The pilot system uses state-of-the-art IP static and pan, tilt & zoom cameras, which have been mounted on the outside of Kenya’s National Archives Building – offering a bird’s eye view of the adjoining streets and surrounding areas. The cameras allow operators to zoom in on car number plates and on to faces in the area, and the system has a direct link to the local police for analysis, recording and action.
Martin Parry, PSK’s Technical Advisor, says the location and system design were both carefully chosen for maximum impact. “The National Archives Building lies in the centre the intersection of five of Nairobi’s most important roads, so it’s really the perfect choice for a pilot installation such as this,” he said.
“From the National Archives Building, we use the fibre infrastructure of the Kenya Data Network to send images live to a control room at the city’s Police Headquarters, two miles away. We have trained between 25 and 30 police officers on the use of the equipment in the control room, which has now been set up as a Special Surveillance Unit.”
All video from the eight cameras is recorded in high resolution to hard disk drives, and can be easily retrieved to provide evidence of any suspected criminal activity in the area. The control room boasts a Bosch VJ8008 1TB image storage system, together with LCD screens for monitoring and Sicura System’s DigiFend NVR video management software. DigiFend was selected because it can incorporate video help points and automatic number plate recognition, all key requirements for the future.