A case study from the Channel Islands, as in our camera and dome supplement, free with the September 2015 print issue of Professional Security magazine.
The States of Jersey Police owns and operates the CCTV system in and around the harbour and town centre of St Helier and at the airport in St Peter. New CCTV has been installed for public safety and for law enforcement purposes, replacing the old system installed in 1995.
As St Helier is a coastal town, the cameras had to withstand harsh environmental conditions. They also had to operate at night in low light, to cover the pub and club areas of the town.
Ian Robins, Communication Infra-Structure Manager, IT, of the States of Jersey Police was responsible for designing and managing the installation. Ian said: “Robust cameras with exceptional image quality, night time sensitivity, and intuitive operator control are essential. After extensive testing of a number of manufacturers’ products, Redvision’s X Series IP rugged dome cameras came out top and are best suited to our needs.”
As owner of the CCTV system, the police set it up to meet operational and data collection needs. Video data is readily available, simple to retrieve and presented in the most appropriate format for operator viewing. Ian and team specified that all the cameras must have low light capability for night time operation. Ian says: “It was important that the cameras had a wiper to remove water and dirt from their field of view, especially as the cameras are subjected to harsh, coastal conditions. The PTZ dome cameras from Redvision met this criteria and came highly recommended by managers of other UK town centre and local authority CCTV schemes. All the cameras used in the system are RVXIP 30s, with a 2MP, 1080p sensor and record at 25 frames per second. They feature ultra-efficient LED lighting, which provides IR light for covert video and white light as an overt deterrent. A ‘dark-zone’ feature also suppresses white light in pre-defined zones to prevent nuisance or hazardous operation, such as dazzling drivers.”
The costs of running the cameras at night are low due to the LED’s efficiency and the cameras’ green credentials. Some 23 RVXIP30-1080 new cameras have been installed, which cover two square miles of St Helier. Three are at the harbour, three at the airport and the others around the town. Ian says: “Each camera has a white marine finish, regardless of its location, allowing us the flexibility to swap out cameras or move them from one location to another in just 20 minutes, if needed. They all connect via a network with a fibre optic back-bone, for high speed video data transmission, and are recorded for 90 days.”
Camera appearance was important. A rugged and functional, rather than futuristic look was required, in keeping with the town. They had to be able to look over the horizontal, in pedestal mount, to avoid scene clipping. Milestone Systems’ video management software runs on a single server, at a central police monitoring station at Castle Quay. No video analytics are included, due to privacy issues; however, the system is monitored 24-7 by operators. They have a desk top system with a large NEC hyper-wall, so they can display video to a large number of police when required. Each camera operates at Full HD, 1080p, 25 FPS generating large video files stored in a 90 Terra-Byte, NAS data system.
The States of Jersey Police installed the cameras and system downtime had to be kept to a minimum and managed so that no area was left unprotected. Using just three people, the police were able to install and set up each camera in four hours.
Ian Robins adds: “The entire system replacement took a total of just ten days. This meant we were operational with an entirely new system incredibly quickly. One of the reasons our operators liked the Redvision cameras is because the control system is so intuitive and contains no joy-stick latency. The system was not only up and running after ten days, but the operators were immediately able to concentrate on the images, instead of the controls. St Helier was well-protected throughout the entire operation.”
System reliability is an absolute for the police. The RVXIP30 cameras come with a five year warranty and manufacturer support. The control system firmware can be upgraded at once, as and when enhancements become available, so the system remains current.
Visit redvisioncctv.com.
