PeekMouchel has approved Smart CCTV as a supplier of CCTV and intelligent video traffic equipment

PeekMouchel the East and East Midlands TechMAC for the Highways agency has approved Smart CCTV as a supplier of CCTV and intelligent video traffic equipment covering video incident detection and traffic surveys

Our supplier approval to Peek Mouchel covers the installation of trchnologially advanced CCTV solutions for the Highways Agency network in a large part of Eastern England. Nick Hewitson, Managing Director Smart CCTV, commented “ we are very pleased with this agreement as it complements our existing sub contract agreement with Atkins who are the Highways Agency MAC in Area 6 East Anglia. We are therefore now able to undertake work across a wide part of this region of the UK.

Smart CCTV has completed a retail traffic survey in a well known High Street named branch.

We looked at the number of people accessing the aisle relating to a specific product type, how long they stayed in the area and if they reached into the gondola to remove an item. This data was then used by the retail market research specialists to compare how the store was operating against the expected norms.

Smart CCTV has completed a series of 7 day traffic surveys across an English National Park.

Due to the sensitive nature of the environment great care had to be taken to ensure that there was minimal environmental impact. Our CCTV and Radar based survey equipment had to be battery powered for the full length of the surveys both to reduce the carbon footprint due to site visits and to minimise the environmental impact of vehicles stopping at the survey sites.

High Mast Video Partner with Smart CCTV for NHS Trust car park survey

In conjunction with one of our Partners High Mast Video Ltd, we have completed a major car park survey for a NHS Trust. Based around our Smart ANPR camera technology, we were able to measure the average stay lengths in the hospital car parks. This data will be used by the trust to better understand how their facilities are being used.

EnterpriseMouchel Ltd appoint Smart CCTV as a subcontractor under the Highways Agency Area 3 Managing Agent Contractor (MAC) Contract

EnterpriseMouchel have appointed Smart CCTV as an official Traffic Survey partner of work in the Highways Agency Area 3 region.

Smart CCTV’s ability to automatically enumerate traffic data and journey times from video information offers EnterpriseMouchel a more reliable and cost-effective method of obtaining “before and after” traffic flows when implementing projects on the road network.

Business Excellence Awards

Smart CCTV was delighted to win the Small Business of the Year Award organised by the Portsmouth News and sponsored by the University of Portsmouth.

The judges were apparently impressed not only by the company’s financial performance but our commitment to staff training where despite the economic downturn we have increased our investment to ensure that as we come out of the recession we have a more skilled and therefore productive workforce.

For more information please see: Business Excellence Award Winners 2009

Pay per mile for drivers could be here in 2020

Published Date: 13 November 2009
By Sion Donovan
The government could use sat navs to impose a pay-as-you-go tax on car owners, a Portsmouth conference was told.

Transport experts who gathered at the city's university were told the continuing development of in-car technology meant that levying motorists for the number of miles they drive could become a reality by 2020.

Frederic Bruneteau, one of the speakers at the Intelligent Transport Systems conference, said that increasingly over the past 18 months motorists have been buying sat navs or smart phones with a two-way connection.He said the devices, which allow drivers to receive and send information about traffic and weather, were still relatively expensive today.

But, he said, by 2020 it is predicted they will be the norm, which could allow governments to charge motorists variable road tax depending on how far they drive.

Mr Bruneteau, who is managing director of Brussels-based navigation consultancy Ptolemus and who formerly worked for Vodafone and sat nav firm TomTom, said the 'e-tolling' technique was already being used in long- haulage trucks in Europe.

He told the conference that the same could apply to private cars if governments were serious about cutting down road journeys and slowing climate change.

Mr Bruneteau said: 'Instead of everyone paying the same road tax, drivers will pay depending on how far they drive. So if you drive less, your road tax will be lower. People can then see a real financial gain which should encourage people to drive less, which is better for the environment.

'Road haulage trucks in Europe already do this. There are projects looking at it for cars in Sweden and France. In the Netherlands there are 200 people in the government working on it.'

But while the technology will be widespread by 2020, and European nations are exploring its uses in the run- up to the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen next month, Mr Bruneteau said moves towards e-tolling in the UK were slow. He said: 'There's no certainty it will happen. Such a system would need to be robust if it's to be done on a wide scale.

'But the technology is there. 'It's whether there will be the political will to do so. Britain is lagging behind many European countries for the moment.'

HI-TECH

Hi-tech CCTV that is being used to spot criminals before they strike could be used to ease motorway traffic jams before they become a problem.

The technology is being used in Portsmouth's CCTV control room and is programmed to watch out for certain suspicious behaviour or incidents.

This could include a car being driven at excess speed, someone loitering for longer than normal in a car park, or people coming together in known drug-dealing areas.

The Perceptrak system, produced by Smart CCTV Ltd of Havant, then sends out an alert if it records something suspicious.

Speaking at the Intelligent Transport Systems conference at the University of Portsmouth, the firm's managing director, Nick Hewitson, said such technology could be used to ease congestion on motorways, including the M27.

Mr Hewitson said: 'If the system sees a car break down on the hard shoulder then a call can be sent to the AA for a recovery vehicle to remove it before it slows down too much traffic.

'It's done automatically, rather than depending on human observers who get bored watching hours and hours of CCTV. The technology won't stop congestion but it will reduce the length of time people are stuck in jams.'

Smart CCTV expands into new offices

In order to cope with the planned expansion Smart CCTV has moved into new two storey offices on the Brambles Business Park in Waterlooville which is just north of Portsmouth and close to both the A3M and M27 Motorways.

