Featherbrooke Estate in Guateng is one of the most prestigious housing communities in South Africa. Its expansive perimeter borders, among other things, a nature reserve and other open space.
Featherbrooke’s residents insist on knowing that they are safe in their homes day and night, but did not want to compromise the rustic and rural ambiance of their natural setting in achieving their perimeter security goals. Additionally, the solution needed to work within the constraints of a limited budget and be deployed quickly.
The wilderness area surrounding the community and Guateng’s climate posed unique challenges when designing a system to effectively monitor Featherbrooke’s perimeter. The system needed to minimise the time and manpower lost to false alarms caused by rain, wind, animals, vegetation or any moving objects other than humans or vehicles. In addition, the ideal solution would also protect the entire surveillance system from network failure or downtime in the event of a lighting strike and eliminate the risks associated with power outages in general.
It was determined that VideoIQ® intelligent video analytics offered the best available way to give guards, camera operators and remote monitors an accurate tool to correctly identify critical events, minimize false alarms and initiate appropriate responses quickly. And edge storage in the HD cameras would effectively address the challenges of power outages due to extreme weather conditions.
Solution
After considering several options Featherbrooke decided to install VideoIQ’s HD iCVR devices. The solution was quickly installed on the perimeter & integrated into the estate’s control room by SysControl – one of VideoIQ’s accredited partners and a preferred supplier to Featherbrooke.
The final design includes VideoIQ Full HD Video Surveillance Systems and IQ Track with remote motorized focus and high-power infrared LED directional illuminators from Tekno Europe. Various early warning rules were set for each device. Each VideoIQ iCVR acts as an independent device with its own rules and storage, eliminating the need to constantly stream video. The cameras were simply mounted on poles at the perimeter and connected back to the control room. The iCVRs installed just like a PC on their network, enabling SysControl to pre-configure and quickly install them on site when the poles were ready. All that was required for the control room was a Windows PC. Solar panels with battery reserve at each pole supply power to the illuminators and HD SmartGuards for lightning isolation, reducing dependence on centralised power.
VideoIQ intelligent video analytics |
The VideoIQ choice
Since the VideoIQ solution required no servers or other hardware infrastructure, Featherbrooke realised savings not just on installation and overall system costs, but they also reduced indirect and future expenses including additional guards, beams, fences and control room staff to monitor screens. An added benefit to Featherbrooke is that their new solution is completely scalable. They simply add more VideoIQ units as needed without modifying or upgrading existing infrastructure.
The new solution also wisely isolated each pole and camera, dramatically reducing risks from storm damage and power outages, eliminating a single failure within the system. Featherbrooke’s control room operators are now notified of any potential threats or incidents before they occur, as live video alarms are triggered for suspicious activity outside the fence. At any time, an operator can quickly review live video or search recorded video for specific events and times. They verify the activity before alerting guard patrols of suspicious activity.
Unlike before, their guards now respond to any incident with accurate, real-time information – including the location and descriptions of people or vehicles involved. Detecting and analysing activity outside the community’s fence lets security guards respond quickly and appropriately to events and prevents a perimeter breach. The VideoIQ real-time prevention solution helps to minimise guard costs and provides the best instant alert and response options for perimeter surveillance applications.
