The Location

Belfast Harbour is Northern Ireland’s principal maritime gateway. The Harbour handles around 67% of Northern Island’s seaborne trade and about 25% of the maritime trade for the entire island of Ireland. The Port acts as a gateway for raw materials, exports, and consumer goods, and is also Northern Ireland's leading logistics and distribution hub.

Belfast Port is institutional to the economy of both Ireland and Northern Ireland, ferrying not only goods but millions of passengers as well. ViS Security have partnered with Redvision to make sure Belfast Port becomes a safe harbour for all.

 

About ViS Security Solutions

ViS Security Solutions specialise in providing bespoke physical security solutions. Established in 1989, ViS has grown to become one of the largest independent security solutions providers in Ireland. With offices in Belfast, Campsie, Dublin and Cork, the company specialises in delivering tailored collaborative solutions for clients locally and internationally. ViS Security Solutions is a long-established and trusted provider of specialist physical security solutions. The company uses only the latest advanced technologies that can be integrated to provide significant and proven results. The partnership combines the unique knowledge of ViS with the Redvision specially designed rugged camera housings, to create the best security system for Belfast Harbour.

 

The Problem

This study will focus on two key problems to consider when safeguarding a Port as important as Belfast Harbour. Firstly, and most importantly, one of the most significant challenges presented when securing a Port are those related to the environment. Salty air (due to the proximity to the sea), dust, and the kind of cargo being handled in the port will all affect the physical parameters of the system. It was key to integrate a system able to withstand the harsh environment, while providing high quality images regardless of weather conditions.

Secondly, Belfast Port covers a large geographic area, over 855 acres are used directly for Port operations, 90 acres for nature conservation, and 1005 acres are currently leased or under negotiation. Due to the magnitude of the site, a key focus was to keep camera maintenance to a minimum to reduce operational expenses.

 

Combating the environment

The Redvision brand is synonymous with rugged CCTV solutions for tough locations, making it the perfect fit for Belfast Harbour’s needs. Established in 2000, Redvision has been at the forefront of pioneering new cameras and technology, designed specifically for rugged locations. When considering Belfast Harbour’s location and its various environmental factors, the marine-grade VEGA™ 2010 rugged camera housing was the best possible choice for the Port.

The Redvision VEGA™ fixed camera housing seals against dirt, moisture, and dust ingress. It is IP67 weather-proof rated and has a durable, die-cast aluminium body for rugged, outdoor operation. Its castings and brackets are marine finished with a corrosion-resistant plating on all parts and mountings. The VEGA™ has a flat, toughened glass camera window which allows the Tru-park silicone wiper to remove dirt and water from its surface.

 

Redvision and ViS Security collaborate to provide a perfectly tailored system for Belfast Harbour

Although Redvision manufactures a range of rugged housings for tough applications, ViS’s experience with clients in maritime environments in Northern Ireland led to a product development collaboration to meet the client’s specific requirements.

ViS project Manager Chris Campbell explains: “Port applications have to contend with wet and windy conditions, and to view and record useable images in these conditions requires a camera housing with a robust and reliable wiper that can be activated in driving rain using custom designed rain sensors to capture useable images and prolong wiper life.”

ViS designed a system to detect driving rain and integrated this with the Genetec VMS application to automatically activate the Tru-park silicone wiper system, thus ensuring high quality images are provided in all conditions. In locations where dirt and dust were particularly abundant, areas adjacent to major roads and the Quaysides, washer jets were installed on all camera housings with manual and automatic control available.

The Redvision VEGA™ includes a CHAT™(Camera, Heater and Tru-park wiper) interface board for power, audio, washer, and wiper control. Power options include 12VDC, 24VAC and PoE. The CHAT™interface board enables wiper control and washer activation, using Pelco telemetry protocol via an RJ485 connection.

The marine-grade rugged VEGA™ camera housing and wiper combined with automatic activation ensures useable images are obtained in the harsh environments, while reducing the requirement for ongoing camera housing maintenance due to the continuous cleaning of the lens. Moreover, the CHAT™ board can receive power over a single PoE network connection, providing a camera housing which does not require additional power supplies, thus reducing installation costs.

Redvision Managing Director Paul Hucker had this to say about their collaboration with ViS Security systems: “We have worked with Michael Patterson and the team at ViS on many varied projects over the years and the ViS approach in understanding the user’s requirement and providing bespoke physical security solutions to meet that requirement has led to their deserved and continued success.”