Forest Edge Kart Club outside Winchester needed a pop-up video surveillance system for use at their race day events. Cameras would assist with marshalling and recording the karts during the races in case of an incident for review later. The club’s website would also provide a live stream.
Forest Edge Kart Club is built on Ministry of Defence land, and access is limited to specified dates. Races run on weekends. The main system, barring a couple of agreed-upon cameras overseeing the outbuildings that would only be turned on during events, could therefore not be permanently installed.
The distributor CMS and manufacturer LILIN had to provide products for deploying on race weekends, before being stored away, without requiring long set-up or configuration each time the system was brought out. In total, taking the system out of storage, temporary installation and set-up takes around two hours, as part of a race day’s preparation.
LILIN’s specialist, 120 frames per second (FPS) cameras provided the images; some nine cameras cover the track. A Navigator server, running NAV3.0 software, was commissioned to record the events and provide a frame-by-frame review facility for incidents. Before this, the club had no way of policing the race; and so incorrect penalties might be issued based on witnesses. Now, any false starts, safety issues or other disputes can be reviewed with members in detail for an accurate judgement.
The MSUK clerks at Forest Edge Kart Club agree: “Judicial hearings in Karting have always been a case of asking the parties involved what happened and written witness statements from officials to decide what happened. Since the installation of the camera system, we can view and review clear video evidence and also show this to all parties involved. This enables us to make faster decisions and allows competitors to review what happened rather than what they remember. We are also able to take video clips to save as evidence should this be required, which preserves the evidence for any future requirements. In all, the system has made the process faster, easier, and above all else, more factual.”
Races, practices, and other events are streamed live online; LILIN camera streams can be added to OBS software, compiling multiple camera streams and other sources into one view.
At Forest Edge, chief operator Michael Parsons said: “The LILIN cameras are the key component in our system and have fully met our exacting requirements; we would highly recommend it for any similar applications. The ZFR8122 cameras were selected for their excellent optical quality with 120fps and durability in an outdoor setting where reliability is paramount. The high frame rate was a key factor to allow us to slow down footage without losing quality and enables the kart club to maintain its position as one of the leading kart tracks in the UK.”
(Image courtesy of FOXY RED photography; part of Stu Stretton Media)
