Almost nine years after it was opened, the M6toll has had its CCTV upgraded, to increase recording capacity and comply with changing data security requirements. Paul Parry is Systems Maintenance Manager for Midland Expressway Limited (MEL), the private company that keeps the road running. He saud: “The existing Wavestore recording system has done everything we had expected of it but our requirements changed and the hardware was occasionally developing faults, although this was not a surprise as it had been in continuous use 24/7 for almost nine years. In particular we needed to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and this meant having the capability to simultaneously record and store video evidence of secure areas for 90 days. As a result we needed to invest in a substantial increase in the video surveillance system’s video storage capacity.”
Paul Parry and colleagues at MEL considered the option to replace the recording product with one from another manufacturer. Parry said: “At the time we originally installed Wavestore, we were particularly impressed with the Wavestore GUI, which is simple to use and intuitive requiring little or no staff training. Nine years is however a long time and particularly so when technology had been advancing at such a rapid rate. We therefore felt we should at least take a look at what other solutions were available.” After considering proposals from other manufacturers, MEL decided to stay with Wavestore. Besides ordering larger capacity video servers, the toll road firm also commissioned the installation of an updated version of the security manufaacturer’s video management software. Parry said: “Our research did not lead us to believe that any other manufacturer could do a better job and it was certainly a major advantage to stay with a system which our operators were happy working with and we were fully trained on.” Images from the 100 plus cameras installed across six toll stations are recorded locally on Wavestore servers and can be accessed at any time by operators in the central MEL control room . Other users have included ports and airports, hospitals, hotels, schools, and homeland security applications.
About the toll road
The 27 miles of the M6toll allows car drivers (for £5.50) to bypass one of Europe’s most congested motorways. It was built and is operated by Midland Expressway Limited (MEL), a private company which employs over 130 people to keep the toll road, which cost £900m and years to build, running.
