Highly complex, wide-ranging system comprises hundreds of cameras to protect games
DVTel Inc., multiple award-winning market leader in the development and delivery of intelligent security solutions over IP networks, today announced that the company's intelligent Security Operations Center (iSOC) was utilized as the command and control software for the IP-based, integrated security system at the 18th Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. The Games were conducted over 12 days in March, with Melbourne playing host to more than 6000 athletes and hundreds of thousands of spectators and staff.
The networked surveillance solution combined new and existing CCTV surveillance systems to give organizers unprecedented vision during the events. The DVTel iSOC integrated key sites comprising hundreds of fixed and PTZ cameras, including the 50-acre (20 hectare) Athletes Village and a network of cameras located around the city-designated "Public Domain," including the huge Melbourne Cricket Ground which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies.
Along with the Village and Public Domain sites, the DVTel iSOC also integrated and managed cameras from Vic Roads (state organization which manages roads) and the Victoria Police Centre, giving centralized access to video streams from these cameras at a central control location called the Games Operations Centre (GOC), where cameras were monitored and recorded.
This ambitious, highly complex installation had several key players involved. Communications Design and Management (CDM) oversaw design of the new surveillance system and integration with legacy CCTV systems. CDM chose two companies to manage various parts of system installation and network design: Landmark Security and Teknocorp.
Both partners on the project were impressed with the DVTel solution. Landmark's Simon Langdon said an obvious strength of the iSOC is the ability to leverage the existing IT infrastructure and the legacy security equipment, as well as the system's overall performance: "The system gives great flexibility and allows users to be proactive, not reactive. iSOC alerts operators to events and ensures they see what they need to see."
Teknocorp's Robert Portelli also praised the iSOC, "DVTel controls are easy, there was good product support and most important of all, this system had the ability to talk to other networks."
The DVTel iSOC enabled Landmark to run a live offsite Disaster Recovery Centre to provide complete failover in the event of an incident or failure at the Village's control center. The DVTel software also integrated with the perimeter intrusion system - the alarm triggers went into the iSOC where macro-programmed presets linked events to PTZ cameras, so if an alarm went off a camera would pop video to the screen and display the preset related to that alarm event.
DVTel President and CEO Eli Gorovici commented, "We're very proud that DVTel was chosen to play such a central role in providing essential security for the Commonwealth Games. This challenging installation allowed us to show the very best of what the iSOC can do in terms of integration, flexibility, and superior performance."