This gives us almost three times the space over our old facility in Havant which will allow us to meet the demands of both the identified traffic management projects and to allow for the expected growth in demand for video analytics in the security and retail market research areas.

Smart CCTV and Capita Symonds teaming agreement

Smart CCTV Ltd and Capita Symonds Ltd will look to work together wherever possible.

Smart CCTV will be a preferred supplier of advanced video incident detection solutions for highways projects designed or managed by Capita Symonds and for the provision of automatically enumerated video traffic survey data required by Capita Symonds to meet project requirements.

Capita Symonds will provide Engineering Design consultancy to Smart CCTV where required and can supply Smart CCTV with experienced staff to supplement Smart CCTV’s workforce to ensure that projects are managed in an effective manner.

Atkins Ltd and Smart CCTV conclude Highways Agency Area 6 Subcontract

Atkins Ltd has appointed Smart CCTV Ltd as an official subcontractor under their Highways Agency Area 6 Managing Agent Contractor contract.

Smart CCTV will be responsible for supplying and maintaining CCTV equipment in the East Anglia region on behalf of Atkins Ltd.

Smart camera study begins on the M1

Smart CCTV Ltd has won a new contract to supply smart cameras to traffic management experts Clearview Traffic Group Ltd for a study commencing in September 2009.

It follows completion in July 2009 of a successful six-month journey-time study on the M5 at Junction 1 undertaken by Golden River, a division of Clearview Traffic.

The new implementation will be for an innovative automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system at Junction 40 on the M1, with a similar specification to the first project.

The solution advised by video analytics specialist Smart CCTV will comprise 15 battery with solar-powered assistance smart cameras sending data via 3G mobile communications to Clearview Traffic's MCentre management application.

The cameras are installed quickly and easily, using non-invasive mountings, providing a temporary study method for the road. The system provides more accurate, timely and comprehensive data and is more cost-effective than traditional onsite and video survey techniques.

The main aim of the new study will be to provide detailed reports for journey time analysis, measured by reporting individual number plates between given points on six journeys on and off the motorway.

Ultimately the detailed data reports from the MCentre are used by Atkins, consultants to the Highways Agency, to improve traffic flow, ease congestion and improve the interface between the motorway's traffic signalling system and that of the local authority on the roads leading to the junction, in order to maximise the junction's capacity.

Kevin Adams, chief executive officer for Clearview Traffic Group Ltd said: "Smart CCTV responded with the equipment we wanted at a competitive price and were able to install it within the desired timescale. This will enable us to provide an innovative solution to the client."
The study will begin in September and is anticipated to last for two months.

About Smart CCTV Ltd
Smart CCTV Ltd is a specialist in automatic incident detection using video analytics. The company is a value added reseller and systems integrator of security, traffic and retail applications that allow CCTV operators and highways managers to become more proactive in their work.

Smart CCTV promotes the use of cost-effective technology that embeds a large part of the algorithm into smart cameras. This frees up network bandwidth and allows a central server to coordinate many cameras and to provide the system command and control. Only pre-determined data, images or video are sent to an operator's PC from the smart camera, negating the need to transmit or save video without any useful information in it. The technology can be implemented in traditional applications such as open space/town centre CCTV, automatic number plate reading (ANPR), traffic surveys and highways management, and retailer visitor behaviour analysis.

City gets 'crime-detecting' CCTV

By Dan Whitworth Newsbeat technology reporter

Anti-social behaviour has become a familiar site in some towns and cities across the country.
Now there's a new weapon in the fight against it called Smart CCTV.
Portsmouth City Council is the first, and so far only, local authority in the UK to try out the new system.

It's a computer programme that has been integrated into the city's existing network of 152 cameras and has been programmed to spot unusual behaviour in places and at times when it's not expected.

For example, a speeding car being driven around an empty car park could be a joy rider or someone running through a deserted shopping precinct late at night might be a vandal.
When those and similar scenarios are 'spotted' by the software, using special parameters from programmers, an alarm is sounded which alerts CCTV operators to that particular camera.

Ray says Smart CCTV takes some of the strain off human operatorsThey then make a decision about whether or not to call the police.

Ray Stead runs the CCTV operation for Portsmouth City Council.

He said: "With the total number of CCTV cameras that we have, 152, the operators cannot see all of those cameras or monitor them live.

"So this software programme will actually help the operators become more effective."
It's already been used in parts of seven cities across America, in places like New York and Washington DC, where the feedback has been positive.

Nick Hewitson helped design the version Portsmouth City Council is using.
He said: "It filters out all the rubbish video that you don't want and lets you see the stuff that you do want.

"So you're using human beings for doing what they do well, making subjective decisions on incomplete data.

"And using computers to do what they do well, process tonnes and tonnes of boring data."
But not everyone in Portsmouth is as convinced by the new system as Ray Stead and Nick Hewitson.

Similia thinks the system is too much of an invasion of privacySamilia Narcho, 19, told Newsbeat: "They are lurking a bit too much into people's business. It's a bit unfair on people who aren't doing anything wrong.

"It's a bit too much invasion of privacy. Big Brother going a bit too far."

But 18-year-old Chris isn't worried about being watched.

He said: "It doesn't really bother me because I'm not doing anything wrong, so I've got nothing to worry about."

Berry, who's 24, and 21-year-old Becky Pearson have different opinions on the new CCTV system.

Berry said: "I think it's pretty good because there are a lot of idiots in Portsmouth and they need to be kept under wraps."

Becky added: "I can see why people think it's a bit too much, with people being too watched."

The Smart CCTV technology is on trial in Portsmouth but if it proves successful, other UK cities could set up similar systems.