Controlware provides IP network CCTV solution for NCP

The NCP car park at St Pancras is protected by a digital surveillance solution

Leading IP CCTV specialists Controlware Communications Systems has supplied an IP CCTV surveillance solution for the National Car Parks Limited (NCP) public car park at the newly refurbished St Pancras International.

NCP at car parks has become synonymous with parking in town centres, airports and railway stations all over the United Kingdom.  Founded in 1931 NCP is today's market leader in the provision of parking services supplying over 200,000 spaces across more than 700 locations.

The NCP car park at St Pancras has in excess of 300 spaces and is protected by a digital surveillance solution that includes transmission, management and recording systems.  The solution is also fully integrated into the main St Pancras International CCTV network so that video images and recorded footage can be viewed from the Station Control Room (SCR).  This enables video surveillance to be more widely available helping to reduce crime and improve safety for employees, commuters and visitors to the station.

All cameras are connected to Bosch VIPX1600 multi-channel video codecs in the attendant's office.  The VIPX 1600 provides the ability to encode all video, camera controls and alarm inputs into digital IP data while also supporting dual encoding capabilities.  Dual encoding allows one video stream to be used for live viewing while the other video stream connects to an iSCSI RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) storage device for recording up to 31 days coverage from the cameras.

At the attendant's office security personnel can view, monitor and record high quality MPEG-4 video from cameras around the car park.  The Bosch VIDOS Management Software runs on a workstation and acts as a virtual matrix.  VIDOS enables operators to view and control any one of the remote video/audio sources, transmit video to further destinations, and manage alarms if required.  By using VIDOS as a virtual matrix there are no limitations for future growth unlike the old hardware matrix that prevented expansion by virtue of a fixed number of physical inputs and outputs.  VIDOS allows the CCTV solution to scale to an almost limitless level delivering greater scalability and reducing costs.

Commenting on the solution Matt Caine, General Manager of Controlware Communications Systems UK said: "Due to modular system design the IP solution is fully integrated, highly flexible and future proofed.  The solution acts as a springboard for future applications and services by providing an easy and cost effective migration path not only for video management and recording but for new IP based technologies such as transcoding and Intelligent Video Analytics should these applications be required in the future".

Richard Talbot, Head of Rail Parking for NCP said: "NCP takes the safety and security of our customers very seriously and we have been very pleased with the system installed for us at St Pancras.  The car park opened on 14th November 2007 and there has been no recorded crime since, this has led to the award of the prestigious Park Mark safer Parking Award by the British Transport Police and British Parking Association".

Video images and recorded footage can be viewed from the Station Control Room (SCR)

The British Parking Association operates the Park Mark Safer Parking scheme on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers.  The award is only granted to parking areas that have achieved the requirements of a detailed risk assessment.  This ensures that the parking operator has put in place measures that help to deter criminal activity and anti-social behaviour, thereby doing everything they can to prevent crime and reduce the fear of crime in their parking area, creating a safer environment for their clients and their clients' vehicles.