Housing Community Turns to Existing Cable for IP Video

Narad Networks Inc., instead of having a client spend money on completely new infrastructure and wiring, is making good use of existing Hybrid-Fiber Coax (HFC) assets to enable a video surveillance application for New York’s Co-Op City, a large cooperative housing community with about 50,000 residents.

The company announced this week that its Ethernet over Coax solution will power a network of surveillance cameras throughout Co-Op City’s expansive community of more than 15,000 residential apartments, 35 high-rise buildings, seven townhouse clusters, multiple community and shopping centers, and six schools. Co-Op City’s management group will also use the IP resource to enable additional services including high-speed data and IP telephony.

“This application with Co-Op City is a great illustration of the cost savings available to property owners and managers as they implement video surveillance applications,” said Michael Collette, CEO, Narad Networks. “Narad’s highly secure, broadband Ethernet over Coax solution provides ample capacity for very robust, high resolution video feeds while typically leaving room for additional in-building services such as voice and data. By taking advantage of the existing cable that’s already installed in the building, project costs for signal distribution can be reduced 50-75%.”

Narad’s switches, some of which weigh 25 pounds and hang outside on telephone poles, make use of existing coax cabling by transmitting at a higher frequency (between 908 and 971 MHz, and between 1.02 and 1.08 GHz). Using Narad’s switches and modems can add up to 100 Mbps upstream and downstream of additional bandwidth, which allows for high quality transmission of data that could be used for a variety of functions, including access control or high resolution video surveillance.

Since Narad sends the transmission over coax point-to-point instead of broadcast, Narad Networks' V.P. of Business Development Louise Wasilewski says the technology is inherently more secure because you won’t have data packets going where they aren’t needed.

The company is also making inroads in the residential market with the ability to provide 50 Mbps x 50 Mbps bandwidth.