Pentax 8~120mm lenses have been installed in the North Yorkshire town of Harrogate by Baydale Control Systems of Darlington, as part of the city’s rolling surveillance expansion programme.
Harrogate Borough Council takes a multi-role approach to the deployment and usage of surveillance systems. Owing to the fact that so many aspects of crime detection, traffic monitoring and general city and asset management strategies depend on quality images, Pentax lenses were ‘non-negotiable’, says Andy Ward of Baydale.
“When a tender document specifies that level of quality and reliability we don’t have to think twice,” says Andy. “It often happens that installers who support the use of components that save costs instead of doing the best job possible aren’t thinking of whole life costs. Now, as Baydale Control Systems is also responsible for the maintenance of the Harrogate system, the use of quality components such as lenses means that firstly the client has less downtime – if any – and we have fewer callouts.”
The Pentax 8~120mm C-mount motorized zoom lens is a well-established workhorse of the urban visual surveillance scene, with an iris range of F1.6~1000.
This most recent extension comes out of the highway agency’s budget. Consequently, the camera points have been selected so as to give optimum usability to traffic as well as to community safety functions. The installation mainly covers routes between Harrogate itself and Knaresborough.
Harrogate Borough Council has been operating CCTV for seven years now, and the system is operated round the clock 365 days a year in roles as varied as crime management and emergency planning. The Council has a refreshingly sensible approach to its civic role, ensuring that local representatives and councillors are easily accessible for residents, local businesses and so forth. And it has the foresight to offer a jargon-busting dictionary on its website to help residents and visitors with the more arcane terminology often used by regional government.
According to Wayne Barraclough of Pentax, the 8~120mm lens is a popular choice for the kind of role Harrogate required of this project. At one end of the focal length there is a very good field of view, allowing for wide areas to be observed, but at maximum zoom one can still achieve subject recognition up to 80metres distant. In addition, the Pentax 8~120mm has very good levels of light throughput. As the siting of the additional cameras ranges from well-lit city centre locations to darker environments in more suburban areas, this performance characteristic is key to effective surveillance.
