Proxim Wireless provides city-wide video surveillance in Bodrum, Turkey

The port city of Bodrum is the second largest tourist city in Turkey, with a peak tourist population of over 1.5 million people during the summer months. To ensure the protection of tourists and locals alike, as well as the port itself, the Bodrum Police Department commissioned the construction of a city-wide wireless video surveillance network, utilising Proxim Wireless Tsunami™ MP.16 3500 licensed band WiMAX radios as the wireless backhaul to connect over 70 video cameras.

This deployment is a direct result of an initiative by Turkey's Department of the Interior to roll out video surveillance across the entire country. Prior to deploying Proxim's WiMAX radios as backhaul, the city of Bodrum had attempted to utilise traditional wired telecom infrastructure for the video surveillance network. But as an old, historical city, it was impossible to trench the number of lines that would have been necessary to provide enough throughputs for the large number of cameras.

"Not only would digging up the streets of Bodrum compromise the historical integrity of the city, but it would have been completely cost prohibitive," said Faruk Meltem, IT Director of the Bodrum Police Department. "Given the extremely high number of tourists that visit Bodrum and the amount of activity in the port, we needed a solution that could help our police force more efficiently protect our people and our assets, without breaking the bank. And since today's wireless networks are highly secure, we could safely deploy wireless at a fraction of the cost, but with all the performance and security features we required."

As a result, the Bodrum Police Department turned to STM, a wireless systems integrator, and Corvus, a Proxim distributor, for the overall design and implementation of the deployment. Corvus, which has worked with Proxim on numerous video surveillance networks throughout Turkey, knew from experience that Proxim's WiMAX radios are optimised to allow the high throughput uplink connections mandatory for video backhaul, and could provide more than enough throughput for the 70 video cameras. And by utilising Proxim's proven wireless technology, the city of Bodrum saved an estimated $60,000 per month on leased line costs, while also avoiding the high cost (and damage to the historical city) that would have been incurred by trenching for fibre. Proxim's WiMAX radios also enabled the network to be deployed in a matter of months, as opposed to the years it would have taken to deploy the necessary wired telecom infrastructure.