En Genetec City of Almere Case Study

Case Study
City of Almere
8th largest city in the Netherlands merges
technology and strategy in city-wide
expansion with Genetec Omnicast
Omnicast IP Video Surveillance becomes the technological building block to bettering the
lives of residents and businesses in Almere
Business challenge Summary

The City of Almere is an ever evolving urban region with seven
municipalities in the province of Flevoland, the Netherlands. Client name: City of Almere
Almere is ranked the 8th largest city in the Netherlands and with
Organization size: 50 employees
a population just under 200,000, it is considered to be one of
the main cities in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. Because of Products: Security Center, Omnicast
its growing popularity, Almere recently undertook an expansion
Industry: City-Wide Surveillance
plan with the objective to “provide an integrated solution for
environmental consideration, while at the same time attaining Location: Almere, Netherlands
optimal levels of quality of life, comfort and social, economic and
cultural values.” Partners: VisiOn ISP
Part of fulfilling this objective meant that the city needed to

complement its urban spatial planning with modern surveillance
technology to heighten safety for residents and businesses, projected onto an expansive video wall. Operators easily navigate
without disrupting daily lives. While they had an existing video through the system, and can swiftly prompt specific camera views
surveillance system, the City of Almere was looking for a state-of- on the video wall during an emergency.
the-art solution that would be able to expand in lockstep with their Finding cameras has been simplified with the use of Plan Manager,
urban growth. The city wanted to upgrade its existing devices to the map-based interface of Security Center. When responding
the latest IP cameras, and was looking for an open-platform video to an incident, operators can quickly use the city map to locate
surveillance system which would offer centralized management other cameras nearby and access live video within moments. Plan
and real-time monitoring from a brand new central control station. Manager uses simple camera icons with PTZ field-of-view to provide
Modernization of the City of Almere’s city-wide surveillance immediate indication of the best vantages when responding to the
started with a public tender. VisiOn ISP, a local integration and incident. Instant playback also offers one-click access to 10, 15 or 30
installation specialist, was awarded the contract by suggesting seconds before the actual live event, enabling operators to quickly see
Genetec Security Center, the unified security platform which what happenings have led to the incident in question.
includes the Omnicast IP video surveillance system. Omnicast was
selected for its support for a long list of video camera devices, and Granular privileges and reporting enhance
its ease of use. compliance and results
With simple task-based navigation, operators can quickly
One-click functionality and easy map navigation bookmark different events in the system for easy retrieval later on.
heighten response Bookmarking also allows operators to attach notes and tag event
To date, Omnicast manages over 120 IP cameras which are categories or types such as ‘theft’ or ‘from vehicle’. These tags can be
strategically installed throughout the city with protective used later on to facilitate speedy searches and to generate reports.
enclosures. All captured video is sent back to a new surveillance To further simplify reporting, VisiOn ISP used the Genetec
center, which is located in an existing building called “De software development kit (SDK) to build a plugin called VisiOn
Voetnoot”, which has been newly repurposed to house offices for DIS that automatically generates reports for management. The
public space management. flexibility of the reporting plugin allows authorized users to select
The ease of use of the video management system has been most various criteria to create custom reports that include data graphs
advantageous for the City of Almere. From a surveillance room, and diagrams alongside any instance of video that is associated
five workstations are running Omnicast and video feeds are to those criteria. The detailed event reports from the VisiOn
City of Almere · Case Study
DIS module provide both qualitative information for police

and statistics by means of quantitative information, offering
information about cameras’ use and event monitoring.
The city’s police supervisor, the senior enforcement officer and the
city manager all have their own monitoring stations available in
the surveillance center in case urgent investigations or incident
response requires their involvement. Setting highly-granular user
permissions and privileges within Omnicast, the City of Almere
is able to ensure that only those with the correct authority have
access to specific cameras and various system functionalities. This
added layer of access privileges helps to ensure that citizen privacy
is protected at all times, and that video evidence goes through the
correct chain of custody.
From a secure technical hub, police supervisors are able to securely
and efficiently export video evidence to help build cases against city
perpetrators. Video is also accessible from a situation/crisis room,
where another video wall also displays camera views, allowing city “We are very pleased with Omnicast
management and police to congregate if ever more critical events video surveillance, as the system has
require a full consolidation of resources.
enhanced our views of the vast public
Projecting growth in the City of Almere
As the city’s expansion plans are underway, so too are discussions
spaces that we aim to protect and our
about growing the city-wide surveillance system. The open ability to respond to any event in the
architecture of Security Center not only allows the city to continue
adding the latest video surveillance devices, but also enables city
timeliest manner.”
management or police to eventually merge other systems within
the unified security platform to evolve its city control room. These
systems might include IP access control for better security through
the city’s public services and utilities buildings and automatic
number plate recognition for improved vehicle roadway monitoring.
According to Mr. Jaap Kroese, Account Manager for Camera
Surveillance at the City of Almere, “We are very pleased with
Omnicast video surveillance, as the system has enhanced our views
of the vast public spaces that we aim to protect and our ability to
respond to any event in the timeliest manner. While technology is
not the focus of our city expansion plans, it is a vital piece of the
puzzle that will allow our city to continue prospering.”
Infrastructure at a Glance
Omnicast manages over 120 cameras, both Axis Q6035-E and Axis Q6044-E PTZ cameras, which are connected
back to the central server at the technical hub via a dedicated fiber optic network. Additional cameras can be
temporarily added within a day’s notice, whereby the city of Almere leverages a wireless backbone on top of the
World Trade Center in Almere, offering tremendous flexibility. All video is sent back to the surveillance center which
has five workstations for operators and supervisors from both the police and the local government.
Genetec Inc.
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Case Study

Business challenge Summary

Part of fulfilling this objective meant that the city needed to

DIS module provide both qualitative information for police

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