ABERDEEN Harbour
handles around 5 million tonnes of cargo a year and is the centre of activity
for the offshore oil and gas industry’s marine support operations in North-West
Europe. This creates a complex security environment, with the need to monitor
staff and public safety, manage traffic and shipping movements, protect assets,
detect criminal activity and combat terrorism. Advanced search and analysis of
recorded video is therefore an essential tool for the Harbour and law
enforcement agencies.
As a result of
these needs, Aberdeen Harbour in Scotland decided to replace its existing analogue
DVR equipment with Network Video Recorders (NVRs) to create a hybrid CCTV
system that delivers video recording and archive analysis tools.
The hybrid
approach allows the Harbour to maintain its existing analogue CCTV
infrastructure, whilst accessing the advanced image quality and capability that
an IP Video solution provides. When deciding to upgrade its system, the Harbour
recognised the importance of archiving high-quality evidential video and having
a CCTV platform that could easily be expanded in the future.
Commenting on the
success of the project, Ken Reilly, engineering director of Aberdeen Harbour
said, “We are delighted with the new IndigoVision recording solution. The
system is a huge improvement on the previous equipment and has greatly enhanced
our CCTV capability at the Harbour.”
“The approach we
took to upgrading the video recording solution ensured that there was minimal
disruption to the CCTV operation,” said Liam Mowat, engineering manager of
Scottish Communications, IndigoVision’s approved Partner who designed and
installed the upgrade.
“There was also
no re-training required as the front end CCTV control room remained unchanged.
Adding a networked-based IP Video solution to the existing equipment has given
the Port a simple migration path to a fully distributed IP-CCTV solution for
the future.”
IndigoVision’s
8000 series MPEG-4 transmitter modules are used to convert the analogue camera
feeds to DVD-quality video for streaming onto the network. The NVRs, which
together with the 8000 modules are rack mounted in the Harbour’s IT suite,
record video directly from the network. The NVRs provide a 31-day archive,
recording all cameras at 4CIF/25fps.
IndigoVision’s
advanced compression technology ensures both the network bandwidth and recorder
storage are minimised. This is further reduced by the use of IndigoVision’s
unique Activity Controlled Framerate (ACF) feature that is built-in to the 8000
modules. ACF reduces the amount of video that is transmitted from a camera
during periods of scene inactivity. As soon as motion is detected, the 8000 automatically
starts streaming video at the maximum configured framerate.
Operators in the
IT suite use a workstation running Control Center, IndigoVision’s Security
Management Software, to review and analyse recorded video. Evidential video
clips can be exported for use by the police and other agencies. Should the
Harbour wish to expand the system in the future any component, such as cameras,
NVRs or workstations, can be installed at any point on the network, creating a
truly distributed system.
Many ports around
the world have invested in IndigoVision’s complete integrated IP Video solution
for wide-area surveillance. The flexibility and distributed nature of the
system allows a number of different agencies to monitor their own operations
within the port.
IndigoVision’s
low-bandwidth technology also means that wireless networks can easily be
deployed, an important consideration when monitoring the huge areas covered by
port operations.
