| A total of 54 IP cameras now cover the three levels of the Jade Hall while remaining 107 monitor the compound |
Thought to produce around 90 percent of the world’s jade and gems, Myanmar is particularly famous for its ruby, jade, and sapphire stones. The colour and quality of the country’s gems have made them popular around the world and they fetch record-breaking prices at international auctions. Some of the biggest sales are held in the Mani Yadanar Jade Hall in Myanmar’s capital city, Nay Pyi Taw. So when, after just four years, images from the old analogue CCTV system degraded significantly only weeks away from the sales, an all-IP totally-new solution for the 24 acre compound was an urgent priority.
Urgent IP installation
Myanmar, previously known as Burma, began selling jade and other precious stones at specialist gem shows in 1964. With demand continuing to increase, the ‘Gems and Jade Emporiums’ are now held three times a year at the Mani Yadanar Jade Hall. This three storey dome-shaped structure is owned by the Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneur Association and lies within a 24 acre compound, with the Jade warehouses lying on the North and South sides. A 142-camera CCTV system had been installed in 2011 to watch over the multi-million dollar sales but, after just four years, the image quality was badly affected by degradation of the long distance coaxial cables and damage to the electrical cables, DC power adaptors and the CCTV camera LEDs. In addition, new jade warehouses had been constructed within the compound.
With the next Gem Emporium due in the middle of June 2015, more than ten of the world’s premier CCTV suppliers, including Hikvision, submitted bids in early March 2015 to install a digital IP CCTV surveillance system. Nawarat Global Technology, working with Hikvision, was awarded the contract on 24th March with a completion date of 11th June.
Hikvision CCTV solution
A total of 161 Hikvision IP cameras were specified to cover the entire compound connected to five 32-channel Hikvision NVRs in the central control room, plus three further NVRs in secondary control rooms, through more than 3.5km of shielded fibre cables, with accompanying electrical cabling for the centralised power supply. A total of 54 IP cameras now cover the three levels of the Jade Hall while the remaining 107 cameras are used to monitor the 24-acre compound. The vast majority of the cameras are DS-2CD2T32-I5 bullet cameras, with 148 installed throughout the complex, with a variety of mini-dome, dome and speed-dome cameras completing the line-up.
“When the security solution at the Jade Hall was renewed, we naturally mandated a solution that would fulfil all of our security requirements throughout the complex,” says Mr Thar Tun, Systems Integrator at the Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneur Association. “However, we also wanted to enable customers to view live images of the jewellery within the hall and, to meet this challenge, a system capable of supplying live feeds onto two television screens from a single Network Video Recorder was required.
"We installed the entire 161-camera |
“However, the biggest problem we faced during the integration process lay with the outer buildings surrounding the Jade Hall within the complex. The solution required us to install underground fibre cables leading to all of these buildings from a centralised electrical power supply. In a very short space of time, we put down over 3.5km of 4, 12 and 24-core fibre cable, all accompanied by 3-core electrical cable for the centralised power system. We also put in over 12km of network cable for the IP cameras.
“The new solution also had to meet our requirements for reliability, robustness, durability, efficiency, ease of maintenance, high video quality on all IP cameras, and a minimum of three months’ storage duration on hard drives.”
Bullet cameras & contol centre
Commenting on the choice of the Hikvision DS-2CD2T32-I5 3-megapixel bullet camera as the mainstay of the system, Mr Tun highlighted its 80 metre IR range. “This camera is especially designed for low-illumination environments with true day/night cycling capability. The DS-2CD2T32-I5 also features 3D Digital Noise Reduction, Digital WDR and an IP66 weatherproof casing,” he says.
“The camera is also equipped with a wide variety of SMART alarm triggers, including Line Crossing, Intrusion Detection, Motion detection, Dynamic analysis, Tampering alarm, Network disconnect, IP address conflict, and Storage exception – all of which we expect to make use of as we optimise and refine the system. The combination of all these features makes the DS-2CD2T32-I5 an ideal primary camera for the new surveillance solution.”
Of the central control centre, Mr Tun says, “Rounding out the solution is the main control room, containing twelve 42 inch LED television screen, five 32 channel DS-9632NI-XT NVR’s, each equipped with sixteen 4-Terabye hard drives, enabling the Jade Hall’s security department to store footage for up to three months. The control room is monitored 24 hours per day, 7 days per week by a team of six. In addition to the main control room, there are also three additional sub-control rooms within the complex. Two of these are located at the security gate, and the other in the main management office in the Jade Hall. Within each sub-control room is one DS-7732NI-ST NVR with two 4TB hard drives and one 32 inch LED television screen.”
Installation
The installation process was performed by Mr Ye Tun Win, Managing Director, and his team of engineers, at Nawarat Global Technology Co., Ltd. On the installation process, Mr Win says, “We successfully installed the entire 161-camera security and surveillance system within 57 working days at Manai Yadanar Jade Hall, making this project the biggest IP camera installation project yet undertaken in Myanmar. The project began on April 4th, 2015, and concluded on June 10th. In addition, we also installed 43 IP cameras within the Myanmar Gems Trade Center, in Yangon, which was opened by of Myanmar Gem and Jewellery Entrepreneur Association in September 2014.”
Looking towards the future
On the future of the new surveillance solution, Mr Tun says, “The project was successfully completed in time for the Fifty Second Gems and Jade Emporium, which was held on June 24th.
“So far it has proven to be a resounding success, exponentially increasing the efficiency of our security solution through Hikvision’s SMART technology, and making the job of our security teams much easier, through features such as Intrusion Detection, and Motion Detection. Hikvision’s contribution to what is so far the largest project of its kind in Myanmar cannot be understated.”
Mr Win says, “The feedback from our customers at Mani Yadanar Jade Hall has been extremely positive, and signifies a landmark achievement for Nawarat Global Technology, being the largest project in the region. We are pursuing further opportunities within Myanmar and the future is looking very promising. We will continue to work with Hikvision and to utilise their products in all further CCTV installation projects.”