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Keeping an IP on oil

Located in the Littoral region in Cameroon is the city of Douala. Douala is not only the biggest city in Cameroon, it is also the regional economic engine, as well as the country’s wealthiest city.

As can be expected of such a logistically vital location, many of Africa’s biggest companies are represented and among these, is Libya Oil.

While it is no secret that the country of Libya has undergone recent political and societal upheaval, Libya Oil’s head office in Cameroon has thankfully experienced little of this turmoil. Libya Oil administrators are more concerned with common daily security issues.

Libya Oil contacted Ernest Kindakong, sales executive and presales engineer at Servitel, a Cameroon-based security integrator, to develop a new security solution for its head office in Douala. After a thorough analysis of Libya Oil’s facilities and concerns, Kindakong designed a solution that would:

* provide perimeter security for areas of high employee concentration,

* provide a solution that would allow Libya Oil administrators access for up to 90 days of recorded video footage as per company policy, and

* develop the overall solution with IT in mind, so as to provide the easiest and most user-friendly design for the IT users charged with these security matters.

Capacity for the future

Tackling the video storage requirement, Kindakong elected to go with Hikvision’s DS-9632NI-ST Embedded NVR. As he explained, this model’s 8 SATA interfaces perfectly fit one of the key NVR requirements – massive storage capacity. Furthermore, the up-to 5 Megapixel (2560x1920) of recording resolution guarantees that these images will be sharp and clear, regardless of when they are accessed.

“It is really a synthesis between required recording capacity and quality images. Another nice bonus is that the DS-9632NI-ST’s 32 channels provide excess camera capacity. Therefore should this head office choose to later install additional cameras, the upgrade will be simple and mess-free from an NVR standpoint,” added Kindakong.

Video coverage both front and back

Providing video surveillance for the head office’s front and main entrance, as well as the building’s rear exit area (and larger back surrounding area) is the Hikvision DS-2CD7353F-E(I) 2 MP outdoor network camera.

This fixed camera provides “a great choice for general surveillance for these areas. What I mean by this is, both the front and back areas are rather large, so by placing this DS-2CD7353F-E(I) in both areas, we get excellent 2 MP resolution for specific clarity on objects – such as the entrance. We also have excellent coverage of wide-open areas, such as the employee parking facility located behind the head office,” added Kindakong.

Since both the head office’s front, and rear, have good 24/7 lighting, this model’s IR functionality is not generally needed, but does provide an excellent backup should a night-time lighting issue suddenly arise.

However, in the open-air parking facility, the decision was made to add a bit more coverage. In this vein, the DS-2DF7274 Series 1.3 MP IR Network Speed Dome was placed on the building’s back outer structure to capture the parking facilities’ entrance. Utilising Hikvision’s iVMS software, Libya Oil’s IT staff use this camera’s 20x Optical Zoom and 1.3 MP resolution to accurately view office visitors and car details, such as licence plates, to gain a more complete picture of who is entering the premises.

Specifically designed

Rounding out the solution is Hikvision’s DS-1002KI RS-485 Keyboard. Kindakong explained, “Again, this office facility does not employ a full-time, dedicated, security staff. Instead, IT is largely charged with the administration of day-to-day security issues.”

To make this transition as easy as possible, the DS-1002KI RS-485 Keyboard was chosen because it optimises PTZ camera functions. In this setting, IT personnel only need concern themselves with possible issues, rather than trying to figure out how to observe these possible issues on their monitors, with efficiency trumping cumbersome mechanics.

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