Whingate @ Armley CCTV System Upgrade
Project Started August 2005 : Project Completed August 2005
I was asked to upgrade the CCTV systems at Whingate Armley after a serious spate of shopliftings. The owners were currently using a Time-lapse tape based recording system, which required that tapes be changed daily and that they be rotated so as to keep a full 30 days worth of footage. Along with the fact that storing 30-40 VHS tapes took up a large amount of space, the system could only hand over information to the police by sacrificing a full tape. This was not a good system to use when you needed information out of it.
My upgrade was to build a Windows XP machine with Video Capture cards. Each card supporting 4 cameras, the system would collect information from 16 cameras and store this information upon raid enabled HDD’s
The cameras and cables from the old systems were already in place so it wasn’t fiscally sensible to replace hardware and cabling that was in good working condition.
The capture cards converted analogue signals to digital so all that was needed to link the old camera cables to the new system was BNC to COAX converting connectors.
The software for the system enables live viewing of recorded information, printed screen captures, and easy information backup to media.
The new system stores movement based video, thus making the most of the HDD capacity, rather than storing blank footage when the store was closed.
The footage could all be viewed live so the system would still continue to record even when footage was being viewed, and the footage could be viewed as soon as it had been captured.
The media backup ability of the software enables us to efficiently hand over data connected to thefts to the police. Media footage is stored in an AVI format viewable on almost any computer.
The police were most impressed in the system when we first showed them, as it enabled the officers responding to view the crime there and then and to go away immediately with the evidence and with facial printouts of the perpetrators.
After purchasing the equipment, building, installed and configuring the system I went about training the store owners and management with its use.
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