Integrator installs state police networked video monitoring system

MANSFIELD, Mass.-An integrator and a network services company have teamed up to provide the New Hampshire State Police with a network of CCTV cameras and telephones that will eventually enable the police to remotely monitor about 25 sites around the state. The system, which is being designed and installed by Eastern Video Systems of North Andover, Mass., is already up and running in five different state police locations, according to Veronica Mathieson, director of public relations for Vanguard Managed Solutions. That company, based in Mansfield, Mass., manufactures the RemoteVU Guardian and multi-service access devices that support the voice and video over IP in the New Hampshire project. Eastern "is a partner of ours, and we've worked with them on a couple of accounts," Mathieson said. "We are doing the networking portion to digitize the video that they are capturing." As of press time, Eastern had already installed five sites and was set to begin on a sixth site, an installation that will contain about nine cameras, such as Pelco domes and some Panasonic equipment on the interior of the building, said Jim Falls, manager of Eastern Video's CCTV division. The remainder of the installations is being bid separately, he said, although Eastern Video will likely participate in that process, he said. The value of the equipment installed so far was about $150,000, Mathieson said. The network of CCTV cameras and network phones will connect the state police's satellite locations to the main dispatch center in Concord, where dispatch personnel there will be able to see and hear events at the locations. The barracks are also sometimes used for training and other temporary occupancy uses by police. Falls said the implementation of the network in New Hampshire was helped along by an existing infrastructure that connected all state police barracks and a police airport in Concord to the main dispatch center. The project is expected to be completed within a year.