Wisenet cameras help
keep Ambergate rail improvements on track

Wisenet live streams enable a better oversight of progress at various locations of railroad site minimizing walkouts while ensuring compliance with its health & safety regulations, “working brilliantly”

— Rachel Cox, Project Manager at Network Rail

♦ Challenge

Network Rail is a railway company owned by the government of the United Kingdom. They own and operate the railway infrastructure in England; that’s 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. Ambergate site, one of their railway located in Derbyshire needed an improvement work in order to keep providing convenient service. Network Rail required several site monitoring systems with live video streams while improvement is being processed. Inside Out Group were awarded the contract to provide four separate monitoring systems, “With the rail improvement work being carried out in remote locations, this was an interesting as well as a challenging project to work on in as the systems needed to be sufficiently robust to be able to work in tough track side conditions, and the camera systems also required standalone power sources without any reliance on generators.” said Jay Dale, Project Manager at Inside Out Group.

After evaluating cameras from a number of different manufacturers, Inside Out Group decided to specify the Wisenet XNP-6040H 2 megapixel PTZ domes for all the required camera locations. Image quality was a major factor in the decision as well as it’s relatively low operating power requirements.

♦ Solution

XNP-6040H cameras were installed throughout the Ambergate site, working within 48 hours of the commencement of the project. The captured Images are being streamed to a Network Rail control room, enabling operators to monitor the progress of work being carried out at various locations. Hanwha Vision’s video monitoring solution made it able to minimize walkouts and ensure compliance with its health & safety regulations.

The XNP-6040H, a weatherproof camera features auto-tracking PTZ support which enables operators to monitor close up detail of any site activity. This ensures that Network Rail can remotely control the systems and focus on different areas of site that they need to see. Its built-in gyro sensors offer more accurate image stabilization if they are disturbed by wind or vibration, whilst built-in SD memory card slots enable the short term storage of video in the event that there is any network disruption. Also, its H.265 combined with WiseStream II, Hanwha Vision’s own video compression technology dramatically reduced data bandwidth, saving up to 75% compared to H.264, resulting minimizing power consumption.

♦ Result

Network Rail is keeping a close eye on work being carried out at its Ambergate rail site with the help of the advanced technology built into the video surveillance systems. The compressed live video streams captured by the XNP-6040H are being transmitted over fast 4G mobile network to the control room, with secure logins also enabling authorized personnel to remotely access the video via their smartphones, tablets and laptops. “We met with staff from Network Rail to establish their exact site monitoring needs. This helped us give detailed advice and recommend specific CCTV products that fit Network Rail’s needs.” said Jay Dale.

Each of the four systems are battery powered, negating the need for any costly cabling and the cameras have been attached to existing site structures which helped minimize installation time. These live streams would be used by Network Rail to attain a better oversight of progress, asses safety on site, and reduce site walkouts

Win-win partnership

Working closely with Network Rail’s team and with the help of distributors Norbain, Inside Out Group and Hanwha Vision were able to have all the cameras delivered to site within limited project time. Positive feedback was received from senior staff within Network Rail in respect of the quality of the systems installed and for organizing the installations within the required tight timescales. In particular, high praise has come from a Director Neil Johnson noting that the captured images “are crystal clear,’ and a Project Manager, Rachel Cox stating that the systems are “working brilliantly”.