Russian city boosts safety for park visitors with Hikvision

To maximize safety for visitors to a number of city parks, the city of Vladivostok in Russia has deployed a smart video solution from Hikvision, which provides automated alerts in the event of a security risk.

The challenge: Keeping hundreds of park visitors safe, 24 hours a day

In cities around the world, parks provide a welcome and much-needed respite from urban noise and traffic. What's more, parks give people a chance to meet and socialize in an outdoor setting, and to enjoy leisure activities such as sports and jogging, and for children to use playground equipment.

To provide all these benefits and more, the city of Vladivostok in Russia fully modernized and renovated its city parks in 2020. As well as landscaping the parks and deploying new benches, play areas, and other facilities, the city wanted to roll out new technology solutions to keep park visitors safe, 24 hours a day.

Initially, the city looked into several closed-circuit (CCTV) video solutions. However, these require security teams to monitor camera footage constantly, increasing workloads and costs. With this kind of solution, safety risks and incidents can also be easily missed or overlooked.

The Hikvision solution: An AI-powered security infrastructure that keeps park visitors safe

To boost security for park visitors, the city of Vladivostok decided to deploy a smart, integrated video security solution from Hikvision.

Alexander Prosvirnin, Head of Project Department, MTS company, the SI partner for the Vladivostok Parks project, says, "The Hikvision solution was the most competitive in terms of both features and low total cost of ownership. We also knew that a single-vendor solution would be easier to deploy, set up, and support."

The Hikvision solution comprises more than 130 Hikvision cameras, including DeepInView bullet and PTZ cameras, AcuSense IP bullet cameras, and thermal imaging cameras. Hikvision software delivered as part of the solution includes alarms management, facial recognition, thermal reporting, and Business Intelligence reporting for people counting and 'heat maps' of busy areas within the parks.

All of the Hikvision devices are connected to NVRs and display equipment in the security control room.

Specific applications supported by Hikvision's AI-powered solution include:

Fire prevention
Across the 9 parks, more than 30 Hikvision thermal imaging cameras provide real-time alarms directly to the local fire service when temperatures exceed safe limits.

Finding and protecting lost and vulnerable people
Family members frequently report 'lost' people in Vladivostok's parks. With Hikvision's facial recognition capabilities, a photograph of the person can be uploaded, and the cameras will find them immediately.

Prevention of anti-social behavior
based on deep learning and neural networks capabilities in Hikvision cameras, park security teams can quickly identify and respond to aggressive behavior, vandalism, or illegal drinking in parks. Security teams can be deployed rapidly, or recorded warning messages can be used to stop perpetrators in their tracks.

Fast, effective responses to security incidents
An algorithm in the Hikvision cameras identifies loud noises such as glass breaking, cars crashing, or park visitors screaming. This allows teams to respond quickly to help victims of accidents and attacks.

360-degree security monitoring
The Hikvision cameras ensure that all security incidents are captured across all the city parks with 360° coverage, 36x optical zoom capabilities, and the ability to follow targets of interest automatically.

Benefits: Improved public safety

With the ability to detect and respond to potential security incidents in real time, the city of Vladivostok has dramatically improved safety for park visitors. Additionally, the parks authority can protect park benches, play areas, and other facilities much more effectively against vandalism – ensuring that visitors have the best possible experience.

Salavat Galiev, Head of the Vladivostok Parks Department, says, "With the Hikvision solution, we are notified immediately of all kinds of security risks, from fires to anti-social behavior, and from vandalism to attacks on visitors. As a result, we can respond faster and keep park visitors safe."

Increased operating efficiency

The AI and automation capabilities of the Hikvision solution also help Vladivostok Parks to save time and reduce operating costs. This is achieved with fewer false alarms, instant verification for real security incidents, quick searches of video footage, and the ability to broadcast warning alarms and recorded messages via the Hikvision cameras rather than attending incidents in person.

"Compared to a manual CCTV solution, the Hikvision AI solution is delivering huge time and cost savings for our teams," says Galiev. "We can now dedicate all our resources to dealing with real security incidents and protecting park visitors."

Seamless project delivery

Hikvision's AI-powered security solution for Vladivostok Parks was delivered seamlessly by trusted installation partner, MTS. As well as building a Wi-Fi network that connects all nine city parks, MTS installed and configured all Hikvision cameras, NVRs, and tested the entire solution from end to end.

"MTS was an example of everything an installation partner should be," says Galiev. "They first introduced us to Hikvision's AI-powered security solutions, and explained how these smart technologies could help us keep park visitors safer."

"MTS is hugely technically capable, and extremely knowledgeable about Hikvision products and configuration requirements. Not only that, but they also supported our deployment from end to end to ensure the solution performs in an optimal way."

For more information about this deployment, or to discover how Hikvision technology can help you improve public safety in urban spaces in your own city or municipality, please contact us today.