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Burnley Borough Council has just added 15 new camera installations in the neighbouring town of Colne to the 144-CCTV cameras it already monitors. The installations utilize Vicon Surveyor 2000 domes, which, according to Jason Blundell of Vicon, were specified for their ability to produce consistently high-quality images across such a wide range of lighting conditions.
"Burnley had narrowed down their choice to two domes and it was a case of directly comparing the two under close scrutiny," he explains. "As well as the requirement to deliver good quality night time images, the specified dome had to be able to deal with glare from the sun, a common problem at this time of year."
Burnley's system is being continually developed as needs, conditions and budgets permit. In addition to the Colne installations, Burnley itself is to replace seven of its existing older cameras with Surveyor 2000s.
Burnley's CCTV manager Peter Stobbs made the decision to select Vicon Surveyor dome systems partly due to their performance and partly due to the largely Vicon-branded telemetry equipment in the control room.
Peter Stobbs : "Integration is obviously important but Vicon's open protocol policy means that their matrix can interface with most other brands of equipment – and in fact does so here all the time. And from an operational point of view, the control room staff perform routine operational tasks and programming with ease using the Vicon keyboard."
Lesser of two evils
Vandalism of CCTV equipment is a key issue for Burnley – particularly within residential areas, where stones and air rifles are often used in an attempt to disable cameras. Burnley did consider increasing vandal resistance through use of Kevlar housings, as well as Vicon's own maximum security variant with heavy gauge steel and impact resistant polycarbonate lower dome, but finally elected to use the standard product.
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Vicon's Guy Nixon says he has encountered this kind of pragmatic approach before and it's often well thought out.
"CCTV managers often have to be realistic in just how indestructible they ought to make these systems," he explains. "The impact of superficial damage can often send a vandal away quite content at having had some kind of effect. However, heightened vandal resistance can often lead to heightened vandal frustration and determination. It can be viewed as a trade off but it's a compromise that works."
EDITOR NOTE
Photographs courtesy of Burnley Borough Council – Kindly do not reproduce in any other context than with the accompanying Vicon News Release dated 17-04-2003.
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