A “cutting edge” wireless video surveillance network, capable of recognising faces and tracking cars by their licence plates, has been installed on a trial basis for the Bermuda Police Service.Two US companies, Quantenna Communications and Smartrove, have hailed the system as a one of the world’s best, and a solution to special challenges posed by the Bermuda environment.The police surveillance cameras, installed by local firm GET Security, are not the only manifestations of wireless security that have begun to appear over Bermuda’s roads in recent months.A Wi-Fi network, installed for the City of Hamilton by the IT firm Decisions Limited, has been quietly put in place around the city for improved camera security. The system may be used in concert with police cameras, although the two are not yet sharing networks.The Royal Gazette also understands that Bermuda Police Service’s system is of a similar make to a Wi-Fi security network currently under evaluation by the US Department of Homeland Security in San Diego, California.Charged since September 11, 2001 with preventing terrorist attacks on the US, Homeland Security has invested billions in surveillance technology.Bermuda’s gradual deployment of cameras and attendant Wi-Fi equipment has been described in the past as “proactive policing”, and a response to the Island’s rising levels of violent, gang-related crime.Quantenna’s 802.11n MIMO wireless chips have been installed in Smartrove’s Wi-Fi systems in a network which Smartrove President Vencat Kalkunte said now spans Bermuda from Police Headquarters at Prospect to Somerset Police Station.Police offered limited comment for this article, and City of Hamilton secretary Ed Benevides said that as long as Hamilton’s own network was being used only for security purposes, “we continue to want to keep this low key so that it does not become the target of attack by those persons not wanting to be under surveillance”.The system’s California-based manufacturers say the system delivers low-cost, high-resolution surveillance in a difficult location.“The Bermuda Police Service wanted to test the system,” Mr Kalkunte said. “Their experience in the past was that Bermuda is a challenging environment from a radio standpoint.”Bermuda’s isolation, salt-laden air and storm-prone climate make the Island “like a battleship out in the Atlantic”, he said.“Things that work here in North America don’t always work well in Bermuda. Will it carry signals well over distances? Will it resist interference? Can it withstand hurricane force winds and other adverse weather conditions? As well, a small island with a lot of people has a lot of radio, so to run a police traffic network it has to stand up to that. That’s how it all began. A trial system was put in place at two locations, on the roof of GET Security on Reid Street, and on the Government Administration Building.”In this context, “traffic”, applies to managing streams of information, as evidenced by the multiple antennae sprouting from utility poles and other vantage points in Hamilton and elsewhere.Mr Kalkunte said his firm, whose primary customer on the Island is GET Security, was contracted early in 2010.“From Prospect to the Somerset Police Station is the extent of the network span,” he said. “But it’s still a test system, as they say, because they want to be very, very certain that they can depend on it 100 percent.”The Smartrove CEO described a surveillance network with capabilities limited only by the power of the computers and software receiving the data.“The system can perform analytics such as facial recognition, license plate recognition and people counting,” he said. “Their list is quite long. The first step is to establish the infrastructure, and the second stage is bringing in video analytics. Once the data is sent in, it’s up to the number crunching machines to use the information to do pattern recognition.”Microphones or speakers can even be added to the nests of outdoor technology feeding into the surveillance network, he said.“It can potentially have audio and it can be bidirectional. It would require enhancement, if it’s practical on the top of a pole, but if a microphone is installed and pointed at a location, it can be done.” Mr Kalkunte added: “That’s not there at the moment in Bermuda, but the camera is.”The Bermuda Police Service, he said, has “constantly kept us thinking about all these requirements” as the firms work on the Island’s carrier grade Wi-Fi network.“Smartrove needs to guarantee high throughput traffic from cameras, voice sensors, motion detectors, license plate recognising cameras, each one of them wanting guaranteed bandwidth without delays, which is the core Smartrove technology,” he said.Since wireless technology is radio-based, the manufacturers of Bermuda’s surveillance network had to work around challenges posed by the Island’s closely-packed buildings and traditional architecture.“Radio signals do not work well with thick limestone walls,” Mr Kalkunte explained. “The attenuation (reduction) can be significant.”As well as in San Diego, a version of Bermuda’s wireless system is being tried out by a large Indian corporation based in Bangalore, where “they are dealing with ten to 15 million square feet of office space, and there is severe wall attenuation of cell signals.”However, Quantenna senior director of marketing David Cohen said the company’s microchips enable wireless systems to navigate cluttered spaces.“No one else does what our chip set does,” Mr Cohen said. “It gives a robustness and a range that you can’t find with another chip set.”He said: “The current generation of Wi-Fi is 802.11n. Even within that, there are multiple variants. We are the only ones that do 4 by 4, which gives four simultaneous streams, four signals at the same time. With four signals, you get much better reception, because you have a better transmitter and receiver, in addition to other technical enhancements we uniquely do. Even with significant obstructions in the way, such as limestone and concrete walls, it provides much clearer reception and range.”In an EON online news story, Acting Commissioner Mike Jackman of the Bermuda Police Service appeared to concur.Mr Jackman is quoted as praising the Smartrove system for providing “high definition video traffic” and “crisp images” to the police operations centre - which is based at Police Headquarters in Prospect.According to industry sources, the technology is also being sought by ordinary cellular phone companies in Bermuda. Existing Wi-Fi systems have the ability to piggyback multiple users, but The Royal Gazette has learned that local carriers have expressed interest in operating systems of their own.“Companies are slowly getting convinced,” Mr Kalkunte said. “The trial period has ended.”Useful websites: www.quantenna.com, www.smartrove.com, eon.businesswire.com.