Mauritius Prison Improves Security with IndigoVision Hybrid Video Solution

Editor / Provider: IndigoVision | Updated: 12/30/2011 | Article type: Government & Public Services

The Grand River North West remand prison in Mauritius has vastly improved security by upgrading its CCTV system with IndigoVision's IP video solution. Local partner Brink's (Mauritius) worked installed the system and worked closely with the prison to ensure all areas are monitored.

Fifteen 9000 PTZ cameras and 104 analog cameras have been put in place, connected via 104 standalone transmitters, with the full system recording to six Network Video Recorders. Recording is 24/7, and retained for two months. Activity Controlled Framerate (ACF) is used, with a maximum bitrate of 512kbps for recording. ACF controls the framerate of the camera video stream based on the amount of motion in the scene.

The IndigoVision system gives greater coverage inside and out of the prison. IndigoVision's integrated motion detection, alarms and mapping are also major advantages, while playback of recordings is easy and immediate.

“The IndigoVision network gives the view of all that's happening inside the prison – in rooms, corridors and gathering areas, and also outside in the parking lots and round the perimeter – while the alarms and motion detection make sure nothing is missed. It's a vast improvement on security, with two remote control centers ensuring maximum security control in all areas,” says Brink's Mauritius Project Manager Vikash Augnu.

Workstations are located in the prison's main Control Center and also in the main gate and towers. A new network LAN has also been installed, using both fiber and FTP cables.

Network Video Recorders record up to 20 cameras at full frame rate with audio and simultaneously play back up to 20 cameras, with low power consumption and heat dissipation. IndigoVision's technology was chosen because the tough environment demanded a robust solution with high image quality that was easy to install and maintain.

India's Inaugural Formula One Race Deploys AMG Transmission

Editor / Provider: AMG systems | Updated: 12/13/2011 | Article type: Commercial Markets

AMG systems announces that they have supplied their AMG transmission solution for the new Indian Formula One circuit which hosted the inaugural Indian Formula One Grand Prix on October 30 2011. The prestigious project has seen India establish itself on the map of Formula One with an investment of around $215 million, thus creating a circuit on 5.14 km over an area of 875 acres. The initial seating capacity is 110,000 later to be increased to 200,000.

Indian based Pan Intellecom is responsible for implementing the surveillance project for the F1 event and MD Mr. Harbir Singh explains why the company chose the AMG transmission solution.

“AMG Systems has always enjoyed a fantastic reputation for delivering products of very high quality. Not only are AMG's products cutting edge, the company is also highly acclaimed for their technical support and training. We selected the AMG systems for the project and although we were very pressed for time leading up to the inaugural Grand Prix, we completed the solution in time for the televised trial runs which started on the Friday. The AMG Transmission solution is taking Video signals with associated data from 225 Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) Cameras back to the onsite control room.”

The lap time for a Formula One car around the 5,141m long track, is 1 minute, 27.02 seconds, at an average speed of 210.03 km/h (131 mph). At the end of the long straight between corners 3 and 4, Formula One cars reached a top speed of about 318 km/h (198 mph). The Buddh International Circuit is part of the Jaypee Greens Sports City, which will also include a 100,000 seat cricket stadium, an 18 hole golf course, a hockey stadium and a sports academy.

Furniture Factory in Israel Selects Messoa for Property Management

Editor / Provider: Messoa | Updated: 12/13/2011 | Article type: Commercial Markets

Located in the suburb of Nazareth, Israel, the furniture factory specializes in manufacturing wooden furnishings, such as shelves and dining tables. The factory owner was looking for a reliable, cost-effective video monitoring system that not only could provide a security means to ensure property security, but also to watch over production line while improving the operating efficiency.

The factory building consists of three main areas: the office area for administration, product demonstration and customer reception; the manufacturing area for production; and the stock area for storage and shipping handling. Realizing each area varies in sizes and security requirements, the Messoa PTZ and dome cameras were recommended for this project.

