Mauritius Port Uses IndigoVision For Harbor-Wide Surveillance System

  • May 19, 2009
Port Louis, the capital and main port of Mauritius, has invested in IndigoVision’s complete integrated IP video solution for a new harbor-wide surveillance system. The flexibility and distributed nature of the system allows a number of different agencies to monitor their own operations within the port. Based in a new central control room and a number of sub-control rooms the Mauritius Police Force, National Coast Guard, Customs and the Mauritius Port Authority (MPA), can access live and recorded video from the many cameras located inside and outside of the port buildings.

A port operation creates a complex security environment, which requires a surveillance system that is both flexible and delivers the very highest-quality video. Following an analysis of competing systems, IndigoVision was chosen because of its compression, video quality and the fact that it was a genuinely distributed system that is fully scalable.

"Brinks has always maintained a key differentiation over other system integrators by exceeding the expectations of its customers," said Vikash Augnu, project manager for Brinks Mauritius, IndigoVision’s local partner that designed and installed the system.
"In doing so, we had to provide the very best CCTV system for the port, which is one of the main trade entry routes into Mauritius and a high profile government installation. The site was very complex, which demanded a solution which was easy to install and deploy. As a key member of the system design and execution team, I was amazed at the flexibility that the IndigoVision system provided, while still being a very robust solution."

With some cameras located over 2.5 miles away and a number being connected via wireless networks the video compression used was very important. IndigoVision’s compression technology allows DVD-quality, 25fps, video to be streamed with minimum bandwidth requirement and latency. This enables PTZ cameras to be controlled smoothly over large distances and wireless networks to be easily deployed.

Each agency’s operators use ‘Control Center’, IndigoVision’s Security Management Software (SMS), to view live and recorded video from any of the cameras. An advanced suite of tools provides fast playback and analysis of recorded video and clips can be exported for evidential purposes following an incident. ‘Control Center’ is licensed on an unrestricted basis within the cost of IndigoVision hardware, which means workstations can be deployed for no more than a cost of a level-entry PC.

This was exploited by the MPA as three workstations, with 21 spot monitors, were installed in the main control room and a further nine workstations deployed in five sub-control rooms. The distributed nature of the system means any component, including ‘Control Center’ workstations, can be located at any point on the network. IndigoVision’s distributed architecture removes the single point of failure associated with analog and centralized network systems, creating a more robust solution -- an important consideration for a high-profile surveillance operation at a major port.

"The system has been a great benefit to the MPA and other agencies," Augnu said. "Petty theft has decreased, they have improved surveillance of the main gates, enhanced control and monitoring at the terminal and quay areas and a much better deterrence particularly in the customs area."

Each camera is continuously recorded at full framerate for 1 month on 8 NVRs, with a total storage of 16 Terabytes. Any ‘Control Center’ workstation with the right permissions, no matter where it is located, can access recorded video from the NVRs. The cameras used were a variety of indoor and outdoor analog models, with each being connected to IndigoVision’s 8000 transmitter/receiver units.

These convert the camera video into a MPEG-4 compressed digital stream for transmission over the fiber LAN or wireless network, both of which were newly installed by Brinks. MPA also use wash/wipe kits on their external cameras, which are triggered directly from any ‘Control Center’ workstation using custom commands sent over the network to the 8000 and then via a RS845 serial interface to the wash/wipe unit.

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