York on course to become Europe’s most digitally connected city by 2015

Feb. 14, 2013 - PRLog -- City of York Council (CYC) is expanding its existing pure fibre network footprint in York to consolidate its CCTV networks and greatly increase its efficiency, whilst maintaining quality and reliability.

Working with partners CityFibre and managed service provider, Pinacl Solutions, CYC is continuing to extend the reach and use of the UK’s largest metro-fibre network.

Merging its CCTV networks onto the city’s metro fibre core will enable the council to bring together its three existing networks on to one platform. The simplicity of managing all CCTV operations under one contract and network will provide additional benefits including improved control and manageability, increased flexibility and greater cost-efficiency.

The new CCTV network will eventually connect over 200 cameras located on the street, in car parks and in council buildings with a new, purpose-built control room at the council’s West Offices building. Based on digital IP technology, it will have the ability to easily expand to include new sites and secondary control facilities.

Already connecting over 110 council buildings and sites, this extension to York’s existing metro fibre core provides a perfect example of how the council’s initial investment in 2009 to implement a fibre infrastructure can now be cost-effectively leveraged to meet the authority’s future requirements.

The vast majority of the CCTV network was already in close proximity to the existing fibre core, meaning that CYC only needed a small incremental investment to integrate the CCTV networks and deploy additional fibre to those new sites requiring connection.

James Alexander, leader of City of York Council commented: “We have worked hard over the last year to significantly up our game on digital infrastructure by working closely with private and public sector partners. This is another step towards ensuring York is the most digitally connected city in Europe by 2015, by building technology solutions that are capable of supporting our city both now and in the future. We are already seeing the benefits of merging our CCTV networks by having a more efficient and flexible service. This work is part of a wider programme intended to boost York’s economic competitiveness, transform the delivery of public services across the city and enhance the quality of life for our residents.”

Greg Mesch, chief executive officer at CityFibre added: “With the initial investment already made in York, adding another asset to the pure fibre network is highly cost-efficient, and offers future proof network capabilities for CCTV and urban traffic management control teams. Our partnership with York represents our approach and vision for towns and cities throughout the UK.

“A city’s initial investment in such infrastructure can provide it with huge social, financial, technological and economic benefits and it’s estimated that a fibre-rich city can increase GDP by 0.3%. Integrating a CCTV network onto a pure fibre infrastructure can provide significant benefits, including easing traffic management, enhancing support for emergency services and providing heightened security throughout the city.”

Mark Lowe, director at Pinacl Solutions concluded: “We have been City of York Council’s managed service provider for three years and we are constantly reviewing our services and solutions to ensure we are delivering best value. This expansion of the fibre network to include CCTV is another example of how the close working partnership that we have with the council is helping to meet its objectives and strategies.”