360 Vision Technology delivers surveillance solution for New Forest

Covering the area’s towns and villages, as well as key parts of the county’s famous rural forest, 360 Vision Technology’s hybrid system has been used to ensure a simple upgrade path from New Forest District Council’s existing analogue network of surveillance technology to a future-proofed IP transmission network.

Thanks to 360 Vision Technology’s TX transmission technology, additional cameras have been added to the network in outer areas without the requirement for an expensive fibre cabling infrastructure.

Designed to cover ‘hotspots’ of anti-social activity, the extension to the existing system was required to address such emerging community issues across disparate areas of the region, including sections of the famous New Forest itself and surrounding towns both during the day and for the benefit of the night-time economy.

“Given the existing relationship in place and our proven reputation for solving such issues in the most economical way, New Forest District Council turned to us to expand the surveillance coverage of the existing town centre camera network for monitoring back at the New Forest District Council Control Room,” explained Rick Aisthorpe, engineering director at systems integrator Chroma Vision Limited.

Aisthorpe continued: “We already had a long-term technical relationship with 360 Vision Technology as the company had assisted us with the transition from an analogue camera network to an IP network for other customers via the use of its Invictus Hybrid cameras. We were fully confident this technology would do the same job for New Forest District Council.”

Hybrid solution 

Coverage was required to provide safety and security surveillance in those areas popular with both locals and visitors. A network of hybrid cameras would yield the best coverage and Return on Investment, while also providing those communities involved with the best possible degree of protection.

“Additionally,” noted Aisthorpe, “this investment in 360 Vision Technology’s hybrid transmission technology would assist New Forest District Council in transitioning from an analogue surveillance transmission network to an IP network in a piecemeal way as and when budgets became available to do so.”

The 360 Vision Technology Invictus Hybrid offers HD with analogue video and RS485 control, allowing its addition to legacy analogue systems such as the one in use by New Forest District Council. Post-infrastructure upgrades, customers benefit from HD and IP control with no hardware alterations simply by changing the camera output.

“This meant that we were only either replacing cameras that had come to the end of their lifecycle or adding additional ones to cover the required areas,” continued Aisthorpe, “with the new units working alongside existing analogue cameras while their lifecycle ran out and, therefore, maximising the available budget at the time. The Invictus Hybrid high-performance ruggedised PTZ cameras with full 1080p HD and low-light camera imaging technology were the perfect choice for deployment in this application, with cameras installed to bring the towns of Lymington, Ringwood, Fordingbridge, Totton, Lyndhurst, New Milton and Hythe into the network.”

Underpinned by continuous rotation pan, unobstructed 360-degree views and 160-degree tilt, the 360 Vision Invictus cameras can deliver unhindered views to the Control Room. For night-time vision, they’re equipped with remotely switchable on-board LED white light technology supported by an infrared capability for covert surveillance during the hours of darkness.

Additional cameras

Subsequent to this initial phase, New Forest District Council required additional cameras to cover more areas across the rural region, but at the same time was faced with the logistical restrictions of installing a traditional surveillance infrastructure.

The expansive and disparate nature of the additional surveillance required served to negate the use of traditional camera transmission and cabling measures (such as fibre cabling under streets or a network of traditional surveillance cameras on poles). An alternative solution had to be found.

“Further complicating matters regarding camera installations,” added Aisthorpe, “many areas requiring coverage are located in groups around the expansive rural area of the New Forest, with the towns often miles distant from each other. Thankfully, we could address such issues by using 360 Vision Technology’s TX technology.”

In addition, Aisthorpe noted: “Using the redeployable and rapidly deployed technology of the 360 Vision Technology TX range of cameras has allowed us to assess and confirm the security problem at each of these locations without committing to a permanent camera. Our close technical relationship with 360 Vision Technology really paid off here, with the team and business development director Adrian Kirk suggesting Invictus TX units equipped with 360 Vision TX technology. This solution would enable simple and rapid deployment and redeployment at these additional areas with video transmission over mobile phone networks.”

TX technology 

360 Vision TX wireless video camera transmission technology delivers camera video and PTZ control from just 6 Kbps as well as Full 1080p HD edge recording/remote retrieval on demand and saves New Forest District Council time and money on fixed infrastructure camera video transmission installation costs (as well as saving money on the ongoing cost of ownership).

Delivering high-quality camera video over low bandwidth, 360 Vision Technology’s 3G/4G/5G/LTE/satellite TX wireless camera range provides a reliable wireless video transmission solution, even within difficult wireless video transmission environments such as the remote location of the New Forest’s camera network. Additionally, these cameras use highly efficient optimised video compression with minimal latency that’s fully encrypted and secure.

“The Invictus TX complies with all of our network security requirements so we can always be confident of the results when including these additional Invictus units in our camera network,” stated Brian Byrne, service manager for community safety and support at New Forest District Council.

Ensuring that running costs are kept to a minimum, models in the TX range of wireless surveillance cameras operate without the need for expensive airtime contracts. With complete control of the bandwidth used, Chroma Vision’s engineers have been able to choose the resolution and frame rate to transmit images dependent on the bandwidth available in the area of installation.

Additionally, operators in the New Forest Control Room can switch dynamically between low and high bandwidth video streams dependent on network capability, adjusting surveillance camera video quality to suit.

“System operators in the Control Room can also instantly switch on the Invictus cameras’ on-board LED white light to illuminate the scene and inform people that they’re being monitored,” said Byrne. “This has proven to be an excellent feature for us, both in terms of security and safety.”

Byrne continued: “If a given camera isn’t required or, after a period of use, it has helped to tackle the original requirement issue, we can then either choose to leave it doing its job or simply and quickly relocate it to another site awaiting surveillance. Some issues, particularly so those focused on anti-social behaviour, can ‘move around’, but thanks to the use of 360 Vision’s TX technology, so can our surveillance capability. Being able to deploy cameras where they’re most needed ensures that we use our resources in the most economical way and extract the maximum return on camera investments.”

Varied locations 

In use, the latest installation of wireless TX units has tackled anti-social behaviour in forested rural areas and secured minor crime ‘hotspots’ in the region’s towns, both during the day and at night.

Linked directly to the Control Room, the Invictus cameras are seamlessly integrated into Synectics’ Synergy 3 VMS and can be locally powered via the existing infrastructure, in many cases on existing business premises (the advantage to the host business being a camera covering the vicinity of their property).

Adrian Kirk observed: “The mix of hybrid, TX transmission and integrated LED white light technology makes the Invictus camera the perfect choice for the technically demanding environments around the New Forest area. Seamless integration into the Control Room not only ensures operational familiarity from the outset, but also affords the ability to switch on white light technology in an instant. This can simply and effectively neutralise anti-social behaviour.”

Kirk added: “Invictus white light technology offers the first line of defence in stopping anti-social behaviour. Going from a ‘covert’ infrared setting to an ‘overt’ white light setting can neutralise behaviour as the subjects know they’re being watched and recorded. This puts the power back into operators’ hands, helping them to de-escalate a situation, and has proven to be key in terms of tackling incidents in the surveilled areas, which are often now resolved without any further action being necessary.”

Brian Byrne concluded: “As we drive towards a greener daily functionality of New Forest District Council’s network and assets, thanks to the low-power consumption certification of the Invictus cameras, we can meet the new criteria. The cameras are providing high-definition images of places that we thought were inaccessible. Once they’ve done their job, and the episodes of anti-social behaviour have stopped or otherwise moved on, the cameras can be removed and redeployed at the next emerging ‘hotspot’.”

*Further information is available online at www.360visiontechnology.com