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Customised digital surveillance

Roll-out has begun in Pretoria of a sophisticated digital video surveillance system, developed jointly for a major company in the entertainment industry by IntelleSolutions, Reditron and Samsung Techwin, a division of Samsung.

The project was initially won by Reditron on the strength of the solution it proposed, utilising Samsung Techwin's equipment. Reditron is Samsung Techwin's official sole South African supplier.

IntelleSolutions came on board as the installation partner to the project, a noteworthy feature of which is a significant degree of customisation by Samsung Techwin of its technically advanced SVR-1630 digital video recorder, to enable the unit to communicate with the client's point-of-sale system. According to Sheldon James, managing director of IntelleSolutions, it is highly unusual for a global electronics company such as Samsung to make firmware changes to embedded systems unless there is a world-wide demand.

"However, for this project, Samsung Techwin not only agreed to the required modifications but also completed the work in a matter of three weeks.

"In addition," James says, "Samsung Techwin sent out one of their development engineers specifically to test the interface and determine whether there were any further requirements with which they could help. Their cooperation and support was critical in making the pilot a resounding success, thereby setting the scene for the roll-out of the solution to a minimum of 47 sites across SA."

James explains that the system offers a state-of-the-art replacement for the client's current technology, which is based on earlier-generation analog video recorder units, linked to individual camera points. The new system is designed to record between specific times, based on the company's trading hours. An interface with the till system enables point-of-sale text to be incorporated into the recorded visuals and thus link transaction detail to the video event.

"A limitation of the old solution is that human intervention is needed for the system to work," James points out. "This demands not only considerable manpower but also unnecessary administration to monitor the designated areas and prevent pilferage. In addition, the old technology is outdated and slow, particularly when searching for a particular event."

In designing a more modern and functional alternative, IntelleSolutions had to consider the fact that the text overlay equipment currently in use had been designed specifically for this client, and based on a serial connection to each till point. The client's intention was to upgrade the POS system, which meant the RS232 interface would become redundant. IntelleSolutions therefore had to come up with a design to streamline the operation of the system while making provision for a new POS interface, which would be Ethernet based.

James remarks, "We chose the Samsung SVR-1630 digital video recorder because it enabled us to interface to the client's existing serial-based POS system while allowing for the implementation of an Ethernet XML-based interface at a later stage. The SVR-1630 was particularly suitable because it comes standard with a single addressable RS232 POS interface, as well as high-specification digital video recording standards.

"We started by installing a demo system at a key site, so the client could see the benefits of this new technology," James continues. "Having a pilot implementation up and running meant we could jointly develop a specification for future hardware and software modifications, and thus address the full spectrum of client needs.

"Reditron furnished whatever demo equipment was required and assisted by involving Samsung from day one and obtaining its buy-in. So successful was the modus operandi that we were able to approach Samsung Techwin with a request for further software changes, allowing for a mirror disk function, which they agreed to without hesitation. Through teamwork and cooperation, the pilot project was given the green light by the client, and rollout to the sites is now in full swing."

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