An upgrade of video technology at a south London residential estate has proved so effective that the system has been immediately scaled-up. The IDIS video solution, implemented by Hall & Kay Security Engineering at the Meridian South Development in Hither Green, is less obtrusive than the system it replaced, yet it immediately delivered better results, with a number of incidents tackled to the surprise of the culprits.
Although the mixed development, comprising 440 owner-occupied and rented properties, is a safe and pleasant neighbourhood for most of the time, to maintain this high standard of living managers needed to tackle a growing problem with petty crime and anti-social behaviour. Issues were being reported with increasing frequency, including rubbish being dumped by short-term tenants vacating their apartments, theft from mailboxes, vandalism, and car crime. Rubbish removal alone was costing the management company more than £12,000 annually. Hall & Kay were asked to solve this problem by implementing an advanced, end-to-end video solution from IDIS, Korea’s largest in-country manufacturer.
The H&K team began by replacing the ten column-mounted PTZ cameras with IDIS cameras. IDIS technicians visited the site with the H&K engineers and conducted a bandwidth test on the existing cabling, demonstrating that, by using the existing coax with IDIS ethernet converters, up to four IDIS fixed bullet cameras could be cost-effectively mounted on each existing column.
Additionally, wireless access points were installed where cameras couldn’t be cabled directly to the estate control room. This approach eliminated blind-spots and guaranteed that events would not be missed when the system was unmanned. To provide wider coverage, a further six columns were added, and additional IDIS cameras were mounted in the underground car parking areas.
The system now delivers full HD images in all lighting conditions, with built-in IR ensuring night-time image capture at distances up to 30m. All footage is stored for 30 days. The security officers and maintenance staff who manage the estate are also taking advantage of the easy-to-use analytics functions that come with the totally cost-free IDIS Centre video management software (VMS).
These tools include motion detection which can be utilised out of hours to ensure that scenes are only recorded when movement occurs, thus minimising bandwidth usage and storage requirements. This feature, along with IDIS MapVue navigation, also makes it easy to quickly review footage to find incidents of interest.
The 57 IDIS full HD IR cameras, and the three NVRs with 12TB storage each, benefit from true plug-and-play set up with DirectIP. When the South Meridian management team saw the quality of images now being captured, they asked if the system could be extended. With IDIS’s flexible approach this was quick and easy to do. Within 24 hours of the cameras being installed, departing tenants were recorded illegally dumping rubbish. Shortly after this, a contractor working at the site reported that tools had been stolen in both cases, with high definition evidence of the crime being captured and passed to the police.
In fact, thanks to the design of the system, and the easy-to-use VMS controls, security staff was able to retrieve footage of the incident itself, along with a full video trail of the thief moving across the estate, before and afterwards. Word has now spread about how effective the new system is, and residents are delighted that there are now no blind spots.
“The support we had from IDIS was second to none and the technology works exactly as promised,” said Wayne Wharton, Security Sales Manager, H&K Security, adding “We are now looking at many more IDIS projects with the same customer and others.”
“We are delighted that IDIS technology is making such a positive difference to the quality of life of residents at Meridian South,” said James Min, Managing Director at IDIS Europe.
