Since the first wireless camera was installed in the City of Westminster, the system has been constantly evolving to meet new demands being placed on it.
Since 2004 the London borough has augmented its network of 180 fixed cameras, used for civil disorder and bus lane monitoring, and by mid 2008 will have deployed almost 200 wireless cameras.
The borough Includes prestigious landmarks and districts, such as Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Marble Arch, Mayfair, Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus, Soho and Trafalgar Square. With such a large area to monitor, the council could not rely purely on traditional monitoring and enforcement tactics such as individual officers patrolling the borough and fixed CCTV cameras. Instead, it looked to harness the potential of modern IP technology.
A new beginning
In 2004, the City of Westminster, in association with Vertex, a specialist in outsourced business services, began a consultation process to transform Westminster into a ‘Wireless City’.
During the initial stages, it became obvious to the council that its existing infrastructure and CCTV systems were no longer fit for purpose.
The network of fixed CCTV cameras only monitored high risk hot zones and all fed images into a single monitoring centre. For an area of almost nine square miles, this structure offered little ability to respond dynamically. It was also important to improve working processes between multiple users across differing business operations through a simple converged network.
The borough approached networking specialist, Telindus to design a bespoke IPCCTV capability as part of its customer transformation programme. Working with Telindus’ key partner, DVTel, wireless IPCCTV cameras were deployed across the borough, which could support converged communications – high quality video footage digitally integrated into central data systems. This meant that information captured by cameras could be passed in real-time to council staff in the field via mobile devices.
The new network dramatically reduced the council’s capital expenditure as the wireless infrastructure removed the need to lay costly new fibre as and when new cameras were required.
“The advent of CCTV across the borough dramatically enhanced our operational effectiveness and helped provide a visible assurance to residents and business owners, but the cost to integrate new locations onto the network was a limitation to its evolution,” says Vic Baylis, director of customer services at Westminster City Council.
“Converging voice and data over a single IP network, and the ability to leverage new wireless CCTV technologies, proved invaluable in our efforts to better serve the public.”
Network of the future
Following the huge success of the initial pilot, the City of Westminster has carried out consultation with local people to ensure that the system is meeting the needs of businesses and residents.
Since the first wireless camera was installed the system has been constantly evolving to meet the demands. Adding to its network of 180 fixed cameras, used for civil disorder and bus lane monitoring, by mid 2008 it will have deployed almost 200 wireless cameras. These wireless cameras are being used by a number of council departments and in the three years that the system has been in place, the council has recognised significant operational benefits.
IP flexibility
Arguably the greatest benefit has been the flexibility and resilience that the IP infrastructure provides. Previously, when a fixed camera went offline, engineers had to be called out and coverage was lost for long periods. Coupled with an outdated monitoring centre, the network was not maximising its potential.
The situation is very different today. The IP infrastructure has been designed to provide a single, flexible enterprise architecture, ensuring that the council’s future demands can be met without the need for major network revisions.
Thanks to the IP infrastructure, the City of Westminster has been able to ‘near shore’ its monitoring operations, ensuring 24/7 availability in the event of local network failure.
A Scottish back-office centre complements the central London bases; information can be fed automatically to both centres, and action can be directed from either location. Not only does the Scottish centre ensure business continuity, but the City of Westminster also enjoys significant cost savings due to lower operating costs. The quality of the camera images from the new IP network exceeds that of traditional fixed analogue networks as resolution can be turned up or down.
Safer working environment
During the initial pilot, flexible, cost effective camera deployment was a key requirement. The wireless network proved five times more cost effective than a fixed network. A wireless camera could also be deployed – positioned, integrated into the network and be fully operational – in just 24 hours.
Says Baylis: “As the network has evolved, we have experimented with different applications. This would have been unheard of with the fixed network. Today, we are equipping several departments with high quality images that enable them to carry out their duties more effectively and safely.”
This flexibility has been used similarly in health and safety matters. Cameras have been positioned to monitor restaurants and cafes to obtain evidence of waste disorders and environmental breaches. It has been used as support to prosecute establishments and crack down on fly tipping and late-licence breaches.
The main use of the infrastructure is traffic enforcement, and with over 220 miles of roads across the City, ensuring that the road network operates smoothly is a big task.
The council uses the IPCCTV system to monitor road status, and can direct parking enforcement officers to any blockage by sending real-time data to their mobile devices. This has dramatically improved staff effectiveness as they no longer have to patrol large geographic areas in the hope of catching offenders. Officers can now prioritise responses.
The network is also helping keep council staff safe. For example, environmental officers are able to review locations before responding to alerts. If an incident is reported, such as graffiti in a bus shelter, officers can manually direct cameras to review the scene to check if offenders are still there. This prevents staff being sent into potentially heated situations.
The future?
Telindus and the City of Westminster are continually assessing how the system can be deployed, and the infrastructure is already being earmarked for new and exciting projects. To date, the IPCCTV infrastructure has exceeded all expectations.
For the future, the council is exploring applications such as amenity planning and development, noise monitoring, vehicle automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), crime and disorder monitoring (in conjunction with the police), as well as extending further the integration with mobile devices.
The network is “limited only by our own imagination,” says Baylis.
