printer friendly version

ADT integrates IP into residential security solutions

Camsecure designed a Milestone-Axis surveillance solution to provide ­central, ­local and mobile monitoring for ­faster ­response and improved safety of ­residents and property.

Parkhurst and Parktown North are adjacent suburbs of Johannesburg, split down the middle by one road. This up-market residential area of 4000 homes, schools, churches, shops, restaurants and businesses has become a paragon project for ADT Security in South Africa.

ADT made a strategic investment to create a new business model that breaks the mould of traditional reactive security. In mid-2007, it initiated a security project with the plan to sell it to residents and businesses as a service. The strategy from the outset has been to use the newest surveillance technology as tools for proactive security response, designed for central, local and mobile control.

After months of planning, Camsecure devised and implemented a wireless IP video surveillance system to cover 13 main egress points with two main control rooms: a central one at ADT headquarters, a local one in Rosebank, and another mobile monitoring station based out of the active neighbourhood sports club. ADT uses this together with its guards at neighbourhood street stations patrolling on foot, guards on bicycles and in roving cars.

“The Milestone-Axis video system is live and monitored on a 24-hour basis,” says Mike Kidson, general manager and head of Community Security Department (CSD) at ADT. “It forms an integral platform for the area’s security network, greatly enhancing ADT’s resources in the suburbs, alerting us to more proactive and faster responses. All of ADT’s initiatives are integrated through the use of this very sophisticated management tool.”

Mike Kidson, general manager and head of Community Security Department (CSD) at ADT

The Axis cameras have been strategically placed to monitor all entry and exit points, and the images are closely monitored in the Milestone software interface displayed in the remote and central command centres. The Camsecure method used to mount and power the cameras over Ethernet maximises the quality and effectiveness of the images, as well as preventing vandalism of the units. With the main monitoring centre in Sandton at ADT’s central control room, Rosebank acts as a back-up to ensure zero downtime in the event of any possible technical interference.

The total security solution includes a proactive communication network with two-way radios and mobile phones connecting all foot patrols, response vehicles and patrol units. This creates a security ring in these suburbs proven highly effective in fighting crime.

“Our goal is to provide the most optimal resources for securing suburbs and we believe residents benefit from this important investment in their safety,” says Kidson.

Two suburbs controlled as one

These two suburbs can effectively be controlled as one area on this surveillance project. In the past there has been a relatively high crime issue here and ADT has assigned a large number of resources to combat the crime.

ADT managing director Roy Rawlins, who was the brainchild behind this project, spent a lot of time with Kidson in the suburbs establishing that it is logistically difficult to cover every square inch of the area – and financially crippling. ADT was financing this as a research and development project to learn from, to raise exposure as a leader in the industry, and to use it as a backbone to sell into the suburbs. People in the area can piggy-back onto the system by adding more cameras on their streets or property, individually or as groups.

It took about 18 months to get the project in full operation, establishing the best locations, getting permissions for the site installations, design of the implementations and carrying them out. “We started with existing clients to set up cameras on their premises to face out on the roads, strategically covering the main 13 egress points for the region. Camsecure’s Francois Malan and ADT’s Clint Odendaal spent months setting it all up and testing it, especially the signal strengths with the wireless setup,” relates Kidson.

Clint Odendaal, new business development at ADT

Remote and central access

ADT headquarters in Sandton is about 15 km away from the Parkhurst/Parktown North suburbs, further challenged logistically by the mountain ridge in between.

“We utilised a building in Rosebank for a local recording centre that gives a direct line of sight to the cameras, whose images are transmitted to the Milestone software. Due to the building’s height, we are able to relay the images back to our central control room. The Rosebank centre also acts as a back-up for continuous, uninterrupted operations in any event,” says Clint Odendaal, new business development at ADT.

“The video images are relayed wirelessly from the localised clusters of Axis cameras to the central point in Rosebank where they are recorded in the Milestone software and viewed in Sandton over the Internet. If the Internet goes down or there is a system crash, the video is still recorded locally. The entire system also has back-up power. The performance will be further increased by the mobile unit at the sports club,” adds Francois Malan, technical director at Camsecure.

