The U.K.’s largest train operator, Northern Rail, that services a population of nearly 15 million people recently added two 16-channel Samsung Techwin DVRs at the Horwich Station in Lancashire. CCTV has for many years been utilized in support of ensuring that there is strict adherence to health and safety procedures, as well as to deter and detect anti-social behavior, vandalism and other forms of criminal activity that may occur at any of the stations.
The U.K.'s largest train operator, Northern Rail, that services a population of nearly 15 million people recently added two 16-channel Samsung Techwin DVRs at the Horwich Station in Lancashire. CCTV has for many years been utilized in support of ensuring that there is strict adherence to health and safety procedures, as well as to deter and detect anti-social behavior, vandalism and other forms of criminal activity that may occur at any of the stations.
“We wanted to see if we could improve the playback image quality of video captured by all the cameras installed at the station, and to do so at a higher frame whilst maintaining the ability to store the recorded video for up to 31 days,” said Roger Houldsworth, CCTV Technical Manager for Northern Rail.
Replacing industry standard DVRs with a model that is equipped with 960H technology provides therefore a method of upgrading an existing analog system for users, such as Northern Rail, who do not feel a need or wish to incur the cost at this time of changing to a video over IP system. The DVR is able to record 650TVL in real-time with HDMI available as a main monitor video output, images in a 16 way-split screen can each be displayed at considerably clearer 480 x 270 resolution compared to what is possible with an SD video output. It also features enhanced network bandwidth of up to 32Mbp, which is four times faster than can normally be expected from industry standard DVRs. The two DVRs are recording images captured by Samsung 600 TVL D/N cameras which offer intelligent video analytics and also feature WDR which makes it ideal for locations where there may be strong contrasting lighting conditions.
Northern Rail's in-house engineer responded the DVR is easy to set up, which helps save configuration time, said Roger Houldsworth, CCTV Technical Manager for Northern Rail. Ticket office staff also commented improvement in the clarity of the video compared to the old system. Following the success of the CCTV upgrade project at Horwich Station, the DVRs are being installed at four other Northern Rail stations, with plans for a much larger number of stations to be upgraded in the future.
“Whilst there is no doubt that the longer term future is all about offering integrated security systems which take full advantage of the benefits afforded by IP-based solutions, we will continue to provide support for projects where an analog solution is still required,” said Peter Ainsworth, Senior PM, Europe, Samsung.