Savannah Hills Estate is located in Midrand, close to Blue Valley Golf Estate. Since February 2018, the estate manager, Dawie van Rensburg has been planning a security upgrade, involving perimeter cameras. The project finally went out to tender, which was awarded to Rhyco Risk Projects. The project started in March 2019 and was completed in May 2019.
The estate has two river crossings which can cause nuisance alarms due to insects. Rhyco made use of the Cathexis Vision’s VMS platform, ensuring proper analytics and making use of the Cathexis dynamic background function, ensuring that nuisance alarms are kept to the minimum.
Rhyco Risk Projects decided to make use of a combination of thermal and HD megapixel bullet cameras to cover the perimeter. These cameras are being complemented with PTZ cameras to enhance search-ability should triggers occur.
The advantage of using thermal cameras include:
- Longer distances.
- Better video compression.
- Video streaming selective by optimum use of analytics.
Typical analytics to be used:
- Line crossing.
- Loitering.
- Abandoned objects.
The IP megapixel cameras will be able to offer the following advantages to the estate:
- Camera number reduction while resolution increases
- Reducing the total number of cameras in a system by maximising the field of view while maintaining total project pixel count
- Increased resolution/coverage
- Making use of megapixel cameras to maximise total project resolution and yield the best image quality possible
A fibre ring was installed to ensure continuity. The power cables and fibre were installed and housed in wall-mounted metal bosal and nextube for the underground installations. The camera poles were strategically placed on the perimeter of the estate ensuring that ‘grey areas’ were eliminated. These cameras were connected to kiosks which housed the applicable switches and UPSs, ensuring that the system will always be running, even during power failures. Special protection was used to ensure minimum damages should power surges or lightning occur.
The viewing monitors were mounted high in the guard room, ensuring that no obstruction exists for the guards viewing the roads and surrounding areas. Should a trigger occur, an audible alarm is generated and the applicable camera clearly shows the trigger area.
Rhyco Risk Projects managed to complete the project in two months. Gary Swart from Rhyco Risk Projects mentioned that it was an absolute pleasure working with the allocated members from the HOA (homeowners association). He added that the success of projects like these are made easier by working with mandated professionals such as Van Rensburg, the estate manager.
