Fire Department Uses IP Video For Staff, Asset Protection

  • Oct 07, 2010

IndigoVision has supplied a fully distributed IP video system to the Fire & Rescue Service on the French island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. Designed and installed by IndigoVision’s Authorized Partner ACSYSS, the system is protecting staff, administrative offices and high-value equipment at their new HQ and main fire station in the center of the island.

Initially an analog/DVR system was installed in the new HQ and expanded using IndigoVision’s IP Video technology and IP cameras. However, as Siegmund Bajazet, Director of IT for the Fire & Rescue Service explains, the original system was soon replaced.

"The difference in image quality between the two systems was so significant it was soon clear that we had to deploy an entirely IndigoVision solution,” he said. “We removed all of the analog video switching and recording equipment and connected the original cameras to IndigoVision’s transmitter modules. We now have access to high-quality live and recorded video for all of our cameras.”

In the future the Fire Service want to expand the system to remotely monitor the Island’s other fire station. IndigoVision’s low-bandwidth technology and distributed architecture were therefore two other very important factors for the company being chosen for the project.

“The combination of excellent H.264 compression and network management tools allows high-quality video to be streamed over long distances across standard networks. This meant that we could utilize our existing IP network,” Bajazet said. “IndigoVision’s open architecture and commitment to fully support the ONVIF open video standard gave us full confidence that the system would meet all of our future expansion needs.”

IndigoVision’s IP video technology allows the company to provide a unique guarantee that no frames will be dropped at 25fps/4SIF, under any conditions. This gave further confidence to the client that the system would meet any future changes to the already stringent French regulations, which since 2007 has mandated minimum framerate and resolution standards on all new surveillance systems.

Live and recorded video is viewed on PC workstations running ‘Control Center’, IndigoVision’s Security Management Software. As the system is fully distributed and ‘Control Center’ is licensed on an unrestricted basis within the cost of IndigoVision’s hardware, workstations can be located at any point on the network for no more than the cost of the PC. The Fire Service currently has workstations in the main call centre, the fire & rescue office and on the IT manager’s desk. Video workstations will also be able to be installed in the remote fire station when it is covered by the system.

IndigoVision’s NVRs can similarly be distributed around the network. For example, when the remote fire station comes on line, the local cameras can be configured to dual stream video, a high-resolution stream for local NVR recording and a lower-resolution stream for transmission across the network for viewing at HQ. However, the HQ will also have access to the remote NVR at any time. Currently the Fire Service has three standalone NVRs in the HQ configured for redundant recording.

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