The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has used Bosch’s rugged PTZ cameras on board its Tamar class all-weather lifeboats for more than six years and plans a rollout to more of the charity’s lifeboats in the near future.
The RNLI is a registered charity, devoted to saving lives at sea, and relies solely on voluntary donations. The charity operates more than 330 lifeboats, which are staffed by highly trained volunteers from 235 lifeboat stations around the coasts of the U.K. and Republic of Ireland. Since its foundation in 1824, the charity has been responsible for saving the lives of more than 139,000 individuals who have found themselves in difficulty at sea.
Mounted to the exterior of the Tamar lifeboats, the robust cameras allow the RNLI to record footage of dramatic search and rescue incidents. The footage is used for training, operational and broadcast purposes. As Peter Bradley, RNLI Staff Officer Communications, said; "We identified a requirement to record video footage while our volunteer crews are at sea and found Bosch's cameras can more than withstand the tough conditions we subject them to."
The RNLI specified the cameras for its Tamar lifeboats. The IP68-rated camera housing, machined from 6-mm thick solid aluminum is totally corrosion-proof thanks to treatment with special coating processes used in both the aerospace and defense industries. It is testament to the camera’s quality design and construction that it will continue to keep on working even when submerged underwater, making it the ideal choice for marine and coastal applications.
Full 360-degree continuous rotation and 320-degree tilt control, with up to a 36x zoom option allows camera operators to pinpoint incidents quickly and effectively in even the harshest environmental conditions. A toughened optically perfectly flat viewing window and integrated wiper copes with the sea spray and waves encountered aboard a high speed, seagoing vessel.