In the past, most of the uses of CCTV systems have been security applications, with cameras fixed to a relatively expensive cable network, purpose built for the precise camera locations, and feeding into a single central control room where security staff watch monitors and controlling cameras to identify and record any security incidents. IP technology enables applications way beyond this traditional model, mainly by exploiting the communications flexibility that it brings.
In this article we give a number of real examples that illustrate the range of operational and cost improvements that IP technology creates, showing how IP is not only the most economic solution in many cases – it can also make practical applications that would be inconceivable with conventional technology.
Brussels Airport
The recently installed CCTV system at Brussels Airport is a good example of an IP solution meeting requirements for flexibility. The system was needed by several different authorities – the police, fire services, baggage handling and Customs and Excise – each for their own specific purpose.
Planned expansion at the airport meant that the new system had to have in-built scope for the addition of further cameras as the planned developments were implemented. Cost was, as ever, a key criterion in reviewing the options, which pointed to the use of as much of the airport's existing cabling infrastructure as possible. The other major criterion for an airport system was security.
The selected option was to build a digital CCTV system across an Ethernet IP network – the best way to exploit the existing network resources and minimise costs. When completed, Brussels airport will have a state of the art system that offers 25 images per second streaming video from 700 cameras. There will be three control rooms with the familiar analogue video walls and the new Graphical User Interfaces. Images will be recorded in full motion and in real-time, providing a digital CCTV system that provides far greater quality and flexibility than would be possible with a traditional analogue system.
Although Brussels was the first airport to select an IP solution to their CCTV requirements, Sydney Airport now also has an IP system installed. The International Terminal uses hundreds of analogue cameras for monitoring areas such as check-in counters, car parks and general traffic areas. The analogue video signals from strategically placed cameras are fed directly to video servers and from there on the communication is digital over IP. Key benefits identified by the users are the simplicity of plug-and-play when cameras need to be added or moved, and the ease and speed of searching images. Searches are speeded up in part because the system can be set to record only event & alarm-based images (using pre- and post-event continuous recording), with the result that the volume of recording is far less than with continuous time-lapse recording.
These airport systems are just two of many examples of using existing networks as the basis for the IP communication of CCTV images delivering benefits in cost, implementation time, and flexibility.
Newport Schools
The Newport Schools example is an excellent illustration of how an IP security solution can use an existing IP network, with the benefit of minimal new capital expenditure on communications.
Newport County Borough Council in South Wales was suffering from a number of issues arising from children playing around local schools outside school hours. This was creating at least two potential dangers; some children were putting themselves in danger by climbing on buildings and a few were vandalising school buildings and equipment. Sites faced ever-rising bills each year to put right damage caused by vandalism.
The schools were already linked up by Newport's National Grid for Learning, a network of fixed lines linked into the schools with capacities from 128Kb up to 2.0Mb. This network was being used only during school hours, so all the bandwidth was available out of hours, which is exactly when the surveillance operation was required. The proposed security scheme could therefore use the existing schools network to link up to a control centre and to send alarm based video footage. Information could then be passed on to the Borough Council's Estate Ranger Service to respond to events.
The solution is a mix of analogue and digital technology. The cameras and the alarm triggering are conventional technology devices – analogue dome cameras and infrared detectors. These are linked to the IP network by a video server, which distributes the images to the control centre, which in turn has the viewing software, together with the scope to control the cameras at each school site. Recording and archiving also takes place centrally.
Clearly, to build a city-wide analogue CCTV network to handle the communications would have been a very expensive project. By using an existing IP network, the resulting system is not only operationally effective, but cost effective as well.
The Goodwin Project
The Goodwin Resource Centre in Kingston-upon-Hull faced serious problems of crime and drug abuse. Looking at the possible causes led to the Centre setting up a project to address these issues at the wider level of the local housing estate.
Whenever an installer is looking at CCTV system development – new system or upgrade – the option of using IP technology should be considered
A network development company evaluated the different options for surveillance technology, taking account of specific requirements of cost and operational flexibility. Their innovative proposal was the development of a CCTV network based on an IP broadband microwave wireless system for monitoring the estate. This links a number of surveillance cameras located all around the estate to a central monitoring station over a 10Mb to 100Mb wireless network. This is believed to be the world's first IP-based community surveillance system.
The particular benefit of using a wireless network is that cameras can be moved around the estate at any time with no requirement for hard wiring. This not only benefits from time and cost savings but also means that cameras can be installed covertly, with none of the road works and highly visible installation activities of traditional physical networks and their camera points, which local troublemakers watch with close interest.
The video surveillance images sent to the central control room can, if required, be sent on to the local police, using CD-ROM, floppy disk, or email, again using the convenience of an IP network. The quoted results are very impressive - car crime down by 80 per cent, robbery down 68 per cent, violence against the person down 30 per cent, criminal damage down 59 per cent, and £2.1 million saved against court and policing costs, insurance claims and personal loss. The Chief Superintendent of the Humberside Police, Paul Cheeseman, is reported as viewing the project as 'a complete success".
Looking at the opportunities offered by IP can be described in the current buzzword as 'thinking outside the box'. This highly original broadband wireless solution is just such an example, with excellent operational and cost results.
Further examples
Examples of the IP solutions now come from across all industry sectors. At the least, all that is needed is a network camera with a modem for dial-up viewing, although most implementations are more complex than that. Below we list briefly some further innovative uses of CCTV over IP.
A California Prison: Network cameras and video servers were installed in a maximum-security federal penitentiary in California to monitor inmates and provide evidence in the criminal prosecution of crimes committed by inmates. The system allows high-quality digital images to be recorded throughout the prison on a 24-hour basis, enabling the prison to maintain a greater level of security and surveillance within prison grounds. The network cameras plug directly into the existing computer network, unlike conventional cameras that would need dedicated cabling, infrastructure and monitoring stations.
Salt Lake City: For the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, the Salt Palace Convention Centre in Salt Lake City decided to upgrade its existing analogue security system. Adding network cameras and video servers to existing infrastructure enabled all images, analogue or digital, to be viewed and recorded on or off-site – a swift and relatively inexpensive method of greatly increasing the scrutiny and security of the Salt Palace in time for the Olympics.
Daycare Centre: Most of the examples cited have shown the savings to be won on the private network side – using the existing in-house LAN or WAN to achieve significant cost savings. In the case of the highly imaginative Daycare Centre implementation, it is the public IP network – the Internet – that contributes the major part of the benefits. Some US daycare centres are now offering parents a way to securely log in to view their children at school.
Mothers can use their home computers to view their children in school through a network camera in the classroom. This can be extended internationally, of course. In the Hampton Roads, Virginia area, there is a large concentration of military installations. Soldiers and military personnel can log in to the secure website and view their children live through the school network camera while on duty overseas.
Vatican City: Finally, we can report that IP CCTV has reached Vatican City. The City already has an IP network, and recently the existing cameras were connected via encoders and decoders to this network. Any camera on the network can be seen from any authorised viewing PC, with camera control, including PTZ, enabled through the simple to use software user interface.
Summing up
Whenever an installer is looking at a CCTV system development, whether a new system or an upgrade of an existing system, the option of using IP technology should be considered. The examples above show varying degrees of the use of existing networks – both private LANs and WANs, and the Internet.
But the application of IP goes beyond the conventional application areas of CCTV. As the Daycare example above shows, IP makes practical, applications that would be inconceivable with conventional technology.
Source
Security Installer
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