Georgia City Migrates To IP Video Solution
In the last year and a half, the City of Marietta, Ga. has replaced most of its standalone analog CCTV systems with a complete integrated IP video solution from IndigoVision.
“The IndigoVision system was deployed in support of the City of Marietta's strategic plan, which called for security cameras to assist with homeland security and crime prevention,” said Rich Tieslau, the city’s director of management information systems. “Improving video analytic capabilities was a key factor in deploying the IndigoVision system. It took too long to find an event with any of the old video systems. Another major push was to consolidate multiple systems to a centrally managed system that provided for better system administration and control.”
Buildings located in the downtown government campus and vitally important municipal utilities are now being protected by a distributed IP-CCTV system that can be monitored both centrally and locally by each department. The solution was designed and installed by IndigoVision’s approved partner South Comm.
The city’s operational performance has improved partly because the IndigoVision solution is distributed -- allowing any camera, video workstation or video recorder to be located at any point on the network. This also gives the City a scalable platform for future expansion. Compared to the original analog/DVR systems, centrally monitoring and growing a distributed IP video solution was more cost effective for the City.
‘Control Center’, IndigoVision’s Security Management Software can be used by operators in the Crisis Management Center (CMC) in the event of a disaster. ‘Control Center’ allows the security staff to view live and recorded video from the cameras; however, operators using departmental workstations only have access to cameras for which they have been granted permission. In addition ‘Control Center’ offers the user a feature-rich suite of utilities for searching and analyzing recorded video and this coupled with advanced alarm management facilities helps further improve incident response.
IP encoder technology enables easy expansion of the IP video system, as long as network access is available. Network access has been expanded at the City of Marietta however to remote locations via WiMAX wireless technology from Harris Corp. (formerly Tyco Electronics).
“The IndigoVision system uses very low bandwidth, which was a major factor in the deployment of a wireless network for remote locations,” Tieslau said. “The video quality is exceptional even over the wireless link.”
Efficient bandwidth utilization is achieved through the use of advanced H.264 compression technology deployed in the IndigoVision hardware. This also reduces the NVR storage requirement and ensures easy deployment of wireless networks.