NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE
Liverpool City Council selected NEC's high-bandwidth radio technology as the foundation for an integrated WiFi and CCTV network has designed to make the city centre, parks and street malls safer and better connected.
The Council secured Federal funding to support redevelopment initiatives in the CBD, which included a proposal for a solution to provide free WiFi to the public utilising the CCTV network.
The integrated WiFi and CCTV network is the most advanced solution currently deployed in Australia, offering police a state-of-the-art crime fighting tool that will improve police surveillance of public spaces and reduce vandalism in the area.
Liverpool Police Commander Peter Gilliam said the new CCTV network would help police monitor public safety hotspots within the CBD.
"It will provide 24 hour recording of local streets, retail precincts and parks across central Liverpool and act as a valuable deterrent against all types of anti-social behaviour," Commander Gilliam said.
The network links 30 CCTV cameras, the Liverpool police station, the Council's administration building and more than 60 WiFi access points in the city.
Designed and implemented by NEC partner SAT Pty Ltd, the city's network comprises five one Gigabit per second microwave radio rings that are based on 25 of NEC's latest high capacity, e-band iPASOLINK EX Microwave links.
The network will also help Liverpool City Council reduce both technology and physical maintenance costs.
The Council's new surveillance capabilities are expected to reduce city maintenance costs by reducing vandalism and flow-on costs resulting from spending on security and repairs.
Meanwhile, the network provides a flexible, standards-based foundation that allows it to scale up in the future without incurring additional hardware expenses.
The project was based on the new IEEE-802.11ac standards which deliver at 300 Mbps, and are sufficient to meet the growing connectivity expectations of users. The Council can also scale the radio platform to double capacity to two Gigabits per second without changing hardware.
In addition, NEC's iPASOLINK EX solution helped Liverpool City Council overcome high operational expenditure previously incurred under similarly designed solutions. The iPASOLINK EX operates in the E-band spectrum, a self-regulated frequency which carries a low recurring monthly cost per link from the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
