The traffic control and video surveillance project covers a 140 km section of one of the busiest highways in Romania, DN1, from Bucharest to Azuga. The traffic on DN1 at peak periods amounts to more than 50 000 cars/day.
As part of the innovative highway traffic control and surveillance solution delivered by Alcatel, the DN1 was equipped with a video surveillance system from Bewator. The system comprises 53 Solaris dome cameras installed in 19 key monitoring locations and was commissioned on December 6th 2005.
This solution, based on video technology, allows speed measurement and enforcement (speed control), automatic number plate recognition, accident automatic alarm, traffic analysis and data transmission on 90 km of optical fibre network.
The new video surveillance infrastructure serves three control centres along the highway, incorporating features that optimise operator's efficiency (automated camera control & multiplexing, different alarm behaviours and sequence display).
"Bewator Solaris dome cameras are an intelligent choice for all-round area surveillance, allowing the highest flexibility, a wide area coverage and simple integration", says Bogdan Tanasescu, TV Design Engineer at Alcatel Romania.
Adaptability is the key concept meaning that various scenarios are used in order to achieve best results for a specific zone. For instance, some mobile cameras can be programmed for Number Plate Recognition and others to have a wide field of view.
"With the Bewator Solaris dome cameras I really felt that I have received 'value for money'", says Bogdan Tanasescu. "The RS-485 protocol integration and hardware integration through inputs and output relays are the strong points of the Bewator solution"
The video surveillance may potentially improve the effectiveness of police work as recorded material from the Solaris cameras can be used in police investigations. Criminal activity such as drunkenness, non-payment of fuel at petrol stations and dangerous driving can therefore be prevented.
Another important advantage of the video surveillance solution is the speed and traffic regulation enforcement. In fact Romania is one of the European countries with the highest rates of fatalities due to car accidents. "More than 40% of the total casualties were reduced due to the DN1 video surveillance and traffic control solution", says Bogdan Tanasescu.