The CCTV scheme will be made up of 500 remotely controlled cameras linked using a wireless network to a central control room. This central room will in its turn be linked to community safety wardens, council workers, the police and other emergency services.
Key features include the ability to view CCTV images and control cameras from mobile devices such as laptops and PDAs and to control all cameras from a single location.
The initial roll out of the scheme will cover 53 residential tower blocks and sheltered housing schemes in the east of Leeds, but eventually the council hope that the scheme will cover around a third of the city.
Work on the GB pound 1.8 million project has already started, with building of the pilot network of 50 cameras underway. The council believes that the full set of cameras will be operational by late summer.
The project is being run by East North East Homes Leeds, which manages 20,000 council houses in Leeds, and Innovation Leeds, a specialist part of Leeds Council’s ICT service. The technology partners are SCC, Telindus and Networks By Wireless.
Commenting on the launch, Steve Hunt, Chief Executive of East North East Homes Leeds, said he was confident they’d picked the right system.
“Innovation Leeds have provided us with a solution that is much more cost effective than other traditional systems on the market and also allows us a much greater degree of flexibility over where we place cameras and how we operate the system,” Hunt said.
“Because the system is entirely digital it allows us to protect residents’ privacy by electronically masking areas such as windows to prevent images being captured from these areas,” Hunt added.
As well as the fixed cameras, it is also possible to deploy mobile or temporary cameras to anti-social behaviour hotspots or to tackle problems such as fly tipping.
Looking forward, any spare network capacity may also be used for applications such as IP telephony and resident support services.