Last year, before Genoa hosted a G8 summit, the local authority looked to CCTV technology to help support the efforts of the security forces.
Last year, before Genoa hosted a G8 summit, the local authority looked to CCTV technology to help support the efforts of the security forces. Leaders from the world’s eight most powerful nations were due to converge on the city for three days. Anti-globalisation protestors were expected to converge on the city. A CCTV network was already in place to help monitor traffic problems in the city’s winding streets, but the ten-year-old analogue system was barely able to cope with current demands, let alone G8 summit requirements. With funding provided for the summit, local councillors realised they could install an improved system to monitor activity on the streets during the event and improve the city?s traffic problems on a lasting basis. Local IT firm Elsag had already been experimenting with a digital CCTV system from Scottish firm IndigoVision. Elsag placed 20 analogue cameras at key points around Genoa to record images and transmit them to a central control room. Using IndigoVision’s VideoBridge 6000 units, the images were compressed and converted into digital signals. Data could then be transmitted back to operators point-to-point over the Genoa?s new fibre optic network. A tailor-made user interface was developed for city workers to use. Within two months Genoa had a working traffic system with continual recording on all 20 cameras. By renting a single line from Telecom Italia, a secondary CCTV system for the Italian police was set up within a week, piggybacking on the new traffic surveillance network. Live images of disturbances from all over the city were recorded by cameras and transmitted back to a temporary control room, allowing police to track protestors and react to potentially dangerous situations within minutes. The authorities are to add another 20 cameras to the traffic surveillance network, providing Genoa’s traffic police with information on accidents and trouble spots.
