Case Studies

Nottingham adds VMS

by Mark Rowe

Nottingham City Council has brought in Pelco’s VideoXpert Video Management System (VMS). Working alongside Nottinghamshire County Council and Highways England, the Nottingham City Traffic Control Centre coordinates several hundred traffic signal junctions across the county and has access to over 350 cameras. That includes Nottingham Express Transit (NET) tram cameras. A mix of traditional analogue and more recently IP roadside cameras, at strategic junctions across the city’s roads, are used for traffic surveillance and to monitor bus lanes during their operational times and to monitor on-street parking.

Such video must abide by the Surveillance Camera Commissioner‘s Code of Practice which sets out guidelines for CCTV and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems; use should be proportionate and capturing quality images that give police a better chance to catch criminals and reduce crime.

For parking and other traffic violations, the system needs to record enough evidence to provide a context view of the area containing the concerned vehicle; a close-up of the registration number; and a readable image of the relevant street signs and road markings to help prove the alleged violation has taken place and the time elapsed.

Steve O’Sullivan, Traffic Control Operators Manager, at the Traffic Control Centre, said: “The legacy systems we had were up to 25 years old and were not adequate to meet the needs of an expanding city. We needed newer, more economical ways of putting equipment in and basically to bring the system into the 21st century.”

The VideoXpert VMS displays what surveillance operators need to see, when it’s needed, so they can make decisions. Views can be shared with other users when other “eyes” are needed and can be called up via sequencing, alarm tabs and event viewer features. Operators can review bookmarked footage with a feature that captures scenes from multiple angles and then synchronizes the video, using the investigative engine that locates and collates the video.

O’Sullivan added: “The new Pelco system is quite smooth to operate and its flexibility allows us to easily add equipment and have video up and running the same day. Overall, it’s been a fabulous experience.”

The system upgrade was installed by Inside Out Group, a local firm. They chose the system due to their experience with Pelco’s Endura products. Nottingham’s existing IP and analogue cameras are still in use due to the VX’s integration with third party products.

Simon Glover of Inside Out Group said: “All local authorities are looking to reduce expenditure and so we were happy to put forward a system that allowed them to leverage existing equipment as part of the upgrade and keep capital costs down. We are locals and it is especially gratifying for us to work with and be a part of a community which takes such a visionary approach.”

With the new VMS, Nottingham can add cameras to the network with minimal extra cost. New IP cameras can now be added over readily available WAN links onto VX for an estimated tenth of the previous cost. Glover explains that Inside Out Group works with all stakeholders to vet the request for extra cameras to see it will provide reasonable return on investment.

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