First, the PTZ cameras are installed on both the interior and exterior walls for securing the premises. With its superior sensitivity and WDR function, the PTZ camera enables operators to watch over difficult-to-see spots with exceptional clarity regardless of the lighting conditions. The camera's 360-degree pan, 360-degree tile and panoramic rotation capability makes wide-area surveillance easy.

A number of dome cameras are deployed together with the PTZ cameras at corners where the sight is blocked by pipelines to complement the view angles by avoiding any blind spots.

For indoor surveillance, the high-resolution dome cameras were chosen to oversee critical locations inside the building, such as the main entrance and the production sites. The dome camera's mechanical ICR cut function allows 24/7 indoor surveillance in fine details.

Italian Motorway Deploys Infinova Traffic Camera and GSG Network System

Editor / Provider: Infinova | Updated: 11/29/2011 | Article type: Infrastructure

Infinova announced that Autovie Venete S.p.A., the managing Company of Italy's motorway routes A4 Venice-Trieste, A23 Palmanova-Udine South and A28 Portogruaro-Pordenone-Conegliano, is using a real time traffic video surveillance system based on Infinova cameras that were installed by Infinova integrator GSG International. The real time traffic video surveillance system uses over 300 Infinova High-Speed PTZ (Pan/Tilt/Zoom) cameras, each with a 35x zoom, connected through a fiber optic network system to monitor key points of the motorway such as bridges, exits and critical junctions.

"Infinova cameras were originally selected because of their high image quality and mechanical reliability as proven in other intelligent traffic systems (ITS) such as those in China, India, Brazil and the United States," explains Mark S. Wilson, Infinova VP of Marketing. "The High-Speed PTZ provides multi-protocol capabilities, Pelco-P/D protocol, a two-way system for receiving images and controlling the camera, speedy responses to any incidents, and uninterrupted viewing of any subject that passes directly beneath the Infinova camera."

The Autovie Venete motorway network monitoring and control system is a classic ITS solution that centralizes and integrates all the viewing, communication and control functions currently available to the staff at the Palmanova Traffic Control Centre in a single user interface. For example, the A4 Venice-Trieste Motorway has extensive traffic monitoring requirements, needing surveillance and security monitoring at its interchanges and bridges to improve traffic fluidity, decrease the number of crimes taking place on the motorway, and identify subjects believed to be responsible for events occurring on or just off the motorway property.

The High-Speed PTZ provides the Motorway with a digital video output utilizing H.264/M-JPEG compression schemes to deliver high-quality video at up to 30 fps. Digital Signal Processing (DPS) technology provides enhanced clarity, color and detail. With the day/night camera, usable images can be delivered even in extremely low light conditions. Variable speed capabilities range from a smooth, fast pan motion of 240 degree per second to a low speed of 0.5 degree per second. The system is capable of 360 degree rotation and has an "auto flip" feature that allows the camera to rotate 180° and reposition itself for uninterrupted viewing of any subject that passes directly beneath the PTZ dome.

UK Casinos Improve Customer Services With Sanyo Cameras

Editor / Provider: SANYO | Updated: 11/14/2011 | Article type: Commercial Markets

SANYO Full HD cameras are helping Grosvenor Casinos to improve customer service at ten of its casinos.

The cameras, which were installed by ID Fire & Security, have the capability to capture full high definition (1920 x 1080) colour images of activity at the gaming tables and the crystal sharp images allow casino management to clearly establish if a player has a legitimate claim that they have not been paid out correctly.

“Mistakes on a busy roulette or blackjack table, although rare, can happen and when they do, we need to ensure that we maintain the goodwill of our guests by dealing with any disputes quickly and fairly,” said Sean Cunningham, Director of Security for Grosvenor Security. “At some of the casinos the cameras have literally paid for themselves within weeks as we have been able to unequivocally prove that a mistake has not been made by one of our croupiers.”

