Security Sales & Integration

September2013

SSI serves security installing contractors providing systems and services; surveillance, access control, biometrics, fire alarm and home control/automation. Coverage in commercial and residential product applications, designs, techniques, operations.

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MUNICIPAL VIDEO SURVEILLANCE WIRELESS RADIO DEPLOYMENT GOES SMOOTHLY The camera system envisioned by Torrance ofcials would be a test case of sorts. Te idea was to deploy a high resolution camera at four major intersections for investigative purposes. Te intersections have been deemed likely trafc routes for perpetrators to use given the proximity to freeway onramps. "We have seen other agencies that have had success with it. We wanted to do a small sample to monitor the trafc. We are putting our foot in the water to see how it works for us and to see if we want to deploy it more wide-scale," says Lt. Tom Starks of the Torrance Police Department. Te Fluidmesh Network gear that Cox selected for the project in fact was his frst wireless video surveillance installation. His design called for eight wireless radios to transmit video feeds to a server housed at the Torrance PD command center. A solar panel charges a group four car batteries that provides power to the dome camera and enclosure, plus the wireless radio, when the sun is not shining. Seven of the radios are point-to-point and one is a mesh-end radio. "A point-to-point sends information from one radio to another. A mesh will send multiple radios to a single radio. For example, the police station itself has the mesh radio because that radio is reaching out to all the other radios at all the intersections," Cox explains. Radios mounted on intersection trafc poles, along with a corresponding dome camera housed in a Dotwortz bullet-resistant enclosure, talk from that point to a single radio down the road. Te mesh radio mounted at the police station provides the hub where all the radios transmit to, and then the video feeds are directed to the head-end switch. Installing the wireless radios proved to be less of a chore than originally anticipated. Cox was expecting he would likely have to contend with signal obstruction issues. "We thought that would be very challenging. Tey say you need to have absolute line-of-sight and the way the streets are shaped they are not perfectly straight," he says. Wireless devices were mounted in varied positions on the trafc poles to achieve optimal signal strength. "We had to close down the streets and get up in lift buckets and take our time in order to line them up by hand," Cox explains. PHOTOS: KELLY BRACKEN cializes in open architecture design and installing voice, data, video, sound and security networks along with media retrieval, broadcasting and video conferencing systems. Its clientele is largely K-12, private schools and hospitals. "We have all the experience and knowhow to do IP video surveillance. It is just a diferent device you are hanging on the end of the cable so it was real easy for us to migrate into video surveillance and start doing that," Cox explains. Because the Torrance RFP called for wireless capability as a requisite, Cox consulted with multiple manufacturers of wireless systems and landed on Fluidmesh Networks to assist him with the proposal. "Fluidmesh was more responsive with giving me the information that I needed to engineer the job and do the pricing," he says. "Teir price point was also more competitive. Tey have good technology built into their radios that allow for easy installation and long-distance wireless transmission." SOLAR POWER NECESSITATES LOW-WATTAGE CAMERA Going into the project, Cox was aware that three of the intersections would present no issue where power was concerned. He would simply install his own breakers and breaker boxes on the trafc poles and run high-voltage power to the cameras. Te fourth intersection was a bit more of a pickle since it is controlled by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). "Tey control the signals and they wouldn't let us tap into their power. We could use their poles to mount the camera and radio equipment, but we could not access anything inside their poles to tap into their wiring," Starks says. So the city wrote into the RFP that solar power would have to be equipped instead. For Cox, this added a twist to the type of camera he would eventually select to install. Te three city-controlled intersections were each equipped with a 2-megapixel pan/tilt/zoom (p/t/z) camera by Sentry360, featuring Torrance Police Department personnel can view live and recorded video from the four-camera wireless video surveillance system in the command room. The city used a federal grant to pay for the $190,000 solution. 94 / SECURITYSALES.COM / SEPTEMBER 2013

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