Ipswich Council set to benefit from seamless HD CCTV connectivity after network infrastructure overhaul

InfiNet Wireless solutions were used in the deployment of a fully upgraded, wireless CCTV system.

As the oldest Anglo-Saxon town in England, the town of Ipswich has been closely linked with the discovery of the New World and with historical figures such as Cardinal Wolsey and Charles Dickens. Today, the town is a hub of activity and home to a population of about 140,000 people. Ipswich Borough Council (IBC), the local authority for the area, is responsible for running the town’s CCTV infrastructure which helps keep residents safe and assists with any police enquiries.

CCTV has been used in Ipswich town centre since 1994 and, although the system has grown and developed over the last 25 years, recent technological advances meant that IBC’s system could greatly benefit from a full review and upgrade to improve its network operations.  IBC understood that it needed to deploy a solution which could handle increasing bandwidth challenges to allow for the fast and reliable transfer of high definition (HD) pictures and videos streams, needed to monitor the town centre efficiently. The infrastructure previously in place was not able to keep pace with the modernising developments across the town and it was clear the performance of this system was in need of improvement.

The council decided to visit the city of Lincoln, where Infinet Wireless and IP CCTV integrators Videcom Security Ltd had previously installed a wireless CCTV platform, in order to gain a better understanding of how the solution worked in real-time.  This visit demonstrated the benefits of a wireless CCTV solution and how it could be utilised to futureproof the Council’s CCTV network.  The contract for delivery of the upgraded system was awarded to CCTV integrators Videcom Security in late 2018 and Videcom have worked closely with Purdicom, InfiNet’s strategic partner in the UK, to design and implement the best fit solution to meet the Council’s exact requirements.  Infinet’s InfiMAN 2x2 Point-to-Multipoint (PMP) was selected thanks to its affordability, its reliability as well as its full support of critical real-time VoIP and data transmissions. The company’s InfiLINK 2x2 family of Point-to-Point (PTP) solutions was also selected for all backhauling needs.

Dozens of Infinet’s industry-leading base stations and remote subscriber terminals have been deployed so far across the town to ensure seamless connectivity to all remote sites. The selected solutions are also able to provide major cost savings to Ipswich Borough Council, a key feature the authority required as budgets for authorities across the country continue to be squeezed. 

Once the project has been fully deployed, the council will benefit from an improved CCTV network with significantly lower operational costs yet delivering HD real-time video images via a fixed broadband wireless platform.

Debbie Clements, Emergency Service Centre Manager at Ipswich Borough Council said: “The CCTV infrastructure we had in place throughout the town was just about coping with our mission-critical needs, but it was in need of a complete overhaul.  As a local authority, keeping costs down whilst making sure a high quality of service and reliability is achieved is the balance we were looking to find. InfiNet’s solutions were an excellent choice as they were easy to install, configure and manage.  The safety of our local community and visitors to the area is one of IBC’s seven key priorities, so by upgrading our network we are ensuring we can monitor and indeed keep them safe around the clock.  We are already seeing huge benefits from the reliability of the new platform and the overall video quality.”

Adrian Wheeler, Account manager at Purdicom, added: “We realised with this project that the customer wanted great quality, yet the performance requirements had to exceed all expectations too. Implementing InfiNet’s solutions made these prospects a reality.”