2016 Innovation Awards: Axis Partners With City of Denver to Modernize Surveillance System
When Phil Hurbace joined the city of Denver’s Converged Infrastructure/Video Team in 2008, the surveillance system covering city and county buildings looked very different than it does today.
It consisted of a hodgepodge of fewer than 100 cameras and recorders from different brands, with each agency and office acting independently of each other.
“When I started here, every building had its own unique analog, standalone system. There were no standards at all around any of them,” Hurbace says. “Everything was non-standard, and every agency would go out on a limb and find a vendor to provide cameras and install them. They had funding to install the cameras, but they didn’t have funding to maintain them.”
He further adds, “You’d have a lot of sites that would install cameras, but they had no mechanism to have them cleaned and serviced because it wasn’t in anybody’s budget.”
Adding further challenges was the fact that, because the system was non-standard, it was necessary to log in to each individual camera, using the software provided by that manufacturer, to change settings or update the firmware.
In addition, many of the cameras offered capabilities that are outdated by modern standards. The cameras offered standard resolutions and did not offer the ability to see objects in low-light conditions or the ability to see a complete 360-degree field of view. Video recording was done by DVR or by VCRs, which meant that if there was an incident that security personnel or police needed to investigate, someone needed to search through analog VCR tapes, or through the DVR specific to that camera, to find the footage needed.
Denver is home to world-class public parks popular with residents and tourists. The city needed a better way to monitor activity in the parks, as well as public squares and parking lots, and assure citizens that it was safe to enjoy them.
The Solution
Hurbace’s team launched a project to upgrade all of the city and surrounding counties of Denver cameras to IP-based cameras. They chose Axis as the primary manufacturer, based on the reputation of Axis products designed around ease of use and reliability.
The city partnered with Stone Security, a leading security integrator with a major presence in Denver, to design the system.
Over the next eight years, the city surveillance system was expanded from 75 cameras to 1,550 cameras, which cover 65 sites among 25 different government agencies. The average annual growth rate in cameras across the city was 35 percent. Cameras now cover nearly all city and county buildings, including police and fire facilities, recreational centers, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the county jail, the city crime lab, family shelters, and public parks, among many other agency facilities.
In 2012, Hurbace’s team decided to standardize the entire city surveillance system on Axis cameras. As of 2016, about 1,300 cameras – or about 84 percent – are Axis cameras.
“As each new project was being developed, or if an agency was starting a new project – their 15-year-old analog cameras were dying and they needed to replace the camera – then the decision was made to change the infrastructure, re-wire the system, and put in IP cameras,” Hurbace says. “If a camera fails in the field, and it happens to be a different brand, then the camera we replace it with will be an Axis camera.”
The city also implemented a new video management system across the entire city. Standardizing on Axis cameras allowed Hurbace’s team to roll out each successive project or upgrade more quickly.
“The Axis cameras are easy to discover on the network. They’re easy to configure and the software works well for managing large groups of cameras,” Hurbace says.
Additionally, having a standard manufacturer means that his team can manage cameras using the intuitive AXIS Camera Management user interface.
“With Axis, if you log into a camera that was produced 10 years ago versus one that was produced last week, the user interface, for the most part, is the same,” Hurbace says.
He adds, “When it comes to rolling out firmware updates to the cameras, it’s extremely easy to do with the Axis software. Other manufacturers will come out with a different user interface, and you’re stuck trying to find the right user interface to update the cameras. It may be good hardware, but the backside interface is extremely difficult to use.”
Hurbace noted that with smaller systems, it’s easier to be selective and pick and choose different brands. “When you’re managing 1,500 cameras with two people and about 25 different agencies and 65 locations around the city, you need something that’s easy to work with. At the end of the day, hardware is hardware, and it’s difficult to distinguish from one camera to another in terms of image quality and bitrate, but to me, what’s most important is how easy it is to work with.”
It took close coordination and collaboration between the city and county of Denver, Axis, and Stone Security.
