Swindon Borough Council employs Xtralis ADPRO for multi-site video security

The challenge

The Crime and Disorder Act was introduced in the UK in 1998. This placed a duty on local government and other organizations to work to reduce crime and the fear of crime.

Swindon neighbourhood groups were dissatisfied with the level of property vandalism, drug-related crime and general safety of residents within their area. The five Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cabled systems operated by the Swindon Borough Council plainly weren't adequate to monitor and protect crime areas within the council, so council officers sought to implement a vastly improved and expanded CCTV service.

Conventional cabled CCTV networked systems did not seem feasible, given that the on-going annual leased line charges (£2000 per link, £20000 per annum) would soon surpass the Council's allotted security budget. In addition, these cabled networks only provided relatively low bandwidth lines (64 kb) that were reliant on local telecommunications providers to ensure connectivity. It also proved difficult to move existing cabled networks into any emerging ‘hotspot' crime areas.

To solve the problem, Swindon Borough councillors approached leading security experts - Xtralis, Initial Electronic Security (part of Rentokil Initial plc), and 802 Distribution, a UK wireless solutions specialist.

The solution

Following extensive consultation, the Council agreed to set up five new wireless IP CCTV sites, covering a home for the elderly, hostels and shopping areas. ADPRO FastTrace video security systems were installed at each site. They also moved their existing leased line CCTV sites to a leading wireless solution called Wi-LAN.

The Wi-LAN VIP technology offered several key benefits, including its own proprietary protocols and chip sets that create an inherently secure network. This technology also offers a flexible, modular system that is fast and simple to set up. This new arrangement offers several other advantages over conventional cabled networks: