In-vehicle security system is not new to the industry, but it has yet to become a prevalent surveillance tool in places outside North America. According to a recent IHS report, North America accounts for 70 percent of the revenue for mobile surveillance with a total of US$346.6million, way ahead of the EMEA at $83.3million and Asia at $68.7 million.
However, the growth in the Asian market is projected to be high for reasons such as building an image of being a safe tourist destination. In this issue, a&s explores the demands of onboard monitoring in Asia, particularly in public transportation, school bus, and police car.
Let's take a step back before we delve into the technology aspect of mobile surveillance, but just think about the role of transportation first. Transportation by means of vehicles is an integral part of modern lifestyle, and it has the purpose of making travelling from place to place more convenient for people. Whether transporting people or valuables, users bestow a great amount of trust on these transportation tools. If the perceived level of safety and reliability with the transportation tool used is improved, the utilization will definitely be elevated.
Therefore, the implementation of mobile surveillance has three important goals to achieve:
1. To optimize operation by minimizing disturbances for operators;
2. To really make passengers feel that they are riding in a safe environment;
3. To record evidence in case of any incidents.
With these goals in mind, the design of mobile surveillance should be tailored to fit the different vehicles. Factors to consider include who the operators and passengers are, and what kind of integration can greater convenience and safety be achieved.
General Trends
To fulfill the first goal of minimizing disturbances, there is a need for accurate and prompt action to be taken when something irregular takes place. Such demand is deliverable through the implementation of network-based surveillance systems.
Through wireless connection between the cameras on the vehicles to a command center, video can be streamed in real-time for concerted management from the back end to the front end.
In places where the wireless infrastructure is less developed, an alternative connection through mesh technology could come into rescue. A wireless mesh system is a multipoint-to-multipoint network configuration. In Southeast Asia, the two key factors driving this demand include the need for greater bandwidth, and the relatively easy and inexpensive deployment in comparison to laying fiber optics.
According to Jeremy Koh, VP of Sales in APAC at Firetide, a mesh application is particularly preferred as an alternative to wired applications in mobile surveillance, where private broadband communication is desired for the transmission and storage of extensive amounts of high-definition video data from surveillance. Also, because it can withstand disruptions such as single-point failure and obstacles along the line-of-sight.
One challenge for mesh network business expansion in Asia is that many local integrators still choose lower cost point-to-point (PTP) or point-to-multipoint (PTMP) options. Demonstrating to local integrators through success stories and by showing which wireless solution is most suitable for them is crucial because it is very important to implement a right system from the start to avoid unnecessary maintenance. "Every re-visit to an outdoor location or accessing a lamp pole means potentially a non-profitable project," said Koh.
Other reasons why network surveillance is gaining ground in Asia's transportation systems include that network cameras can yield high resolution images, cost-effective installation with Power over Ethernet (PoE), high compatibility with other auxiliary products, easy system expansion, a centralized management for dispersed vehicles, and the lowered price of network cameras.
However, as pointed out by Tony Lin, Manager of Product Marketing, EverFocus Electronics, certain methods of transportation such as public buses and school buses rarely implement a full-on network surveillance system due to budget concerns, but also, to avoid unnecessary rewiring of cables. As a result, most applications still employ hybrid DVRs.
Lin said that considering clients' purpose and budgets, EverFocus would recommend a mixed application with network cameras and analog cameras. Network cameras will be placed at locations such as front and end tails of a bus, for clear image rendition, and analog cameras at the doors to capture the environment and passenger activities during getting on/off the bus.
Video surveillance is nothing without storage, and such mixed use of analog and IP will have the need the hybrid storage devices. The basic function of a DVR/NVR remains the same: recording, playback, and previewing. A hybrid DVR is a great equipment for the transition from DVR to NVR because it can work solely as a DVR, solely as an NVR, or combined to facilitate signal exchange. With this unique feature, hybrid DVR saves the trouble for installing a digital encoder to covert analog to IP stream, and it is an excellent choice for long-term benefits should the system be upgraded from all analog to all IP, there is no need to buy a new NVR recorder.
Smarter Way to Run Buses
A trip on a bus to work may be as mundane as it seems, but quarrels, fights, and thefts do happen onboard while accidents can happen outside the bus. When these unexpected events occur, commuters will not want their mundane routine to be disturbed such that their schedule of the day is delayed. Hence, public buses are equipped with onboard video surveillance systems for monitoring the safety of passengers and drivers, recording evidence for incidents, and enhancing efficiency in operation. With live view of the operation of the buses, the command center can promptly make adjustment to the dispatcher, maintenance personnel, or reroute fleets to avoid accidents. The command center can also check the driving behavior of bus drivers.
In Asia, the degree of utilization of bus surveillance varies upon local law enforcement and infrastructure. Places such as South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan already have a great number of public buses adapting surveillance systems, and according to the regulations by local government or bus companies, there are usually eight to nine cameras on a bus, with 8- or 16-channel DVR/NVR solutions. Nowadays, the standard storage capacity for public buses is said to be 24-hour nonstop for at least 30 days. As Allen Liu, Project Manager from Dahua Technology pointed out, since the machine will be operating for long hours, a hard disk DVR/NVR should be used.
The idea of surveillance on public transportation is yet to be realized in other parts of Asia, but there are steps taken. For example in Thailand and India, the implementation of surveillance systems at bus stops has begun. Soon, it will be mandatory to equip GPS devices on state-enterprise interprovincial buses in Thailand.
In India, though camera surveillance is not popular, the government is proposing to add SOS alert system and GPS tracking in passengers' cell phones as a means to enhance women's safety when travelling on public transportation. Through downloading suitable software to the mobile devices, passengers can alert the police or security staff at stations in case of emergency.
