19 Aug 2010
Since 1923, the City of Garland has been providing electric service to its citizens through Garland Power & Light (GP&L), its locally owned and controlled not-for-profit municipal utility. With nearly 68,000 customers, GP&L is the third largest municipal utility in Texas and the 41st largest in the nation.
The challenge
GP&L needed to enhance video surveillance protection of its wide-ranging infrastructure and facilities, well beyond the capabilities of the existing analogue CCTV system. The utility has three gas-fired generating plants with a total of 640 megawatts of generating capacity, supported by a transmission system of 23 substations and 133 miles of transmission lines. In addition, the City of Garland is a partner in the Texas Municipal Power agency which operates the 462 megawatt coal-fired Gibbons Creek Power Plant. GP&L's energy distribution system has 1,007 miles of overhead lines and a further 1,000 miles underground. For this extensive and widely dispersed infrastructure, GP&L required improved image quality, increased coverage and extended video retention capacity for its video surveillance system.
The solution
Preferred Technology Solutions, an authorized Intransa integrator, provided a complete solution to GP&L. It integrates three types of previously installed cameras, including Axis Communications™ megapixel cameras for greatly improved coverage and higher image resolution. Eventually over 300 IP cameras are envisioned for complete video coverage to meet GP&L's requirements.
The Milestone XProtect™ enterprise video management system now provides a new level of video management and control to meet GP&L's needs for both live stream monitoring and video archiving capabilities. Milestone Systems and axis Communications are both members of the Intransa Videoappliance™, certified for quick, simple and risk-free integration with Intransa platforms.
Supporting the new video surveillance solution is an Intransa recording & playback platform that supports modular recording capacity without ever halting recording. The fault-resilient Intransa platform also delivers advanced RaID protection to eliminate the risk of lost video that plagues CCTV environments. hot-swap technology provides non-stop recording with unattended operation supported by email alerts, and without need for scheduled downtime for maintenance.access to both live and recorded video and to system management tasks can be performed as needed from any authorized location with IP access, providing increased flexibility and reduced administration for GP&L.
Leveraging the power of IP
The Intransa platform used in the new Garland Power & Light IP video surveillance deployment provides a simple, single- system view of all of the video recording capacity supporting the axis Communications, two other brands of IP cameras and the Milestone Systems XProtect™ enterprise Video Management System. "Because of the design of the Intransa system, we have been able to meet the bandwidth requirements of large numbers of cameras recording continuously as well as vast storage capability to meet our storage requirements for up to 90 days of recorded video," Grubbs adds.
Scalability & reliability - lower costs, less administration, better video quality & reliability
The Intransa platform provides hot-swap, field replaceable disk drives and power supplies to eliminate the risk of lost video and provides full RaID data protection for non-stop recording. Advanced features provide maximum uptime and rapid rebuild speed after any disk drive failure, eliminating administration headaches and potential security risks.
Garland Power no longer has to be concerned about potentially losing important video, now available via the Milestone XProtect™ enterprise VMS, 24x7x365. Video recording capacity can be extended to meet future security requirements, supporting more cameras, longer retention periods, and both higher resolution and frame rate for increased video quality.
Intransa Videoappliance™
Intransa Videoappliance™ eliminates the need for commodity servers and storage, while delivering superior performance and reliability. Preloaded with leading VMS systems and other physical security software, they also eliminate the complexity of integrating server/storage platforms with security applications, which reduces support and operational challenges. Advanced video optimisation technology reduces storage and server hardware requirements, cutting heating, cooling, electrical consumption and rack space.
Since 2003, Intransa solutions have benefited customers worldwide in an ever growing mix of retailers, municipal governments, hotels and casinos, correctional facilities, police departments and law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, airports, hospitals and medical centers, managed service providers, transit authorities, ports and shipping hubs, manufacturers, native american organizations, colleges, universities and school districts, utilities and resources companies, and a wide variety of government users.
