Video Surveillance in Car Parks

 

Car parks place particular requirements on video surveillance technology: low ceilings and poor lighting conditions which vary widely from the very dark to the very bright. Car parks are usually not inviting places, but vandalism and theft must be prevented. In addition, parking damage must be resolved after the fact. A system for video surveillance can give effective support here while at the same time conveying a sense of security to the customers. This is especially pertinent to women because they often consider themselves subject to assaults in car parks.

Because the ceilings are very low and can be easily reached without aids, the cameras used need to be efficiently protected from vandalism. Primarily fixed domes are suitable for car parks because when they are equipped with wide-angle lenses, they can view both the lanes and the parking spaces. To keep the number of domes installed low, we recommend a resolution which is as high as possible. This is also useful for subsequently making number plates recognisable in case of parking damages. Parking for women is monitored more to ensure additional security there.

Particular attention is paid to entrances, exits and pay stations. The domes installed at entrances and exits must provide conclusive images despite incident light while also display number plates clearly. Therefore, functions like displaying compensation, highlight compensation and particularly wide dynamic range are of great importance here. Depending on the business hours, time-controlled recording is possible. Because vandalism and theft can also occur after business hours, there should be recording at night at least if motion is detected.

In car parks the wide dynamic range function is crucial at entrances and exits. Wide dynamic range considerably increases the dynamic range of the camera so that details are clearly recognisable both in the dark and light ranges. For this, the entire image is exposed and evaluated for a longer period. Finally, the camera automatically selects the ideally exposed range from the various exposure times. The overall image is then assembled from these individual images. People and objects in shadows no longer disappear into the darkness without the bright ranges becoming unrecognisable.

From the customer's point of view, pay stations should definitely be monitored because thieves could quickly snatch and steal wallets which were held out to make payment.