After 12 months of engineering trials, the Irish railways, Iarnród Éireann, have approved the COE X-NET MPEG4 video codec system for rail level crossing surveillance across the Republic of Ireland.
Each system delivers real-time images to the operation centre and is part of the management of the railway’s many remote crossings.
Coe Group Plc, Leeds-based supplier of video surveillance systems, reports that it has experience of designing and manufacturing, safety critical video systems for Network Rail in the UK, where it supplies video codecs for level crossing surveillance.
Video is transmitted from the crossing sites over 100km to a control centre where it is displayed in real-time for operators to verify crossing status. “This technology allows us to safely operate the rail corridor whilst keeping running costs to a minimum” said Rinaldo Paollozi, manager Telecommunications. “COE has worked closely with us in proving the technology and system concepts prior to roll-out and their experience, product reliability and provenance was a key factor in the selection process.”
Iarnród Éireann adds that it plans to upgrade a further 38 crossings with more to follow. All of the video will be transmitted on their network thanks to the low bandwidth required by the codecs, the product firm adds. Andrew Wallace, CEO, said: “This project presented us with unique technical challenges and having worked closely with the client the resultant system is a powerful tool for the ongoing management of their rail system”.
