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Surveillance at sea

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has used Bosch’s rugged MIC Series 400 pan-tilt-zoom cameras on board its Tamar class all-weather lifeboats for more than six years and plans a roll out to more of the charity’s lifeboats in the near future.

The RNLI is a registered charity, devoted to saving lives at sea, and relies solely on voluntary donations. The charity operates more than 330 lifeboats – which are crewed by highly trained volunteers – from 235 lifeboat stations around the coasts of the UK and Republic of Ireland. Since its foundation in 1824 the charity has been responsible for saving the lives of more than 139 000 individuals who have found themselves in difficulty at sea.

Mounted to the exterior of the Tamar lifeboats, the tough MIC Series 400 cameras allow the RNLI to record footage of dramatic search and rescue incidents. The footage is used for training, operational and broadcast purposes. As Peter Bradley, RNLI Staff Officer Communications, explains: “We identified a requirement to record video footage while our volunteer crews are at sea and found Bosch’s MIC Series 400 cameras can more than withstand the tough conditions we subject them to.”

The RNLI specified the MIC Series 400 AL version for its Tamar lifeboats. The IP68 rated camera housing, machined from 6 mm thick solid aluminium is totally corrosion proof thanks to treatment with special coating processes used in both the aerospace and defence industries. It is testament to the camera’s quality design and construction that it will continue to keep on working even when submerged underwater, making it an ideal choice for marine and coastal applications.

Full 360-degree continuous rotation and 320-degree tilt control, with up to a 36x zoom option allows camera operators to pinpoint incidents quickly and effectively in even the harshest environmental conditions. A toughened optically perfectly flat viewing window and integrated wiper more than copes with sea spray and waves the camera encounters mounted to a high speed, sea-going vessel.

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