The Open Space CCTV Revolution

Never before have large independent groups of business and residential communities been able to share ownership of advanced passive yet proactive Intelligent CCTV, with unique protocols of use supporting privacy issues and data protection.

Community SafetyWatch® Summary

New and expanding markets are testament to the revolution of being able to have CCTV while keeping privacy intact, with the introduction of Community SafetyWatch® Intelligent CCTV schemes.  These schemes are being deployed throughout the UK, with installations from Southern England to the Isle of Man in the North.

Only Viseum UK can support the delivery of this service. This is because there is no other technically viable solution, for example: nobody ever watches the video unless a crime is committed and even then only relevant recordings are automatically retrieved for authorized viewers, and legally, as this technical solution is protected with International Patents.

Initial installations of Community SafetyWatch® CCTV Schemes are generally funded by one or more of the direct beneficiaries of the CCTV scheme, being the actual community the proposed CCTV scheme will protect, or the local police or local council. Viseum UK is offering to fund more pilots throughout the UK from an investment of £1.3M.

Over the next four years, the UK government has predicted public sector job losses in the region of 490,000 with the expectation that the private sector will be able to find employment posts for many of those displaced. In addition, the UK government’s “Big Society” initiative which encourages local people to take control of their own communities means that Community SafetyWatch® is well placed to empower and facilitate the needs of local communities, by employing the surplus skilled law enforcement and security workers.

Community SafetyWatch® Service UK Rollout

With the UK’s highly competitive multimedia industry growing significantly year-on-year, the Community SafetyWatch® service offers a highly lucrative captive market for all types of media packages. Negotiations are already under way with the UK’s large Telco companies to jointly supply and market this service nationally for group subscriptions. Joint marketing, sales and supply initiatives with some of the major telecommunication companies forecast take-up by 2013 of this unique service, typically in industrial parks and middle-Britain residential communities, across at least the 6 major cities of London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast.

Following a nationwide feasibility study on how such a national security focused revenue generating initiative would be welcomed by the consumer, the highest financial level of UK DTI Smart Award was offered to Viseum for how this service would be deployed and operated. Viseum also showed how it would be endorsed by various groups such as National Neighbourhood Watch and the UK CCTV User Group, to name just two, in the expectation that all City, District, Borough and County Councils, and all police forces would welcome and support Community SafetyWatch® Safer Society initiatives in their public space areas.

Photo of Support for Community SafetyWatch® from CCTV User Group & CCTV Image

A concept trial was launched in 2007 to test market feasibility. This proved highly successful with the mainstream UK’s media (BBC and ITV News channels as well as The Mail on Sunday) wanting to cover the story nationally. However, it had to be explained to them that at that stage this was only a concept market feasibility study, as national roll-out needed to await greater UK broadband availability.

Notes for journalists:

All police forces currently spend many £M’s each year reviewing CCTV for crucial evidence. This usually results with daily reports on why the CCTV evidence available for a particular crime, having taken many hours to retrieve and review, could not be used because the incident did not occur right in front of the CCTV camera.

Feedback from police forces who use Viseum’s Intelligent CCTV cameras is that just 4 Viseum cameras operating completely automatically outperform at least 20 of any other moving CCTV camera – each of which would also need a dedicated operator to watch and control in order to catch crime.

By being less reliant on CCTV infrastructures, but automatically performing ‘manned’ 24/7/365, Viseum UK’s Intelligent Moving Cameras (IMCs) bridge the gap between manned surveillance and standalone unmonitored CCTV schemes. Their low running costs and unobtrusive operation makes CCTV in many open space areas more feasible, whereas old technologies precluded them.

Viseum’s press office will be happy to arrange interviews with UK local authorities who have already taken this initiative. For interviews with Viseum please contact our MD Mr. Stuart Thompson via pressoffice@viseum.co.uk