Grosvenor Casinos, which is a division of Rank Group PLC, operates 35 casinos in the UK and has an active membership in excess of one million.

So far a total of 80 SANYO Full HD cameras have been installed by ID Fire & Security across the ten casinos. They comprise a mixture of fixed cameras, mini domes and PTZ cameras. All are equipped with a Dual Codec to support both the latest H.264 and MJPEG compression. They are also equipped with a video analytics capability and a 3D-DNR function to reduce ‘noise' in low light conditions. A Focus Assist button when pressed, results in the camera lens automatically adjusting to the optimum position.

“The SANYO cameras, which were replaced by the FULL HD cameras, had done an excellent job but like all analogue cameras, they could not get close to producing the superb quality of the images that can be captured by the full high definition cameras,” said Matt Allen, National Accounts Director for ID Fire & Security. “Most importantly, the SANYO Full HD cameras allow the client to very closely zoom into one section of an image without any pixilation occurring and an additional benefit is that in the subdued lighting environment of the casinos, the cameras are able to accurately reproduce the colour of gaming chips and playing cards.”

Columbia, Missouri Relies on IQinVision to Help Keep the Peace

Editor / Provider: IQinVision | Updated: 11/10/2011 | Article type: Residential & Consumer

IQinVision, market leader in high-performance HD megapixel IP cameras, announced that the city of Columbia, Missouri is utilizing IQeye Sentinel HD megapixel cameras to provide surveillance at four downtown “hot spots” in which police are dedicated to reducing crime and other incidents. The integrator for this on-going project is ISG Technology.

The IQeye 1080p, utilizing H.264 compression, send images over a Firetide wireless network to an antenna atop City Hall and then onto the city's fiber ring with storage at a virtual server. All camera data is managed by a Milestone Professional open platform system. Among other reasons, the city selected IQeye cameras for their Lightgrabber feature for low-light situations.

The issue of installing cameras downtown was brought before voters in April 2010 after Keep Columbia Safe, an advocacy group with backing from business leaders, collected enough signatures on a petition. Columbia Police chose the four locations for surveillance based on an analysis of crimes occurring throughout downtown. In a city of over 100,000 residents and 34,000 college students, these four intersections account for upwards of 20 drinking and eating establishments. On college football game day, another 15,000 or more fans descend on this area. That's a lot of people having a lot of fun, and Columbia Police want to be able to watch the action and deploy personnel in a proactive, more effective manner.

Lt. Chris Kelley of Columbia Police has been with the project from inception and he manages it from his vantage as overnight shift commander. “We do some live monitoring at the front desk of the police department, and I also monitor during peak times from 11:00 pm to 3:00 am,” Kelley related. “The cameras give us an excellent overall view of the action around each intersection and if we see something of interest, we've got a few PTZ cameras that allow us to drill down even further.”

The cameras have only been deployed for a few months, but already the police have made arrests ranging from littering to traffic violations to driving under the influence. “We've seen fights in progress and traffic backing up; we then quickly move officers to that location,” said Kelley. “The system is definitely a force multiplier for us.”

Whether the project will be expanded depends on all the stakeholders—the Police Chief, City Council, and the public. However, the merchant's association is in discussions to raise funds to augment the system in terms of number of cameras and areas covered. Time will tell how things unfold. For now, Kelley and his team are focusing on utilizing the new resources they have and they've been pleased thus far, “This definitely gives us intelligence on what we've got in terms of crowd count, location, and what's happening. We now have the information to more effectively strategize and deploy our people in a smarter manner.”

Italian Highway Monitors Traffic With Infinova Video System

Editor / Provider: Infinova | Updated: 10/28/2011 | Article type: Infrastructure

Infinova announced that Autovie Venete, the managing company of Italy's motorway routes A4 Venice-Trieste, A23 Palmanova-Udine South and A28 Portogruaro-Pordenone-Conegliano, is using a real-time traffic video surveillance system based on Infinova cameras installed by Infinova integrator GSG International. The real-time traffic video surveillance system uses more than 300 Infinova high-speed PTZ (Pan/Tilt/Zoom) cameras, each with a 35x zoom, connected through a fiber optic network system to monitor key points of the motorway such as bridges, exits and critical junctions.

