Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)

Our ROMANSE control rooms utilise a network of Closed Circuit Television Cameras to monitor routes in both Hampshire County and the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton.

Many of the Motorway and Trunk Road cameras have been introduced in collaboration with the Highways Agency. Video images are captured using the latest cameras and transmitted via Fibre Optic cable or ADSL back to our Control Rooms, located in Southampton (for Southampton City monitoring), Portsmouth (for Portsmouth City monitoring) and Winchester (for Hampshire County monitoring).

Our operators have the ability to manipulate (pan and tilt) the direction of the majority of cameras in real time in order to track traffic flow; a feature particularly useful during peak hours. They are also fitted with zoom functionality which allows many roads - near and far - to be monitored by the same camera.

When required, we can support the emergency services with incident handling by providing video feeds to the Hampshire police control room, although our systems are primarily used for traffic monitoring not law enforcement.

To obtain a broad view of traffic and travel events, control room operatives have access to live video feeds from other District and Borough Council systems. This allows them to build up as big a picture of the state of the road network as possible.

On our ROMANSE online website it is possible to view snapshots of many of the CCTV traffic cameras allowing travellers to check the status of roads usually before departing on their journeys. The snapshots are updated every 5 minutes and are only available during operational hours, usually between 7am and 7pm weekdays, and 8am to 5pm Saturdays. Pictures are also removed from the website if a camera is being manipulated for operational purposes.

The Future
CCTV cameras are a valuable means of receiving precise visual information relating to the Hampshire, Southampton and Portsmouth road networks, and our Control rooms receive a growing number of images. Continued rollouts by the Highways Agency and local authorities look set to increase our use of the technology.

Furthermore, Intenet-based communication mediums such as ADSL have become the standard for retrieving camera imagery.