Secure Engineering Projects

Kent Highways Traffic Management Centre, Maidstone, Kent

Conceived in 2001, the original ‘TMC’ was installed by Secure Engineering on the first floor of Miller House, Maidstone. Managed by Jacobs, the TMC is a control centre that oversees and manages the urban traffic flow in many of the major towns and cities in Kent. Originally using fibre and ISDN connected cameras the TMC used an early version of BBV’s Pick-a-Point GUI-based control system.

By 2006 the TMC had outgrown its original location and had the opportunity to move up to a brand new purpose-built area on the 10th floor of Miller House. A new display and control system was required by the client while retaining the existing incoming camera feeds. While the lead-in and planning time for Secure lasted some weeks previously, a hard completion deadline was set with a minimum system downtime of no more than a couple of hours!

Equipment choices and tenders were processed within days. Procurement, delivery and specialist installation was organised with the greatest urgency to achieve full working order for the official opening in November 2006.

The new TMC system is a fully IP-based, flexible and expandable installation based around two large Barco 72” rear projection video walls and a BBV Pick-a-Point GUI control system with maps and icons. All cameras are streamed at source or locally onto the TMC’s high-speed IP network. The Pick-a-Point issues commands over the network to the cameras and monitoring system. BBV Dec5 IP decoders extract selected camera images from the data stream and present up to 32 of them to the Barcos for simultaneous display. The monitor layout on the Barco video walls is fully configurable and dynamically manageable by third party software.




Remote traffic surveillance cameras are streamed at source by Dedicated Micros DV-IPs and fed back to the TMC by Broadband, high-speed KPSN network or wireless connections. Adding extra IP cameras to the TMC system requires only a few minutes configuration and the camera is ready to use.

Additional, individual viewing stations can make use of DM’s NetVu software to monitor and control cameras. Remote diagnostics and maintenance are simplicity itself with just a VPN connection to the Secure engineer’s laptop.

The TMC system continues to grow with over sixty cameras on line or in the planning stage giving coverage across Kent’s highways.




Other Projects:  The Bridge, Dartford | West Malling Bypass