Video surveillance is an effective means for
first responders to detect crime, evaluate
fire scenes and identify victims for EMS.
But transporting the video back to headquarters
by wire can be expensive. The
good news: Wireless systems can transmit
video surveillance signals reliably, securely,
and at a much lower price than their wired
equivalents.
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Some of the Vislink microwave equipment at work in São Paolo.
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by Jame Careless
EYE ON BRAZIL
Brazil, looking ahead to the 2016
Olympics, is poised for major growth in
security equipment, and IMS Research
recently pegged the giant nation as the
market to watch in 2010, with the video
surveillance business growing an average of
20 percent a year over the next five years.
Some 40 million people live in the state
of São Paolo, including 11 million in the
state capital of the same name. With so
many people to protect, the São Paolo
Police and Fire Department opted for a mobile video
surveillance system with tremendous power.
The system combines three helicopter-based
cameras and microwave wireless repeaters with
camera-toting officers whose video
is sent out directly via wireless
transmitter backpacks. Using
their regular radios, these officers
can be directed to capture whatever
camera views their commanders
ask for, with the video
coming up immediately on their
IP-connected computer screens.
Because the video travels from
the officers’ backpacks up to the
helicopters, then via microwave
to numerous ground-based
receive sites and then by wire to headquarters, the
signals are robust and reliable.
Carlos Capellao owns Phase Engineering, a São
Paolo integrator who helped put together the network.
It is built upon Vislink’s Mobile Network
Centric Solution (MNCS) for microwave multi-point
data transmission, using equipment from Alcatel
Lucent and Tandberg Television for porting digital
video over IP, among others.
Vislink’s MNCS can support ground-based radio
users, repeater-equipped. FLIR camera-fitted helicopters
and ground-based receive stations all at the
same time, providing a network solution that makes
it relatively easy to create complex yet flexible video
surveillance networks.
“With this system, commanders can tell see what
is going on at all times,” said Capellao. “They can get overhead shots live from the
helicopter itself, and have people
on the ground walk around
and show them what is happening.
The best part is that you
can use the overhead shot to
decide what ground-based officers
should be covering-and
then contact them via radio to
go to those locations, so that
you can see with your own eyes
on the screen.”
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Three helicopters are part of São Paolo’s wireless surveillance system
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In the city of São Paolo-a territory of 580 square
miles-having this kind of overview is priceless.
“We have to deal with natural disasters like
floods, crime and riots,” said Capellao. “Moreover,
local police have to keep on top of developing situations
before they get out of hand.”
A case in point: Brazilians are passionate about
soccer, and whenever a game is about to take place,
it is common for supporters of each team to gather
and march to the stadium. The problem is that these
crowds are fiercely partisan, and prone to fight with
each other when they make contact.
“It is vital for police to know where these crowds
are at any time, and to control traffic flows on the
streets to keep them apart as much as possible,”
Capellao said. “Using a camera-equipped helicopter, they
can track the crowds’ movements,
and keeps officers
ahead of them at all times. This
reduces violence and property
damage, and is good for overall
public safety.”
Without wireless, São
Paolo’s video surveillance system
would be impossible. But
wireless does more than make it possible; it makes it
affordable, because cabling has been reduced to a
minimum. “This is a very powerful technology,” said
Capellao. “It is helping our first responders do their
jobs better, and more safely.”
SAFE IN LONG BEACH
California State University-Long Beach is a big campus.
It covers 323 acres, has 84 buildings and teaches
about 38,000 students. Being that this is California,
the university’s campus has about 100 acres of parking
lots with a total of 10,000 parking spaces.
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Firetide gear overseeing Cal State-Long Beach
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“Traditionally, the crime rate on our campus has
been quite low,” said campus police chief Stan
Skipworth. “But since we’ve been watching criminal
activity increase in areas on our borders, we are naturally concerned that some of that crime will find its
way inside. That is why we decided to install a comprehensive
video surveillance system.”
To do the job economically, Cal State-Long Beach
opted to install a mostly wireless video surveillance
system. It is comprised of 37 pan-tilt-zoom cameras,
29 of which are wirelessly connected using Firetide
mesh nodes (wireless) and IndigoVision encoders
(since many of the cameras are analog Bosch models).
The wireless signals are carried in the licensed
4.9 GHz public safety band. The encoded digital
video signals hop from node to node until they
reach the most accessible interface with the university’s
WAN. (In a mesh network system, multiple
wireless transceiver nodes can be connected to a
WAN to provide maximum access and redundancy.)
“Our biggest concern are our parking lots,” said
Skipworth. “Because a couple of freeways pass by the
campus, we are open to people coming in who don’t
belong here. With their vast size and relative lack of
human traffic, our parking lots are vulnerable areas.
That’s why most of our cameras are mounted on light
standards-clearly marked, to deter crime-and have
their feeds constantly monitored by our officers.”
“Installing the Firetide system using wireless made
it affordable,” he adds. “The expense and disruption
that cabling would have caused were just not practical.
With wireless, it is easy to set up new surveillance
locations, and to relocate cameras when necessary.”
Since activating the Firetide system in 2008, university
police have been able to improve their
response time to incidents.
“Often we are alerted when an incident is in
progress, allowing us to get officers to the scene fast,”
Skipworth said. “In one instance, we got a 911 call
saying that a man was committing a sexual assault in
one of our residences. He was soon scared away and
fled, but we were able to track his movements on
camera as he ran to a bus stop to escape. Before he
managed to get on the bus, our officers apprehended
him. We got the suspect, and a lot of good press locally,
because the footage was shown on local TV.”
The wireless provides a level of flexibility and
mobility that wired systems simply cannot match.
“We are big believers in wireless video surveillance,”
said Skipworth. “It helps us do our job better
with the resources we have at hand. In today’s
economy, that matters.”
| COMMENTS (1) | | 02/18/2010 | | This is pretty embarrassing... Can anyone at least fix the online version? Change from São Paolo to São Paulo? I am surprised that it was not checked before it was sent out to be printed. |
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