Wireless CCTV for The Royal Bahamas Police
Overview
The Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) provides policing services to all residents and visitors of The Bahamas, an archipelago of over 700 Islands and Cays, strewn over 100,000 square miles of ocean. It has over has over 3,000 officers, reserves and police civilians but continues to improve its operation to provide better coverage. This project was initiated to demonstrate the ability of wireless CCTV solutions to assist in this task and is now being extended.
CCTV Coverage
Wireless nodes were installed on existing telescopic masts at the local Police Stations that are currently used for police radio. The wireless coverage provided 5.8GHz Point to MultiPoint which links to cameras and wireless Access Points mounted on lampposts in key locations in the district controlled by the Police Station. Secure VLANs link the camera coverage to a Video Management System in the police station which combines the signal of both the wireless and existing wired analogue cameras.
CCTV Cameras
A range of dome and PTZ cameras are provided, including some with infrared capability of night surveillance. They may also be supplied with local storage to continue to record the images locally in the event that the wireless signal is blocked or disrupted for any reason. Most cameras supplied use the H.264 standard for high quality images at low bandwidth.
Mobile Deployment
Using MASP, RBPF and MESCo are able to rapidly order, provision and deploy cameras into new locations as and when required. Recent protests outside the Government Senate Building prompted a police request to temporarily install additional cameras. Cameras were ordered, configured and activated to run on the wireless network within 48 hours and placed in position, they were later redeployed to other temporary and permanent location.
Device Management
The CCTV cameras can be provided with integrated wireless components or connected to a separate wireless device. These are authenticated by the MASP Core Management Platform to run on the wireless network. Video traffic is then routed across Secure VLANs to the required locations to ensure that data cannot be intercepted or viewed by other users.
Cable Beach Police Station, New Providence
