Case Studies

Electronic Security

Saga Shipping Company Ltd operates a range of cruises across the world. Cruising is an increasingly popular way to see the world and Saga offers customers delicious cuisine, sparkling entertainment and attentive service on board all their elegant ships.

Saga needed a surveillance solution for one of its cruise ships for many different uses. CCTV cameras were required for health and safety purposes as well as for external security and for monitoring the day to day running of the ship.

They needed this solution to be cost effective, and particularly wanted it to be an IP solution utilising the Category 6 network installed on the ship, as well as the fibre back bone feeding all areas. Saga spoke to Coastal Data Systems Ltd about their requirements, and they recommended ACTi cameras supported by LevelOne networking products as the ideal solution.

Coastal Data Systems Ltd supplies services to clients throughout the UK. The company was originally founded in 1979 to carry out the installation of Electrical, Communication & Security systems and through the years they have established a reputation for quality service and installations in all fields of their expertise to clients ranging from small domestic to government agencies and multinational companies.

Coastal Data Systems chose to purchase all the products from Mayflex, a leading distributor of IP Communication solutions. Having worked with Mayflex for many years, they were the ideal choice. Mayflex could offer Coastal Data Systems a great deal of support and service. Being experts in physical security, networking and infrastructure products, Mayflex could advise, across the board, the best products to choose, which would work seamlessly together, to provide a complete IP surveillance solution.

The Products
Coastal Data Systems installed 25 ACTi IP cameras in total which worked with the NVR management software that comes bundled with all ACTi products. The cameras included a range of the ACM-7411 Megapixel IP Rugged Dome Cameras, the CAM-6610 IP High Speed Dome Cameras, and the ACM-5611 Megapixel IP Box Cameras.

The cameras were installed in numerous different areas, ensuring that all necessary areas of the ship were covered, and these will be monitored for various purposes by nominated officers on the ship.

Cameras now monitor machinery areas, including the main engine room, compressor rooms and rudder control rooms, for health and safety reasons, survey the passenger and crew gangways to view watertight doors, and also monitor passenger and crew movements on and off the ship. Cameras have also been installed to external areas to assist with movements in port and external security. To work with the cameras, Coastal Data Systems used LevelOne GSW-2693 PoE Network Switches.

The GSW-2693 is an L2 Management switch that gives power to PoE enabled network devices through its 24 Ethernet ports with PoE capability. It supplies power to network devices such as network cameras through its 24 PoE enabled 10/100Mbps Auto-negotiation, Auto-MDIX Ethernet ports. PoE switches provide a ‘powerless’ connection which help ensure there’s constant power supply, and so this solution was the perfect choice for Saga.

Challenges
The installation had to be completed in Swansea during the ship’s refit. This proved to be challenging for Coastal Data Systems whose base is in Ramsgate, Kent, but they were more than happy to find a way to complete the job with minimal disruption.

­­­Despite the difficulties, Coastal Data Systems completed the job within two weeks ready for the ship’s maiden voyage, meeting all of Saga’s requirements.

The Results
The system has been greatly welcomed by the ship’s captains and officers, offering good coverage and excellent image quality. “This was an interesting project for us and we feel it’s important that Saga showed surveillance is not just about security, but about health and safety as well,” comments Steve McManus of Coastal Data Systems.

Coastal Data Systems had the expertise to offer more than just security cameras, the switches, modules and media convertors added to their offering, enabling them to provide Saga with a full IP solution.

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