Waterford Township, Michigan Installs Longwatch
Video Surveillance System Protects Locations Broadband Can't Reach
The Waterford Township Department of Public Works is responsible for providing essential services in the areas of water treatment, conveyance, wastewater collection, facilities management, cemetery operations, and bike path management to enhance Waterford's quality of life.
The Waterford Township DPW is one of the most proactive water suppliers in the country. It has also been recognized on the international stage, having won awards for technology implementation.
Video Over Existing Communications Network
The Longwatch Surveillance System can utilize existing SCADA low-bandwidth communication networks to transmit video. Unlike
stand-alone security systems that use closed-circuit or broadband networks for video transmission, Longwatch does not require
the installation of a new communications network.
"We are also implementing a broadband wireless network. Unfortunately we have a line of sight problem at many of our remote sites. This situation presented a significant problem trying to install a broadband network system wide. We have almost two hundred sites and about two-thirds have a line of sight issue. It's not feasible to construct towers every where we needed one. The Longwatch system was the perfect solution to solve our problem", explained Terry Biederman, Director of Public Works.
Manpower Utilization and Video Event Clips Keys to Longwatch Selection
Video surveillance is the best way to optimize the level of security at remote sites like, well fields, pumping stations,
reservoirs and storage tanks. The use of video as a security tool is only effective if the video is being actively monitored.
The manpower requirement is of particular concern to water suppliers as most staff members are actively involved with
operating and maintaining the water supply system. In most water supply operations there is rarely time available to sit
and monitor a stream of video. Longwatch addresses this issue by utilizing intrusion detection and process alarms to alert
the operator to view short, 30 seconds or less, video clips that can be delivered to a utilities HMI system, or even
dispatched to a cell phone.
"Technology saves manpower, reduces risk and allows for more efficient and cost effective operations. Longwatch will expand and improve service to our community in all of these areas. One area of improvement in particular will be to have alarm event video emailed to me and other on-call staff to review and determine the appropriate response.", voiced Biederman.
Security of Water Supply a Priority
Securing of our nations water supply has been a concern long before 9/11. Many communities have had to interrupt and even
resort to turning off their systems for days due to an unwanted intrusion. Rather than face the uncertainty of having to
take drastic measures to calm public concerns, many communities utilize video surveillance as a means of determining if
an event places their community in imminent danger or is just another false alarm.
"We have occasional problems with vandalism. Our primary concern is providing our community with safe drinking water. We have every intention of maintaining the confidence our users have in us. We didn't want to wait until we had an event to take action. With video surveillance we added an additional level of security to our operation," described Biederman.
Easy to Install, Operate, and Maintain
"The installation was fairly simple. We consider our Intellution SCADA system to be the central nervous system of our
operation. We were able to use our existing SCADA PLC hardware, communications network, and our current radios", said Biederman.
For More Information
For more information on the Longwatch Surveillance System, or to find out how Longwatch can help provide faster, more efficient
and cost-effective threat deterrence, detection and response, contact:
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