IndigoVision's complete IP-Video system is providing a comprehensive CCTV surveillance solution for the Police Service in Macau, one of the two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China, along with Hong Kong. The new system has revolutionised how Macau Police monitor their operation and has provided them with faster video analysis and improved incident response. IndigoVision was chosen following a successful test evaluation of competing systems by technical officers in Macau Police.
The 200+ camera system, installed by IndigoVision's local partner TungPo HK, provides surveillance and recording of video and audio for the HQ and a separate police station located 3km away across the city, which is connected via a dedicated fibre LAN. The system is soon to be expanded to encompass a third police station whose function will be dedicated to policing the largest casino site in the territory. Fixed and PTZ dome cameras provide surveillance of the outside of the buildings as well as the detention cells, booking-in desks, interview rooms and operation centre. The video and audio can be exported for evidential purposes using sophisticated encryption and watermarking techniques to ensure the material is tamper-proof.
Macau Police chose to replace their ageing analog hardware matrix and VCR based CCTV system with a solution that provided high-quality video with the flexibility and scalability of a virtual matrix. This also allowed them to easily integrate surveillance of remote police stations that were not covered by the existing system.
"IndigoVision's video and audio quality is very impressive, which is an important factor when preparing evidence," said Kenny Leung, Director, TungPo HK. "The flexibility of the system and the advanced features provided by the ‘Control Center' software has transformed the way Macau Police monitor and record their operation."
‘Control Center', IndigoVision's enterprise video and alarm management software, allows police officers and staff to view live and recorded video from any of the cameras at either building. The flexibility of IndigoVision's IP Video technology means that any component in the system can be located at any point on the network - this provides a scalable and redundant solution. Macau Police have exploited this flexibility by locating ‘Control Center' workstations both in dedicated CCTV control rooms in each building and on individual desks as required. IndigoVision's unique approach to supplying ‘Control Center' software as licence-free encourages users to benefit from the flexibility of IP Video as additional workstations can be installed anywhere on the network for the cost of a simple PC - Macau Police are currently using around 20 workstations throughout both buildings.
High-quality 25fps/4CIF video and audio is recorded using IndigoVision's Network Video Recorders (NVRs), which are distributed around the network to minimize bandwidth and provide fault tolerant recording. Eleven NVRs with a combined storage of 10TB provide Macau police with about two weeks of continuous full framerate recording from all cameras.
Each camera is connected to an IndigoVision 8000 transmitter/receiver module. The 8000 converts the camera signal to high-quality digital video for transmission over the IP network. IndigoVision's advanced compression technology ensures minimum bandwidth usage and helps maximize the available NVR storage. Additional 8000 modules are also used to convert the digital video back to analog for feeds to video displays in the control rooms. Over 50 of the original CCTV cameras were re-used as well as some of the control room equipment.
