Remote visibility helps protect key assets

Grilles are frequently employed to prevent the accumulation of debris in drainage channels such as culverts that are difficult to access. However, during periods of high flow, these grilles can become blocked very quickly, reducing channel flow and causing flooding. It is therefore essential that such grilles are unblocked before they become a serious hazard, and for this reason many drainage managers are employing the latest remote camera technology from Meteor Communications to monitor these vital assets.

In order to demonstrate the advantages of remote observation, Meteor has published a time-lapse video showing a grille in Wales over a 24 hour period in which heavy flow causes the grille to become blocked with debris. With the benefit of the camera, staff were alerted to the problem and were able to quickly visit the site and unblock the grille. To view the video visit the Meteor Communications YouTube channel.

“As well as providing visibility of blockages, these cameras also allow drainage managers to assess which equipment and staff will be required before they leave base,” explains Meteor’s MD Matt Dibbs. “The cameras therefore lower asset risk and help to lower costs by avoiding needless site visits.”

The video also highlights the cameras’ low light performance, producing high quality colour images by day and with IR illuminators for crisp black and white night vision. Captured images are transferred in real-time, providing real-time visibility of assets, even in areas with poor mobile coverage.

Summarising, Matt says: “We now have hundreds of these cameras in operation all over the UK, and demand is higher than ever. This popularity is partly because the cameras can be solar powered and do not require connection to any existing services, so they can be deployed within minutes.”

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Meteor Communications Ltd.
Unit 12, Bridgegate Centre
Martinfield
Welwyn Garden City
Herts. AL7 1JG
England
www.meteorcommunications.co.uk

Note to editors:
For over 25 years, Meteor Communications has designed, built and installed remote environmental monitoring systems for global governmental, utility, industrial, consulting and academic organisations. Innovation underpins the success of the company, and all products and solutions have been developed in close cooperation with customers.

Meteor’s products provide real-time access to vitally important field data, with two main themes. Remote water quality monitoring stations measure background levels, enabling trend analysis and the identification of pollution from diffuse and point sources. Remote, low-power, rugged cameras provide visualisation of key assets such as construction sites, flood gates, weirs, flumes, screens, grills etc. Both the cameras and the water quality monitoring stations provide immediate access to current conditions with alarm capability, which enables prompt remedial action, as well as the optimisation of maintenance activities.

Meteor Communications provides a wide range of off-the-shelf and bespoke monitoring solutions. Most can be deployed within minutes, are solar powered and do not require significant infrastructure to run. Cloud-based data is accessed via secure login to the Meteor Communications data centre. This is achieved using any web-enabled device and provides instant access to live and stored data, which includes an interactive graphical display.

Meteor Communications has a large installed base of remote monitoring stations and the company’s turnover has increased 5-fold in the last 6 years.