BAC Surveillance Technology, the organisation responsible for introducing public surveillance systems to Johannesburg and Cape Town, regards uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems as vital ‘insurance’ for the integrity and protection of the sensitive electronic equipment within its networks.
The systems have reduced street crime by 80% in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Both comprise over 100 cameras and are monitored on a 24-hours, seven-day-a-week basis. "UPS is integral to our success," says BAC Surveillance Technology general manager, Riyaan Parker. "Without it we face the risk of losing track of incidents, and of having our ability to keep emergency services informed about fire or traffic related incidents jeopardised." BACST engineer Thys le Grange stipulated 1 kVA individual UPS systems with two-hour battery back-up on each camera.
Cape Town's two control rooms are supported by a 40 kVA UPS and a 15 kVA unit while the Johannesburg control room is supported by a single 40 kVA unit. These units, all supplied by UPScom - a national UPS company within the JSE-listed Square One Solutions Group - provide two-hour back-up to each city's central control room monitors, fibre-optic network and VCRs that record the daily input from each camera.
"There is little we can do about a major power blackout," says le Grange, "but from experience we know that most power trips can be rectified within two hours, and our UPS ensures reliability and critical uptime for the entire system.
To provide a solution to its power supply protection needs, BACST selected Sandton-based UPScom, which offers power solutions for SOHO, PCA and SME network environments, telecommunications, medical, security, lighting and general industry as well as major corporations and government.
UPScom projects manager Barend Jonker says the most critical factors for BACST are reliability and security. "Line-interactive sine wave technology has proved extremely reliable in many different applications and we therefore selected our Smart Guard range, which employs this technology and uses a microprocessor control system for high stability. The sine wave output is also ideal for the protection of sensitive electronic equipment." The 1 kVA Smart Guard units used to protect each street camera were mounted with the mains power supply and fibre optic network modems in stainless steel boxes at the top of five-metre poles. The cameras themselves are under continual surveillance and an alarm is triggered in the control room if a box is tampered with or opened without authorisation.
"The primary role of the camera support UPS units is to protect the expensive camera from any damage that could be caused by electrical spikes, sags or brownouts and ensure continued power supply from the batteries in the event of a mains power failure.
"For Johannesburg, which is in the middle of South Africa's lightning belt, the possibility of lightning strikes also had to be considered. Should there be a direct strike, the UPS will absorb the damage, not the camera and a UPS is a great deal less expensive to replace," says Jonker.
For further details contact Neill Schreiber, UPScom on tel: 011 321 5200, e-mail: neilsch@upscom.co.za
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