Canadian Shipping Route Uses IP Video Technology

  • Apr 20, 2009

IndigoVision’s IP video technology is at the heart of a major four-year CCTV upgrade to the Welland Canal section of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Dubbed Highway H2O, the Seaway is the safe, reliable and environmentally friendly transportation route of choice to the heart of North America.

The all-Canadian Welland Canal is 27 miles long and connects Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Eight giant locks along its route lift ships 326 feet between the two lakes. Remote surveillance of the vertical lifts is fundamental for traffic management and the safe operation of the locks for shipping and the public. The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation monitors the entire canal system from a state-of-the-art traffic control center.

A number of IndigoVision 8000 IP Video transmitter/receiver units were initially installed in 2004 under specific projects to support remote bridge control along the Welland Canal. Since that time the Seaway has continued to deploy additional 8000s as well as installing a number of IndigoVision’s Windows based NVRs. The various elements of the IndigoVision based IP video system installed along the Seaway are transported via a high-bandwidth routed network using both layer 2 and 3 segments. Network connections use a combination of both TCP and UDP Multicast transports dependant upon bandwidth availability. The Seaway now utilizes 8000s throughout its extensive canal systems between the Port of Montreal and Lake Erie.

The entire CCTV system is now managed using ‘Control Center’, IndigoVision's IP video and alarm management software. Live video is viewed by a mix of ‘Control Center’ workstations, or where needed by using 8000s as transmit / receive pairs with analog monitors. For certain applications, ‘Control Center’ salvos are used to switch video views and control cameras as dictated by other Seaway canal control systems. The salvos are triggered by canal control PLCs, which make input changes to I/O incorporated in the 8000.

Windows-based NVRs with about 8 Terabytes each of recording space have been deployed to assist in security and incident management over extended archive periods. Each server is used to record 30fps 4SIF live video from remote locations with each easily handling about 32 video streams and providing an archive period of approximately 15 days. The servers and direct attached SAS arrays can easily be expanded using inexpensive high-capacity SATA drives for a total storage space on each NVR of about 30 Terabytes.

IndigoVision’s compression and transmission technology ensures minimum impact on network bandwidth providing ample spare capacity for the future. The cost benefits of the adopted technology compared to traditional analog solutions for the existing project and future expansion are significant.

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