Dick Powell, who oversees physical security at the Fort, worked with integrator John Banks of Evergreen Fire and Security, who looked at wireless mesh networking from Fluidmesh to cover the point to point link. According to Powell, one challenge was to overcome the communication portion for the security video. The wireless connection was economical for the distance covered and alleviated the need to install fiber. Pointed out Banks, “When you add the word ‘mesh,’ it often means you’re using the antennas in a ‘mesh’ configuration, which is multiple paths for a signal to transmit to the same location. We’re not using the mesh aspect in this particular case. It’s a point to point configuration.” He adds that “the microclimate was a challenge but the reason we decided to go
PROJECT AT A GLANCE:
When Powell was tasked with providing protection for the historic Nike Missile property, he turned to Banks, who knew that Fluidmesh could deliver the clarity and lack of latency the client required. He installed the five mile point to point link using the Fluidmesh 2200 Duo - a solution that minimizes PTZ latency and gives a consistently good signal transmitted on the best of two separate frequencies. The 2200 can transmit the video streams coming from the cameras directly attached to it and route data packets through the optimal network path. “This is far superior to other wireless systems we’ve installed in the past,” Banks notes.
As for Powell, he reports that “I’m now able to provide 24/7 coverage and protection for this site and meet the requirements of the task from the Commander.” The biggest hurdle, he says, was trying to overcome the communication portion for the CCTV. The wireless connection was economical for the distance covered and alleviated the need to install fiber. “The clarity and real-time viewing are impressive and continually provide us with information for the enforcement personnel to respond to. This gives us credibility with our commanders. And, the personnel monitoring these areas now have an unbelievable view of the entire area for miles of coverage,” Powell points out.
Simon Astuni, the Fluidmesh sales engineer involved with this installation, notes that "It was a challenging project, given the extremely harsh environmental conditions. Several factors such as wind load and cold temperature needed to be taken into account. Fluidmesh's goal is to always exceed the customer's expectations and our 2200 Duo was just the perfect solution to achieve this result. It was a pleasure working with Evergreen; the installation turned out to be smooth and easy thanks to their skills and capabilities."
