Street Smart
To ensure safety, city installs surveillance equipment throughout metro area
- By Scott Schnell
- Oct 05, 2009
Birmingham is the largest city in
Alabama, spanning 151 square
miles and boasting a downtown
population of nearly 230,000. Like any
major city, it has its share of crime and
vandalism. To help combat this and
provide a safe environment for residents
and visitors, the city has installed
40 video surveillance cameras throughout
the metropolitan area.
Thinking Ahead
In early 2008, the mayor hired system
integrator ION Interactive Video
Technologies to install surveillance
cameras in various outdoor locations
across the city. ION specializes in IPbased
security solutions for businesses
and organizations of all sizes, including
municipalities.
The city also selected ION for its
trained professional agents who remotely
monitor the installed cameras
from the company's own control center.
Agents instantly notify the Birmingham
Police Department of any potential
threat or suspicious behavior, and the
police immediately step in to respond
and handle the situation.
"ION provides state-of-the-art solutions
to assist in keeping cities, publicaccess
areas and government facilities
safe, secure and protected, 24 hours a
day, seven days a week," said Ed Weldon,
CEO of ION. "Our monitoring
agents help to facilitate a quicker response
to nearly any situation, providing
a high degree of security and safety
on city streets."
Managed Masses
As part of the installation, ION chose to
work with digital camera manufacturer
VideoIQ, the inventor of the iCVR, an
intelligent video surveillance camera
with a built-in DVR. ION chose the
iCVR for its ability to monitor for and
detect crowds, something the city wanted
to keep a particularly close eye on.
"A large crowd can often accompany
trouble, and the iCVR's next-generation
analytics can automatically detect
when a certain number of people are
congregating in a specific area," Weldon
said. "This gives us advance warning
of a potential problem and enables
the police to respond before an incident
takes place. Additionally, with built-in
audio over IP, our remote guards can
use loudspeakers to inform intruders
they've been detected—driving them
off and preventing crime."
The iCVR intelligently controls storage
resolution based on what it sees.
For example, a potential threat, such
as a car in a restricted area or someone
lurking near a store front, is recorded
at the highest possible resolution and
quality, but during times when nothing
is taking place, the camera captures
images at a lower quality, allowing the
built-in 80 GB hard drive to store one
to two months worth of video and ultimately
saving money.
"Because ION is using the VideoIQ
cameras in addition to just installing
them, we can be considered
a customer as much as the city of
Birmingham," Weldon said. "We are
pleased with the performance of the
iCVR and consider it a cost-effective
and efficient solution."
A Higher Level of Security
The cameras have been up and running
in the city since August 2008. Throughout
2009, more cameras are scheduled
to be installed in the downtown area,
replacing the city's older cameras with
limited functionality. ION also has
plans to layer some of the city's PTZ
cameras with the VideoIQ iCVR, giving
video technicians the dual ability to
zoom in on an event or person of interest
and view them with the iCVR's
exceptional image resolution.
"Birmingham places the safety and
security of its residents and tourists as its
foremost priority," Weldon said. "ION's
proactive approach to security combined
with the power and accuracy of the
VideoIQ iCVR provides a level of security
protection we are
proud to deliver."
About the Author
Scott Schnell is the president and CEO of VideoIQ.