Camera-wise, Axis Communications has stressed that onboard monitoring systems need to have wide dynamic range for clear recording against glares from the sun, low light at night time, and have IP66 or 67 ratings for withstanding fluctuations in environmental factors such as moisture, dust, and temperature. The systems on public buses are generally more rugged than those on school buses.
On the operation level, public transportation also needs to be "intelligent" to achieve the convenience purpose for passengers. For example, when waiting for a bus in Taiwan, the whereabouts of a bus or the bus schedules are right there at passengers' fingertips through apps downloaded onto mobile devices. This is particularly useful when it comes to increasing the perceived level of safety for traveling by bus at night time; passengers can know when to be at the bus stop and spend the waiting time at a more populated area nearby. Other integrations include electronic fare payments, stop announcement, or push-to-talk devices with the staff at the station.
On the management level, the recording can be analyzed and stored in a cloud database for further supervision usage. George Tang, Chairman& CEO of George Tang Industrial said that driver behavior analysis can be done with recordings such as time spent idling or frequency of breaks (creating unpleasant riding experience for passengers). Such data can be used by the human resource department, to manage drivers with inadequate driving conducts such as speeding or delaying of schedule. The insurance companies in the United States have also looked at the data, such as frequency of talking on a cell phone, to adjust premiums for drivers deemed "high-risk."
School Buses Communicate With Parents
The surveillance system used on school buses may not be as heavy duty as that of public buses because the purpose is more to record the events onboard than to dispatch immediate assistant to solve road incidents. Nevertheless, its storage device should be just as good. For the hardware, vibration-proof and self-check functions are ideal to automatically alarm the drivers when any malfunction or manipulation of equipment is detected. It is recommended that an outside shield be placed covering the DVR/NVR to prevent vandalism by students.
For application integration, onboard surveillance system for school buses should be offering a peace of mind for parents. The student-student interaction, student-driver interaction, and student-school interaction ought to be recorded and monitored carefully. Parents should be informed at the soonest when something wrong happens to their children. Therefore, the integration of access control and short message service (SMS) systems are becoming common requests. The access control card allows only the verified students to board the school bus, and the SMS system will send out a text message to parents' cell phones to notify them when their children enter/leave the school and are travelling on the school bus.
China particularly has been hard on school bus regulations due to the strings of deadly school bus accidents that had happened in 2011. Since then, China has ordered nationwide safety inspections on buses, and the local government such as the Beijing government will also order school buses to renew their safety qualification every six months to ensure optimum safety for children. China has also increased the purchase of the American yellow school buses in replacement of the school buses that were made from old farm vehicles.
Surveillance on Police Cars
Police cars are working under great risks when officers patrol the streets or bring in dangerous criminals to the stations. GPS is usually standard equipment to track the whereabouts of the police cars. On the other hand, video recording may not be switched on at all times depending on regulations, but in most cases, there will be automatic recording when the siren is sounded. Given the size of the police vehicle, the surveillance systems usually consist of four channels with a single video output channel.
"When police cars in Thailand are dispatched to areas with unstable 3G coverage, dual-stream transmission should be employed, allowing proactive surveillance for real-time video viewing, and mobile phone monitoring with minimal bandwidth occupation. The built-in 3G module comes into play and sends images back to the command center for further dispatch of back up," said Somchai Prajaksoot, MD, Digital Focus. A common feature integrated to the surveillance system in police cars is automated license plate recognition (ALPR). This function is helpful for police to track drivers against a "hot list" generated from the criminal database. In addition, police cars often need to be in close contact with firefighting units or ambulances. Hence, true real-time video sharing between the emergency response vehicles should be further improved at the software level to assist in critical situations.
Currently, the installation of surveillance system on police cars is not prevalent in Asia, but there are opinions voiced to encourage the equipping of police cars with surveillance systems. For example in Malaysia, the Royal Malaysian Police is urged to install surveillance IP cameras as a mean to increase public trust toward the force, and minimizing accusation of power abuse. The Royal Malaysian Police's 2014 budget is inclusive of such mobile surveillance deployment.
Make the Move to Asia
Asia is a big market for mobile surveillance given that most countries are aiming to increase road safety for public transportation, which is sustaining tourism growth. In addition, as mobile surveillance adds another level of trust for parents sending kids to school via school bus, and ensures the completeness of evidence collection when police is on duty, the demand for mobile surveillance will continue to spiral upwards.
George Tang stressed that "mobile surveillance is highly user-defined. Users should go for the solution that is 'enough' for their needs, but not blindly choosing the 'most advanced one out in the market.' Megapixel is the trend; but do keep in mind that higher resolution means higher storage capacity needed, and larger bandwidth and computing power for playback."
Some general rules when choosing mobile surveillance system commonly suggested are:
1. Cameras with high resolution and wide-angle lens
2. Wireless/3G transmission for real-time monitoring
3. GPS positioning a must
4. Good resistance to shock, temperature, and moisture fluctuations
5. Integration with auxiliary products for multi-layered reassurance
"Each incident, minor or major, has to be evaluated and then there has to be an active decision on what action to take," commented Ivan Tjahjadi, Country Manager of ASEAN & Indo China, Axis Communications.
Such direct decision is made possible with IP-based video surveillance system as images can be shared to both the command center and portable devices. As a result of video surveillance and the accurate evaluation, costs of incident response can be reduced while increasing the level of reassurance among commuters that the vehicles are safe and secure. It is also foreseeable that mobile surveillance will be more accessible remotely through apps on mobile devices.
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