Posted Feb 21, 2022 in Water & Wastes Digest

Memoreyes® Municipal announces a complete video system with cellular communications, a prepackaged field device and cloud/web access services for pumping, instrument and other remote sites.

The company’s president, John Collings, pioneered cellular/web-based SCADA over 20 years ago. “What was missing was affordable and reliable remote site video. This system can be completely up and running in less than an hour. The trick was to have high-def video and pictures delivered on demand to your phone, office, or SCADA system for the price of a simple autodialer. This system increases remote site safety with man down alarms as well as being able to see and listen in on demand. It also pays for itself quickly by reducing truck rolls and simplifying remote site inspection and compliance.”

The system combines edge computers, high speed cellular, high-definition cameras, and battery backed power supplies into a small custom industrial enclosure for long service life. Shortly, optional SCADA I/O will be available. The system can handle multiple cameras for indoor/outdoor applications. All video, images and data are cloud stored automatically and can be viewed real-time on web displays. All these services, including cell data costs, are combined into one, stable, monthly fee.

As a group, municipal managers in the water/wastewater industry are responsible for the operations of more remote facilities than anyone else. The industry is facing an era of labor shortages, increased safety/security requirements and demands for green initiatives. The new system addresses all of these. The company’s business premise is providing a purpose-built management and documentation system initially for the municipal market but extending into electric utilities, oil and gas.

“I was asked decades ago for remote site video to reduce truck rolls, increase safety and improve managerial awareness during emergencies. While the need was there, technically it didn’t make sense, and traditional telemetry just doesn’t have the bandwidth to do video. A few years ago, we saw the convergence of technology, price and performance that would allow us to not only provide remote vision systems, but also a myriad of other remote site management tools for the water/wastewater market. This also took us into addressing many other uses for municipalities. When I researched other market offerings, I was shocked at how poorly they were packaged and performed. We have answered the opportunity to improve.”

In the cellular data world, you are in a “pay per byte” environment. Keeping costs affordable matters. Collings said, “we saw other vendors that tried to offer cell cameras. They were expensive, frequently didn’t work reliably in difficult cellular areas and/or customers ended up with astronomical monthly cell bills. We’ve addressed all of that plus wrapped three separate services into one. It works and municipalities can afford it.”

The company drew from its years of experience providing large outdoor video systems designed for apartments and commercial facilities. Doing those jobs required perfecting wireless ethernet for video transmission combined with unique installation methods to keep installed costs down. Additionally, the company developed ground breaking, wide area sensors to direct the cameras toward human activity, thus reducing camera costs while increasing safety.

The company offers the cell camera/vision system by itself, and shortly, it can be expanded to include analog, digital, pump run SCADA I/O delivered to a secured cloud/web display system.

The company points out that all cameras and electronics used are NDAA compliant. The National Defense Authorization Act recently covered Chinese video and communications suppliers such as Huawei, HiSilicon, Dahua and Hikvision, prohibiting the purchase or use of their equipment by any US federal, state or local government agency.

The company’s business premise is providing a purpose-built management and documentation system initially for the municipal market but extending into electric utilities, oil and gas. The system has been in Alpha/Beta trials for over a year.

The Benefits

“In a nut shell, if we reduce truck time by a few hours a year per site, we’re paid for, and all the increased safety, security, management awareness and documentation benefits are free. We pay our way on the labor-saving and green benefits alone.”

“This is the municipal management tool of the future. We’re Zoom® for remote assets, and more” says Collings.

Collings has the unusual honor of being the first person to ever buy/sell a “byte” of cellular airtime versus a minute, in 1996 between Bell South, Uplink and Ackerman Security.

Memoreyes® Municipal can be found at www.mm4s.net or [email protected]