“Working with the city and county of Denver we have learned that an effective strategy for deploying and managing IP-video on a large scale requires a dedicated team effort,” says Brent Edmunds, president and co-founder of Stone Security. “Other cities could learn from the level of expertise that Denver has committed to making their video surveillance system truly enterprise class. That goes from design, to project implementation all the way through to support. Denver has dedicated professionals capable of working hand-in-hand with their integrator partner to accomplish their goals. In short, they are committed to the system. Denver has assigned qualified professionals to ensure their video surveillance is successful – no excuses.”
Edmunds adds that the variety of product options offered by Axis to suit almost any application made it possible to overcome many of the project’s most significant challenges.
“The City and County of Denver, like many municipalities, has a wide variety of environments that need additional video surveillance. For example, city office buildings, police precincts, recreation centers and parks, all pose their own unique challenges,” Edmunds notes. “However, possibly the most difficult sites to design effective surveillance systems for have been historic buildings. These historic locations required a large camera variety to accomplish the project goals. Axis’ very deep and very wide product portfolio really came in handy for us on these projects specifically. It’s nice to have so many options at your disposal to meet the needs of these special sites.”
The Results
Increased reliability: Hurbace says that his team tested more than 20 different brands before deciding on Axis as the city standard. The Axis cameras have an annual failure rate of less than one percent, while other tested manufacturers have had a failure rate of 10 percent or higher.
Enhanced incident investigation: City and county agencies have effectively used video for a variety of investigative purposes. Hurbace notes that the high-definition cameras have been especially useful in agencies that handle cash transactions, such as the DMV. “A lot of our cash handling has benefitted from the high-resolution cameras. Sometimes, a drawer will come up short, and they’ll replay the video, and they find that a check fell on the floor or into a trash bin.”
Cameras are installed in key areas of the police department, such as the holding cell areas and interview rooms. In cases where people have made claims against police officers, the video has been essential in determining what happened. “It just levels the playing field and helps keep everything safer and more honest,” Hurbace says.
Across many agencies, video has been helpful in investigating incidents such as “slip and fall cases” and even bicycle thefts, Hurbace says.
In addition, the fact that the video is stored on the network makes it easier for police or security personnel to quickly retrieve video data and review footage for forensic or investigative purposes.
The diversity of products: Axis offers a wide product selection, which has offered the City of Denver options for almost any scenario.
“The product line is very diverse. There seems to be a product that covers almost anything and everything that would possibly need,” Hurbace says.
Products like the AXIS Q3708-PVE Network Camera and the AXIS Q3709-PVE Network Camera have been “a blessing,” Hurbace notes because they offer an 180-degree panoramic view and can be installed in virtually any outdoor or indoor location.
Improving customer service: Agencies that have more daily interaction with the public have used the video to improve how they provide services to customers. As an example, the DMV has used video to determine what times of day they experience a rush of customers, and have changed staffing to reduce customer wait times.
“Something I tell people is, ‘don’t just use the cameras to see if someone did something wrong. Use the camera system to see what employees are doing right, and then let them knows what they did right’” as positive reinforcement, Hurbace says.
Improved quality of life: Some of Denver’s parks have experienced problems with, as Hurbace puts it, “enough bad people hanging out that it makes good people not want to go there.”
One key project has involved installing 11 AXIS Q6000-E PTZ Dome Network Cameras with built-in infrared illumination in one of the parks. The cameras can provide 24-hour surveillance, seeing objects and people in total darkness. Closer monitoring nighttime activity will allow public safety officials to detect any illegal activity and help make the parks safer.
“It’s going to be a showcase location, and it’s really going to be covered well. If this template works, it could be a model used for other parks throughout the city,” Hurbace says.
Transitioning from reactive to proactive uses: Hurbace says that the surveillance program has been so effective that his team is considering how to use the video in more proactive ways, including deterring crime.
“The idea is to use the cameras as a force multiplier of physical security personnel. They can use the cameras to be in more places at once and direct physical security assets to the areas that need attention,” Hurbace says.
Before joining the city’s Converged Infrastructure/Video Team, Hurbace worked in the casino business in Las Vegas. He thinks that there are some best practices that the city and county of Denver could learn from how casinos use surveillance proactively.
“I’m modeling how we’re using video after how a video surveillance room in the casinos keeps track of things proactively,” Hurbace says. “Casinos by nature need to use their video proactively. It doesn’t do much good to catch a cheater after the fact when they’ve left the casino with a bunch of money.”
