February 13, 2008 -- IP video and alarm management solutions provider IndigoVision recently announced several new deployments on both sides of the Atlantic.
First, the company announced that its end-to-end IP Video platform is being deployed at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine as part of a campus-wide CCTV upgrade.
The university's medical campus spreads out over 45 acres in downtown Miami, Florida, but it also has a number of remote sites, including one that is 100 miles north in Palm Beach County and another which is home to the new Miami Institute for Human Genomics, located 25 miles southwest of the medical campus. According to IndigoVision, this type of wide-area application was too demanding for the existing analog CCTV system, leading to many operational problems. However, the company maintains that by adopting its IP video platform, many difficulties were overcome and much of the original CCTV infrastructure was re-used, including all of the cameras.
The ongoing project is being installed by Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies' Miami office and will eventually encompass all of the medical school's 300+ CCTV cameras. The system employs IndigoVision's Control Center video and alarm management software, which is license-free, for viewing live and recorded video.
The system uses fifteen workstations, one in the main security control center, others at satellite security stations around campus, and three in security administration offices on campus. The original VCRs have been replaced with IndigoVision's Network Video Recorders (NVRs). Four Windows-based NVRs are installed in the main security control center and three stand-alone NVRs at remote locations. Recorded video from any of the NVRs can be viewed and analyzed from any Control Center workstation wherever they are located. Over 38 Terabytes of storage in a campus data center provides the university with more than 30 days of recordings from all cameras.
Benefits over the campus's existing analog/VCR system, according to IndigoVision, include the viewing of live and recorded video from anywhere on campus, fast analysis and retrieval of recorded footage, and complete control over resolution and frame-rates which allows matching to network resources. Future plans include incorporating another 150 cameras from the University of Miami Hospital, a 560-bed facility recently acquired by the university.
"IndigoVision's CCTV system is a simple, straight forward solution that is easy to use and does exactly what it is designed to do," comments Tony Artrip, the university's executive director of public safety. "It is great to view any of the cameras on campus or at remote location locations miles away, directly from your desktop. Searching for an incident on recorded video could not be easier."
The university is investigating using the IP Video system for distance learning applications which would involve broadcasting lectures to many remote students at the same time. This can be achieved with IP multicasting, a feature of IndigoVision's IP Video technology. This capability allows live or recorded footage from a single camera to be efficiently viewed by multiple operators simultaneously, no matter where they are located on the network.
Seperately, IndigoVision announced that its IP Video solution has been installed to enhance the security at Royal Vopak's petrochemical storage terminal in West Thurrock, UK.
With 347,100m3 of storage capacity in 125 tanks, Vopak's terminal is a demanding environment with security and health and safety of paramount importance. The terminal provides independent storage and handling of liquid and gaseous chemical and oil products for Vopak's customers. Products are transported from the terminal to the customer by road, pipeline and river via the 3-berth jetty.
Vopak Terminal London recently chose to upgrade their ageing analog CCTV system with the networked IP Video solution from IndigoVision. The 40-camera system was specified by consultants, M J Partnership, and installed by ADT Fire & Security Ltd in partnership with Waterstons, Vopak's IT consultants.
IndigoVision's Control Center software allows operators to view live and recorded footage, from any camera, from any point on the network. Vopak has utilized this flexibility with the installation of a number of workstations both in the central control room and at other locations around the site, allowing other authorized staff to access the system.
The company says its IP Video system has provided Vopak with benefits including fast image retrieval and improved live and recorded video quality, which can be used for evidential purposes; something that was not achievable with the old analog system. In addition, video footage can also be used as a training aid for Vopak.
"We are delighted with the new CCTV system," comments Peter Lloyd, engineering manager at Vopak Terminal London. "The video quality is exceptional and the flexibility of the Control Center software is allowing us to use it as a site-wide management tool."
Video recording is achieved using IndigoVision's Network Video Recorder (NVR) software which provides up to 3 months of continuous storage from all of the cameras. Control Center provides a number of tools that allows fast retrieval and analysis of the recorded footage by the operator. The 40 CCTV cameras, which are a mix of fixed and PTZ from the original installation, are each connected to an IndigoVision 8000 transmitter/receiver module which converts the analog camera feed into DVD-quality MPEG-4 digital video for transmission over the network.
Finally, across the English Channel, IKEA France has invested in IndigoVision's IP Video solution for CCTV surveillance in its new 215,000 sq. ft. flagship store in Grenoble. The Swedish-based home furnishing retail group says it invests heavily in CCTV technology in their stores to ensure their customers and staff are safe and secure at all times. The new store, which opened in October 2007, is seen as a test site for the adoption of IP-CCTV for other new IKEA stores in France.
The 36-camera system was installed by IndigoVision's local partner Concept Maintenance and is an ideal solution for stores such as IKEA where network density is very high. IndigoVision's advanced compression technology allows the entire IP Video system to operate on the store's existing LAN with minimal impact on network bandwidth. The IKEA network supports Power-over-Ethernet (PoE), which allows any new IP cameras to be connected directly to the network via a single Cat 5 cable.
Commenting on the operation of the IndigoVision system, Sylvie Weber, IKEA's country security manager, says, "We are very pleased with the system and in particular with the superb image quality and the Control Center user interface. It's very easy to find and analyze a particular video clip, which can then be exported in a tamper-proof form for police evidence if required."
The safe and speedy evacuation of staff and customers during a fire or incident is paramount to IKEA's operational planning, and they run many practice simulations. The CCTV system has been configured to help in situations like these. For example when an emergency exit is opened a Control Center alarm is triggered which automatically pans the nearest camera to display the exit so operators can ensure a smooth and orderly evacuation.
IndigoVision adds that its IP Video solution can also be used to provide benefits beyond store security. Many retailers are accessing in-store footage to help analyze merchandising, in-store promotions and footfall trends. Via the installed system, this can be achieved locally and nationally, with central marketing teams accessing live and recorded video from any store at any location across their corporate networks.