Finnish Rail Selects IndigoVision For Pilot IP Surveillance Project
The Finnish Transport Agency for Rail, Maritime and Road Administration, has announced that the pilot project for evaluating an advanced IP-based surveillance system for 11 train stations, was awarded to IndigoVision’s authorized Finnish partner, Taitotekniikka (Kauppahuone Taito Oy).
The pilot project will cover some 12 sites, of which 11 are rail stations. The Central Station in Helsinki is already using IndigoVision’s end-to-end IP Video security solution for its station-wide surveillance. The station’s existing security control room will also monitor the 12 sites of the pilot project, through more than 250 new IP cameras. In addition 2 new surveillance centers will be connected to the IP network, creating a distributed and redundant remote monitoring capability for the Central Station and the pilot sites. The pilot project will be rolled out during the summer.
The Finnish Transport Agency intends to build one of the world’s most advanced distributed IP Video systems for rail surveillance, where the final goal is to have a nationwide system covering all stations with a network expected to monitor some 5,000 IP cameras in total. The plan is to record video 24/7 from all cameras on to distributed NVRs, fully managed by remote surveillance centers.
IndigoVision’s class-leading H.264 compression technology allows high-quality video to be transmitted across long distances with minimum bandwidth and latency. This was regarded as vital for designing the new pilot system. Special software such as bandwidth manager and a server-less decentralized configuration of the planned network of 5,000 IP endpoints, will also be key features in building a reliable distributed IP Video system with no single point of failure. The solution will use IndigoVision’s advanced features for creating a resilient, fault-tolerant system, allowing the end user to take advantage of redundant networks, redundant power supplies and redundant distributed NVRs.
All cameras on the network will record on a 24/7 basis, using a mixture of IndigoVision’s dedicated standalone Linux-based NVRs and PC’s running Windows-based NVR software. According to Taitotekniikka, the number of operators able to see live and recorded video from all of the cameras can be several hundred. The operators will use PC workstations running ‘Control Center’, IndigoVision’s security management software.
The pilot system is designed to handle both SD and HD cameras side by side, enabling H.264 and MPEG4-based equipment to coexist on the same network. Future releases of ‘Control Center’ software will also allow ONVIF-compliant IP cameras to be used at any point on the network.