Case study · Portsmouth City Council
Reliable camera coverage across the city, with fewer fixed lines
Portsmouth had tried traffic monitoring cameras several times, and the weak point was always the link from the street to the cloud. On the NOW Wireless mesh network, many cameras share each fixed connection — and the pictures are viewed in a browser from anywhere, by the council and its contractor alike.
Headline results
The challenge
Cameras were never the problem. The link was.
Portsmouth City Council had explored traffic monitoring cameras in various forms over a number of years, but none gave the quality of service and reliability the council required. The communications link from the on‑street camera to the cloud was consistently the weak point — and a fixed line to every camera is expensive to install and expensive to keep.
The council needed camera coverage it could depend on across a substantial number of junctions, without a fixed connection at each one, and a way for staff to see the pictures without being in the control room.
What the council needed
- Dependable video from cameras across the city
- Far fewer fixed‑line connections
- Viewing from anywhere — not only the Transport Management Centre
- A way to share live pictures with the highways maintenance contractor
- Low ongoing cost
The project
Cameras on the mesh, pictures in the cloud
Using the NOW Wireless mesh network, cameras over a wide geographical area connect back to node points that have a fixed‑line connection to the cloud. Each fixed line therefore serves many cameras, so the council gets reliable coverage over a substantial number of junctions while keeping the number of fixed connections — and the recurring bill — low.
The cameras are viewed through SenseView, the NOW Wireless real‑time data platform, which is browser‑based and cloud‑hosted. Operators can see the network from anywhere at any time, which suits flexible working and incident management: staff are no longer tied to the Transport Management Centre to get eyes on the road.
Cameras across the city reach the cloud through a few fixed‑line node points on the mesh; the pictures are viewed in a browser from anywhere.
The outcome
Eyes on the network, for everyone who needs them
The council now has reliable camera coverage over a substantial number of junctions, with ongoing costs kept low by minimising fixed‑line connections. Because viewing is browser‑based, the council has also been able to roll out access to its highways maintenance contractor, so the people responding to an incident can see it before they arrive and make better decisions on the way.
What changed
- Camera communications
- Mesh network, shared backhaul
- Fixed lines
- Minimised
- Viewing
- Browser, cloud‑hosted
- Who can see
- Council and contractor
- Where from
- Anywhere, any time
- Data layer
- SenseView
The same network can carry AI analytics, air quality and journey‑time sensors when the council wants them.
What this means for you
Reliable CCTV does not need a line to every camera
If your cameras are only as good as their connection, put them on a network built for the street. See CCTV Infrastructure for the control room, storage and cloud video that sit behind it, and AI on Your Existing Cameras for what the same cameras can detect.
Talk to us
Connect the cameras you already have
Tell us where your camera links let you down and we will show you how a mesh cluster and cloud viewing would work in your city.