Lighthouse camera safety at Portland Bill
The National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) team at the Portland Bill lookout station in the UK was recently looking to increased visibility of the area of sea and land closest to the coast.
It approached Quadrant Security Group to source a suitable device, which had to be sited 40m above sea level on the gallery of Portland Bill lighthouse, which overlooks the outermost point of the island’s coast.
A rugged, stainless steel CCTV camera from Bosch Security Systems was selected and installed on the lighthouse in Dorset to enable NCI volunteers to better monitor the safety of climbers, walkers and craft passing close to the cliff edge.
Permission to install the camera was kindly granted to NCI last year by Trinity House, the official General Lighthouse Authority (GLA) for England and Wales, which owns Portland Bill lighthouse. A listed building, the lighthouse was automated in 1996 and is now open to members of the public.
John Watts, deputy station manager (projects) at NCI Coastwatch, Portland Bill, said, “Naturally, since the lighthouse is exposed to the elements, I was looking for a camera that could withstand extreme conditions and still deliver good quality images, without any need for constant maintenance.
“During my search for an appropriate solution I was given the opportunity to visit the Weymouth CCTV control room and test the capabilities of a Bosch MIC camera operating in a harsh seaside environment and, after having seen both the resilient yet compact design and the picture quality for myself, I felt that the model met all of my requirements.”
The camera at Portland Bill was installed by Quadrant Security Group (QSG). The MIC series uses brushless motor technology to enable quiet yet reliable operation, with full 360° continuous rotation pan and 270° tilt control for exceptional viewing capability. Small increment pan/tilt speeds give the user precise control, which is fundamental for tracking subjects when fully zoomed in. Furthermore, it is compatible with virtually any control equipment, and can seamlessly integrate with the vast majority of security systems.
At Portland Bill, the camera images are encoded using Bosch codecs and then wirelessly transmitted to the NCI lookout station, which is located half a mile back from the lighthouse and has an approximately 270° view of the waters surrounding Portland Bill.
