Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Construction Sites and Video Surveillance

Construction Sites and Video Surveillance –

Why networked video surveillance is the best solution at the Construction Sites?

Having just the guards to monitor and keep your construction site safe and without theft is impossible these days. Construction sites are definitely one of the places which need video surveillance. In addition to hiring somebody who could help you secure the area at night time, it is easier to install networked Video Surveillance system and get an internet connection at site. This will help you track from outsider and insider theft since there is usually no activity at night time. They could help you check whether some of your workers or outsiders bring home the construction materials for their own consumption. This might sound strange , but this is a common occurrence in most building sites. Also when the construction is finished you can either convert the same system to the Video Surveillance of that site or you can move it another construction site.

If you use Networked Video Surveillance System like enVigil then not only you can monitor remotely from anywhere and get the alerts on your phone or PDA but also you can store the data on NAS somewhere else and protect it. You can get an alert if any cameras are disconnected at the site by somebody. So the thieves can not delete the data locally.

You might need larger no of cameras since the site is spread out and enVigil can offer upto 32 cameras and even more if needed. The construction site CCTV could always provide you concise evidences for interrogation purposes if the need arises. Also since you can monitor the site remotely and also as an administrator can change the settings also remotely you can avoid unnecessary visits to the remote site.

Here is how you should use your Networked Video Surveillance System to your benefit.

• Like the sign Beware of Dogs – and no trespassing signs one should add that the site is monitored by Remote Video Surveillance for prevention of crime.

• Do a professional site survey to figure out which gates should be covered. Find out the key spots from where somebody might try to enter. Please discuss this with your system installer so that together you can come up with a solid master plan for the actual installation.

• If the site is larger and has expensive materials you should use few PTZ cameras.
Also you should use night vision cameras and also cameras with good resolution.

• Also use the best in class Networked Video Surveillance system since this is the brain of your surveillance. This should have all the features that you need for remote monitoring.

• Networked Video Surveillance systems work well with the actual trusted guards since it becomes a tool for them also to catch the thief as well.
Since the construction site is spread out you will also need less guards to cover a larger area. The objective is to stop theft so combination of guards, dogs, Video Surveillance is the way to go. If you use the networked Video Surveillance Systems then more than just the guards can be watchful of your site. You can give multiple phone numbers to receive alerts. Also with the right kind of equipment like enVigil from cradle.com you can access multiple construction sites from your office and make your own Command and Control Center that you can manage from anywhere in the world without spending a fortune.

enVigil- The networked Video Surveillance System technical data

Cradle is vertically integrated Video Surveillance Technology Company. Cradle is unique in it's offering of enVigil - we build the chip, the firmware (H.264 and MPEG4 encoders), the Janus card, the host Linux server software (which does the storage, streaming and server management) and also the remote Java based client software.


We use our own award winning, patented multi-core chip CT-3600 in enVigil.
Using the CT-3600 we have designed Janus, a PCI add-on card. Janus has a single CT-3600 with multiple A/D convertors. Each Janus card can process

* 16 channels MPEG-4 at CIF resolution (352x240) at 30 Frames per second each or

* 8 channels H.264 at CIF resolution (352x240) at 30 Frames per second each or equivalently

* 4 channels of MPEG-4 at D1 resolution (720x480) at 30 frames per second each or

* 2 channels of H.264 at D1 resolution (720x480) at 30 frames per second each or equivalently
* 8 channels of MPEG-4 at 1/2-D1 resolution (720x240) at 30 frames per second each or
* 4 channels of H.264 at 1/2-D1 resolution (720x240) at 30 frames per second (fps) each


An enVigil server can have up to 2 Janus cards supporting up to 32 cameras. Each camera can be set to record at anywhere from 1 fps to 30 fps each depending on your storage requirements (typically, the higher the fps, the higher the storage requirement). The quality of the recording can also be set independently - you can select a constant quality recording (here amount of storage will vary depending on the motion in front of the camera) OR you can select constant bit-rate (here the amount of storage will be the same regardless of the motion in front of the camera).

We recommend that our customers use 16 channels at full D1 resolution at 7.5 fps each with constant quality recording. This gives reasonably good motion rendition, and high picture resolution, and by using constant quality, the picture does not degrade with large amounts of motion in the scene.

enVigil inserts an I-frame every 1 second regarless of the fps - this means that when playing back, the nearest I frame is 1/2 a second away on the average.
mobile enVigil-M server will work with the DC power supply available in the mobile environment and is also vibration hardened. It uses 2.5" laptop hard disk which are more resistant to vibrations, but can only support up to 500 GB storage.





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