The London Borough of Ealing has added mobile wireless cameras to its CCTV system.
The London Borough of Ealing has added mobile wireless cameras to its CCTV system. The borough has cameras covering town centres, pubs, car parks, leisure centres, housing estates and housing blocks. All 255 cameras report back to the control centre in Ealing Town Hall. The new mobile wireless cameras use the existing CCTV network, and eliminate the need for cabling. The three transceiver sites blend into the existing town centre CCTV system and can be configured to control, and receive pictures from, any of the eight Petards Vision rapid-deployment Swift cameras when deployed in the west London borough. The wireless cameras can be installed with the nearest directional aerial tuned in to send pictures to the council or police force within minutes, without disturbing local services or alerting those under surveillance. A couple of housing estates have a concierge who monitors the cameras remotely, but most are independent. Whether there is a concierge or not, all cameras link back to the control room. There are also remote links to Southall and Ealing police stations. Steve Dunham, Ealing Security Systems Manager, says: ?Petards Vision have provided the backbone for our system, with the flexibility to expand effectively and efficiently. With the introduction of wireless mobile systems, scope for implementing CCTV in key areas is unlimited.?
Industrial, housing estates
Two prime areas covered are Park Royal, a large industrial estate, and Golf Links, a housing block that consists of three tower blocks and numerous low level units totalling more than 1,000 dwellings. Events can be triggered remotely. For example if someone presses the intercom to a housing block entry system, a nearby camera can zoom in on that individual, and the operator can decide whether to allow entry and trigger the door release remotely. A matrix unit is provided at each location with three video lines. Camera selections are then made across these remote links, therefore making it less expensive than running an individual line for each camera. Petards provided extra CCTV control systems on three of the tallest local authority high rise housing blocks in the borough. Incorporating 360-degree directional antennas, each location allows connection of rapid deployment Swift surveillance cameras by establishing video and data receiving ?hubs?, which make use of existing links between the housing block and the control room.
