Domes on wheels!

Although there is growing consumer interest in protecting homes using camera surveil-lance, the current surge in the industry is to install cameras within public places, retail environments and now, more recently, public transport.

It is now generally accepted that the UK has the greatest concentration of security cameras operating in Europe, but there is still a huge margin for expansion in the marketplace, particularly in the public sector.

The dome camera has played an important part in the gradual shift within the industry from overt camera operations to discreet monitoring. The combination of electronics miniaturisation and the development of tough plastics have been key factors in the development of the domes. Their success can be attributed to their 360 degrees of cover and discreet, strong and weatherproof housings.

Although domes have been successful in monitoring vandalism, they resist being vandalised themselves, unlike some other open surveillance cameras. Street traffic cams have taken the brunt of many vandal attacks, but even the placing of these has been more discreet of late.

Domes are emerging as one of the most popular CCTV installation choices. They look stylish, provide good access viewing and can be placed just about anywhere. Camera miniaturisation has meant that the simplest encapsulation, a hemispherical dome, can now be fitted over these hi-resolution monitoring devices. Inconspicuous compared to a rectangular camera enclosure, their opaque nature means their presence generally goes unnoticed, and being hemispherical they usually offer the greatest vandal resistance.

Where are they now?
Vandal-proof domed cameras typically have a diameter of 100mm but are also available in 80 and 120mm types and are usually installed straight onto ceilings. However, they can also be installed in either a case with a swan necked wall-mounting bracket or a ceiling-mounting bracket. The 120mm types take the better higher resolution colour cameras with varifocus and auto iris lenses. (The lenses available from Stortech Electronics range typically from 2.9 to 16mm, giving customers a variety of options).

Does your customer want to see a narrow view with much greater detail or a general wide field of view? The varifocal lens cameras can provide much of what is required and can be adjusted on site. Until recently very few cameras were to be found on public transport, but with the rise in antisocial behaviour occurring particularly on buses, there has been a greater need to protect both the bus and the passengers. It is usually the driver who observes and reports, via radio, any antisocial or violent activity that might break out.

Now though, the increasing threat of violence and vandalism has caused some bus companies to install domed security cameras and other surveillance devices. A West Midlands bus company, operating around Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton has installed dome cameras to around 550 out of their fleet of 1,800 buses. The routes where vandalism (window scratching, seat wrecking and paint spraying) and possible attacks on the driver and passengers were a greater threat, had them fitted first. Stortech supplied the cameras.

  It was found that the most effective monitoring process was to retrofit colour cameras under a dome cover on the ceiling of the bus. The advantages of domes are that they can be centrally placed, they take up minimum space and are not a physical hazard to passengers. The bus would, typically, have three to four dome cameras strategically placed on the ceilings with the most strategic one being placed in the driver's cab.

They are connected to a multiplexing facility and the unit switches monitoring activity between cameras.

Domes on buses can be centrally placed, they take up minimum space and are not a physical hazard to passengers

The driver can then see one or four images on a display screen at any time in the cab. Passengers are also informed by notice that the bus is equipped with video recording equipment and passengers can view another display mid way along the bus. All camera video activity is then recorded onto tape in a secure place on the bus. Playback will show either all four images on screen or view one of them full screen. All video activity is recorded on a three-day video recorder. The tape is then stored and eventually recycled. Although Stortech supplied only the dome cameras and power supplies, the company has now developed a digital recorder to replace the existing tape system. The new recording system will ultimately mean higher quality, reliability and longer recording times.

The company supplied 600 cameras in the first wave to the bus company. A second round of 600 was then later supplied. The miniature colour cameras have a fixed viewing position, the direction being set up initially by the installation team. The cameras were supplied with wide-angle lenses to ensure a good area of coverage. They have sufficient high resolution to extract still photographs from the stored video if needed. Although the stills are good, the clarity will be even better when using a digital recording system.

Automotive environments are extremely harsh areas for electronics and normal camera power supplies tend to be unreliable. To ensure on-board camera reliability, Stortech had to design a power supply that would continually provide a smooth output of 12v. They found that when a conventional supply was installed on the buses, very often the camera would lock up into false colour mode or lock out altogether. Exhaustive analysis using a data logger showed that, indirectly, the camera power supply was to blame because the supply voltage was dipping down and rising up again within a very short space of time, in the region of millisecond intervals.

Although this was not a problem for other camera applications, it provided serious interruption in this case. The short dips in voltage provided enough time for the sensitive camera electronics to cause a malfunction. Stortech recreated these events in the lab and subsequently built a power supply specifically to overcome these problems.

Events will change opinions forever
If vandalism and attacks on staff and customers continues on public transport, transport authorities are bound to take preventative measures and the most cost-effective way is to fit camera security. Vandalism is reported to cost the West Midlands bus company around £1 million a year on its fleet of 1,800. A series of preventative measures including cameras and close working with the local police and schools is starting to pay off. The bus company has reported that muggings have been reduced since the introduction of a package of measures including the cameras.

Although the bus company will continue to retrofit existing buses, all new buses now supplied to them come complete with cameras. Banks and Building Societies have always been known to use overt cameras for internal purposes but now high resolution miniature colour domes are starting to be used to monitor wider customer transactions. There has also been widespread implementation of high street cameras by local authorities, some of them overt in public car parks, others covert and disguised as street lamps. Although these are larger dome types, they provide the facility to pan, zoom and tilt the camera over a defined area. While buses have taken the lead in the public transport stakes in adopting camera security, (and this is only the beginning of a very sizeable marketplace even for bus companies and bus manufacturers), passenger security is of concern to other sectors.

A number of train operators have recently been considering their options for on-board security. Stortech is talking to one operating company in the South-East about the possibilities of carriage monitoring. Again this could be the tip of a large potential market. In the light of recent tragic events in the USA, there will now also be increased surveillance at airports and on aircraft. Roll-on-roll-off ferries around the UK could also find a niche for greater camera security on the freight decks and public access areas.

With the increase in violence particularly in A & E departments at hospitals, it would be no surprise to find health authorities considering their security options in the near future. By their nature, hospitals are open environments and mainly rely on the good nature of the public but increasing attacks on staff will mean that extra security measures will be called for.

If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear – so the saying goes. Arguably any camera monitoring will help to protect us all. The general public might not object to camera monitoring in public places as the world witnesses ever more daring acts of destruction, but would the public tolerate surveillance in places that we treat as our own? This might be our personal workspace, in toilets, the gymnasium or even rented accommodation! Recent events might well change our opinions forever about where we are being monitored.