The Brisbane Metropolitan Transport Management Center (BMTMC) located in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, has deployed a video management solution to integrate and manage the surveillance needs of its different departments. Comprised of more than 400 cameras and growing, Brisbane Traffic Center operators use live image streams from adjacent agencies to wrestle with early morning congestion. By viewing other live feeds, operators are able to establish causes that might not be clear from their own cameras, while at the same time seek out uncongested alternate routes.

For years, each transportation department maintained its own surveillance system. The departments decided that a single digital “super control room” incorporating all cameras and allowing all image streams (viewed by all agencies) would provide significant benefits in terms of reduced cost and operational efficiency.

There are three core external security video networks that form the BMTMC integrated solution: The Brisbane City Council, the Main Roads network and the Queensland Transport Busways system. Placing these three transportation departments onto one system just seemed logical.

Integrating the different systems and cameras into one command center, though, was no small operation. The DVTel Latitude Network Video Management System, which was supplied and engineered by Pacific Communications in partnership with Siemens Building Technology, was designed to deliver to the BMTMC multiple live video feeds and to effectively display them to support multiple teams of operators in a single control room. The key is that traffic and emergency issues are only relevant in real-time, so live feeds were a necessity.

BMTMC serves a total road network of 4,030 miles, and therefore is equipped with 1,450 sets of traffic lights, 340 help phones and 75 variable message signs. Supporting these elements are 180 security video cameras. The BMTMC also incorporates the Busways system with 15 Busway stations, which is monitored by 280 fixed and PTZ cameras on a dedicated optical fiber network.

According to Michael Corne, BMTMC director, the control room offers a range of key benefits including a single point of contact for real-time transport operations and a single consistent source for traffic information.

Scott Perkins from Pacific Communications believes there’s no other system in Australia that links multiple security video systems like the BMTMC solution. The overall system unites three individually-managed networks in a central control room with real-time inputs. “Thanks to the flexibility of the DVTel management solution, each agency can have its own staff in a state of the art joint control room where they’re able to share real time intelligence, react more quickly and better manage emergency responses.”