Case Studies

Electronic Security

Customer:
Farson Digital

Location:
13 locations across the South West

Requirement:
An outdoor IP camera that could send live images of the conditions of rivers to a website

Equipment:
Mobotix M22 IP Camera

Customer’s View:
“It originated from a small idea in a bar, and now we have succeeded in installing thirteen cameras by riverbanks in locations across the Westcountry. We are very proud of the success of the project, and the benefits to river users, like ourselves, has been phenomenal. We’ve also been able to offer banner ads on the website to help local businesses. Every hour on the hour of daylight our cameras send a 3 megapixel image to our database and the images are truly great.” Glyn Howells, Farson Digital

Like all good ideas, Farson Digital was established after four people were chatting in a bar. They simply wanted the ability to view river conditions in different places, meaning that journeys weren’t wasted arriving at rivers where the conditions weren’t suitable for fishing.

Having the idea was a great start, but they now needed to put it into action. Erecting a camera by a river sounds simple enough, but the right product needed to be sourced for it to work successfully.

Finding the Right Camera
After doing their research, Farson Digital found the Mobotix M22 IP camera and realised this would be the best product to suit their needs.

The M22 is a professional and low-cost exchangeable-lens camera with an internal digital video recorder with up to 8 GB of storage capacity and HiRes recording up to 3.1 megapixels. It can be used for a wide range of applications and is ideal for webcam use. It can be easily installed in virtually any location, on a wall, mast or ceiling, and with no moving parts it’s very low-maintenance. Another key strength of the M22 is that it’s robust and weatherproof with IP65 protection, and is an ideal choice for outside use.

Mobotix recommended that Farson Digital should partner with Mayflex. Mayflex, a cabling infrastructure, networking and physical security solutions distributor, supplies and delivers a wide range of products, as and when required, suiting customer’s needs. They are one of the biggest suppliers of the Mobotix range.

The Installations
The first camera was erected on the River Exe at Exebridge in May 2009, closely followed by one on the Taw at Umberleigh. They were then integrated into two fishing club websites and the feedback was phenomenal.

After the first installations proved to be so successful, Farson Digital decided that this was a long overdue facility that could be provided to river users throughout the Westcountry. They gained support from the Westcountry Rivers Trust and secured locations for their cameras on all major Westcountry rivers.

The Westcountry Rivers Trust is an environmental charity established in 1995 to secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of the rivers, streams, watercourses and water impoundments in the Westcountry. They were a strong support to Farson Digital throughout their installations.

With so many recreational river users in the South West this was certain to be a success. The ability to fish depends on different variables, such as the river height and colour. If the water is too high or too coloured then the river users will not be able to fish. So many users find they have pointless journeys and this wastes both time and fuel. Having cameras installed on a range of riverbanks would help countless river users every day. Not only would it show whether a certain river is unfishable, but users can check the webcams and quickly make arrangements to fish on another unaffected river. The more rivers that the webcams could be against, the stronger the website would be.

 Across the Westcountry, Farson Digital found eleven more locations to install cameras. The cameras are all located on a riverbank and then hardwired into a local property’s router using broadband. The main challenges that Farson Digital faced were with the rugged and remote terrain and low broadband speeds, affecting the delivery of the images. But all of these were overcome and over a six month period thirteen cameras were installed on riverbanks streaming live images across the internet.

The Results
Glyn Howells, from Farson Digital, is very pleased with their success. “From such a small idea in the pub to achieving installations in thirteen locations across the area is amazing. We are very proud of the success of the project, and the benefits for river users, like ourselves, has been phenomenal. We’ve also been able to offer banner ads on the website to help local businesses. Every hour on the hour of daylight our cameras send a 3 megapixel image to our database and the images are truly great.”

With such a huge success to date, Farson Digital is determined to continue and expand its coverage, procuring even more fantastic locations. Following the initial installations, they have found even more sites and now have 21 cameras installed across the UK.

They are going to continue to work with the Landowners, Riperian owners, Local Businessess, River Trusts, Fishing Clubs and Associations to provide recreational river users with a no-nonsense approach to what’s happening in any of the cameras’ locations on the river systems they cover. With every camera strategically located, this project has been and will continue to be a great achievement.

For more information, please contact Mayflex or  Farson Digital on  01822 860 279, email info@farsondigital.co.uk or visit http://www.farsondigital.co.uk

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