IP surveillance
The Ministry of Justice in the NETHERLANDS recently commissioned GTN Systems to design a surveillance system that could cost-effectively control and monitor the access to different parts of one of Holland’s maximum security prisons. By using IndigoVision’s IP network technology, GTN designed a system that has realised cost savings in excess of 20% when compared with traditional, hard-wired solutions.
Each prison cell hosts a vandal-proof secure cabinet that contains a VideoBridge 6000 module, power supply and I/O hardware. The only external connections to the cabinets are power and a Category 5 Ethernet network cable. Each cabinet is connected to a local network hub, which in turn is connected to a dual redundant fibre optic ring installed around the building. The cabinets contain an audio intercom for both the inside and outside of a given cell, door control hardware and door position sensors.
In practice, a GTN-developed graphical user interface – based on the NCVS management system – allows prison officers to remotely monitor and control the cell intercom, door access and CCTV cameras. The cameras monitor the hallways and cell doors, as well as other general areas around the prison.
Whenever a cell intercom is activated, the nearest camera ‘positions’ itself and zooms in. All existing cameras are interfaced to the network via the VideoBridge 6000 modules in the nearest cell cabinet.