High-definition surveillance cameras are required for construction sites to help site managers and project teams to look at the site over the Internet in order to oversee operations during construction. These cameras also help them to efficiently manage multiple construction projects at once. However, if you are running these surveillance cameras on normal electricity, then it will be quite expensive. On the other hand, if you are running these cameras on renewable energy sources, it could save you hundreds of dollars.
This is what security solutions provider NW Systems Group has just done. The company has installed a high-definition surveillance camera powered by solar and wind energy to help monitor the construction of the new Mearns Academy Community Campus in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The construction at the site, led by Lend Lease, began in August 2012 and will be completed in June 2014.
Iain Cochrane, project manager for Project Management & Construction, Lend Lease, said, “We were keen to explore the potential of running the most environmentally-friendly building site possible at Mearns Academy. To this end, we expressed our concerns to NW Systems about the prospect of running a dedicated diesel generator in order to power a single surveillance camera in a remote part of the site, to oversee our operations during construction. NW Systems’ solution was to ‘go green’ so that the camera is fully powered by two compact solar panels and a three-phase generator wind turbine system. This solution is already proving to be much more cost effective than diesel generator or hard-wired alternatives.”
NW Systems has installed a Mobotix M24M high resolution, three-megapixel outdoor network camera fitted with a wide angle 90-degree lens at the Mearns Academy Campus. Mobotix was selected in this installation because of its ability to operate with less power than many comparable high specification cameras. The camera was fitted onto a 12-meter high CCTV pole, overlooking the whole site and capturing high resolution images and lives video.
NW Systems’ RemoteManager service deployed at this site offers a high resolution time lapse video based on images recorded over the course of each phase of the construction project.
Frank Crouwel, managing director of NW Systems, explained, “We looked at the potential of running surveillance cameras on construction sites via solar and wind power about five years ago but the solar panels and battery kits were too expensive then…However, the cost of solar, wind turbine and battery technologies has since halved and efficiency has increased significantly.”
Edited by Alisen Downey