Despite its ability to withstand more than two millennia of floods, earthquakes and invasions, Petra is now more under threat than ever before. This beautiful historical city, known as the Rose City for the colour of the stone from which it is carved, is now visited by such a large number of tourists that its ancient structures and rock-cut architecture are in danger of being damaged.

Recently, it was decided that the entire site must be monitored in a way that ensured the protection of the ancient city, while blending in with the natural beauty of the surroundings. Luminus Technology, Jordan, was brought in to investigate how such a system could be established. Under the leadership of managing director, Hamzeh Labadi, Luminus set about looking for surveillance systems that were powerful enough to provide protection across the great site, durable enough to withstand the elements, and discrete enough to blend into the beautiful ancient city of Petra.

Luminus Technology was searching for a surveillance system that offered advanced surveillance, reliability and discreteness.  Vivotek’s wide range of multi-purpose and specialist IP cameras, combined with their advanced network video recorders (NVR) and self-developed network video management software, VAST, offered Luminus Technology a way to bring technological advancement back Petra’s natural environment for the first time since the ancient city thrived two millennia ago.

550 Vivotek IP network cameras were installed strategically around Petra’s majestic ancient structures and natural valleys. Key among these was the SD8364E for its ability to provide broad coverage at high resolutions while withstanding even the most extreme environments and the FE8180 for its high performance wide-angle views and low-profile design.

To provide the most complete and highest-resolution coverage of Petra’s unique ancient cityscape, Luminus Technology selected the SD8364E 1080p full HD resolution speed dome with superb image quality and 30x optical zoom lens to help users see a broader picture and finer details. To protect the SD8364E against Petra’s desert like conditions and any incidents of attempted vandalism, an IP67- and NEMA 4X-rated housing guards the camera body against even the harshest environmental hazards and allows for a wide operating temperature range of between -40°C to 55°C. With WDR Pro technology, the SD8364E can also cope with challenging lighting conditions, an especially useful feature when operating in the highly contrasting network of narrow valleys and caverns that is the ancient city of Petra.

Complementing the SD8364E is the FE8180 fisheye network camera. The FE8180, thought to be the world’s smallest fisheye camera with a diameter of only 90mm, and able to blend into the surroundings of even majestic sites such as Petra, can nonetheless cover broad spaces in detail, acting as an invisible, but powerful eye to keep watch over the ancient city and majestic city Petra. A single FE8180 can easily do the job of three to four standard CCTV cameras, dramatically reducing the cost of ownership while protecting the elegant aesthetic of the 2300 year-old city.

Uniting both types of cameras were the ND8422P and ND8322P NVRs and Vivotek’s VAST video management software. These NVRs and VAST enabled the team monitoring and protecting the city of Petra to seamlessly operate and maintain the fleet of cameras. Hamzeh Labadi, managing director of Luminus Technology, said "We are proud to be able to make a considerable contribution to protect the Seven Wonders of the World-Petra through Vivotek's advanced IP surveillance solution. From network cameras, network video recorders and PoE solutions to VAST, Vivotek provided a total surveillance solution for this massive and difficult project."