IP Video Enhances Security At Petrochemical Storage Terminal

January 28, 2008

An IP video solution has been installed to enhance the security at Royal Vopak’s petrochemical storage terminal in West Thurrock, U.K. With 347,100m of storage capacity in 125 tanks, Vopak’s terminal is a very demanding environment with security and health and safety of paramount importance.

The terminal provides independent storage and handling of liquid and gaseous chemical and oil products for Vopak’s customers. Products are transported from the terminal to the customer by road, pipeline and river via the 3-berth jetty.

Vopak Terminal London recently chose to upgrade the aging analog CCTV system with a complete end-to-end networked IP video solution from IndigoVision. The 40-camera system was specified by consultants, M J Partnership and installed by ADT Fire & Security Ltd in partnership with Waterstons, Vopak’s IT consultants.

At the heart of the system is Control Center, IndigoVision’s IP video and alarm management software, which allows operators to view live and recorded footage, from any camera, from any point on the network. Vopak has used this flexibility with the installation of a number of Control Center workstations both in the central control room and at other locations around the site, allowing other authorized staff to access the system. Control Center software is license-free, which means Vopak can install a workstation for no more cost than a PC.

The IP video system has provided Vopak with many benefits including fast image retrieval and greatly improved live and recorded video quality, which can be used for evidential purposes; something that was not achievable with the old analog system. In addition, video footage can also be used as a training aid for Vopak.

“We are delighted with the new CCTV system,” said Peter Lloyd, engineering manager at Vopak Terminal London. “The video quality is exceptional and the flexibility of the Control Center software is allowing us to use it as a site-wide management tool.”

Video recording is achieved using IndigoVision’s NVR software which provides up to 3 months of continuous storage from all of the cameras. Control Center provides a number of tools that allows fast retrieval and analysis of the recorded footage by the operator. The 40 CCTV cameras, which are a mix of fixed and PTZ from the original installation, are each connected to an IndigoVision 8000 transmitter/receiver module which converts the analog camera feed into DVD-quality MPEG-4 digital video for transmission over the network.


The combination of Control Center software and the network creates a ‘virtual matrix’, which is a more flexible and scalable video switching platform than the original analog matrix that it replaced. Any camera on the network can be viewed from any workstation on the network, no matter where they are located. Similarly, any workstation can access recorded video from the NVR server. This scalability also means that it is easy and cost effective to expand the system in the future as cameras can be added to any point on the network without the need to run new cabling.

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