Village Hall CCTV installationIntroduction:This is an initial report of the CCTV installation at the King’s Somborne Village Hall. The installation was made on 10 November 2016 and the appropriate software was installed on both the laptop and 10” tablet owned by myself (Ian Bradley), and a tablet owned by Terry Mackintosh. Three cameras have been installed to date.

The view of these images, in 4 camera mode, is as follows. Any one image can be blown up to full screen for a very detailed view.

I note that the designation on the second and third screen are currently incorrect (swapped). This needs to be corrected.

Physical InstallationCurrently, there are three cameras mounted on external walls sited so as to be extremely difficult to vandalise. One gives a good view of the car park, one shows the alley at the rear of the hall, and one shows the part of the field in

Terry will be installing CCTV camera signs around the hall. These alone may be sufficient to deter many from causing damage to the hall.

The view of the car park and rear passage are good. Note that there is a view into the next-door back garden. This may have to be corrected – I believe that it can be masked out by software if this is seen to be a problem.

The view of the field is a bit limited, but views across the field may not be necessary.

In all cases the detail is excellent.

Note that the current three cameras do not show anything under the canopy running around the hall from the entrance door to the Jubilee Room doors, nor do they show any of the roof, or the apparent access to the roof over the Sports Store. This may be a problem in detecting incidents involving the front door including the key safe, the Pavilion and Jubilee Room doors, and any access to the roof.

Software Installation on PC or TabletThe software may be installed on Windows PCs, Android and Apple tablets and smartphones. I was advised that It is not available for Apple PCs, although I note that there is MAC software available on their website.

For PC installation, you download the appropriate software as a .rar file from a website found as “hik portal”. The software needs to be unzipped. I downloaded winzip from the app store to do this. You then go through a standard PC installation, followed by a setup sequence including setting a few passwords. Once installed and started, you get a screen similar to that above. I should be able to perform the full installation for whoever needs it.

On and android (and I assume Apple) tablet/smartphone, installation, you download an app called ‘iVMS 4500’ from the play store. Enter three or four setup parameters and you get a screen a bit more restricted to that above, but still showing output from all cameras selected.

Remote Playback and Detecting an IncidentIt is most unlikely that this system will be watched in real time. Rather, it will be used to detect an earlier incident. For this you click on “Remote Playback” (tab at top of screen on previous page on a PC, or after clicking the Ξ symbol on a tablet). You can then go to specific times in the past (apparently up to three weeks in the past depending on activity). And observe images at that time. It’s a bit tricky, but after a bit of experimentation, the techniques can be found.

You can play forward or backwards in standard time or up to 16 times normal speed. To put this in perspective, the 16X speed allows scanning through one hour of video in about 4 minutes, or 16 hours in one hour.

As a first test of detecting an “incident”, I chose to find when Terry and myself left the Village Hall sometime during the afternoon of the 10th of November. It worked as follows (PC shown – but action similar on a tablet).

There are some tricks needed to select the correct camera which I won’t go in to here.

First click Remote Playback. I found that the best way to find a specific time on the PC was to select a time in the right hand frame, and go from there.

In this case, selecting 15:00 showed Terry’s car present, selecting 16:00 showed it absent. Selecting a few intermediate values showed it present at 15:15 but absent at 15:20. Running slowly from 15:15 to 15:20 shows the “incident”, Terry and I leaving the hall, getting into the car, and eventually driving off.

Included with this Word document, is an .MP4 file that shows the complete “Incident”. To view this file you will need an MP4 reader. If you don’t have one, downloas a reader such as VLC from the App store.

The thing to note in detecting this “Incident” was the need to get to the exact time of the incident. In this case it was easy. Before the “Incident” Terry’s car was present. After the “Incident” it was absent. Simply selecting times during the afternoon and seeing whether the car was present or absent, then running at normal speed hrough a 5 minute span, allowed capturing the “incident”.

Detecting an incident elsewhere around the hall may however be difficult. If the results of the incident are not visible on a CCTV camera, and the almost exact time of the incident is not known, it may be very difficult to detect such an incident.

For example – a broken window or door under the canopy will not necessarily be seen by the current CCTV cameras. Detecting the actual time of an event if the time is not initially known, otherwise than being over a period of a day or two, may be difficult. Someone will have to watch, over the total possible period of many hours, the video from a camera as near as possible to the incident at a speed of 16X and decide from the comings and goings of people just how the incident occurred. If there is a lot of comings and goings, this might be difficult.

Data ProtectionI am no expert on the legal or otherwise requirements on the use of CCTV and how much the Village Hall Committee should consider this. There is a lot of information on the internet, such as the following:

http://www.cctv-information.co.uk/i/The_Data_Protection_Act_and_CCTV

Also, many village halls and parish councils seem to have taken on board the need to consider the concepts of the Data Protection act, some publishing how they meet the Data Protection requirements. Details can be found in the following document amongst others:

http://www.ruralactionderbyshire.org.uk/assets/files/ACRE_Info_sheets/IS_38_%20Short%20Guide%20to%20Security_Jan%202016.pdf

Many halls have registered with data protection, eg:

http://www.naphillvillagehall.org.uk/data-protection-registration.html

or at least have policies that meet the requirements of data protection, eg:

http://www.winstonvillagehall.org.uk/hall-management-policies-1

I believe that Terry should get one of his team, preferably someone with some legal knowledge, to check out the requirements for data protection and ensure these are met.

At the very minimum, to meet what I understand to be the requirements for data protection, I believe there should be a formal list of those able to access the CCTV images (this should include me at present), and the procedure for releasing images to others.

SuggestionsI would suggest that the following be considered:

Generating a list of “Authorised” people to have access to the CCTV. Once produced, I will get the appropriate software installed on their PC and/or tablet.

Consider properly the needs of Data Protection.

Consider installation of further cameras to cover the front door, Jubilee and Pavilion doors and roof. If these get vandalised, the current cameras should be sufficient to detect the culprits, as at least the time of the vandalism will be accurately known (the instance the camera stops!)

Ian Bradley.

12 November 2016