Tayside Police have become the first Force in Scotland to trial Scottish bespoke developed body-worn CCTV cameras and software, working with SCS Security Design, part of the Scottish Communications Group based in Perth to develop an over CCTV camera to be worn by uniform police officers on patrol.

The product is officially launched in June 2008.  It follows on Tayside Police becoming the first to trail and adapt a digital CCTV system fitted to the bikes of cycle patrol officers in Perth, also developed by SCS Security Design two years ago. The cameras will also be capable of recording sound.

Divisional Commander Chief Superintendent Matt Hamilton, in charge of policing in Perth, said that he was delighted to be working with SCS Security Design once again in this new and innovative project.  ‘‘ Fixed CCTV cameras are an integral part of today’s society and the benefits of its use have been shown on countless occasions to assist in the capture and conviction of offenders.  Both the mobile CCTV van and the CCTV cameras used by our cycle patrol officers have contributed significantly to lower crime levels and bring safer communities to the people of Perth and Kinross.

" Body worn digital recording systems such as this new camera technology we will be trialling here in Perth are a way of equipping officers with modern technology to obtain high quality primary evidence, which will assist in the investigation of crime and presentation of cases in court. Once the footage has been recorded the officer returns to the station, plugs in the hard drive and, whilst charging, the encrypted images are also downloading to a stand-alone system.

SCS Security Design MD Paul Gibson said: "Working with both Tayside Police and an  Edinburgh based electronics firms in developing this product over the last year, we are immensely pround that it is not only a Scottish design and build, but will also be trialled in Scotland with our local police Force. The camera unit is a bespoke product small enough to be worn by a police officer on their body armour or on their jackets. The software too has been specifically designed by us for this camera unit. We needed to design a system that was fit for policing purposes, and one that would fit the security and encryption requirements.

‘‘The camera is light weight and whilst the Tayside trial will only see officers recording images, the system is also capable of recording sound.’’ The team at SCS Security Design are now working on software that will allow images from the cameras worn by officers on patrol to be beamed back to the CCTV control room in live time.

Unified communications platform for Tayside Fire and Rescue

Tayside Fire & Rescue: Courtesy: www.mtcmedia.co.uk
Tayside Fire and Rescue, having faced a lack of voicemail on its legacy analog system is working  to update its Microsoft Exchange environment and revamp it legacy telecoms infrastructure, reports Computer Weekly. As one of eight fire authorities in Scotland, headquartered in Dundee, serving 400,000 people and covering 7,000 square kilometres with 750 staff, who work out of six permanently staffed and 18 volunteer staff-run fire stations, Tayside has to spend most of its budget on people and frontline equipment.

Gary Bellfield, ICT manager at Tayside Fire and Rescue said that an ongoing project to update its Microsoft Exchange environment presented the perfect opportunity for the organisation to look at its legacy telecommunications infrastructure. Learning about the unified communications components of the platform, he found it provided a cost-effective way for the organisation to access the latest communications functionality, without having to rip and replace the existing infrastructure.

In March 2007, Tayside Fire technical engineers installed Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise Edition on a single HP ProLiant ML370 G5 server computer running the Windows server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition operating system, deploying  a unified communications platform built on Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.

As a result, it has improved communications links by offering features like voicemail, facilitating greater mobility, raised the competency of its firefighters and reduced costs through increased operational control. In April 2007, the team installed Office Communications server 2007 on another HP ProLiant server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 edition.

The engineers used  two additional HP ProLiant ML370 G5 server computers running the Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition operating system. One server computer hosts the Mediation Server role that facilitates communication between Office Communications Server 2007 and the Dialogic Media Gateway.

The gateway, in turn, communicates with the organisation's PBX system. The team set up the other server computer in the perimeter network to support the Access Edge Server, Audio/Video Edge Server, and Web Conferencing Edge Server roles. These servers support features such as remote user connectivity, instant messaging and multimedia conferences.

After engineers installed the Office Communicator 2007 on portable computers and five servers running Citrix Presentation Server. Employees were issued a voice over IP device (VoIP). Three managers were also issued Palm Treo smartphones to help facilitate remote access through Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile. The smartphones connect directly with Exchange Server 2007 to deliver access to wireless voice, e-mail, the web and Microsoft Office Mobile applications.

Today, all Tayside employees use Office Communications Server 2007 to access presence and IM features, although not everyone has access to the VoIP and video features at this time. Bellfield said full deployment would be complete by the end of March 2008 as part of a technology refresh programme to replace all existing thin clients with ultra-small-form-factor PCs.

Using Office Communications Server 2007, Tayside now broadcasts training sessions to multiple stations so that trainers don't have to drive two or three hours to get to their destination.
Bellfield says the system also facilitates greater productivity with audio or multimedia web conferences, integrated voicemail and e-mail management with Outlook 2007, the ability to work remotely, and federation to other Microsoft unified communications platforms using organisations for further savings through wider use of free IP-based calls.

Source:http://www.tayside.police.uk
Source: http://www.computerweekly.com