Hikvision Provides a Safe and Secure Harbour for Dun Laoghaire Lying 12 kilometres south of Dublin City Centre, Dún Laoghaire (pronounced Dunleary) is widely recognised as having one of the finest man-made harbours in the world. The harbour itself consists of two huge granite piers. The East Pier is one mile long, the West Pier even longer, and together they enclose more than 100 hectares of terminal buildings, car and lorry parks, commercial piers, and leisure craft marinas. Having been the major gateway to England for goods and people for 200 years, it is also now on track to becoming Ireland’s major marine, leisure and tourism destination having received significant investment to extend its recreational and amenity value. Keeping this huge area safe for all visitors is a major undertaking and Hikvision cameras and hybrid recorders have recently been added to make sure this happens.
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DLHC became increasingly concerned that the existing analogue CCTV infrastructure was only giving them a good overview of an increasingly marginal resource – the ferry terminal – and not providing an adequate level of surveillance of the new activities. What was clear was that the existing system incapable of keeping up with the increasing pressures of the site and Cork-based Hikvision distributor Mercury SD was called in to advise on upgrading the entire system.
Overcoming the challenge of existing infrastructure and low visibility
May 2015 www.asindia.in
The harbour complex is managed by the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company (DLHC) and it has been a user of CCTV for many years. The coax-cable analogue system betrays its age by concentrating heavily on the ferry terminal and the immediate surroundings – the harbour’s raison d’etre throughout the twentieth century. However, even a once busy ferry operation takes up just a relatively small part of the massive harbour. With the
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East and West Piers separated by more than a kilometre at their mainland ends and extending far out into the Irish Sea, there is a large area contained by the two piers that has become a bustling hub of activity. It is now home to many marine activitybased businesses ranging from a Powerboat School to Yacht clubs and a Scuba Diving centre and a very large and still growing Marina complex for private leisure craft of all sizes. And, around the older ferry terminal, the new activities have given rise to a new generation of restaurants, car parks and other leisure businesses.
“Providing effective surveillance throughout Dun Laoghaire Harbour was a challenging prospect,” says Kevin O’Connell, System Designer at Mercury SD. “The landside of the harbour is an increasingly busy and crowded area, the older ferry terminal now surrounded by a large number of newer tourist hotspots and commercial areas, and then we also had to consider the explosion of water moorings and activities that the old system was never designed to accommodate. The whole focus of the CCTV surveillance system had to change into one that encompassed the whole harbour complex. “The harbour is also highly prone to extremely variable weather conditions, including frequent occurrences of high winds, severe rain and fog. Visibility can go from clear to poor in minutes and this means any new CCTV system that has a remit to