The new 4 channel rack allows Indigovision’s renowned compression technology and video quality to be deployed for rail security applications. Up to 4 specialist analogue CCTV cameras can be connected to the rack, which converts the security camera feed to high-quality full-framerate digital video for transmission over a standard IP network. A complete surveillance solution can then be installed using Indigovision’s ‘Control Center’ video management software and Windows network video recorder (NVR) software running on a ruggedised PC connected to the IP network. The distributed architecture allows the rack and PC to be located at any point on the network, providing a high degree of flexibility for installation in large passenger trains and at stations.

High-quality synchronised audio can be transmitted alongside the video and recorded for later analysis. Advanced audio PA facilities in ‘Control Center’ enables manual and pre-recorded voice messages to be broadcast over the IP network to a specific group of speakers connected to any number of racks.

The 4 channel rack is a modular design, which can be fitted with any combination of MPEG-4 or H.264 transmitter or receiver modules. The transmitter module allows any make of analogue security camera (including PTZ control) to be connected to the rack, whereas traditional CCTV monitors can be driven from analogue outputs on the receiver modules. All video, audio, PTZ control functions and digital I/O alarm triggers are transmitted using a single CAT5 UTP cable.

Indigovision’s unique Activity Controlled Framerate (ACF) and real time analytics can be run on any of the transmitter modules in the rack. ACF controls the framerate of the security camera video stream based on the amount of motion in the scene. When there is no activity, video is streamed over the network at minimum framerate. The instant motion is detected the video is automatically transmitted at the maximum configured framerate. This significantly reduces the bandwidth and NVR storage requirement for security cameras monitoring generally static scenes or during quiet periods such as at night with empty passenger carriages. Real time analytics functions include virtual tripwire, motion detection, theft detection, hooded camera detection, object tracking, counter-flow and congestion detection. Alarms triggered from any of the analytics functions can automatically alert an operator to a potential problem or trigger an action in ‘Control Center’, significantly improving incident response and reducing operator workload.