The Royal Vopak petrochemical storage terminal in West Thurrock, UK has turned to IndigoVision for a comprehensive IP surveillance solution. The terminal poses a difficult surveillance challenge. The facility features 125 storage tanks and provides storing and handling of gaseous and liquid chemical and oil products. The products are transported from the terminal by road, pipeline, and river. Video security plays a critical role in protecting the facility and making sure the environment is safe for Vopak workers.

San Francisco's city-funded surveillance program has faced criticism recently for its inability to perform up to its potential. The problem appears to lie less with the quality of the cameras, and more with the way they are being operated. Since the 68-camera system was installed, instances of the cameras providing visual evidence in criminal cases have been rare. A recent review of the program found that choppy video may be the main culprit. If cameras aren't streaming video at a high enough frame rate, then the odds of capturing useful images are lessened. Footage examined during the review played more like a slideshow than continuous streaming video, with 1 or 2 seconds passing between frames. Contrast this with the full-scale surveillance program in Chicago, where high-quality video is delivered at 30 frames per second, and it becomes clear that San Francisco's program has room for improvement.

It all started in December - random gun shots fired around the Gable Oaks neighborhood (in Columbia, SC) entered an apartment building and killed a 32-year old woman in her sleep. Shootings have continued - some bullets penetrating the walls of more residences, leaving residents petrified of leaving the inner sanctums of their homes - let alone going outside. City council members and the Gable Oaks tenant association believe the situation is at its boiling point, and have proposed the installation of several neighborhood security cameras to help combat the shots.

IIPSEC 2008 - Unraveling the Mysteries of Networked Security & BMS Technology - is set to go down Jan.29-31 in Nr Coventry UK. And Mobotix will be on hand to show off its new 3.1 megapixel camera systems. The new megapixel Mobotix IP cameras are capable of viewing and recording images with a resolution of up to 3.1 megapixels (2048x1536).

Home surveillance in the UK is on the rise. With its citizens already holding the status of most-recorded people in the world, Britons and Scots have turned to household security cameras with hopes that IP cameras placed around their house will work as well as the myriad of security cameras that record them when in public places.

Milestone has upgraded its powerful, and popular, Xprotect Enterprise video management software. Milestone XProtect Enterprise 6.5 is designed to handle the needs of large video surveillance installations and multi-site security camera systems by offering sophisticated management tools, fast search capabilities, flexible scheduling, analysis, and integration. Improvements have been made in the areas of audio support, storage, bandwidth use, data access support, and localization.

In an effort to further reduce crime in the city of Tayside, the Scottish city has decided to outfit its police force with a tiny video surveillance camera mounted directly onto the uniform starting next June. Tayside has been at the forefront of surveillance technology before - it was the first Scottish town to add security cameras to patrol bikes in 2006.

Late last year, a comprehensive, 120-camera video surveillance system was installed to serve as a deterrent to criminal activity throughout the city of Montebello, Calif. One of the keys to system was putting the clamp down on what was becoming a very serious graffiti problem. Surveillance cameras from Axium Technologies, which employ innovative "Tagger Trap" technology, were installed to detect acts of graffiti. The system is already showing its worth, as six tagging incidents have been captured by the cameras so far.

The Dougherty County Courthouse in Albany, GA has stepped up its security program by adding surveillance cameras - ten, to be exact - to monitor movements around the building. Monitored around-the-clock by the Dougherty County Sheriff's Office, the ten cameras (which are concealed from the public) monitor each courtroom, all doors, stairways and side halls of the courthouse.

With the Bio-Terrorism Act demanding stricter adherence to food product traceability standards, companies such as Chase Farms in Walkerville, Mich. are turning to IP surveillance as a way to closely monitor operations. Chase Farms, one of the largest vegetable processors in the Eastern United States, has installed an IP surveillance system that utilizes megapixel network cameras from Axis Communications along with IP video management software from Milestone.

Kelsey Canfield discovered an unsettling site at her Portland, OR house when she came home from school last Friday. Her garage door had been smashed in and her family's house had been robbed. Gone were laptops, cell phones, DVDS, jewelry, iPods, and other goodies - about $5,000 worth of items in total. After the dust had settled, the family began to ask what exactly had happened, and who could have done such a thing? In random burglaries like this, finding a suspect isn't always easy.

The shock of a recent double homicide on the Louisiana State University campus has had the school's security forces scrambling to find new ways to keep Tiger students safe in their studies.

We've all heard the saying, "I couldn't give that thing away if I tried," right? Well, a Salvation Army thrift store in Juneau, Alaska wants to make sure you do, in fact, hold onto that thing. Fed up with late-night dumping of unwanted donations, the store has installed a three-camera surveillance system to monitor its exterior. Before the cameras were installed, store workers were forced to spend countless hours cleaning up piles of useless junk each morning, and the shop was being charged $500 to $800 a month disposing the unsalvageable items at the city landfill.

The Carman-Ainsworth Senior Center in Flint Township, Michigan has a nice flat screen TV in its lobby - but instead of watching TV, residents and staff are instead treated to views of their fellow residents and staffers as they enter and exit the building.

When the 2008 Olympic Games roll in to Beijing this summer, PTZ dome cameras from Vicon Industries will be part of an integrated video surveillance system to monitor Beijing National Stadium. The brand new venue will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games along with a variety of athletic events. The stadium seats 91,000. There is a great deal of pressure on Olympic officials to provide a safe environment for the Summer Games and video surveillance will play a significant role in that effort.

VidSys has teamed up with On-Net Surveillance Systems (OnSSI) to develop an intelligent solution for physical security management. The new system enables customers to quickly and effectively analyze and respond to security events as they happen. It combines OnSSI's IP Video Surveillance System Management Solution with the VidShield platform.

Following a homicide last month involving a mother and a daughter, the Town Center in Boca Raton, Fla. is pushing hard for a major video surveillance upgrade. While plans were already in the works to add more security cameras, the recent tragedy further highlights the importance of enhanced video security. Mall officials are now pursuing a full-scale video surveillance system to monitor the entire exterior of the Town Center mall.

Many civil rights and privacy advocates have come together to oppose the widespread placement of video surveillance cameras in public and private places - saying that the constant recording of citizens and every day actions is an egregious invasion of privacy. Instead of battling the inevitable advances in technology, Mike Elgan at ComputerWorld.com presents a refreshing solution.

In response to a slew of vehicle break-ins, a Gold's Gym in Orange County, Fla. recently installed more than a dozen security cameras to watch over its parking lot. The added visual security has already paid off as at least five thieves have now been caught thanks to the new cameras.

The city of Pittsburgh is gearing up for a large-scale upgrade to its existing video surveillance operation. Plans are in the works to integrate hundreds of existing security cameras with new, high-tech cameras so they can all operate on one centrally-monitored system. To move the process along, the city has hired an outside firm, N.W. Getz and Associates, to develop a timetable, examine computer networks for the system, and evaluate rules for preventing abuse and misuse of the cameras.