Airdrie — Canada

There are very few security solutions that pay for themselves within minutes of installation. But the City of Airdrie in Alberta, Canada, experienced just that in less than an hour after installing Hanwha Vision multi-sensor / multi-directional video surveillance cameras. The City of Airdrie Corporate Security Department is charged with protecting everything the city of 70,000 citizens owns – from the city’s water reservoirs to fire trucks to lockers in the recreation center. When law enforcement approached the Corporate Security department to obtain video surveillance footage to aid in the investigation of a crime, Corporate Security Advisor, Matt Cameron, and his team weren’t able to produce video evidence.

Cameron and his team developed a strategy to improve their video surveillance coverage which included adding Hanwha multi-sensor video surveillance cameras to their security solution. They chose a mix of Hanwha PNM-9081VQ 20 megapixel and PNM-9080VQ 8 megapixel cameras. The Hanwha PNM-9081VQ 20 megapixel provides four sensors with 5 megapixel resolution each and the PNM-9080VQ 8 megapixel provides four sensors with 2 megapixels each. They offer triple codec H.265/H.264/MJPEG combined with WiseStream II compression technology for ultimate bandwidth reduction without sacrificing image quality. Both models are vandal-rated which is important to Cameron and the City of Airdrie since these cameras are often located in unattended parking lots and recreation areas. The Hanwha cameras record 24/7/365 to a network and secure servers. Corporate Security manages the cameras with the Genetec Omnicast Video Management System (VMS) which they use to review footage, export video clips and for other functions.

Now, when the police request footage for an incident, if it is in an area where the Hanwha cameras are installed, Cameron says he is confident he will have the video they are looking for and the quality images they will need to aid in the investigation. Cameron says Hanwha’s wide field of view coupled with the crisp and clear pictures is exactly what they were seeking in a video surveillance solution. In fact, it was just 45 minutes after they installed that first Hanwha multi-sensor camera, that it was used to help solve a crime. “A dumpster fire did $30,000 in damage and we were able to supply police with crystal clear images of the perpetrators,” Cameron says. “The camera paid for itself and then some within 45 minutes of installing it.” Cameron says they will replace existing PTZ cameras with Hanwha models and plan to add additional Hanwha multi-sensor cameras to their security system as it grows.