Sony gives Newham a clearer picture

case study

Sony gives Newham a clearer picture

Newham District Council has the largest local authority CCTV control room in the country, monitoring over 200 cameras in the heart of London’s East End.

Recently, it has installed additional Sony Trinitron colour video monitors, bringing the total in the system to 73 screens. As well as fighting crime, the system is used for traffic surveillance, including monitoring a new bus lane system, controlling vandalism, general council activity and ensuring local authority response to maintenance problems.

The Newham Control Room is also the first in the country to use facial recognition technology and has recently acquired a Sony Mavica digital camera. The camera is being used in the prevention of doorstep fraud to build up a database of employees for the production of ID cards.

The new colour video monitors – nine SSM-20N5E and two SSM-14N5E – were chosen for their

clarity and sharpness of picture – particularly suited to surveillance monitoring. The

Trinitron CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), which has upgraded resolution from a typical 250 to 600 lines, gives a markedly crisper and more stable image. The face of the Trinitron is based on the shape of a cylinder rather than a sphere ensuring that not only is the geometry of

the image more accurate, but operator eye-fatigue is reduced.

Operations Manager Bob Lack explains: “The

Council has a policy of making the best use of the technology currently available and with the help of optimum funding obtained through the CCTV Challenge scheme and support from local businesses, we have invested £2 million in the last four years.

“We already had 54 Sony SSM-20 and eight SSM-14 monitors in the system, some of which were installed when the control room was first set up five years ago. As the control room monitors are never switched off, durability has also been an important factor.”

The Sony Guide to CCTV . Issue 3