Digital Bridge, officially launched in Shoreditch, is a new home digital television service with video servers from network video product manufacturers Axis Communications.
Video streams gathered from analogue-based pan tilt and zoom (PTZ) dome cameras are being routed into Axis 241S Video Servers by installer and Axis solution partner CNL (Computer Network Limited). CNL has also enabled video images from the video servers to be routed to the Hackney camera control room where they can now be managed by CNL’s IPSecurityCenter software. That software will enable control centre staff to take command of the CCTV cameras and re-direct feeds as necessary. Video images can then travel onto a possible 22,000 Shoreditch residents once they have subscribed to the new Shoreditch community TV service via their HomeChoice digital TV set top boxes.
Technical challenges
According to James Condron, sales and marketing manager at CNL, overcoming the technical challenges to ensure privacy and data protection compliance were key: “Some to the problems we had to solve, such as camera masking and linking to TV technology, would not have been possible without the Axis ADP (Application Development Partner) Program. This enabled us to integrate deeply with the Axis products to support our contribution to this innovative and important community project.”
Official launch
The Digital Bridge system was officially launched in Shoreditch on Monday 8th May by Jim Fitzpatrick, Minister for London and Neighbourhood Renewal, as part of a £12m pilot project to tackle ‘digital exclusion’among lower income earners. Residents can subscribe to ‘Shoreditch TV’ for access to cameras covering the area around where they live and community programming, besides for digital TV, radio, broadband internet and PC applications through their own TV set. Community programming features crime prevention, investigation updates and allows local police to break into regular TV programming and make real-time ‘Incident Alerts’ to appeal for information.
Digital roll-out
Digital Bridge will complete its roll-out to Shoreditch residents this summer. Stage two starts in the autumn – extending the system to 70,000 households across the borough of Hackney. In 2007 the system will expand across London and will launch in several local authorities in the Midlands and North West. Up to 250 cameras are planned to be hooked into the service by the end of the year and this figure could expand to some 400 cameras longer-term. The main aims of Digital Bridge, a social enterprise owned by Shoreditch Trust, are to improve community engagement and break down barriers between the emergency services and the community through the use of digital services. The project has been funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, European Regional Development Fund and the private sector.
What they say
Digital Bridge chief executive James Morris, explains how Shoreditch community TV is going to work: "If residents are at home watching the live stream and they spot something they immediately call the police station. Relevant images are then linked into the CCTV control room which will then take control of that camera and zoom in on the incident and record. And, of course, police will then be sent out." Steve Gorski, managing director for Axis Communications UK Ltd added: “Digital Bridge is a very exciting development and we are pleased that Axis technology is playing such an integral role in the creation of this community safety initiative which should act as a model for other authorities across the UK. We believe that a growing number of households want to be able to monitor their local community and that integrating feeds from established CCTV cameras and new network cameras, into TVs is a great method for delivery."
