July 18, 2007 -- IndigoVision recently announced that its IP video system has seen recent deployments in IP-CCTV surveillance systems in Macau, China and, stateside, in Wilmington, Delaware.
The company's IP video system has been incorporated into a CCTV surveillance platform for the Police Service in Macau, one of the two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China (along with Hong Kong). The company says the system has revolutionized how the Macau Police monitor their operation, providing them with faster video analysis capabilities and improved incident response time. IndigoVision says it was chosen following a successful test evaluation of competing systems by technical officers of the Macau Police.
The 200+ camera system, installed by IndigoVision's local partner TungPo HK, provides surveillance and recording of video and audio for the HQ and a separate police station located 3 km away across the city, which is connected via a dedicated fiber LAN. The system is soon to be expanded to encompass a third police station whose function will be dedicated to policing the largest casino site in the territory.
Fixed and PTZ dome cameras provide surveillance of the outside of the buildings as well as the detention cells, booking-in desks, interview rooms and operation center. The video and audio can be exported for evidential purposes using sophisticated encryption and watermarking techniques to ensure the material is tamper-proof.
The Macau Police chose to replace their aging analog hardware matrix and VCR-based CCTV system with a platform that incorporates high-quality video with the flexibility and scalability of a virtual matrix, says IndigoVision. This also allowed them to easily integrate surveillance of remote police stations that were not covered by the existing system.
"IndigoVision's video and audio quality is very impressive, which is an important factor when preparing evidence," comments Kenny Leung, director, TungPo HK. "The flexibility of the system and the advanced features provided by the Control Center software has transformed the way Macau Police monitor and record their operation."
Control Center, IndigoVision's enterprise video and alarm management software, allows police officers and staff to view live and recorded video from any of the cameras at either building. The company says that the Macau Police have exploited this flexibility by locating Control Center workstations both in dedicated CCTV control rooms in each building and on individual desks as required. The license-free software allows additional workstations to be installed anywhere on the network for the cost of a PC. Macau Police are currently using about 20 workstations throughout both buildings.
In the deployment, high-quality 25fps/4CIF video and audio is recorded using IndigoVision's Network Video Recorders (NVRs) which are distributed around the network to minimize bandwidth and provide fault tolerant recording. Eleven NVRs with a combined storage of 10 TB provide Macau police with about two weeks of continuous full framerate recording from all cameras, according to IndigoVision.
Each camera is connected to an IndigoVision 8000 transmitter/receiver module. The 8000 converts the camera signal to high-quality digital video for transmission over the IP network. Additional 8000 modules are also used to convert the digital video back to analog for feeds to video displays in the control rooms. Over 50 of the original CCTV cameras were re-used as well as some of the control room equipment.
Elsewhere, IndigoVision's IP video technology is helping local residents in downtown Wilmington, DE, fight violent crime through a CCTV solution.
According to a press release, the area around the city's WCCNPAC Community Center and Adams 4 Shopping Center is benefiting from a remote surveillance solution that has been implemented using standard Internet communications. Video feeds from the remote cameras are digitally compressed and transmitted via cable modems across the internet to the security control room located several blocks away.
In this deployment, the company's Control Center video and alarm management software allows operators in a control room to view live and recorded video from any of the remote cameras. A live video feed is also provided to the local police and high-quality evidential video can be exported from the software to DVD to aid police prosecutions.
A standalone IndigoVision Networked Video Recorder (NVR) is installed locally together with three bullet-resistant PTZ domes at each of the two sites. Each NVR provides storage for up to 30 days of video. The security control room is operated by Downtown Visions, who specialize in providing co-operative surveillance services to businesses and communities.
The system was designed and installed by IndigoVision's local integrator Security Services & Technologies (SST) in partnership with independent security consultants, Morris Access Management. The scalability of the IP Video solution means that other local areas can be cost effectively added to the remote monitoring scheme.
"IndigoVision was chosen for its ability to deliver high-quality digital video with minimum bandwidth requirements," comments Christopher Cundey, senior project Manager at SST. "Getting real time CCTV video from the remote sites via the internet was far more cost-effective then hard wiring several blocks with fiber."
Each camera is connected to an IndigoVision 8000 transmitter/receiver module. The 8000 converts the camera signal to high-quality digital video for transmission over a 640 Kbps Internet connection. The amount of digital video transmitted and recorded is further reduced with the use of Activity Controlled Framerate (ACF), a built-in function within the 8000 hardware. ACF reduces the amount of data transmitted during times of inactivity in the scene, says IndigoVision. As soon as any motion is detected full-frame rate video is transmitted.