THE CUSTOMER
Located in the extreme eastern part of India, the second largest city of Nagaland boasts a resident population of almost 100,000 and spans 20 square kilometres. It is at an elevation of 1444 metres with majorly mountainous terrain. The city is constantly expanding, with more and more people migrating to this city for better work opportunities and standard of living. Moreover, it is a popular tourist destination of Nagaland with museums, cathedral churches, botanical gardens to name a few. Therefore, tourism also plays an important role in the city’s economy.
Well-known as ‘hill town in the middle of Naga Hills’, the city was selected to be part of Smart Cities Mission, an innovative initiative by the Government of India to build thriving cities and improve the quality of life of citizens. The city was amongst the only two North East cities — along with Agartala — to have qualified in the top 66 Cities selected for the second stage of the project.
THE CHALLENGE
With city’s expansion and modernization, there was an imperative need to put in place robust security measures. The city felt the need for a surveillance solution to empower decision-makers and enforce law and order more effectively. Along with security, in the first phase of the project, the city stakeholders also wanted to ensure proper traffic management without causing any disruption to the day-to-day activities of the citizens. Moreover, the city is becoming a hot spot for tourists and the need for effective monitoring of the key locations, prevent crime and ensure citizen and tourist well-being became very important.
THE SOLUTION
An extensive survey of the city was carried out to find out the key security issues being faced by city administration and identify sensitive places that need surveillance attention. In its mission to become a smart city, the officials were looking for an intelligent surveillance solution that is intuitive, future-ready and scalable. It was especially critical to choose a solution that could keep up with the city’s expansion and growth. The administration was keen to have an open platform that would help them add more capabilities and applications over time.
With these goals in mind, Videonetics designed a bespoke and modular AI powered unified solution based on its Intelligent VMS and Video Analytics for the city.
Automating surveillance of strategic locations
After a thorough analysis, the city decided to deploy 100+ cameras, including PTZ and box cameras, at 90 strategically identified locations, which are being managed by stateof-the-art Videonetics Intelligent VMS. These cameras have been placed at planned and sensitive areas such as important traffic junctions, city roads, outside government offices, exit and entrance of the city, common grounds, near crowded marketplaces, helipad, and more.
Videonetics Intelligent VMS allows administration to ensure comprehensive round-theclock monitoring of the city infrastructure and proactively detect and address any developing problem. The smart and user-friendly navigation of Intelligent VMS enables city operators to easily monitor and analyse live and recorded videos simultaneously in the same interface. This feature is particularly helpful while supporting the law enforcement agencies quickly leading to rapid resolution of the problem. With its multi-layer sitemap interface, operators can quickly select cameras from the pool, helps in keeping bird eye view of camera distribution across the city.
Accelerating the response time with AI powered Video Analytics
By deploying Videonetics AI enabled video analytics as part of the solution, the decision makers receive alert on live video feeds, that has drastically reduced the amount of time it takes to understand the potential level of threat and enhanced monitoring of restricted-access areas. Therefore, they selected key analytics for some of the sensitive places, in the first phase of project.
- Loitering detection, crowd formation detection and intrusion detection are installed at local markets, roads, government premises and so on. When an alert is triggered, the operators can quickly assess the threat level, monitor it closely and react accordingly.
- During the survey, some of the traffic junctions were identified where Videonetics deployed wrong way parking as part of unified solution. The wrong way parking was required to detect vehicles if it moves in the wrong direction on a road and send alert to authorities for further action.
Videonetics integrated framework for Intelligent VMS and video analytics is designed to be investigation-friendly allowing the city authorities to ensure quick and improved resolution of incidents.
Effective traffic management
The city has been witnessing a dramatic increase in the number of vehicles, thus making it imperative for the authorities to put in place an effective traffic management system. With high-functioning cameras deployed at strategic junctions, city roads and highways, officials can view real-time traffic information via Videonetics unified software interface.
Whether it is traffic jams, wrong-way parking or accidents, the solution is helping them monitor and detect issues in real-time and respond to changing traffic conditions effectively.
Centralized view of the city
With Videonetics unified solution, city officials can efficiently keep 24×7 watchful eye on the city, from the Integrated Command & Control Center. Hence, empowering them to stay abreast of every movement/activity, facilitating law & order, traffic management, municipal operations and providing wealth of data intelligence under one roof.
THE IMPACT
The smart city project is proving to be a great success, delivering tremendous impact in a short amount of time since deployment. Videonetics unified solution quickly became a valuable resource for law enforcement and traffic police. From setup to usability, the solution has made it possible for the city to be proactive about keeping physical security round-the-clock. With in-depth knowledge of traffic movement and real-time alerts, the traffic police take swift action if there are any reports of congestion or unwanted vehicles. Moreover, citizens are able to travel effortlessly without getting stuck in annoying traffic jams. With AI powered video analytics, operators are keeping person or object of interest in check, diffusing crowd formations in a timely manner, preventing crimes, facilitating faster investigations and much more. It is thus making the city safer for citizens and elevating their sense of security.
The open architecture of the Videonetics AI powered unified solution is making a city future-ready for expansion. As the city grows, it will not only allow the city to continue to add more applications to make its traffic management robust, but also integrate with the city surveillance system in a single unified interface. This way it will help city stakeholders to take a holistic approach to address security concerns. All in all, the smart city initiative is enabling government and civil service officials to operate efficiently, as well as enriching the lives of citizens. In addition, it is boosting economy of the city, enhancing various aspects of infrastructure, and making it an even more sought-after destination for travel enthusiasts.
