August, 2015. Singapore held their largest ever National Day Parade to commemorate their 50th year of independence. The main display of the event – Singapore’s Mobile Column comprised of more than 150 military vehicles and covered a distance of 20 KM along the Greater Marina Bay area.
This raised a multitude of security challenges and chief amongst which, was public safety. Road traffic, spectator safety, Mobile Column status, these were just a few of a long list of things that required real-time surveillance. This real-time data was to be fed constantly to the Core Command Group and various public safety agencies, so having rapidly deployable networks with huge amounts of bandwidth and top-notch reliability was of paramount importance.
The plan was to deploy a combination of HD pan tilt zoom (PTZ) CCTVs on high rise rooftops and roadside in the hundreds. But even with these super zoom-capable cameras, blind spots and blocked line of sights were inevitable. This was where the Mobile Rider came in. An electronic self-balancing scooter fitted with 4 HD cameras, 4G/LTE Peplink BR1 Slim router and batteries to last for 6 hours covered the grounds that the fixed-locations CCTVs could not.
To enable their high definition monitoring and streaming throughout the parade stretch, the Event Committee appointed Peplink Partner iT-DnS PTE Ltd., who has a solid track record in rapidly deployable networking solutions for event surveillance, as well as years of experience in managing public safety monitoring for past National Day Parades. iT-DnS decided to deploy a Balance 2500 in order to achieve a SpeedFusion bonded network with 2Gbps of throughput. Scattered throughout the stretch was an assortment of surveillance cameras fitted with MAX BR1 ENTs and BR1 Slims. Public safety agencies that had access to the monitoring feed connected via MAX HD2s and HD4s. As for the Mobile Rider solution, the MAX BR1 Slim with its low power requirements and USB port allows it to run for 6 hours continuously with a 10,000mAh portable battery pack.
The Core Command Group was able to stream real time HD footage that allowed them to make decisions and respond to immediate threats. Multiple agencies also had simultaneous access to the feed elsewhere to monitor other safety and strategic concerns. Due to the on-ground effectiveness of the Mobile Rider vehicle, the number of surveillance cameras deployed were reduced by more than half, saving the organizers at least 50% in cost.
“Love it! The MAX series and SpeedFusion provided the flexibility and stability like we’ve never seen before!” -Melvin Lee, Operation Director. iT-DnS PTE Ltd.