Coastalwatch, an analytics and media content company that delivers live and recorded video and information on beaches and coastlines across the world to protect swimmers and watch coastal areas, chose to integrate Milestone’s XProtect software with its CoastalComs solution.
As a main component of the CoastalComs monitoring platform, the Australia-based company has selected Milestone’s software to provide live video surveillance and analytics solutions to marine safety and coastal management officials in several cities in Australia and the US.
Multi-national networking
CoastalCom’s analytics software and multi-national network of hosted coastal cameras have also been used for the collection of real-time data, such as wave height and wave period analysis, vessel monitoring and counting, people counting on beaches, as well as tracking changes in the shoreline and general beach state.
Milestone XProtect software is to centrally view and control cameras globally, layering in the ability to extract data for environmental monitoring, public education, tourism and recreational usage.
People counting and hurricanes
The solution has been installed at a number of Hawaii’s beaches, as part of a safety drive by City and County of Honolulu Hawaii’s Ocean Safety Division. The hosted surveillance platforms allow lifeguards to use the wave height analysis and people counting applications.
Galveston, in Texas, also chose CoastalComs for surveillance of remote beaches in an effort to increase the ability to measure the amount of shoreline change as a result of hurricanes.
“Milestone XProtect software allows us to create ‘networks’ of coastal cameras on the fly, patterning and sourcing video from both new and existing beach cameras according to each customer’s needs. We then process the video in real time for different groups based on their reporting needs and workflows,” Tim Chandler, CEO of CoastalComs, said.
“Integrated into our solution using the Milestone SDK, XProtect makes it possible for us to provision access to the video and cameras so only the right people can view the video and information at the right times.”
Video streams from a CoastalComs camera network used by Surf Life Saving Queensland, have also been made available to the public on Coastalwatch.com, which provides live video images, wave height and swell information, daily surf reports and other news to the international surfing community.
When authorities need to take manual control of the cameras during a lifesaving incident, integration with the CoastalComs and XProtect solution allows the live images and HD video on the media site to be cut off and replaced with other media content so as not to broadcast the command and control activities of life savers and marine safety to the public, Milestone said.
Catching the surf
Coastalwatch, a Sony partner in Australasia, mostly deploys Sony cameras for networks. Current solutions include a blend of Sony RZ25s with SNTEX101s in place, Sony RZ50s, and a growing number of the newer HD lines including the SNCRH164 HD domes and the bullet-style SNCCH180 HD cams.
Last year, Surf Life Saving Denmark installed a high definition CoastalComs camera at Hvide Sande Beach in West Denmark as a pilot project.
The HD camera has been fitted to support life saving efforts by providing decision support. Video from the system has been managed via CoastalComs’ hosted Milestone cloud presence in the UK, and can be serviced jointly by both US and Australian offices.
A spokesman for Milestone said: “Since most of the infrastructure normally deployed on location is instead deployed in the cloud, the only resource they need in Denmark for this solution is a local resource for simple break fixes on the field hardware. The added abilities of wave and environmental data processing for the lifeguards will be useful for both public safety and tourism.”
In January, Coastalwatch was awarded the 2011 Pioneer Award at the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame Awards for its Wave Height Processing Technology. The annual award is given to a person, group, or organisation that through the application of an idea or commitment to a project have broken new ground while contributing to the enhancement and innovation in surfing.
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