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Warsash Maritime Academy monitors simulator tests with IQeyes from IQinVision

IQinVision, market leader in high performance megapixel network cameras, smart IP cameras, and network video recording systems, recently announced that the Warsash Maritime Academy in Southampton has deployed IQinVision IQeye 700 Series megapixel cameras to improve the effectiveness of its simulator training for students entering the shipping and oil industries.  Design and installation expertise was provided by InCam Digital Surveillance and Smart CCTV Ltd.

Warsash Maritime Academy provides first class education, training, consultancy, and research to the international shipping and offshore oil industries.  Warsash pioneered the use of bridge and engine room simulators for higher-level training.  Warsash's ship engine room simulator had been monitored by an antiquated analogue system that in low light levels produced images of insufficient quality for simulation training purposes.  Each camera had its own monitor and could be manually switched to a VHS tape recorder, which meant only one camera output could be recorded at any given moment.  In addition, the VHS output quality was not good enough to project to large audiences when sharing test results with international stress research colleagues.

Six IQeye 701 megapixel cameras, managed by Milestone XProtect Professional software, were installed to provide superior video monitoring of activity in the engine room simulator.  IQeye megapixel technology produces very clear images, even in low lighting, and all camera views are simultaneously monitored and recorded, providing much improved editing capability.  By recording the output to a dedicated server, the material is widely available on any PC on the university network.

"In this installation, IQeye megapixel cameras are used at full frame rate to assess student behaviour and stress within the Academy's ship engine simulator," explained Paul Stout, Managing Director of InCam Group.  "We tested for the optimal setup as the bandwidth and storage are critical here: they must have 25 frames-per-second from all cameras at very high resolution.  We needed to make sure that the technicalities could be achieved, and they are with the strong Milestone-IQinVision combination-it's a high performance solution.  The IQeye 701's are running full resolution, which gives a phenomenal view of the room."

At the Maritime Academy, all manner of incidents can be simulated and students have to react and undergo observation and then debriefing.  The IQeye's reliable, high-quality video images are essential to the effectiveness of the training process.  For the simulator to be as realistic as possible, it is important that only students are in the simulator:  teaching staff must be in a separate control room but they cannot see directly into the simulator.  IQeye video feeds enable professors to see and hear what the students are doing, how the instruments read, where the controls are set, and other important information.

IQinVision's Director of Business Development, Martijn Kolenbrander, said: "The market for megapixel technology is exploding across Europe.  We see our cameras being deployed in just about every vertical market-wherever the end user demands reliable, stable video images with remarkable resolution."