Across the globe, law enforcement agencies are utilizing video streaming for a range of special operations and public safety operations. The technical departments within enforcement agencies have a wide range of responsibilities, one of which is sourcing live streaming solutions to enable surveillance from mobile cameras and addressing mission-critical demands of live streaming from body cameras in hostile and remote areas.
Challenges in daily operations
There are traditional challenges faced by enforcement agents on the ground when live streaming from the field, including the lack of reliability, long latency, and reduced image quality. As most duties require agents to operate in dangerous and challenging environments, much of the decision-making and evidence-gathering is done using body and helmet cameras to live stream in real-time back to a commanding officer in a remote command center.
In speaking with law enforcement agencies, Milestone heard that live feeds were of low quality, mostly because the video was being pushed over a singular cellular network connection. That video was often deemed unstable due to low bandwidth availability or congestion caused by many users in highly populated areas. Compounding the problem was a need for continuously high bandwidth and video quality high enough to make it admissible in a court of law. Also, when using publicly available networks for surveillance and communications, it was imperative that all connections were secure.
Another factor was latency, which is the time it takes the video feed from the camera to reach the control center. Anything longer than two seconds is deemed too long for making an effective operational decision. Enforcement agents will always need a separate verbal confirmation from someone with eyes on the scene, which is often challenging. If a picture speaks a thousand words, then imagine the words an instant video can speak with almost zero latency in real-time.
“In many cases, a Milestone VMS was already in place for viewing the content in the command room or was being considered for implementation,” says Kerim Sare, global business manager at Soliton Systems. “But the ability to monitor fixed surveillance cameras, mobile body cam and drone feeds, within a single VMS platform for viewing and recording, was to become a major advantage of the overall solution.”
Enter: the Soliton solution
The mobile surveillance solution utilized to address the issues mentioned above was the implementation of the ZAO-S from Soliton Systems, a live streaming solution that works very well with open platform systems such as Milestone’s Xprotect. Weighing only 400 grams, the system connects directly to the camera and can connect to multiple 5G/4G/3G/Private LTE networks simultaneously, sending an encrypted live stream back to the command and control center. The ZAO-S live streaming capabilities are regularly tested to the limits in hostile situations during operational duties and in challenging network conditions with unstable or low bandwidth internet connections, such as in a heavily built-up area, remote areas, or within a building. Moreover, the ZAO-S is easy to use and is extremely lightweight for field operators, and the ruggedized units can be easily hidden inside uniforms thanks to their small size.
Being ONVIF compliant, the ZAO-S can seamlessly work with the existing Milestone VMS system. After seeing the successful integration, operators started using XProtect® Smart Client to manage all the operations on the platform on which they were already familiar.
The total latency performance has also proven to be a benefit. The use of this technology reduces latency to as low as 500msec depending on the latency of the network, and all connections are encrypted and live streaming over mobile networks is now more reliable.
The ZAO-S has many features making it ideal for law enforcement. The ZAO-S is super lightweight and robust, making it ideal for special operations in the field. As well, the full integration via open standards is a major factor when considering an implementation of new technology for ease of integration and future-proofing. And since it is ONVIF compliant, the ZAO-S can fully integrate the live video stream into Milestone’s VMS Platform.
Future applications
The integrated solution, designed by Soliton and Milestone, not only allows high-quality live streaming from body-worn cameras, but also enables remote live streaming from drones, moving vehicles, and surveillance cameras in any temporary or remote location to enable wider area coverage. As such, it provides better field support for hostile situations and more reach to remote areas.
Live streaming to HQ helps improve operational decision making, and the talkback feature allows operators to verbally communicate back to the field agents for giving directions and orders, while all communications are being recorded and archived. The integrated solution also enables third-party analytical platforms integrated within Milestone to use live streams to calculate a range of issues in real-time allowing the access of a full database to provide efficient comparisons. This is invaluable for supporting the field side of the operations more efficiently.
“Reliability and low latency are key to successful law enforcement usage.,” adds Go Ito, Managing Director at Soliton Systems adds. “The ZAO-S, in conjunction with Milestone, has proved a very positive addition to law enforcement. By allowing the operations command team to view body-worn action camera feeds, drone feeds and fixed CCTV feeds on the same screen, it enables the commanding officer a more joined-up assessment of their live operations in the field so they can make better-informed decisions.”
Soliton and Milestone are joining forces to provide the next generation of mobile live streaming for special operations. By using miniature encoders with bodycams and helmet cameras in conjunction with the Milestone VMS, the solution will provide law enforcement with high quality, low latency, and secure real-time video. This will ensure commanding officers can react quickly to dynamic and volatile events as part of their mission to make the world a safer place.
“Here in Milestone, we are seeing an increased demand for body-worn solutions integrated with our XProtect Open Platform VMS,” says Lawrence Tan, Regional Head of Solution Sales, Milestone APAC. “Soliton Systems’ ZAO-S is a perfect example of how advanced low-latency live streaming technologies can add tremendous value to real-world applications such as law enforcement operations, emergency services and even live streaming from moving vehicles and drones.”
Questions? Reach out to a Milestone expert today to schedule a customized demo, and see how video technology is improving city life by visiting milestonesys.com/solutions/industries/safe-cities/. Also, learn more about About Soliton Systems.
