The SWFC is part of the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration provides citizens, planners and emergency decision makers with reliable information on the weather and environment. This agency monitors severe storm warnings, climate changing, fisheries, coastal restoration and marine commerce. Specifically, the agency fosters collaborations on ocean sampling technologies with local, regional and international partners.

This SWFSC project becomes the first and only large, thermohaline-controlled test tank facility in the world that can accommodate live animals. This unique installation required a surveillance system that fit within their strict needs without using cables and servers. Additionally, they wanted to ensure they had high quality images and the ability to go back and easily review all activity happening in the tank during experimentation.

IQinvision IP cameras using the Exacqvision Edge video management system (VMS) software provided a cost-effective solution that met their surveillance goals. Installing the Iqeye cameras with Exacqvision Edge eliminated the need for a dedicated server and lowered the security costs.  Eight Iqeye Alliance-pro three megapixel IP cameras were strategically placed around the tank in the side windows and on the top to get views of different levels within the tank. The cameras are attached to a power-over-Ethernet (PoE) switch and each camera has the Exacqvision Edge pre-loaded on it.

Exacqvision Edge is a fully-featured VMS software directly on the Iqeye camera. Video is stored on the camera’s SD memory card without a need for a server. This edge technology enabled NOAA employees to instantly begin collecting and monitoring video. Staff members did not have to go through extensive training to learn how to operate the Exacqvision system.

With the Exacqvision client, the NOAA employees can go back and study archival footage to validate and verify their instrumental data with what was occurring in the tank at the same time. All camera views can be viewed in the client simultaneously for the biologists to easily compare angles and study activity in the tank.  Using the SpeedSearch and thumbnail search, research biologists can quickly find the segments of video they need to export and save. Video clips are also sent to outside groups for related experiments. Because the Exacqvision client is freely distributed and available, the NOAA is able to share access to the video with other groups they collaborate with on experiments and findings. Anyone using the Exacqvision client can easily extract video footage from any camera.

Moving forward, the NOAA plans to add fish and plankton to the tank to observe them with echosounders. The Exacqvision client will allow them to observe these animals behaviour through the live and recorded video.

The NOAA has also installed Exacqvision Edge on a research vessel in Sacramento, California. The Exacqvision client has aided in counting fishes and mapping the stream bank in several nearby rivers. The biologist working on the vessel searches the recorded video of the stream bank to find if that video correlates with the echosounder data. Exacqvision video has helped him determine whether the type of habitat present along the river affects fish aggregations. As a result, the Iqeye and Exacqvision edge solution has helped NOAA researchers collect and study the data to better understand our ecosystem.

"The Iqeye and Exacqvision edge system provided us with the most bang for our buck and integrated nicely with the technology tank. The Exacqvision software allows us to collect video quickly and easily and has provided invaluable insight into experiments that we’ve already conducted and will conduct in the future.”