's Brussels office, has supplied and installed a number of Vicon's Surveyor dome cameras at the Stade Grimonprez-Joorisfootball stadium in Lille. The Lille Football Club made a substantial bid to host the 2004 Olympics, after winning the French Cup five times, as well as being first division champions on two occasions.

The camera units have been installed to improve crowd safety and security at the development, which has recently been extended to increase capacity to 35,000. One of the key features of the installation was to protect the equipment against vandalism and tampering.

The cameras use the S2000-MSH housings, which have heavy-gauge steel assemblies. A three-standoff mount is used to connect the Surveyor 2000 camera dome drive assembly, and the lower dome is made of high-impact acrylic. The cameras are wall and pole mounted, using liquid tight conduits and accessories providing ample space for cabling.

CCTV tsunami
ADT Fire and Security has installed 140 fixed cameras and 50 dome cameras at the Ocean Terminal in Leith, Scotland, as part of a £220,000 CCTV system to protect what's claimed to be the largest waterfront development in Europe.

The complex houses a shopping and leisure centre covering 440,000 sq ft, with clients including Debenhams, Bhs, Scotland's first Conran restaurant and a Ster Century multi-screen cinema. The security system has been installed as a deterrent to criminal activity. It is monitored round the clock by a team of guards who identify shoplifters, pickpockets and vandals to help secure the environment for some 1,500 workers at the complex. The CCTV pictures are streamed back to the monitoring centre and pictures are stored for a limited period.

ADT won the contract exclusively from Forth Electrical Services. It has also supplied and installed a security system to protect the Royal Yacht Britannia, which is moored alongside the development.

Phased project
JSH Integrated Systems has installed a complex CCTV system at Birmingham's £400 million BullRing retail development as part of the Birmingham Alliance's initiative to provide secure walkways in and around the construction site during the three-year development programme.

Working closely with West Midlands Police, the Sony-based CCTV system was planned and located at key areas to minimise relocation of cameras during the phased construction programme. Seven Sony SSC-DC58AP colour cameras were specified by the Birmingham Alliance, with radio transmission links and fibre optic transmission to the police control room at Steel House Lane. Images are displayed on two Trinitron SSM-20N5E monitors and one SSM-14N5E incident monitor within the control room.

JHS had to overcome many problems on the site to ensure that the camera images were of the highest quality. The half-inch CCD cameras use Sony's Exwave HAD technology to combine camera sensitivity with a dramatic reduction in smear levels. The cameras also have digital backlight compensation and increased video gain with turbo AGC, to cope with adverse and low light conditions.

West Midlands Police requested the seventh camera used upgraded lenses because of its position 40m up on the roof of the Rotunda building, and the need to cope with light pollution from the town centre. The force met the additional cost of installing this camera, as it was an added request to secure the site. Within a week of the installation, police were able to use the camera to track the movement of a suspected shoplifter, who was subsequently arrested and charged.

Grant aided installation
Seceuro has installed a CCTV system supplied by Gardiner Security to crack down on theft and vandalism at Liverpool's Chinatown, after the local business association won a Home Office backed grant through Business Crime Direct.

Eleven monochrome Vantage cameras and multiplexers, as well as a Sony VCR, were installed in the area.

Billy Huy, from the Liverpool Chinatown Business Association, said a series of problems, including car thefts and acts of vandalism, had led to lengthy consultations with local police crime prevention officers.

The successful installation is being used to define Liverpool's crime prevention for the future. The system also helps protect the new arch, which arrived from China last year.

Historic estate protected
The Closed Circuit Television Company has installed an extensive CCTV system at the Guiness Estate in Chelsea. The installation uses Philips G3 AutoDome cameras and a System 4 video management system supplied by S&I Industrial.

The system was required to combat extensive vandalism on the historic Chelsea site, which is one of the Guiness Trust's flagship sites. The Trust was faced with local youths arriving on stolen motorbikes and setting fire to them, so they decided to install a high quality, unobtrusive CCTV system.

The site is constantly monitored by security and logistics managers on the estate. The installation of low-light cameras around the estate and the video management system offers Triplex operation, as well as a multi-screen display of live views and simultaneous playback. The unit benefits from a timed events feature and a custom alarm display with multiple pre-sets. It also gives full duplex VCR controls with on-line status and time/date/search features.

