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Mobile surveillance at low ­bandwidth

The high crime rates in South Africa are an unfortunate part of everyday business, and the transportation sector is one that has experienced significant loss as a result. This logistically complex industry offers many opportunities for goods to be stolen, from the warehouse both before and after shipping, to the loading and unloading process and even en route. While surveillance systems can be put into place to deter criminals in areas like the warehouse, the goods whilst in transit have typically been a challenge to secure. Goods in transit, particularly small, high value or easily fenced items, are thus vulnerable and attract crime syndicates.

Laurence Smith.

Live monitoring is essential for maximising the effectiveness of surveillance as it enables proactive monitoring and prevention rather than being used as evidence after crimes have already been committed. Active surveillance is also a more significant deterrent for criminals. However, one of the biggest challenges associated with monitoring vehicles en route is the fact that they are moving, which means specialised surveillance and monitoring solutions are necessary. The challenge is that even when such CCTV solutions are installed, they have typically required large amounts of bandwidth in order to stream and view footage remotely. Mobile signal in South Africa is still patchy in much of the country, and 3G is only generally available in large metropolitan areas. As a result, the bandwidth required to stream the video is insufficient and unstable at best.

In order to bolster security, transportation companies are now turning to technology that delivers live proactive monitoring even in low bandwidth areas, enabling swift and preventative action to be taken should an incident occur. Mobile digital video recorder (DVR) solutions offer mobile video gateways that make use of cellular and wireless technologies to stream high quality live or recorded video to mobile devices or centralised control rooms. This ensures proactive security can be implemented on vehicles carrying goods, especially in dangerous areas or environments.

Intelligent mobile DVR technology incorporates full GPS support as well as a chassis that is anti-shock and vibration resistant to withstand conditions on the road and ensure complete reliability on the move. These solutions enable up to four cameras to be connected to each DVR. In addition, sensors can be connected to the doors of vehicles to further improve the monitoring of vehicles from a centralised control room. This also helps to improve the safety of personnel on the vehicles, who are often in danger as criminals are frequently violent when committing goods in transit heists.

In order to provide continuous video recording and streaming, USB modems allow for video to be constantly streamed while built-in Wi-Fi enables wireless backup of stored video to be sent to a storage server. Utilising advanced compression capabilities, these solutions enable video streaming using any mobile data available, from 3G right down to GPRS.

The compression technology makes transmission of video at four frames per second (4 fps) possible at data rates as low as 1 Kilobyte per second (KB/s). This ensures recording and streaming of video even when out of 3G areas where only Edge or GPRS signal is available, making it ideal for the SA market. It also helps to reduce the cost associated with video streaming over mobile, as mobile bandwidth can still be expensive to obtain in large volumes.

For further cost reduction, the built-in Wi-Fi ensures that monitoring footage does not incur data costs when viewed over the Wi-Fi link. In addition, transcoding allows for recording to take place at a high resolution and gives users the ability and choice to view this footage at a high or low resolution on demand.

Protecting goods in transit, as well as the lives and wellbeing of personnel on the vehicles, is a top priority for many transportation companies. When vehicles are hijacked and stock is stolen, taking action swiftly can make all the difference. Active monitoring of the location of vehicles and the ability to capture footage of crimes as and when they happen can help to deter crime as well as ensure the capture and conviction of perpetrators. Taking a proactive approach to security monitoring and ensuring evidence is available to law enforcement during and after an event can help to significantly bolster security. Live streaming and surveillance that delivers outside of 3G coverage areas enables transportation and logistics companies to offer a comprehensive approach to protection as well as improved control to further protect trucks, goods-in-transit and people.

For more information contact Graphic Image Technologies, +27 (0)11 483 0333, [email protected], www.git.co.za.

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