“Infinova cameras were originally selected because of their high image quality and mechanical reliability as proven in other intelligent traffic systems (ITS) such as those in China, India, Brazil and the United States,” explained Mark S. Wilson, Infinova VP, marketing. “The camera provides multiprotocol capabilities, Pelco-P/D protocol, a two-way system for receiving images and controlling the camera, speedy responses to any incidents, and uninterrupted viewing of any subject that passes directly beneath the Infinova camera.”

The Autovie Venete motorway network monitoring and control system is a classic ITS solution that centralizes and integrates all the viewing, communication and control functions currently available to the staff at the Palmanova Traffic Control Centre in a single user interface. For example, the A4 Venice-Trieste Motorway has extensive traffic monitoring requirements, needing surveillance and security monitoring at its interchanges and bridges to improve traffic fluidity, decrease the number of crimes taking place on the motorway, and identify subjects believed to be responsible for events occurring on or just off the motorway property.

The high-speed PTZ camera provides the motorway with a digital video output utilizing H.264/M-JPEG compression schemes to deliver high-quality video at up to 30 fps. Digital Signal Processing (DPS) technology provides enhanced clarity, color and detail. With the day/night camera, usable images can be delivered even in extremely low light conditions. Variable speed capabilities range from a smooth, fast pan motion of 240-degree per second to a low speed of 0.5-degree per second. The system is capable of 360-degree rotation and has an “auto flip” feature that allows the camera to rotate 180-degree and reposition itself for uninterrupted viewing of any subject that passes directly beneath the PTZ dome.

IndigoVision IP-Based Video Keeps Traffic Moving in Yunnan, China

Editor / Provider: IndigoVision | Updated: 10/13/2011 | Article type: Infrastructure

IndigoVision's end-to-end IP Video surveillance systems are being used throughout the Chinese province of Yunnan for urban monitoring and traffic management. Used by 10 different police forces in cities and districts throughout the province, the systems are helping the authorities to better manage traffic and increase public safety through the use of help points.

“Since 2005, we have installed over 2000 IndigoVision video encoder modules throughout the province, which are being used to connect analog cameras to the network,” said Jiang Weining, GM, Yunnan Dongpu Technology, IndigoVision's Authorized Partner responsible for the design and installation of the various systems. “To date, the failure rate for all of IndigoVision's products has been zero. This excellent reliability record makes it much easier for us to maintain the current systems and promote the technology to others, as can be seen by the fact that 10 different police forces have adopted it.”

The largest system, with over 1000 cameras, has been installed in the Province's capital, Kunming City. Other large installations include Anning City Police, who have deployed 700 cameras and Chuxiong City with over 100. The cameras are mainly installed at road junctions, residential access areas, tunnels and other public areas with a large flow of population.

The police monitor their respective areas from a series of control rooms and traffic management centers using PC workstations running ‘Control Center', IndigoVision's Video Management Software (VMS). IndigoVision's distributed architecture allows video to be streamed directly from cameras to workstations without the need to go via a central server. This reduces the network bandwidth usage and delivers video with extremely low latency, allowing operators to smoothly control PTZ cameras over long distances. The distributed architecture is key to the easy deployment of multiple police control rooms around the network.

World's Largest Music Festival in Brazil Chooses Bosch Surveillance Cameras

Editor / Provider: Bosch Security Systems | Updated: 10/4/2011 | Article type: Commercial Markets

The Global Security Service provider Prosegur chose Bosch Security Systems to supply state-of-the-art surveillance technology for the world's largest music and entertainment festival: Rock in Rio. When big names like Coldplay, Guns N' Roses or the Red Hot Chili Peppers enter the stage in September and October this year, they draw the attention of more than 700,000 fans. Hence, it is no question that safety and security must be a number one priority.