Captured on camera
Swindon-based installer, Blick, is upgrading the CCTV system used by Ealing Borough Council after the existing 255 JVC camera network caught images of the Real IRA terrorist planting the bomb, which rocked the main shopping thoroughfare. Steve Dunham, Ealing Borough Council's security systems manager, said the explosion had put one or two of the TK-C1380s and low light TK-C1360 cameras off-line but they were basically undamaged. Nevertheless, the Council is investing in installing the latest TK-C1480 super low lux cameras.

Pictures are fed through to a custom-designed control suite, which stands as a model for other councils. The building is listed and no structural alterations were allowed, but it houses the very latest technology to complement the extensive camera network on the streets.

Up, up, and away
Firebird Aerobatics has installed an Ovation hard disk video recorder and two-camera system from Pace Systems in their fleet of high performance Extra 3000 stunt and display aircraft. The camera system in each plane is used to capture video footage of executives on corporate days out. It also provides footage of air displays and competitions, providing high quality video pictures that are relayed to a solid-state digital recorder.

With no off-the-shelf solution that could give reliability of pictures during air displays, which often demand a pulling force of 8G, including the minimal space required for the installation, Ovation developed a smaller version of its Hindsight digital recorder and combined it with a solid-state disk resulting in a highly rugged recorder with no moving parts.

The 7mm diameter cameras are positioned both in front of the passenger and on the pilot's helmet. The quality of the footage of what is happening to the aircraft, especially when smoke is being used as well as the passenger, is said to be excellent. The system uses wavelet video compression techniques to record on hard disk, providing longer record times of up to 18 hours real time recording and low maintenance.

Video and radio
PathFinder Radio Systems has installed 58 cameras at RAF Lakenheath and RAF Feltwell airbases as part of a £1.25 million CCTV security system that links the two sites that are 10 kms apart. Using transmission systems including fibre, laser and microwave technology, over 100 kms of fibre optic cable has been installed. Video is distributed over a LAN link throughout the two sites, and digital video recordings are made on DAT and DVD as well as time lapse units.

The equipment was supplied by S&I Industrial. It includes Philips LTC 0600 digital colour cameras with backlight compensation and automatic picture enhancement, and Conway pan and tilt cameras. Both airbases are occupied by the US airforce, with Lakenheath employing nearly 5,000 US military personnel.

Alan Cornish of Conway Security, said the project integrates many forms of transmission, with some cameras sending telemetry data over fibre to the microwave transmission station and then onwards over fibre until it hits the camera. Number plate recognition has also been installed on the sites.

Sha Tin gets quality treatment

Pilot Engineering, a local installer in Hong Kong, has installed a range of telemetry pan and tilt units from Conway Security’s DC stable at the Sha Tin water treatment plant in the north-eastern province of Kowloon. The $80 million development was designed to improve the water quality of the Shing Mun River, which suffers from badly contaminated mud sediment, as well as improving the quality of surrounding fishpond and wet agricultural land as a wildlife habitat. Following a government order to alleviate pollution problems in Victoria Harbour to protect the threatened Hong Kong pink dolphin, cameras were required to provide an overview of the quality systems in place. Pilot Engineering, which also acted as the consultants for the job, chose Conway’s equipment for the installation. Most of the cameras were installed at box culverts, drainage pumping outlets and sedimentation tanks around the plant. Conway’s Omega telemetry system, comprising the RX1 receiver, offers smooth DC variable speed control. It has 75 pre-sets and 30 tours of 30 pre-sets together with the creation of labelled pan zones and privacy areas. The units are able to pan at 24 degrees per second and tilt at 12 degrees per second. All the cameras are cased in aluminium housings that meet IP66 standards. A two-year warranty is standard and colours can be specified to meet individual requirements.

Clear view on the Promenade

Quadrant Video Systems was called in to install a 15-colour camera CCTV network along the Ryde sea front on the Isle of Wight. The system is being used to monitor the traffic flow of ferries and hovercrafts, and keep an eye on the island’s bustling entertainment sites. Ryde is home to around 30,000 residents and attracts thousands of tourists in the summer months. Medina Council sought a solution to help local police with the added number of visitors, as well as for ferry operators to keep watch over the traffic. Quadrant opted for a lens solution, using a couple of dozen 8 x 120mm zoom lenses from Pentax for the CCTV cameras sited along the promenade. The lenses are powerful enough to be able to pick up incidents along the sea front clearly. By using more powerful lenses, the cameras have been installed at wide distances from each other, enabling fewer camera units to be installed.