22 February 2019

The networked surveillance system features 32 Bosch cameras mounted on 18 Altron towers.

A video surveillance system based on an AMG Systems-supplied Ethernet switch network is helping to protect the UK’s first new inland rail freight hub for over a decade.

The iPort project near Doncaster offers six million square feet of space across 337 acres. The site is already home to large distribution facilities for companies such as Amazon and Lidl, and occupancy is set to expand in the coming years.

The newly developed iPort Rail terminal is located on its own 30-acre site within the campus. Tenants can directly approach the rail terminal using their own specialist vehicles on the facility’s private roads.

Buckingham Group Contracting was responsible for the work on iPort Rail, and it worked with CCTV specialist Daemon Fire and Security to implement the video surveillance system for the perimeter.

The system features 32 Bosch cameras mounted on 18 Altron towers. The cameras are monitored and recorded using Bosch’s video management system and analytics and are networked using equipment and expertise from AMG Systems.

Daemon and AMG designed a failsafe fibre optic ring system together, as Chris Tattersall, technical director at Daemon, explains: “From the gatehouse, there’s a fibre optic cable which goes around every camera tower and loops back to the gatehouse. It’s a redundant ring, so if they get a fault or deliberate cut, everything will carry on working.

Tattersall adds that industrial PoE switches have been deployed in the towers so they can withstand the low temperatures that can occur during cold winters in the relatively open site. It’s claimed the 20 managed switches used are able to operate in temperatures ranging from -40ºC to 75ºC.

Daemon’s video surveillance project took around 10 weeks in total, including implementation and commissioning. It was handed over on time and installed on target.