Requirement
Essex CC Highways Dept in partnership with Atkins under their SA2000 contract required a cost effective transmission facility able to supply constant high quality data streaming back to the Traffic Control Centre in Chelmsford.
Challenges
Essex CC have an obligation under the Traffic Management Act to ensure the smooth and efficient movement of traffic across the county, the dedicated Traffic Control Centre (TCC) based in Chelmsford is central to managing this. Atkins as part of SA2000 have planned, designed and installed 15 new generation 'trolley pole' camera masts in key areas of congestion to assist in the management of the traffic network.
These digital CCTV installations are spread across both rural and urban locations with each site requiring an upload capability of between 2mbps and 3mbps in order to supply a seamless video stream back to the TCC. Virtually all of these sites were extremely challenging to access and connect physically from a technical perspective, without incurring significant excess build charges.
Solution
14 of the sites were connected using EFM (Ethernet in the First Mile), across a copper based platform via eight existing access nodes on Updata's core Essex network infrastructure. The 15th site was connected using lightly licensed OFDM wireless as extreme distance meant that copper based EFM would be unlikely to obtain the necessary speeds. The project was delivered to time and budget and both the Council and Atkins were pleased with Updata’s ability to connect the sites within a three/four month time frame.