Police go for IP solution

A new CCTV solution installed by Computer Network Limited has helped Thames Valley Police operators to obtain visual verification at their desks from any one of the 1100 cameras that monitor the 25 towns and cities in the region.

Following centralisation, TVP, the largest non-metropolitan police force in the UK, now has just two control rooms managing the entire command and control response throughout its three counties.

The new system provided by CNL means control room staff can now visually assess evolving incidents from city centres, remote towns, and villages by instantly viewing CCTV images from any of the eleven CCTV centres around the region. TVP believes this will greatly assist operators in directing resources, as well as being able to visually monitor situations.

MSC Security Consultancy were engaged as specialist CCTV consultants following TVP’s centralisation plans. MSC was founded by former UK police officers who now specialise in CCTV systems and design, and the company has extensive experience in designing and project managing for local authorities, as well as large corporate clients. The consultants were asked to explore suitable technologies that would allow live video to be connected from the CCTV centres to operator positions in the control rooms.

ISDN transmission was investigated, but MSC said an initial trial demonstrated a number of weaknesses, and variable costs and reliability. IP video was then considered, and seemed to have potential – service quality appeared better and costs were reduced.

TVP was also upgrading its force-wide local area network, and felt it was a suitable time to investigate its possibilities. MSC took the problem to Computer Network Limited, systems integrator and provider of digital surveillance solutions.

The company specialises in using existing infrastructure to deliver remote, overt and covert surveillance, as well as integrating other security applications through corporate network architecture.

CNL devised an adaptation of its IPVideoCenter software as a bespoke solution.

CEDRIC, or CCTV Equipment Direct Relay to CSMS, uses IPVideoCenter technology from CNL to control and distribute video from each and any of the 11 CCTV centres to either of the two control rooms.

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The IP-based solution connects analogue CCTV images direct to computer screens in a ‘pop-up’ window for the police operator to view.

The images are shown through integration with TVP’s command-and-control software, which utilises an advanced .Net infrastructure to make it infinitely scalable. BT provided the network infrastructure for the system.

CEDRIC software controls the use of the available bandwidth, and not only meets the current requirements of TVP, but can incorporate future demands for expansion of any additional IP attached devices.

When an incident is identified or reported, the CCTV operators can select the appropriate camera, and using CEDRIC, transmit those images to the control room, where officers can see the people involved, and often witness events as they unfold.

In order to comply with the Data Protection Act, control over the CCTV images is retained by the local CCTV managers.

Images can be simultaneously viewed over the internet, in ‘Gold Suites’ at HQ, ‘Silver Suites’ at Area level, as well as at individual police stations around the region. This means that more authorised users are able to monitor developing situations and provide resources as required.

TVP are intending to integrate video from helicopter cameras and Motorway Monitoring Units, as well as incorporating the management and monitoring of access control points. The CEDRIC concept is part of the force’s answer to using up-to-date technology to improve the benefits of the CCTV cameras in and around the region.

CNL managing director Keith Bloodworth says that while in this instance his company installed the new system itself, because of the need to write new software, CNL is keen to work with installers who are looking to use the IPVC for bespoke CCTV solutions.

Bloodworth says the IPVideoCenter was created in response to customer demand.

“Clients using digital surveillance solutions from CNL often express the view that they do not want to be specialists in camera devices or the web services needed to view them,” he says. “They simply want to be able to log into a camera and view the images, which is what we provide, through a standard web browser.”