Critec Consult                                            

Independent security and CCTV consultants 

       

 

Critec CCTV consultancy

Critec consult personnel have extensive CCTV consultancy experience, having completed numerous successful commission on large CCTV projects.

CCTV evaluation and design has its own specific challenges.

Consideration must be given to the required function for the CCTV system elements, be it crime reduction, traffic monitoring, incident recording, area surveillance or covert monitoring. in addition the required performance must be identified; is facial recognition required or merely presence detection, will images be required for evidential purposes, and under what lighting conditions.  Resolution, image height, scene illumination, depth of field and environmental conditions must all be considered in order to provide the optimum signal to the transmission and monitoring/control equipment, which itself must be selected after consideration of signal to noise ratios, attenuation, bandwidth, equipment functionality and media handling. These considerations apply to camera and lens selection, movement devices, transmission media, matrices, monitoring and recording equipment alike. 

The recent advances in digital video bring with them new challenges requiring the evaluation of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) techniques, digital communications, network and fibre optic transmission, streaming video, bandwidth restrictions, refresh and update rates, various compression algorithms, digital recording, archiving, storage and backup. All these must be put into the context of image quality, evidential storage and retrieval, image integrity and the Data Protection Act. 

The advent of purely digital communications and the introduction of wire free transmission standards such as Bluetooth and 802.11b/g creates cost effective alternatives to expensive cable installations where line of sight is available between network points. These in turn present new consideration issues such as bandwidth, frequency intolerance, regeneration, aerial selection,  transmission patterns and system attenuation. This requires the application of fundamental network principles to microwave frequency transmission.

The introduction of ANPR and recognition software also introduces new challenges as the traditional camera views and lighting requirements are often inappropriate for the adoption of these technologies.

The remote monitoring of CCTV information may involve client Wide Area Network connectivity for SMS browser deployment, CCTV remote transmission, audio transmission and data connectivity. Many of these systems rely on and require a knowledge of varied telecommunication systems (PSTN, ISDN, leased lines and private circuits), fibre optic transmission and network routing, sometimes across international borders.    

Critec consult can design and plan your CCTV strategy to enable the selection of the appropriate products to meet your needs and business operations.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

CCTV projects undertaken by Critec personnel include:

  • Metropolitan transport scheme – UK. Technical management of commissioning teams and project management for networked digital CCTV and data-comms system comprising over 400 cameras and 6 control rooms covering 58 stations. Using leading edge 2.5Gb transmission this was only the 2nd deployment of this technology in the world at the time.

  • US Pharmaceutical Corporation – European headquarters:  Digital Video recorder upgrade evaluation and budget development  

  • Borough council – UK. Commercial feasibility study to investigate options for outsourcing of municipal CCTV monitoring services to third parties. Full financial and technical evaluation including generation of pre-tender qualification documentation. 

  • Military  museum – UK. Full specification and budget development for digital CCTV command and control centre for Military armaments museum.

  • UK Utilities – Detail design and project management of multiple estate CCTV / intruder detection system protecting water supply and treatment facilities providing drinking water to large metropolitan conurbation. Large project spread over 4 years involving in excess of 200 cameras on over 30 sites, standalone and linked via dedicated fibre-optic cables and telecommunication media to a number of parallel control systems, providing fallback monitoring in the event of single point failures, and central station design. 

  • Europe – Various establishments for VIP. Design and project management of integrated systems for various VIP residential and commercial establishments in Europe, involving the provision of CCTV, intruder detection and access control provision on multiple sites linked via telecommunications paths and digital wire free networks to a central monitoring facility. Highly specialised solutions were developed to fit in with architectural restrictions in listed properties.

 

 

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©  Critec Consult Limited.  132 Manchester Road,  Heywood,  Lancashire UK. OL10 2NN

Tel +44 (0)1706 625577   Fax +44 (0)1706 625599  Email  info@critecconsult.com