Against this backdrop, security and business support supplier The Corps has designed and set up a new national CCTV remote monitoring facility in Glasgow. Commissioned in December 2006 and fully operational since March of this year, the control room staff currently have the facility to monitor systems utilising a number of the leading CCTV transmission systems and to have all of these operational at any one time.
At the heart of the control room's video switching capability is a Zandar FusionPro+ 3RU MultiViewer. When an alarm is triggered at any of the locations served by the facility, the system automatically selects and displays an image from the nearest CCTV camera on a large, 42-inch TFT display, or on one of five LCD spot monitors located on operators' desks. The FusionPro+ 3RU has been integrated with an Avocent KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) switching system.
"When it came to designing the control room we consulted with the National Security Inspectorate to ensure that the best and most reliable available technology was used, and that the design was as robust as possible - it has been built to the BS5979 standard," says Bill MacGregor MCSE, CMC Technical Manager at The Corps.
"There are up to four operational staff in the room at any one time for 24/7 monitoring. Depending on the job and the time of day, staff can alter or manipulate the display configuration using Zandar's standard Z-Configurator software, directly from the operator desks. The system design also makes use off the FusionPro+'s Clock Display feature, to ensure that all the desks are perfectly synchronised."
Featuring complete integration with local PA/VA and access control systems, the Glasgow project is right at the forefront of security systems technology. "The CCTV images are captured on IP cameras and networked to the control room using broadband-enabled receivers," says MacGregor.
"The aim is to detect any disturbance at any of the sites connected to the control room, in conjunction with manned guarding and police monitoring both the interior and the exterior of buildings."
Commenting on the use of the 3RU FusionPro+ MultiViewer in Glasgow, Deirdre Smith at Zandar Technologies says: "This latest installation in the security sector is a further vindication not just of the ruggedness of our display processing products, but also their flexibility and their ease of use."
"It perfectly illustrates our mission to provide video display solutions that integrate existing and emerging technologies, and offer a variety of configurations, input format options and output display possibilities."