Vemotion Interactive completed a pilot scheme, conducted in partnership with Shropshire County Council. Under this project, Vemotion video compression technology was used to allow real-time video images to be streamed from the Council’s surveillance control room over low bit rate networks. An interface from the standard mobile phone network was used to transmit the video over the Internet using GPRS, enabling Environment Agency staff to access these images on their laptops from any location.
Vemotion Interactive completed a pilot scheme, conducted in partnership with Shropshire County Council. Under this project, Vemotion video compression technology was used to allow real-time video images to be streamed from the Council's surveillance control room over low bit rate networks. An interface from the standard mobile phone network was used to transmit the video over the Internet using GPRS, enabling Environment Agency staff to access these images on their laptops from any location.
More than 2.5 million properties in England and Wales are at risk from flooding from rivers or from the sea. Changes in the climate, such as more severe storms and wetter winters, serve to increase this risk. The Environment Agency through the management of land, river systems and flood and coastal defenses can reduce the probability of flooding.
Following the summer 2007 floods and in line with the recommendations within the Pitt Review, the Environment Agency and the Met Office have been examining ways to combine their expertise to provide a comprehensive picture of national flood risk from developing weather through to the actual flood event itself.
Within its overall measures to improve flood management and reduce the risk of flooding, the Environment Agency was looking for cost-effective ways to leverage existing infrastructure.
The Vemotion encoder provides an efficient video compression and transmission that ensures that the quality video images can be transmitted over low-bandwidth connections. The pilot scheme identified a low-cost solution that enabled Environment Agency staff to leverage existing surveillance networks to gain additional intelligence on areas prone to flooding in order to manage the situation and minimize the risk.