With so many threats in Tehran, Iran, the newly constructed Iranian Ministry’s Headquarters has installed a surveillance system to bolster operations.


The impressive new Headquarters of the Iranian Ministry of Road and Transportation in Tehran has chosen a complete IP Video system for its building-wide surveillance. This imposing building is home to the Minister and staff who are responsible for Iran’s transport infrastructure including roads, railways, shipping and aviation. The HQ consists of over 20 floors of office space with underground parking, which all required the very best surveillance technology to match its status as one of the country’s most important Ministries.
     
An IP security video solution was chosen for this particular site, due to it image quality, low bandwidth usage and the fact that it is a distributed system. Cameras, video management workstations and video recorders can be located at any point on the network; this allows the building security team to monitor the system from locations other than the central control room. Following an incident, operators can export evidential quality video for the police, who can view it on a standalone player remotely from the Ministry.
     
The use of space and aesthetics were important considerations for the Ministry, as it was extremely important that the hardware and equipment be discreet in appearance, and that the security video system would not be obtrusive to its many high-profile visitors and dignitaries.
     
PC workstations running IndigoVision’s ‘Control Center’ Security Management Software are used by operators to monitor live camera feeds and analyze recorded video. A total of eight workstations are used in the main control room, with a further three located remotely in different manager’s offices. This was a very cost-effective solution, as the software is licensed on an unrestricted basis within the cost of the hardware. Five standalone network video recorders (NVRs) with 2 TB of storage record video continuously from all of the cameras, providing a 30 day archive.
     
Ninety-six analog cameras are connected to the transmitter/receiver modules that use advanced MPEG-4 compression to convert the feeds to DVD-quality digital video for transmission over the network. Each unit transmits a dual video stream – one stream for live viewing and one for recording. There is also a feature that reduces the frame rate of the transmitted video to a minimum when there is no activity in the scene. As soon as motion is detected, the frame rate automatically increases to maximum. This significantly reduces the amount of NVR storage required, particularly during the night and when monitoring unpopulated areas.
     
The Ministry hopes that this new system can deter any future problems.