Controlware: CCTV to increase road network efficiency for South Dublin County Council

Controlware: CCTV to increase road network efficiency for South Dublin County Council. In recent years, installations of CCTV surveillance systems have increased dramatically. The police and other law enforcement agencies have found CCTV an invaluable weapon to combat rising crime figures and the war against global terrorism while private sector organisations ranging from retail to manufacturing businesses have also benefited from its crime deterrent and management capabilities. From city centres and airports, to the home, CCTV is now so widespread that there is at least one CCTV camera for every 14 people and statistically, in a journey across London you could be caught on camera up to 300 times.

The increased demand for surveillance and the need to share video information more easily has led to the development of IP based solutions. As increased reliance upon information and security grows, it becomes necessary to make video accessible to more people. For example, in most organisations it was only the responsibility of security staff to monitor the premises but today additional departments such as the IT department need to know who is accessing their secure areas.

Simultaneously, the increasing availability of broadband technology, mobile communication devices and other high bandwidth networking connections has made the transmission of video images and more importantly real time video, more viable. Many organisations are beginning to recognise the enhanced flexibility that an integrated and networked video solution can deliver. By using a single infrastructure costs can be saved, multiple operators are able to access, share and view live and recorded video without having to be onsite, remote control of PTZ cameras provides increased flexibility and there is virtually unlimited storage capacity for archived video.

Also the integration opportunities are much greater for IP solutions. By integrating the surveillance platform with access control or building management systems the creation of a single unified management and control platform is possible. Analogue CCTV systems are also able to take advantage of a networked IP solution without having to replace costly equipment. Through installing codec’s between the coaxial cable network (connecting the cameras) and the Ethernet network, organisations can quickly and easily upgrade their system to IP.

The codec’s convert the video from the analogue cameras to IP for transport across the local or wide area network. One organisation to benefit in this way is South Dublin County Council. Conscious of the vital importance of an adequate road network to economic and social development, the Council‘ s Roads policy is to bring the road network to a reasonable standard and adequate maintenance/ repair in accordance with a planned programme and to provide appropriate traffic management measures to ensure efficient and safe transportation for all road users.

To date the council controls over 847 km of roads comprising 55 km of national roads, 103 km of regional roads and 689 km of local roads.

Intelligent Roads Network

One of the goals of South Dublin County Council is to achieve an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) that aims to increase road network efficiency by best use of existing infrastructure, with a central concept of providing timely and accurate information to travellers. To achieve this aim a Traffic Management Centre (TMC) was built where operators benefit from a wealth of technical solutions that deliver real-time traffic monitoring and congestion mapping.

From the TMC traffic flow is monitored throughout the region in order to detect faults at a number of key locations in the county. The TMC provides traffic information from 7 am to 7 pm. To improve traffic flow the operators in the TMC have access to a continuous stream of traffic-flow data from detection systems throughout the South Dublin County. This includes 50 Dial-up ISDN Cameras, seven Broadband Cameras, 30 Automatic Number Plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, and access to a further 150 cameras from Dublin City Council.

In addition to video surveillance automatic traffic counters and Remote Monitoring Systems send data to the Urban Traffic Management and Control Database (UTMC), which generates statistics and historical transport records.

Improved Operations

The networked Video Solution enables South Dublin County Council to benefit from highquality and live traffic surveillance monitored from the TMC. The initial design for the traffic surveillance solution utilised ISDN video transmission devices connected to JVC and Pelco dome cameras mounted on 12 m high traffic camera poles at the roadside.

Remote surveillance of the traffic was achieved through ISDN dialup connections. Since the traffic surveillance solution is used continuously ISDN dialup (based on a per minute call rate), proved to be expensive so the solution has recently been upgraded to IP video codec’s. By using IP codec’s South Dublin County Council are able to take advantage of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) connections that reduce transmission costs and enable transmission of greater video bandwidth. This enables operators at the TMC to monitor traffic with better quality video that improves their visibility across the county.

Video over IP forms part of a series of works being undertaken by South Dublin County Council as part of the EU ITISS (Intermodal Traveller Information SystemS) Project. From a technology perspective the success of this solution has paved the way for future deployment of other solutions across South Dublin County Council. As the number of cameras connected to surveillance networks increase, management platforms have to become more sophisticated to help operators manage the huge number of cameras and the increasing amount of video information they generate.

Many management platforms now incorporate behavioural, tracking or biometric technologies to aid operator’s workload. Intelligent Video Analysis is one technology that represents a cost-efficient way to help prevent and improve responses to crime while maintaining a proactive level of surveillance. Video Analysis automatically detects, tracks, zooms in on and records all target activity from any camera without operator intervention.

People, events and vehicles are automatically classified to determine activities or behaviours that might be considered suspicious and alarms are generated when rules the user has applied are violated. All unauthorised activity in pre-defined target zones is monitored including unattended objects, loitering, objects/people falling, trespassing, fence climbing, vehicles speeding or stopping in restricted zones and vehicles/people moving in the wrong direction.

An intelligent search tool revolutionises retrieval of specific information through image searches based upon time, location and alarm activity. For example, a search for all activity around a door entrance for the last 24 hours that necessitates a long manual search when using a conventional system is completed and complied into a mini compilation movie in seconds when using an Intelligent Video Analysis system.

Responding to events as they happen and enabling fast retrieval of specific video data automatically maintains a high level of security, improving surveillance operations while reducing costs and saving valuable time. IP solutions enable organisations like South Dublin County Council to be able to maximise efficiency and resources while maintaining a secure and safe environment.

Through the adoption of advanced and sophisticated IP surveillance solutions operators benefit from fast access to real-time and archive video information while technologies like Intelligent Video Analysis make surveillance more proactive than ever before.

Contact:

Controlware GmbH,
Dietzenbach, Germany
Tel.: +49 6074 858 246
Fax: +49 6074 858 220
stefanie.zender@controlware.de
www.controlware.de