The security plan tailored specifically for this festival includes a total of 30 surveillance cameras and a team of approximately 500 specifically trained security guards. The heart of the system will be the Advanced Security Center of Prosegur (CASE), placed at a strategic location and manned by a coordinator and two operators. From this unit, the entire 'Cidade do Rock' (City of Rock) will be monitored, which spans an area of about 150,000 square meters. The Bosch Video Management System (BVMS) software manages all digital audio and video systems, as well as all security data, which will be transmitted over an IP network.

One of the main items Bosch provided is the MIC Series 412 Thermal PTZ camera, which combines two capture modes - thermal and conventional. The first enables the thermal capture of people based on temperature at a distance of more than 780 meters, illuminating the hot or cold points of individuals in a scene. The second enables conventional capture for surveillance at four levels: detection, classification, recognition and identification of individuals.

In addition, the MIC Series 400 PTZ camera with integrated infrared delivers night vision at up to 55 meters, which provides extremely sharp images, regardless of light conditions. This model is ideal for surveillance in vulnerable areas both day and night, even in total darkness.

Intelligent Video Analysis will be integrated into some cameras to automatically detect suspicious situations and notify security teams, assisting the work of the operators in the monitoring center.

This large scale project shows how security personnel and state-of-the-art technology can combine to guarantee upmost safety and security. Bosch and Prosegur have teamed up to assure that the 'Cariocas', Rio's inhabitants, as well as tourists from all over the world can relax and enjoy the fabulous music-marathon.

London Landmark 'The Gherkin' Upgrades to Integrated IP Security With IndigoVision System

Editor / Provider: IndigoVision | Updated: 9/29/2011 | Article type: Commercial Markets

IndigoVision's integrated IP Video surveillance system has been deployed as part of a major security upgrade at one of London's most iconic skyscrapers. 30 St Mary Axe, widely known as ‘The Gherkin' is situated on the former site of The Baltic Exchange and at 180m tall, is the third tallest building in the City of London. ‘The Gherkin' is a multi-tenanted commercial office block occupied by a number of the world's best known insurance and legal businesses.

The distributed and open architecture of IndigoVision's IP Video system provides the ideal installation platform for the migration of legacy CCTV and the seamless integration with other security systems. Using this advanced capability, Universal Security Systems Ltd, IndigoVision's Authorised Partner, implemented a fully integrated surveillance, access control and intercom solution.

The new surveillance system replaced old analogue CCTV matrix and DVR equipment with a fully digital network solution using an IP-based distributed virtual matrix. This allows any component in the system to be located at any point on the IP network, delivering a scalable and flexible solution that was a key factor in IndigoVision being chosen for the project. All of the original analogue fixed and PTZ cameras were reused and the migration was achieved without any disruption to building operations, an important consideration for a building of this type with diverse activity occurring 24/7.

IndigoVision's ability to stream high-quality, fully synchronised audio across the network alongside the video, allowed Universal Security Systems to develop an innovative video intercom system, recording audio from existing intercom equipment with the appropriate video from nearby cameras.

The security of the video archive, through the use of a resilient and redundant recording solution, was another important factor for the building owners choosing IndigoVision. Video is recorded on 6 standalone IndigoVision Network Video Recorders (NVRs), with a 7th used as a failover backup. Should any NVR fail or be taken off-line for maintenance, the backup automatically starts recording in its place. The standalone NVRs have a Linux-based software engine and a fault tolerant design with dual redundant network and power supply connections.

Two ‘Control Center' workstations are used in the Security Office to monitor live video and analyse recorded footage from all of the cameras. ‘Control Center' provides advanced analysis tools such as motion thumbnails for fast incident review. Guard tours, sequences and Privacy Zones are all supported, with video being displayed on PC viewing panes or traditional monitors. Operators can view an interactive map of the entire site to quickly locate cameras and alarms.