Analogue to Digital CCTV
by Tom Frame
Wedged between the mountains and the sea, the mediaeval city of Genoa boasts a proud maritime heritage and a thriving modern tourist economy. The city, home to some 650,000 residents, possesses a rabbit warren of narrow, inter-linked streets, cobblestone alleyways and gracious palazzos in its historic centre.
But in July 2001, Genoa's peace was shattered when the city was picked to host the G8 summit. Leaders from the worlds eight most powerful nations were due to converge on the city for the three day event and the venue itself the beautiful 14th century Palazzo Ducale - sat right in the centre of the citys maze of winding streets.
In preparation, the Italian government mounted one of the biggest security operations the country had seen for years, pouring in 15,000 armed police and troops to ensure political leaders from the US, Russia, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Britain and Canada could discuss global issues in safety.
With anywhere between 100,000 and 250,000 anti-globalisation protestors expected to converge on the city for the event, the local authority turned to technology to help support the efforts of the security forces.
The municipality already had a CCTV network in place to help monitor traffic problems in the city's winding streets, but the ten-year-old analog system was barely able to cope with current demands, let alone the increased requirements of the G8 summit.
With funding provided for the summit, local councillors realised they could install an improved system to monitor activity on the streets during the event and improve the city's traffic problems on a lasting basis.
The municipality called in local IT firm Elsag, well known for developing Italy's first ecommerce portal GOItaly and now a specialist in IT support solutions.
Elsag had already been experimenting with a digital CCTV system from Scottish firm IndigoVision, and set about developing a system to fulfil the citys new surveillance needs.
Elsag placed 20 analog cameras at key points around Genoa to record images and transmit them back to a central control room. Using IndigoVision's VideoBridge 6000 units, the images were compressed and converted into digital signals.
Data could then be transmitted back to operators point-to-point over Genoa's brand new fibre optic network.
A tailor-made user interface was developed for city workers to use. Within two months Genoa had a working traffic system with continual recording on all 20 cameras.
In preparation for the influx of protestors in July, summit planners divided the historic city centre into a 'yellow zone' and an inner 'red zone' ringing the G8 meeting.
Walled off by reinforced steel fences 13 feet high and guarded by an outer wall of steel shipping containers, the red zone was off-limits to everyone except police and summit participants. Police would seek to keep protesters out of the yellow zone, falling back to the massive fortifications of inner ring if the yellow zone was over run.
By renting a single line from Telecom Italia, a secondary CCTV system for the Italian police was set up within a week, piggybacking on the new traffic surveillance network.
During the three days of the summit surging crowds of demonstrators engaged in a game of attack-and-retreat with police as they sought to outflank the authorities in an attempt to disrupt the meetings taking place in the cordoned-off city centre.
Live images of disturbances from all over the city were recorded by the 20 cameras and transmitted back to a temporary control room, allowing the police to track protestors and react to potentially dangerous situations within minutes.
The success of the scheme both during the G8 summit and for the city's local traffic problems has encouraged the authorities to expand the system.
"When we originally got the tender the municipality didn't really ask for much more functionality than the old system provided," said Vincio Pellaco, technical manager at Elsag.
"But when they saw the abilities of the new digital system they asked for more and more."
The flexibility of the CCTV system has provided enormous benefits, according Pellaco. "We've developed a complete digital solution. The system is really growing day by day."
Another 20 cameras will soon be added to the traffic surveillance network, providing Genoa's traffic police with detailed information on accidents, traffic and jams and trouble spots.
The city's residents will soon be feeling the benefits directly themselves with the imminent launch of a traffic website broadcasting live video pictures from the CCTV network for the public to access.
And if avoiding traffic jams appears to be a more mundane purpose than tracking the activities of thousands of anti-globalisation protestors, it's likely to be one that Genoa's inhabitants will welcome with open arms.