IP-in-Action
Vemotion - Extending the reach of flood management
Vemotion provides additional video streaming solutions to the Environment Agency. This will extend the reach of a project successfully deployed in 2010, to assist the Environment Agency in its flood management role and ongoing measures to reduce the risk of flooding.
The initial project followed a successful pilot in Shrewsbury, instigated in partnership with Shropshire Council. The project enabled the Environment Agency to view live images from the Council’s CCTV cameras in locations of particular interest from a flood management point of view. Vemotion video compression technology was used to allow live images to be cost effectively streamed from Shropshire Council’s CCTV Control Room over low bit rate networks such as standard GSM mobile phone networks. The technology used means that Environment Agency staff can access these images on their laptops from any location.
This latest investment extends the value of the Environment Agency’s existing portable video cameras, by enabling live footage captured by personnel on site to be viewed instantly by staff
back at its flood control centre, which helps inform the Environment Agency’s decision making. Live Video from portable camcorders and body-worn cameras is transferred wirelessly to the operative’s vehicle. Vemotion’s innovated technology within its Vehicle Streaming Unit is then used to compress and transmit the video stream from the vehicle over a GSM mobile connection to the Environment Agency’s Flood Control centre in Shrewsbury, West Midlands.
Over 2.5 million properties in England and Wales are at risk from flooding from rivers or from the sea. Changes in our climate, such as more severe storms and wetter winters, serve to increase this risk. The Environment Agency, through the management of land, river systems, and flood and coastal defences, can reduce the probability of flooding.
Following the summer 2007 floods and in line with the recommendations within the Pitt Review, the Environment Agency and the Met Office have been examining ways to combine their expertise to provide a comprehensive picture of national flood risk, from developing weather through to
Streamlining Logistics for Chronopost
Chronopost International, leading provider of express parcel delivery services in France and worldwide, has deployed a complete end-to-end IP Video solution from IndigoVision to protect and streamline its logistics operation of its hub located at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris. Around 150 cameras provide both security monitoring of the site and a valuable video record of shipments. Chronopost owns a network of 80 operational sites that enables them to deliver over 300,000 items a day to 230 countries.
The ability to provide high-quality video recordings is vitally important. The reliability and security of the system and recorded video was therefore one of the main reasons for Chronopost choosing the IndigoVision solution.
“We know with the redundant recording solution provided by IndigoVision the probability of losing any recordings is very small,” said Xavier Blanc, Chronopost’s Technical Safety Manager. “If we lose a Network Video Recorder (NVR) on a Saturday night, the back-up NVR will automatically take over and we can wait until Monday morning for the unit to be replaced. This saves us money by not needing to have a 24/7 maintenance contract. The new system has also allowed us to improve the operational efficiency of the guards by deploying automatic alarm-based
incident response.”
The original analogue surveillance system was upgraded and improved using IP Video when a new automatic dispatch system was installed at the facility. Analogue fixed cameras from the original system were reused by connecting them to IndigoVision encoders, which convert the analogue signals into high-quality H.264 compressed digital video for transmission over the network. IndigoVision IP cameras, both fixed and PTZ, were also installed.
“Onboard analytics built into the encoders and IP cameras help us to minimize video downtime,” added Blanc. “Obscured or unfocussed cameras are automatically detected and operators immediately alerted. Due to the modular and distributed nature of the system we are instantly aware of any problems, including interruption to video streams. Replacement of any encoders or IP cameras is very easy.”
Using ‘Control Center’, IndigoVision’s Security Management Software, operators view live and recorded video using one workstation located in the main security room of the Security Department and live-only video remotely in the guard’s station. ‘Control Center’ provides an advanced set of features and analytics for analysing recorded footage for specific incidents, together with full video
the actual flood event itself.
Within its overall measures to improve flood management and reduce the risk of flooding, the Environment Agency was looking for cost effective ways to leverage existing infrastructure.
The Vemotion Encoder provides a highly efficient video compression and transmission that ensures that the quality video images can be reliably transmitted over very low bandwidth connections.
Following the success in Shropshire, the Environment Agency is already forging partnerships with other local authorities and expects to extend its CCTV capabilities across the Midlands
IPfocus
synchronisation, which is an invaluable tool for evidence gathering. Recorded video from several cameras at different times can be viewed on the same viewing window. With a single click of the mouse all the cameras can be time synchronised together, allowing operators to track a shipment across several views as it moves through the hub.
A total of 11 NVRs, including the failover backup, provide Chronopost with a fully searchable, high- quality 30-day video archive of all the cameras. Due to IndigoVision’s class-leading compression technology the amount of storage required is typically much lower than comparable systems. This storage requirement is further reduced by the use of Activity Control Framerate (ACF), a motion-based analytics function running in real-time in the encoders and IP cameras.
issue 31_19
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