PAGE, Ariz.--A project that began with the installation of a wireless mesh video surveillance network at the Page Municipal Airport here is set to expand its coverage to include video surveillance installations in other city departments by the end of the calendar year.

The wireless mesh network system, provided by Firetide and installed by Durham Communications of Phoenix, can be monitored internally by airport officials, but can also be monitored by local police. "We wanted to be able to monitor airport activity at the police department," said Mike Bergner, IT manager for the city. "The police can monitor in real-time and if there is a real emergency, they can look and see what's going on."

Over the last six months the city has expanded the mesh video network to include the monitoring of other city-wide departments including the water treatment and sewer plants and is currently in the testing phase for integrating both the fire and police departments into the network. "The police are looking into the system ... and will eventually be able to utilize video from their vehicles," Bergner said. Bergner said he expects the fire and police departments will be up and running on the network before the end of the year.

Les Longshore, sales manager for Durham Communications, said this system will allow "video to get to the right people at the right time. Officer safety is of highest priority and when police are dispatched they know all the information."

The citywide network currently includes 29 cameras and incorporates analytic technology, which allows police to remotely monitor different city locations.

Officials chose to go with a wireless mesh system because of its easy expandability. "Wireless systems are much more cost effective and able to expand as additional funds are made available or as needs arise," said Ksenia Coffman, marketing manager for Firetide. "The flexibility of wireless mesh allows growth of the network gradually."

While it is relatively simple to expand the mesh network to include the monitoring of additional city departments, Bergner said providing enough bandwidth and storage capabilities was important to the project's success. "For this project we had to be aware of back-up storage capacity since video takes up a large amount of bandwidth, but in addition to streaming, if you store any amount of video, it takes up a significant amount of hard drive space," he said.

Other challenges of the project included keeping the different departments on the same page. "It was a challenge to coordinate all the different players," Bergner said. "Everybody had their own idea of time tables." Bergner said the most important element is to plan ahead and set realistic time frames. "Make sure multiple departments each understand time tables, otherwise issues arise where they expect something done faster than it can be done."