In Hampshire, the analogue CCTV system of New Forest District Council has become a hybrid system with 5G transmission.
Covering the area’s towns and villages, besides parts of the forest, products from 360 Vision Technology have gone towards an IP transmission network. With 360 Vision’s TX transmission tech, cameras have been added to the network in outer areas – without the expense of fibre cabling. An extension to an existing system has addressed antisocial behaviour issues by day and into the nighttime economy
Rick Aisthorpe, Engineering Director at Chroma Vision, the installers, said: “With an existing relationship and a proven reputation for solving such issues in the most economical way, New Forest District Council turned to us to expand the surveillance coverage of the existing town centre CCTV network for monitoring back at the New Forest District Council control room.
“We already had a long-term technical relationship with 360 Vision as they had assisted us with the transition from an analogue camera network to an IP network for other customers via the use of their clever Invictus Hybrid camera – and we were confident this technology would do the same for New Forest District Council.
“Coverage was required to provide safety and security surveillance in these areas popular with both locals and visitors. A network of hybrid cameras would yield the best coverage and return on investment, whilst providing the communities involved with the best protection. Additionally, this investment in 360 Vision hybrid transmission technology would help New Forest District Council transition from an analogue CCTV transmission network to an IP network in a piecemeal way – and when budgets became available to them.”
The 360 Vision Invictus Hybrid offers HD with analogue video and RS485 control, allowing addition to legacy analogue systems such as at New Forest. After infrastructure upgrades, customers can use HD and IP control with no hardware changes, by changing the camera output.
Rick said: “This meant we were only either replacing cameras that had come to the end of their lifecycle or adding additional ones to cover the required areas – with the new units working alongside existing analogue cameras while their lifecycle ran out and therefore maximising the available budget at the time. The Invictus Hybrid high-performance, ruggedised PTZ camera with full 1080p HD and low-light camera imaging technology, made it the perfect choice for deployment in this application, with cameras installed to bring the towns of Lymington, Ringwood, Fordingbridge, Totton, Lyndhurst, New Milton and Hythe into the network.”
With continuous rotation pan, unobstructed 360-degree view and 160-degree tilt, the Invictus camera comes with remotely switchable, on-board LED white light technology for night-time vision, backed by infrared for covert surveillance at night.
Redeployable
After this initial phase, the council required more cameras to cover more areas across the rural region, while faced with the logistical restrictions of installing a traditional CCTV infrastructure. Traditional transmission and cabling – such as fibre cabling under streets or CCTV cameras on poles – were considered but were found to be too disruptive and prohibitively expensive.
Rick said: “Additionally, and further complicating matters regarding the installation of cameras, many areas of the coverage required are often located in groups around the expansive rural area of the New Forest, with the towns often miles away from each other. These issues, we could address using 360 Vision TX technology.
“Using the redeployable and rapidly deployed technology of the 360 Vision TX range of cameras has allowed us to assess and confirm the security problem at each of these locations – without committing to a permanent camera. Our close technical relationship with 360 Vision really paid off here, with the team and Business Development Director Adrian Kirk suggesting Invictus TX units equipped with 360 Vision TX technology. This solution would enable simple and rapid deployment and redeployment at these additional areas with video transmission over mobile phone networks.”
TX range
360 Vision TX wireless video camera transmission delivers camera video and pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) control from just 6 Kbps, full 1080p HD edge recording / remote retrieval on demand and saves the council time and money on fixed infrastructure camera video transmission installation costs and the cost of ownership. Delivering camera video over low bandwidth, the TX range provides a solution, even within difficult wireless video transmission settings such as the remote the New Forest. Additionally, these cameras use optimised video compression, with minimal latency that is fully encrypted and secure, the product firm adds.
Brian Byrne, Service Manager Community Safety and Support, at New Forest, said: “The Invictus TX complies with all our network security requirements, so we can always be confident of the results when including these additional Invictus units in our camera network.”
Keeping running costs to a minimum, the TX range operate without the need for airtime contracts. With control of bandwidth used, Chroma Vision engineers can choose the resolution and frame rate to transmit, dependent on the bandwidth available in the area of installation. Operators in the New Forest control room can switch between low and high bandwidth video streams, dependent on network capability, adjusting CCTV camera video quality to suit.
Brian said: “In use, system operators in the control room can also instantly switch on the Invictus camera’s on-board LED white light to illuminate the scene and inform people that they are being monitored. This has proved an excellent feature, both for security and safety purposes.
“If the camera is not required or after a period of use has helped to tackle the original requirement issue, we can then either choose to leave it doing its job or simply and quickly relocate it to another site awaiting surveillance. Some issues, particularly anti-social ones, can move around, but thanks to the use of 360 Vision TX technology, so can our surveillance. Being able to set-up cameras where they are most needed ensures we use our resources in the most economical way and extract the maximum return on camera investments.
“As we drive towards a greener daily functionality of the council’s network and assets, thanks to the low-power consumption certification of the Invictus cameras, we can meet the new criteria we are faced with. The cameras are providing high-definition images of places that we thought were inaccessible with traditional camera deployment. Once they have done their job, and the behaviour has stopped or moved on, they can be removed and redeployed at the next emerging hotspot if required.”
Locations
In use, the latest installation of wireless TX units has tackled anti-social behaviour in forested rural areas and secured minor crime hot spots in the region’s towns – day and night. Linked to the control room, the Invictus cameras are integrated into Synectics Synergy 3 video management system and can be locally powered via the infrastructure they are mounted to, in many cases on business premises – the advantage to the business being a camera covering their vicinity.
Adrian Kirk, Business Development Director at 360 Vision Technology says: “The mix of hybrid, TX transmission and integrated LED white light technology makes the Invictus camera the perfect choice for the technically demanding environments around the New Forest area. Seamless integration into the control room not only ensures operation familiarity from the outset but the ability to switch on white light technology in an instant can simply and effectively neutralise anti-social behaviour. Invictus white light technology offers the first line of defence in stopping anti-social behaviour. Going from a ‘covert’ infrared setting to an ‘overt’ white light setting can neutralise behaviour as the subjects know they are being watched and recorded. This puts power back into operators’ hands, helping them to de-escalate a situation, and has proved to be key in tackling the incidents in the area – often now resolved without any further action being necessary.”
Visit www.360visiontechnology.com.
