Video surveillance gets smarter in Verbania, Italy

Verbania, the capital of the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Italy, was created when the towns of Intra and Pallanza merged. As one of the most idyllic and famous tourist destinations on Lake Maggiore, the town relies heavily on holidaymakers to fill its streets and generate income. To ensure the safety of visitors and citizens, the town council decided to launch a community surveillance project based on a system of network cameras.

Monitors linked to the ten Sony SSNC-RX550 network cameras are installed in the Verbania Municipal Police control room, which is currently undergoing restructuring. Even so, the system does not require the intervention of dedicated security operatives. The human element only comes into play when real-time monitoring is needed (for example during a major event), or when an automatic alarm is triggered.

Today the Municipality of Verbania can be assured that those who commit crime will be identified, thanks to technology which directly recognizes objects and reads vehicle registration plates. In fact, the town's network cameras have been positioned so that they can monitor all arrival and escape points in every area of the town. Intelligent image analysis functions now enable allow the city to keep special areas such as no-stopping zones under control. Using these features, live images can be monitored in unattended mode until suspicious activity occurs, at which point the operator is proactively alerted to the threat by means of an appropriate alarm.