IP Video technology is providing CCTV surveillance for Edinburgh Castle, Scotland’s number one tourist attraction and part of Edinburgh’s World Heritage site.
Historic Scotland operates and maintains the Castle and the associated exhibitions but part of the castle continues to be occupied by the Army. This dual role means the castle has to be open to more than one million visitors a year, but still maintain the security for a site with military presence.
As part of a security upgrade, IndigoVision’s local partner FPG Security Solutions Ltd has replaced existing analogue CCTV cameras with an IP video system in a two-phase project. Phase one is complete with the installation of the network fibre backbone, cameras and the monitoring and recording facilities in the control room. Phase two is planned for the near future with the addition of up to 25 new cameras, subject to approval.
According to IndigoVision, the IP video solution solves two unique problems associated with upgrading the surveillance system at the castle. Firstly, the location of the current control room will be moved in the future and secondly as the castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, the laying of cables in certain areas is prohibited. The current control room uses ‘Control Center’, IndigoVision’s video and alarm management software, to monitor live video feeds from the cameras and recorded footage from the IndigoVision stand-alone Networked Video Recorder (NVR). In addition a second workstation running ‘Control Center’ software will be in the manager’s office.
The flexibility of IP Video means that cameras, NVRs and ‘Control Center’ workstations can be located at any point on the network. It is thus, the makers say, relatively simple process to relocate the control room, an exercise that would be too expensive with a traditional analogue system. The second phase will install a number of cameras using wireless IP network links to overcome the need to install network cabling in sensitive areas of the Castle. As IP Video is scalable, the product manufacturers say, a phase two upgrade can happen with minimum disruption to castle routine.
The cameras are a mix of internal and external fixed domes which are connected to IndigoVision 8000 transmitter/receiver modules. The 8000s convert the analogue camera feed to DVD quality full-frame rate digital video for transmission over the IP network. IndigoVision’s compression technology minimises bandwidth requirements and ensures that the operators view video that is indistinguishable from analogue, the makers add.
