When Broome County in New York State decided to upgrade its public safety radio network, it required a high-quality video surveillance system to safeguard its $23 million investment in critical infrastructure. Working with its integrator partner Integrated Systems, Broome County chose a solution combining networked Axis cameras, illuminators and radar motion detectors, with Qognify’s Ocularis video management system (VMS), to deter, detect and respond to unauthorized activity, at each of its nine new radio towers.

The new radio network replaces a system that was in place since the 1970’s and improves communications for police, fire, other emergency services and public works departments for the municipalities across the county. Such mission critical infrastructure requires reliable round-the-clock security monitoring, so Integrated Systems was approached for its reputation in the delivery of technology solutions to government and industry, to specify and install a new video surveillance system.

President of Integrated Systems, Mark Hamilton, explained: “Each of the radio tower sites required a combination of networked PTZ and fixed cameras, as well as radar motion detection to provide comprehensive coverage that would ensure any unauthorized activity would be swiftly detected, automatically recorded and alerts triggered, to initiate a timely and appropriate response.”  

Axis camera and radar detection technology was chosen for interior and exterior use at each radio tower site and the Ocularis was chosen to provide the all-important integration. “Early in our engagement with Broome County we urged them to migrate from their disparate video surveillance architecture, whereby VMS, NVR and DVR systems were all being managed individually across the county. Our recommended solution was a single unified, IP-based system that was county-wide sanctioned. To achieve this we specified the Ocularis VMS from Qognify,” Hamilton explained.

Ocluaris is a VMS that is ideal for large-scale projects such as Broome County, with an emphasis on tactical real-time operations and live visualization, it is supported by full system redundancy and 24/7 availability. With Axis as a Qognify Technology Partner it instilled the confidence Broome County needed to switch to a more unified approach to video surveillance.

Using Ocularis, authorized personnel at the central security building and emergency management services center have 24/7 access to live and archived footage from every camera at each of the nine sites. The PTZ gives a 360-deg. view of each radio tower site, while the fixed cameras monitor the  tower yards main gates and shelter doors. Meanwhile the radar motion detection system guards the perimeter. All surveillance camera footage is recorded and centrally archived at the County Data Center via the county’s microwave data network.

“If any suspicious activity is detected an operator can rapidly view, review and replay all relevant footage through Ocularis,” said Hamilton. To aid the speed of response the operator also benefits from the use of visual maps to rapidly determine what cameras are available across each site, as well as video analytics to minimize time required to trawl through footage to identify activities of interest.

The Axis and Qognify solution has also been integrated with Broome County’s existing county-wide video network that includes street cameras, buildings and mobile video command systems.