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Garda look to Technology advances in latest 14-town CCTV projects
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Date Posted: 10.12.2008
The first experiments with town centre surveillance started with Templebar, Dublin in 1995, followed by installations in O’Connell Street, Dublin, Tralee, Cork, Bray, Dunlaoire, Dundalk, Limerick and Galway. Then, from 2007, a new model was adopted, taking advantage of advances in digital recording, wireless transmission and robust camera designs.
Pushing back the technical boundaries, a new phase of installations this year, at Ballyfermot and Clondalkin in Dublin
and Tullamore proved successful and so paved the way for the 14 new projects in 2008.
So, in a few short years, Ireland has been reaping the benefits of learning from what others have done before, rolling out highly capable CCTV systems in a well-planned, and hence cost-effective way.
Whereas other town centre CCTV planners have learned by trial and error and have over the years experienced the pain of rainy pictures, unexpected maintenance problems, premature technology redundancy, and rising upgrade costs, these latest Irish systems, are not only state-of-the-art but can be expected to have a pretty long life expectancy too.
Planners here also gained experience and say they learnt some valuable lessons from the earlier 9 schemes, lessons about the installation, maintenance and operation of these types of system. “Issues which have occurred include maintenance of underground services during urban regeneration schemes, integration of schemes from differing vendors at regional level, quality of recorded images, and presentation of digital images as evidence in court,” says one source close to the projects.
The 9 systems installed prior to 2005 were based on time-lapse tape recording technology and a mix of underground fibre-optic and line-of sight microwave transmission. By contrast the 17 (3 during 2007 and 14 during 2008) new systems have fully embraced digital recording with 25ips (images per second) recording of all cameras for 31 days and the implementation of a high level of audit traceability.
“The use of COFDM wireless technology is making possible the rapid installation of cameras, especially in towns where underground services are poor and a high risk of construction projects would generally interfere with standard line-of-sight microwave transmission,” a Garda spokesperson told us.
Extended coverage
The 2008 wave of installations will extend CCTV coverage to 14 local communities. The towns to be covered are: Drogheda, Tallagh, Mullingar, Waterford, Portlaoise, Kilkenny, Sligo, Castlebar, Ennis, Dungarvan, Kinsale, Athlone, Carlow and Clonmel. The systems are being installed in separate projects handled by a number of leading integrators with Mongey Communications, Colemans Electronics, SKS Communications and G4S now joining the original two contractors, Secure Vision Systems and BT Ireland. As in the previous Garda schemes, the 2007/2008 projects monitoring centres have been created in each of the 17 Garda stations and co-situated with the communications and IT functions of the stations.
The systems are capable of being networked to other centres as required. These schemes are to be operated by Gardai, with the district stations each encompassing a full complement of Garda services including the District Superintendent, District Office, Public Office, Community Policing, and other Garda services (the tier of stations in each of the six Garda regions are Divisional, District and Sub-district stations).
At each monitoring location video-walls displaying all of the feeds and spot monitors allowing live incidents to be dealt with more effectively. The monitoring teams for all of the new schemes will be in direct communications with front line colleagues via radio and telephone links, the tactic that has proved so successful elsewhere, with CCTV operators often being the first witnesses to ‘reach’ an incident, and able to give their attending colleagues crucial advanced intelligence.
The Garda CCTV programme has been progressed in tandem with the community-based CCTV scheme which is led by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and administered by Pobal on behalf of the Government and EU.
Ganz C-Allviews are best choice for Ireland’s town-centre cameras:
The 300-plus Ganz C-Allview cameras that were chosen for Ireland’s latest town centre installations have earned a reputation for robustness, high image capture and economic pricing, and they are being used in many other public space CCTV applications.
In the case of these latest projects they were selected in preference to traditional PTZ cameras and alternative ruggedised speed-dome options.
The advantages of the C-Allview were confirmed following careful assessment by the Garda technical team, says Michael Grufferty of CBC (Europe) Ltd. “The C-Allviews performed particularly well in low light conditions, and captured clearer colour images than our main competitors from ambient street lighting,” he says.
