Problems facing management included ‘drive-offs’ where motorists fill their tanks without paying, assaults on staff, pilfering from shops on the forecourt and theft of car parts.

The challenges are being met by use of Hikvision’s 5-megapixel cameras employing digital media processors based on TI’s DaVinci technology. The cameras are positioned at cash registers, store entrances and exits as well as arrival and exit lanes from the freeway. License plate recognition is one of the most demanding tasks and clients are benefiting from the ability of these units to capture fine detail.

Some of the Power over Ethernet (PoE) cameras used have been pole-mounted while others are attached to station fixtures. Cameras are also fitted under pump canopies where shadow is an issue; the units are required to perform across varying light levels and an optimum iris position is selected automatically.

The client’s brief to integrator Sound Bytes Security included provision of footage from entrance and exit lanes to law enforcement agencies who are benefiting from the search and retrieval offered by the Hikvision H.264 video compression cards also being used on the project. Sound Bytes are using dual-stream cards from the HCI series.

Ed Morando Snr is the owner of Sound Bytes Security. He said: Rapid incident retrieval is important for these customers and for police officers, but footage also helps with logistics and safety. Gulf, Mobil and Shell pay particular attention to their duty of care to lone workers, and the camera images can be used to monitor tanker delivery staff when they arrive on site.”

Mr Morando continued: “The range of Hikvision products used at these gas stations is wide; we are also supplying analogue and IP-addressable cameras. Both Sound Bytes and the client can view images remotely from a web browser, taking control of cameras as necessary. Use of the footage is a combination of real-time monitoring and retrospective incident analysis.”

The Hikvision 5-megapixel cameras used here deliver a compressed video stream with resolution of up to QSXGA (2560x1920) at 8fps and HD1080P (1920x1080) at full frame rate. The image quality more than meets evidential requirements and assists both management and civic authorities in securing criminal convictions. Local card storage (SD/SDHC) ensures no breaks in recording even when the network connection is interrupted. There is support for two-way audio and ePTZ.