Odendaal adds: “Residents can also see the system overview from the club for demonstrations of the constant monitoring. With the images recorded 24 hours a day, we can share evidence with the police, and analyse the video to discover crime patterns. With the live video we can identify anything that looks suspicious and respond faster.”

The archived recorded video is locked up and secure, only accessible by appointed ADT personnel. All the viewing stations are looking at the live video.

“The quality of the Axis images is fantastic. Our technical challenge was getting the images from Rosebank in high enough frame rates back to the ADT control room. We had a bandwidth challenge with the required frame rate for live video, which we were able to resolve,” says Odendaal.

“When we started this project, things like H.264 camera compression rates were not yet available to us. But the beauty of the Milestone system is that it is open and scalable to allow the addition of such new technologies as they become available. ADT will be able to constantly upgrade and improve its services through the use of the latest innovations,” explains Malan.

The Milestone interface for viewing the camera images can show all of them at once on one screen, and simultaneously pull up a HotSpot window for a larger view of a critical area. Operators can also rotate all the cameras through the HotSpot window for a constant overview in close-up. In addition, the software provides digital zoom in any image to look more closely at certain details.

Odendaal relates an example of where the video captured an incident for more proactive response: an armed robbery alarm at night where ADT personnel were able to see the vehicle and which direction it was going to send armed patrols the right way. “We want to increase the number of cameras per area to extend our capabilities and that is simple to do with the Axis network cameras and Milestone platform. We can also utilise analytics at a later stage and be able to get licence plate recognition to trace in the police database,” he says.

Installation challenges overcome

“We found that installing camera poles on the sidewalk can lead to vandalism of both the cameras and the property, so we custom-made the poles for each property on their premises and walls. No two poles are the same in this entire installation,” states Malan. “Radio units for the wireless capacity are installed in a complex network we have designed, tested and developed. It works in clusters with a back-up radio sending the video data to the control centre Milestone database, sometimes 3 km away.”

Another challenge to the wireless installation in this project was the lush vegetation in the area, which can block the wireless signals. It is one of the oldest suburbs in Johannesburg that has very large trees. The cameras at each of the intersections are installed very discreetly according to different requests from the individual residents. This was an additional challenge for Camsecure in the implementation, to make sure the cameras were set up in a way that is not obtrusive and that suits each property. Camsecure even colour-coded them to match each location.

Setting new standards

“This installation is unique in that ADT has involved the community to give the residents extra coverage, using the surveillance as a comprehensive tool in combination with their armed services to pro-actively address crime,” states Malan. “And it is not just a security tool, the surveillance is also a management tool for ADT to be able see where their street guards and armed patrol cars are at all times, to manage them better from the central overview and to ultimately provide better services to the benefit of their clients.”

“It is an ideal scenario and the way Roy Rawlins wants to go, a fully integrated alarm and surveillance solution. It will assist us by linking alarms to video with instant access to what is happening. We can give patrols the information they need to respond faster and more appropriately; are there two or three suspects, do we need to call in more resources? The ability to identify false alarms also means we do not have to waste resources, we save costs, and we ultimately provide better service because the people who really do need our services will get them quicker,” concludes Kidson.

To save on bandwidth use in this project, Camsecure set up the Milestone software to send lower frame rate images to the central command centre for live viewing, while the local Rosebank centre is recording at a higher rate for clear details for police evidence. The lower frame rate images for live monitoring at ADT are fine to show what is happening for response purposes.

“We are using the Milestone Smart Client interface to de-compress the images from the cameras for the remote views over the Internet which further cuts down on bandwidth use,” explains Malan.

“I have been tasked to come up with a strategic vision for how we can build a good, solid IT structure that will allow all our clients to come on board and we do not want to penalise them with extra costs. We have got five geographical data centres with each major branch office here in South Africa, where we have built quite a robust infrastructure with a lot of investment in servers. So I am looking to leverage these as best possible, in a step approach,” says Ken Wood, ADT Group IT manager. “On the video side I am going to push hard on IP solutions for just these reasons. We are driven right now by the Milestone system.”

Share this article:

Further reading: