Synectic Systems Group Ltd.

Previously, the original control facility was located in the centre of Wakefield, in a building it had begun to outgrow, in the 10 years since its inception. Advancements in CCTV technology and the age of the system led to it enviably beginning to show signs of its age, whilst its recording facility, still over 60% tape-based, was proving to be labour intensive, absorbing more of the control room operators’ valuable time as system camera coverage was expanded. In conjunction with Wakefield council’s desire to streamline its occupancy of many small buildings and to consolidate into fewer but larger premises (to minimise overhead costs), it was decided that a move to a bespoke facility in Pontefract, within an existing council building would provide a practical solution and a timely opportunity to rethink the technical operational solutions required within the control room.

Best Technology
Darren Pollington, CCTV Manager for Wakefield District Council, takes up the story: “Given that we were effectively being handed an opportunity to design a control room from a blank piece of paper, we were determined to get the solution absolutely right for our needs, whilst taking into account any future expansion capacity the system’s success would inevitably bring. Fixing our sights on the best technology available and working to our specific needs, we prepared a comprehensive tender document that was eventually won by national installation company, Quadrant Security Group.

“Visiting a number of existing control rooms around the country, that included a variety of control and recording systems, from a variety of manufacturers, enabled us to evaluate individual solutions in a ‘real world’ environment and to make an accurate evaluation of each product for ourselves. Based on our team’s experience of these systems, it became clear that the multi-vendor needs of our system, which contains a host of equipment from many different manufacturers, and of varying ages, would be best met by the third party integration capabilities provided by a Synectics SynergyPro solution, in combination with their Modular Digital Recording System.”

Timescales for the move of the control facility were extremely tight, with only a 9-month period elapsing between initial stages of the tender, to the completion and commissioning of the new resource. Darren continues: “Because of the compressed timescale we were working with, it was important that my staff be ‘ready to go’ and fully familiar with the new Synectics system from day one of the new facility’s service. Synectics addressed this with the integration of a SynergyPro workstation in the existing Wakefield control room, a full 6 months before our move date. This meant our operators were able to take advantage of the comprehensive product training Synectics provided, and learn at an accelerated rate within a camera network they were already familiar with.”

Meanwhile a network of 80 fibre cables were re-directed to the new Pontefract control room, that also housed all the council’s other IT facilities in a purpose built, climate controlled sever room, complete with a dedicated electrical sub-station and back up generator; enabling the building to exist and operate as normal, even under the conditions of a catastrophic power failure.

Advanced Control
Following successful transition of control from the previous facility, control room operators now utilise five Synergy positions to control over 160 cameras from the surrounding area covering the towns of, Wakefield, Pontefract, Castleford, Ossett, Normanton, South Elmsall, Hemsworth and Featherstone, in addition to council waste sites, and a railway station. The advanced technology of the new control room has also meant the capacity to encompass the monitoring of third party sites, helping the council to offset the daily cost of running the facility. These sites include The National Cole Mining Museum, a major water sports facility and a large country park.

Monitoring such a vast network of cameras calls on a variety of skills from the experienced operator team, as Darren explains: “Operators are constantly adjusting their skill sets when monitoring such a large camera network, that can go from the busy shopping streets of Pontefract and Wakefield, to the remote train stations and smaller towns like South Elmsall and Hemsworth. What constitutes an incident requiring further investigation at one, may be an everyday occurrence at another. Different times of day also require an adjusted skill set. For example, town centre incidents, usually centring around the popular nightspots in each area during the evening, are vastly different to those we may experience during the day that are usually focused in the retail areas.

“Encompassing the changing role of CCTV within the wider community, we use the system to monitor traffic flow within the town centres, assist in the planning and organising of large events, and are integral to the authority’s emergency incident plans. We have even had incidents where we have tracked stolen cars via our camera network, and directed police to efficiently intercept and stop the car. Effectively chasing the vehicle via the cameras, prevents the risk to the public a vehicular chase may involve, bringing them to a safe and succinct end.”

Diverse Roles
Synectics SynergyPro assists Darren’s team with the day-to-day monitoring via its intuitive operator interface and intuitive route to all system functions. During the area’s recent flooding, Darren and his team were instrumental in the monitoring of critical areas of the county, giving up to the minute information on the affected areas to the emergency services.

Synectics’ unique integration abilities have been key to the success of the technological transition from the old control room, to the all-encompassing new control facility. Harnessing the power of this technology, in assistance to the camera network, operators can access retail radios, 25 audio help points throughout the network, and 4 telephone help lines that are situated at the remote rail stations monitored, as Darren explains; “Right from the specification of the tender it was important that all these disparate technologies could be accessed and recorded at one point. Synectics’ ability to record all these video and audio feeds not only gave our team the ability to access all these functions from one point, maximising efficiency, but also provided the peace of mind that all aspects of the incident were being recorded, should any retrospective investigation be necessary. Dealing with Synectics and their ‘can do’ attitude has been a refreshing change throughout the project, and a relationship we continue to enjoy. As soon as we have a technical request or a bespoke piece of the system we would like to be integrated to the Synergy interface, it’s never an issue, with Synectics even writing specific interface protocols specifically for our system on request.”

Effective Archiving
Recording in real-time, 24hrs a day, the Synectics MDRS’s digital storage permits instantly accessible, retrospective video review from each operator’s Synergy position, or a dedicated workstation (for third party, or police review). This affords operators with instant confirmation of any event they may have seen on screen. Via the Synergy system, operators can instantly access the recorded footage from the start of any incident. A powerful feature available to operators who may have need to quickly identify and relay individuals responsible for starting a disturbance, to police officers arriving at the incident scene. Alternatively, officers wanting to retrospectively investigate an incident they may have just attended, can requested footage for review, or burnt to a DVD along with an audited evidential trail for offsite review or prosecution use. Darren explains: “The ability to react quickly and efficiently in these situations is paramount to an effective conviction. We have a dedicated police constable based in our control room who works through each open case, rapidly accessing any captured footage from her own Synergy review station and processing it as evidence for the case. Utilising our new technology, we can either present the visual information in our dedicated review suite, or burn the footage to DVD for off-site review or presentation in court.”

The streamlining of Wakefield District Council’s CCTV control room and their application of Synectics technology to serve it, has succeeded in maximising operators time. The team’s pro-active approach to CCTV surveillance, backed by a single, intuitive interface, has contributed to a vast improvement in detection rates since the switch was made, with an average figure of 3.5 arrests per day being directly attributed to operators in the new Pontefract control room.