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| The management set out demanding requirements for the CCTV system which were met by IndigoVision |
Excalibur City, a themed shopping and entertainment complex in the Czech Republic, has deployed IndigoVision's complete IP-CCTV solution to enhance the security for its customers and staff. The new upgrade has transformed the surveillance operation, having replaced poor-performing analogue/DVR equipment with a distributed network-based digital video system.
Excalibur City is situated near to Znojmo on the border between the Czech Republic and Austria and is home to specialised shops, restaurants, wellness centres, Children's World and the duty-free outlet ‘Excalibur Free Shop'. The project also includes the monitoring of a new satellite shopping centre located 29 km away on a different border crossing. The 130-camera system was specified and installed by IndigoVision's local approved partner, KPZ electronics s.r.o.
"We set out very demanding requirements for the new CCTV system," said Mr Dalibor Perinka, Facilities Manager at Excalibur City. "The original cameras were to be reused; the images had to be indistinguishable from high-quality analogue pictures and be recorded for a minimum of 3 months; transmission from the satellite shopping centre was not to affect the picture quality or frame-rate; the operators' interface had to be intuitive and simple to use and the system had to be able to be easily and cost-effectively expanded in the future. Following a live demonstration from competing vendors, IndigoVision was chosen as they were the only company that could meet all of these essential requirements."
Operators use ‘Control Center', IndigoVision's Security Management Software, to view live and recorded video |
Excalibur City faced many problems with their old CCTV system. The images were of poor quality and recorded video held very little useful information. The DVR storage capacity was small and the control room equipment consisted of many different monitors and control units. However, one of their biggest problems was the cost and quality issues associated with relaying video from the new satellite centre 29 km away, using a leased line. All of these issues have now been solved with the upgrade.
Operators use PC workstations running ‘Control Center', IndigoVision's Security Management Software, to view live and recorded video. These workstations have replaced all of the original outdated control room equipment, and because the system is fully distributed, workstations are also located on the desks of the Facilities Manager and the Head of Security. IndigoVision's advanced H.264-based compression technology allows high-quality video to be streamed across the network with minimal bandwidth requirement, allowing video from the satellite store to be displayed alongside the local cameras without any degradation. This also allowed the entire system to be implemented on the centre's existing IT network, eliminating the old co-ax cable and removing the need to install new wiring.
"The features offered by ‘Control Center' have transformed the way we use the CCTV system," added Perinka. "The use of an interactive map allows us to easily select the right cameras and we can quickly find clips from the recorded video using the advanced motion search facilities. In the event of an incident we can export evidential quality video for the police."
