Predator turns the CCTV spotlight on night-time crime

The UK-designed and built Predator’s new ‘hat’ offers dual light technology and is set to provide CCTV operators across the UK with an innovative new ‘colour at night’ crime-busting device.

Gone are they days whenCCTV operators were powerless and had to just sit watching a crime unfold, or at best call and wait for responders on the ground while helplessly watching. Developed by 360 Vision Technology, Predator allows those operators to take direct action and shine a high intensity and immediate spotlight on night-time crime.

With both infrared and now high intensity white light onboard, the Predator dual light solution offers “superb” colour images in total darkness thanks to the white light ‘hat’. The system can offer full colour images and the ability to follow the subject at the touch of a button in the Control Room.

When the Predator’s high intensity white light is ‘fired’, the camera ‘locks in’ the colour, in turn aiding the identification, deterrent and quality of images being provided to the police service. Each camera is effective up to an impressive 100 metres.

Rapid response on the ground

Commenting on this new British developed and patented technology, 360 Vision Technology sales manager Adrian Kirk said: “Having worked closely with CCTV managers over many years, it was apparent to me that very often their frustration arises when the time comes for a rapid response on the ground to incidents being monitored in the Control Room.”

He added: “This problem isn’t going to magically solve itself, so we’re trying to solve it for them by empowering the operators to be able to fire up a directional high intensity white light. This should have a significant impact in deterring crime and making perpetrators think twice.”

The effectiveness of the white light is achieved by harnessing human nature. It’s instinctive to look towards a light that’s suddenly and unexpectedly turned on and which, as colour locks in, provides the perfect opportunity to obtain excellent facial recognition of the suspects.

It’s widely accepted that CCTV cameras alone are often not enough to deter crime and, while Public Address (PA) systems have often proved very successful in warding off crime, with Predator there’s now a simpler and more cost-effective option available.

“The high intensity white light is a simple way to let the subject know they are being monitored and will deter the majority to move on,” added Kirk. “A PA system can be an impractical and cost-prohibitive solution, whereas the high intensity white light is simplicity itself.”

Working in tandem with local authorities

Kirk is currently approaching the local authority marketplace and demonstrating the advantages of the Predator camera and its new hat.

Predator requires no additional cabling. This allows existing fixed or wireless infrastructures to be used which cuts down on cost. Predator cameras can accommodate all major protocols, in turn allowing a simple ‘swap out’ to existing camera positions.

Predator benefits from 360 Vision Technology’s patented ‘green technology’, which only switches on the low power, high intensity lighting when it is so dark that the camera needs it. According to the company: “This is a far more cost-effective and ‘green’ solution when compared with the timers, inaccurate light sensors or manual control still employed on less sophisticated cameras.”

Councils up and down the country are already committed to reductions of their carbon footprint and the fact that Predator only illuminates the specific area the camera is focused on rather than illuminating the whole site means lower costs in terms of lighting, cabling and electricity.

The added benefit of the Predator range is its sheer ruggedness – delivering high performance in a low maintenance package that’s expected to feature extensively in public space CCTV schemes over the months ahead as current systems come to the end of their service life.

“Predator provides a viable and rugged alternative to the normal commercial grade dome cameras which can be costly to maintain and more vulnerable to attack,” asserted Kirk.