Hull’s creaking CCTV set for a £400,000 revamp
OLD SYSTEM IS FINALLY GOING DIGITAL
THE nerve centre of Hull’s citywide CCTV system is finally set to be switched to digital.
A multi-screen control room was created in the city-centre Festival House, Jameson Street, in 2002.
Since then, both the control room and the network of around 300 cameras across the city have relied on analogue technology to operate.
Hull City Council manages the system and shares information from the fixed cameras with Humberside Police and other emergency services.
Over the years, film footage from the cameras has helped detect thousands of crimes, from murders and serious sex assaults to violence and criminal damage.
They also played a major role in monitoring the devastating 2007 floods in Hull.
Today the cameras are also are used to check traffic congestion at busy road junctions and to catch people illegally fly-tipping.
However, the network’s ageing analogue technology is now regarded as being outdated and makes it impossible to link up with newer digital cameras, which have been added in recent years.
Now councillors have given the go-ahead to reboot the control room by making it fully digital in a £400,000 project.
The move will also allow the monitoring of other systems, such as alarms in multi-storey car parks and sheltered housing schemes, to be incorporated digital system.
A new digital library for recorded images will created in a new data
centre. into a single
system also be storage
Deputy council leader Daren Hale said times had changed since 2002 when there was a huge public debate over the rights and wrongs of introducing a citywide CCTV network.
He said: “This just shows you how the world has changed dramatically since 2002 when there there was a significant amount of political argument over whether we should have CCTV or not.
“Now it’s seen as essential by everyone. Some might say it’s a shame that it’s necessary but the public want more of it and it’s quite amazing how that old debate has completely gone away.”
This just shows you how the world has changed dramatically since 2002
Daren Hale