The new CCTV surveillance project was designed and installed by CyberGuard Systems Sdn Bhd for the Municipal Council of Penang Island.
The system consists of 31 PTZ dome cameras connected via a wireless IP network monitoring the whole of the Georgetown area – the island’s capital. The cameras are focused on crime and traffic hot spots such as tourist areas, banks, petrol stations, traffic intersections and commercial centres.
Jee Yong Keong, product development manager at CyberGuard Systems, said: “The Penang authorities are very pleased with the system and it has already recorded a number of incidents that have helped the police with their investigations.”
Three control rooms
The distributed nature of IndigoVision’s IP video system meant that three separate control rooms could be deployed, one used by the City Council and the other two by the police.
Operators use ‘Control Center’, IndigoVision’s IP video and alarm management software, to view live and recorded video from any of the cameras in the system. Each control room has a similar configuration with four Control Center workstations driving a video wall consisting of 32 LCD monitors.
A number of Emergency Kiosks were also installed in tourist areas. Using IndigoVision’s 8000 transmitter/receiver module, which can transmit high-quality video and audio as well as digital I/O, CyberGuard Systems developed a standalone video intercom solution for the kiosks.
Automatic connection
When a member of the public activates the emergency button, two-way communication is opened up with one of the control room operators via a hidden microphone and camera in the kiosk.
The intercom video from the kiosk automatically displays on a Control Center workstation and the nearest PTZ is panned and zoomed to the kiosk area. This is all achieved over the wireless network. The only cabling required is power to each of the kiosks.
The PTZ domes are also connected to 8000 modules and the audio capability is used to provide public announcement facilities through speakers mounted with each camera.
ACF assistance
Thirty days of recording is achieved using two servers running IndigoVision Windows NVR software, located in two of the control rooms. Each camera is recorded at 25fps at 4SIF. The overall bandwidth and storage requirement is reduced by using Activity Controlled Framerate (ACF).
Built into the 8000 modules, ACF controls the amount of video that is transmitted on to the network. When the scene is inactive, the framerate is reduced, as soon as any motion is detected in the scene the framerate is automatically set to maximum.