“The configuration of our cameras means they operate particularly well with scenes lit by low pressure sodium lighting, and give images that are clear enough to allow suspects and individuals to be identified.” With their neat, compact design the C-Allviews are also noted for robustness, giving both IP67 resistance to harsh weather conditions, and resilience against vandalism and malicious attacks.
As a result of this toughness they can, where required, be installed closer to ground level than more vulnerable cameras. This not only makes maintenance easier, it gives system designers more flexibility for siting, and a better field of view with less viewing from above.
In most cases the new project involves the cameras being installed without any lighting, and at these sites they have proved up to the task of delivering crisp images just with the ambient light on the scene.
However in some instances Ganz LED based illuminators are also being used, to give extra clarity in areas that are poorly lit.
In particular the Ganz infra-red lamps have been selected to allow near-covert surveillance and avoid the problems of light-pollution at sites where it was decided that ‘invisible’ lighting was preferable. These include riverside areas, parks and other open spaces.
“The Ganz LED illuminators also have the advantage of being a more efficient, eco-friendly solution because they use less power, and have a longer bulb life which results in a lower maintenance overhead costs,” adds Michael.
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Cameratech gives engine testers a clearer view with Ganz C-Allviews
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Date Posted: 05.12.2008
Jet engine tests at a servicing facility in South Wales are being viewed in close-up detail thanks to three Ganz C-Allview high-speed ruggedised PTZ cameras installed by Cameratech Solutions Ltd.
The precision CCTV system is allowing engineers to record and assess the performance of the engines in crucial wind-tunnel testing. “When the wind-tunnel tests are underway our system has to deal with extreme noise conditions with a lot of vibration,” says Dave Brown, MD of Cameratech. “Despite this we were asked to deliver high resolution, close-up images. We chose the C-Allviews because of their reliability and excellent image definition.”
Camretech Solutions specialises in bespoke CCTV and security system installations and the company has used Ganz C-Allviews for a number of surveillance projects. The company’s latest installation is at a maintenance facility that serves some of the world’s leading airlines. With their robust finish, built-in wiper and IP67 weather-hardiness rating they are suitable for the most demanding CCTV projects.
“Our cameras are increasingly being chosen for mission-critical projects such as this because they deliver reliable results where ordinary cameras would struggle,” adds John Downie, CBC’s Sales & Marketing Manager.
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Ganz C-Allviews safeguard Hartlepool Marina
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Date Posted: 17.11.2008
As part of ongoing facility investments Hartlepool Marina is now being protected by the very latest Ganz C-Allview high-speed ruggedised PTZ cameras.
Hartlepool is one of Europe’s leading marina locations, with numerous shops, restaurants, pubs and tourist attractions as well as more than 500 fully serviced pontoon and quayside berths.
Now security controllers at the site have greatly improved views of key areas thanks to the robustness and flexibility of the C-Allviews.
“Because the Ganz units are a lot more rugged than other cameras we have been able to install them much closer to ground level,” explains Jonathan Nattrass, MD of Euro Security. “This gives them a better field of view and makes it easier for the security staff to watch over the site.” One unit, has been installed close to the water at the marina’s East Pontoon, and it is delivering crisp, clear images thanks to its built-in wiper, and IP67 weather-hardiness rating. “Our new CCTV system from Euro Security has been working perfectly, even in the challenging coastal weather conditions that we sometimes experience,” says Hartlepool’s head of security Allan Henderson. He praises the Ganz C-Allviews for their combination of high performance and competitive pricing. “We looked at alternative models but none of them offered as many advantages as the C-Allviews,” he adds.
With their distortion-free, optically flat glass the Ganz C-Allviews are designed to deliver consistently high image quality in conditions where other models might struggle.
“Our C-Allviews are now widely used in applications such as town centres and public areas, as well as in remote rural sites and difficult coastal locations,” says John Downie, CBC’s Sales & Marketing Manager.
A range of specialist surveillance solutions based on the C-Allview technology is also now available, including thermal imaging and radar detection units for open areas, perimeters, and quayside applications.
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