Intransa Videoappliance™ Technology Lab Certified Partners include axis Communications, Milestone Systems and hundreds of other applications and products including DVRs, NVRs, Video Management Systems, Physical Security Information Management Systems, IP video and surveillance cameras, megapixel cameras, video analytics, access control, life safety, biometrics, authentication, infrastructure and other technology offerings.
The challenge
GP&L needed to enhance video surveillance protection of its wide-ranging infrastructure and facilities, well beyond the capabilities of the existing analogue CCTV system. The utility has three gas-fired generating plants with a total of 640 megawatts of generating capacity, supported by a transmission system of 23 substations and 133 miles of transmission lines. In addition, the City of Garland is a partner in the Texas Municipal Power agency which operates the 462 megawatt coal-fired Gibbons Creek Power Plant. GP&L's energy distribution system has 1,007 miles of overhead lines and a further 1,000 miles underground. For this extensive and widely dispersed infrastructure, GP&L required improved image quality, increased coverage and extended video retention capacity for its video surveillance system.
The solution
Preferred Technology Solutions, an authorized Intransa integrator, provided a complete solution to GP&L. It integrates three types of previously installed cameras, including Axis Communications™ megapixel cameras for greatly improved coverage and higher image resolution. Eventually over 300 IP cameras are envisioned for complete video coverage to meet GP&L's requirements.
"The Intransa platform provides scalable capacity that will allow our new surveillance solution to cost effectively meet our objectives, now and in the future," - David Grubbs, Regulatory & Compliance Directpr, Garland Power & light |
Supporting the new video surveillance solution is an Intransa recording & playback platform that supports modular recording capacity without ever halting recording. The fault-resilient Intransa platform also delivers advanced RaID protection to eliminate the risk of lost video that plagues CCTV environments. hot-swap technology provides non-stop recording with unattended operation supported by email alerts, and without need for scheduled downtime for maintenance.access to both live and recorded video and to system management tasks can be performed as needed from any authorized location with IP access, providing increased flexibility and reduced administration for GP&L.
Leveraging the power of IP
The Intransa platform used in the new Garland Power & Light IP video surveillance deployment provides a simple, single- system view of all of the video recording capacity supporting the axis Communications, two other brands of IP cameras and the Milestone Systems XProtect™ enterprise Video Management System. "Because of the design of the Intransa system, we have been able to meet the bandwidth requirements of large numbers of cameras recording continuously as well as vast storage capability to meet our storage requirements for up to 90 days of recorded video," Grubbs adds.
| Garland Power no longer has to be concerned about potentially losing important video |
The Intransa platform provides hot-swap, field replaceable disk drives and power supplies to eliminate the risk of lost video and provides full RaID data protection for non-stop recording. Advanced features provide maximum uptime and rapid rebuild speed after any disk drive failure, eliminating administration headaches and potential security risks.
Garland Power no longer has to be concerned about potentially losing important video, now available via the Milestone XProtect™ enterprise VMS, 24x7x365. Video recording capacity can be extended to meet future security requirements, supporting more cameras, longer retention periods, and both higher resolution and frame rate for increased video quality.
Intransa Videoappliance™
Intransa Videoappliance™ eliminates the need for commodity servers and storage, while delivering superior performance and reliability. Preloaded with leading VMS systems and other physical security software, they also eliminate the complexity of integrating server/storage platforms with security applications, which reduces support and operational challenges. Advanced video optimisation technology reduces storage and server hardware requirements, cutting heating, cooling, electrical consumption and rack space.
Since 2003, Intransa solutions have benefited customers worldwide in an ever growing mix of retailers, municipal governments, hotels and casinos, correctional facilities, police departments and law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, airports, hospitals and medical centers, managed service providers, transit authorities, ports and shipping hubs, manufacturers, native american organizations, colleges, universities and school districts, utilities and resources companies, and a wide variety of government users.
Intransa Videoappliance™ Technology Lab Certified Partners include axis Communications, Milestone Systems and hundreds of other applications and products including DVRs, NVRs, Video Management Systems, Physical Security Information Management Systems, IP video and surveillance cameras, megapixel cameras, video analytics, access control, life safety, biometrics, authentication, infrastructure and other technology offerings.