The coastal city of Sohar in Oman is heating up. While this statement is certainly applicable to the weather – with an ambient temperature of 35°C – it is also representative of the local economy as well.
While Sohar has long been considered one of the most beautiful cities in the Middle East; much of its recent economic success is directly due to the Port of Sohar. This relatively new port, one of the largest and most expensive in the world, has greatly helped turn this Omani city into a major regional and international point of commerce. Specifically, Sohar has now become synonymous with exportation for its shipping of metals and petroleum-based products.
The coastal city of Sohar in Oman is heating up. While this statement is certainly applicable to the weather – with an ambient temperature of 35°C – it is also representative of the local economy as well.
While Sohar has long been considered one of the most beautiful cities in the Middle East; much of its recent economic success is directly due to the Port of Sohar. This relatively new port, one of the largest and most expensive in the world, has greatly helped turn this Omani city into a major regional and international point of commerce. Specifically, Sohar has now become synonymous with exportation for its shipping of metals and petroleum-based products.
To accommodate this influx of foreign and domestic business; a variety of infrastructure was developed. Of note was the establishment of a variety of hotels, such as the Al Wadi Hotel, to serve this new clientele. But, it was not simply a matter of building new hotels; equally important was the issue of developing high-quality security. For this, the Al Wadi Hotel turned to Hikvision and its extensive variety of high-tech cameras.
Hikvision's Variety: General Interior
Haja Mohideen, Project Engineer at OHI Electronics, oversaw the development and installation of the Al Wadi Hotel's security system. As such, Mr. Mohideen chose to utilize a number of Hikvision cameras in order to specifically meet the security challenges this project offered.
One such challenge was the indoor environment, where hotel management had requested a model of indoor camera that was aesthetically pleasing, largely unobtrusive, and provided top-of-the-line performance. Additionally, management wanted all of these features embedded in one single model of camera, instead of a smattering of various models.
In order to satisfy these request, Mr. Mohideen selected the Hikvision DS-2CC591P-A Analog Dome Camera. This camera specifically oversees the hotel lobby, each floor's corridors, and the elevators. Mr. Mohideen explained “this dome camera is particularly suitable for the Al Wadi Hotel. This has to do with the camera's excellent aesthetics and high-performance capabilities.”
Yet, Mr. Mohideen also had one additional factor to consider in his decision-making process. In this case, hotel management was not the catalyst; instead it was the Omani government.
Oman has enacted a law that cameras responsible for public-meeting areas must now be manually monitored. This is to say, cameras can no longer simply be pre-set and left to record on their own. This change was stipulated to prevent the possibility of random pre-set coverage missing potential incidents. Mr. Mohideen related: “This has had a direct impact upon what type of camera we are interested in. We need a camera that can be mounted some distance away, but still quickly focus upon specific areas of interest. This is why we chose a Hikvision dome – we get the same excellent coverage in our bright lobby as we do in a darker corridor.”
And it is this Hikvision dome's features, such as the day/night auto switch and a resolution of 540 TVL, that greatly allow the Al Wadi's security staff the ability to acquire these clear images – regardless of condition and on demand.
Hikvision's Variety: Reception Desk
While the above-mentioned dome camera provides excellent general coverage of the lobby; it was deemed that high-priority areas in the lobby – particularly the reception desk – may require an increased level of resolution. As such, Mr. Mohideen chose the DS-2CD852MF-E 2 Megapixel CMOS-based Network Camera to provide this high resolution.
“Obviously, the lobby is of great security importance. This is why we've adopted a dual-system: dome cameras are used for a general overview; but at critical points like the reception desk, we use a Hikvision 2 megapixel camera. Not only can we monitor every step of the customer, from the front door to the front desk; we can see with tremendous resolution ‘who' the customer actually is – including facial recognition,” Mr. Mohideen explained.
This tremendous detail provided by the DS-2CD852MF-E 2 Megapixel CMOS-based Network Camera is a result of Hikvision technology; foremost among this is H.264 / MPEG4 dual stream video compression and UXGA (1600 x 1200 pixel) resolution.