Axis Communications Helps The General Council Of Moselle Migrate Its Video Surveillance System To IP

Mission

The General Council of Moselle (French county located near the borders of Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg) wanted to migrate its analog video surveillance system to an IP-based solution in order to centralize all information collected at the county level.

Solution

Once the project was approved, the Division of Networking and Information Systems of the General Council ("CG57") entrusted provider and operator NSIP with the mission to consolidate systems. NSIP approached Axis Communications for its video encoder solutions which allow the conversion of analog streams to network video. Software editor Viseox was also contacted for its cluster video surveillance solution that records the cameras' video feeds from remote data centers called "white rooms".

Result

The direction of the CG57 is fully satisfied with the installation. The county has made significant savings by consolidating its traditional video surveillance system and boosting it with the latest IP technologies available. The General Council of Moselle (CG57) includes 730 municipalities and administers more than one million inhabitants. To monitor and protect its various sites such as administrative buildings and museums, it previously relied on an analog CCTV system implemented throughout the department.

A desire to optimize the existing video surveillance system

By 2000, the General Council sought to develop its own network infrastructure and upgrade its video surveillance system to IP. This project of integrating the video surveillance system into the IP infrastructure also aimed at managing all information centrally. All the images transmitted by surveillance cameras spread throughout the region would then become available from a remote and central video surveillance center.

Experts in network video join forces

Once the project was approved, the Division of Networking and Information Systems appointed the provider and operator NSIP to be responsible for the project implementation; their host room was at the heart of the broadband network built by the General Council of Moselle. Axis Communications was approached by NSIP for their expertise and experience in migrating analog video systems to IP-based solutions. The AXIS 241Q video encoders were selected, as they make video feeds from analog cameras easy to manage, transmit and share over computer networks without losing image quality. The software editor Viseox, meanwhile, was chosen for its cluster remote video surveillance solution which allows reliable remote recording of the camera images without data loss or interruption in the event of server failure.

A large-scale project deployed quickly

Jean-Christophe Nguyen Van Sang, Deputy Director General of CG57 estimated that "the consolidation took a year to complete as it required the coordination of different teams, but this was also due to the technicality of the project." Indeed, the transition over to IP and the centralisation of information required the intervention of many professionals (council employees, technicians and external providers) between 2007 and 2008. The equipment also had to be installed on the fiber optic network of the General Council's information system. CG57 premises were finally equipped to accommodate the data centers (white rooms) aiming at retrieving information from the network that had been analyzed and processed by the video surveillance center.

An enhanced, cost-effective IP surveillance system

The direction of CG57 is fully satisfied with the installation. The county has already made significant savings by consolidating its traditional video surveillance system and boosting it with future-proof and scalable IP technology. The cost of this consolidation, estimated between 100,000 and 200,000 Euros, paid for itself in one year. The Moselle region can now benefit from the best in network video while protecting its existing investments in analog equipment.