The effectiveness of CCTV systems in town and city centres has come in for a great deal of criticism in recent weeks. Currently, Control Room operators can only view what is presented on their CCTV screens and, depending on the seriousness of the incident, the police will be called and the event recorded on video. The labour intensive method of examining video tapes is another reason why the present system has proven to be inadequate and unpopular.
Detective chief Inspector Mick Neville of the Metropolitan Police Service recently stated: “There’s no fear of CCTV. Why don’t people fear it? (They think) the cameras are not working”.
Perhaps the senior policeman might draw some comfort from a Stockport-based company, Audio Design Services, and its work involving all CCTV installations that form part of a monitoring central control system.
The audio specialist – headed up by chairman and managing director David Hopkins OBE AMIOA FInstSCE – has devised a method of providing all CCTV cameras with a loudspeaker link. By using this simple and relatively inexpensive device, a person with ill intent can be told, in no uncertain terms, that any action they are about to perpetrate well result in serious repercussions
Rendering CCTV a dynamic security solution
.A one-way circuit from the Control Room to the camera enables the operator to speak to people in the vicinity of the camera. This transforms the system into a dynamic operation where those involved in anti-social behaviour, or crime, will be told that they’re being filmed and that the police have been alerted. This development overcomes Neville’s initial objection that most people feel that the cameras are not operational. The Audio Design Services engineering innovation converts a system that relies basically on observation to one that aids the prevention of crime at source.
The other good news is that the amplification system uses existing CCTV camera cabling, making the modification inexpensive. Audio Design Services has also engineered a method of linking standard mobile telephones to work with remote camera positions by using the GSM network.
To date, a number of Councils in the North of England have had Audio Design Services audio links fitted, with many more on order, and the development has been well received.
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