City Surveillance - Municipal Security InfrastructureThe expansion of cities and towns brings vitality, increased opportunities for revenue and ultimately, more people to core regions, which in turn can result in a potential for more crime. In response to this demographic trend, there has been significant growth in IP video surveillance for towns and cities, as surveillance becomes more important for keeping citizens and tourists safe and providing an overall sense of security to its residents, while further encouraging the use of these protected public spaces. Video surveillance provides several key benefits to the municipality's security infrastructure. - Visible cameras located in central areas such government buildings, parks, downtown regions, and around various public facilities not only provide a sense of security for the public, but also function as a form of crime deterrence, as criminal activities and vandalism are far less likely to take place in the presence of visible cameras.
- There are positive political implications; residents would like governments to utilize their tax dollars to increase their own personal security by installing these types of security measures in public places. This also fosters the relationships between local businesses and municipal governments as video surveillance bolsters security for the local businesses, providing additional revenue opportunities as customers feel more comfortable patronizing those establishments.
- The use of video surveillance and video analytics assists law enforcement agencies with apprehending criminals.
There are specific considerations necessary in the installation of a city surveillance system: - The number one requirement of a city surveillance system is scalability - the software must address the current needs of the municipal infrastructure while being flexible enough to also address the city's future needs, as the infrastructure requirements increase. Aimetis Symphony provides this scalability by being future-proof; providing the ability to utilize a robust video management functionality not only with existing cameras and infrastructure, but also by providing an option to upgrade hardware at any time and migrate from analog CCTV to a complete IP solution, as applicable.
- The second requirement of a robust city surveillance system is the ability to search video footage immediately after an incident has occurred, usually called forensics. Traditionally, the operator needs to review hours and hours of video before finding the right frame when the incident happened. With Aimetis Symphony, the deployment of video analytics and more specifically, an intelligent search function, reduces the need to search through hours/days/months of surveillance. This feature provides the user with the ability to specify the type of activity they would like to search for, set the time parameters and only relevant data will be shown, drastically reducing the time needed to search for a specific frame and significant savings in search time, resulting in overall lower labor costs.
- Finally, any city surveillance needs to have the capability to have provided real-time alerts to the proper authorities to respond accordingly. Whether it is trespasser breaching the digital fence on a restricted area in the city or a car going the wrong way on the onramp of a highway, the system must have the feature to provide accurate real time notifications to the appropriate personnel so that proper actions can be taken. With Aimetis Symphony, the seamless integration of video management and video analytics into one platform enables the user to receive relevant and accurate alerts in real-time. Using analytics in monitoring public places and venues provides another layer of security in addition to simply recording and reviewing. The result is a higher level of security that is imperative in a public security deployment.
In summary, the recent global emphasis towards security combined with the municipalities' objective to show visible evidences on how their constituents taxes are being spent, is fuelling the growth for city surveillance security deployments. Aimetis Symphony's video management and analytics software is an ideal platform for these types of mid-large scale surveillance deployments that has a need for a scalable and cost-effective solution. For more details on the latest Aimetis Symphony city surveillance project, City of Novi Sad in Serbia, click here. Sincerely, Marc Holtenhoff
Chief Executive Officer |  |