OSA is entrusted with the supply, design and support services for some of Australia’s largest infrastructure and telecommunications projects. We’ve worked across a multitude of industries, including transport.
We understand that the transport industry is far more complex than just building new roads. We know that providing efficient, robust and reliable network products and solutions can make all the difference for our customers and partners.
When EastLink’s Engineering and Program Delivery Manager Stuart Lindsay came to us searching for the best network solutions for the tollway’s extensive CCTV network, we knew exactly what products and applications could get the job done reliably and on time.
EastLink is the privately owned, 39-kilometre tollway in Melbourne’s east.
EastLink is a vital part of Melbourne’s transport network, connecting the Eastern, Monash, Frankston and Peninsula Link freeways.
Its design, safety systems, road operations and maintenance help make EastLink the safest freeway in Melbourne.
Opened in 2008, EastLink has recently been updating and modernising many of its systems.
EastLink’s extensive CCTV network includes 160 pole-mounted Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) cameras, all controlled remotely from EastLink’s 24/7 control room.
EastLink wanted to upgrade the entire CCTV network from its original analogue PTZ cameras to new digital PTZ cameras.
EastLink’s Engineering and Program Delivery Manager Stuart Lindsay said, “To do this, we needed to progressively build a new digital CCTV network for 39 kilometres of freeway in parallel with the existing analogue CCTV network.”
EastLink’s new digital PTZ cameras would provide higher resolution, more colour intensity, as well as enhanced image quality in lower light conditions.
EastLink control room operators would have improved situational awareness about incidents and be able to make better informed tactical decisions.
As part of this upgrade, each of the 160 new digital PTZ cameras would need an industrial media converter (copper CAT6 to fibre optic) for camera connectivity, combined with Power over Ethernet (PoE) capability providing the required 60 Watts of power.
Each industrial media converter would also need its own Power Supply Unit (PSU).
EastLink needed the solution to be reliable in low and extremely high ambient temperatures, DIN rail mounted, and with a minimum five-year manufacturer’s warranty.
With a project of this scale, however, there were bound to be some challenges along the way.
“Everything was rolling along, but then we had an issue with another supplier’s media converter and had to source an alternative solution,” said Stuart.
“The other supplier’s products didn’t meet our requirements due to a firmware issue. We had to investigate, conduct trials and document the problems before being able to resolve the issues. This delayed our progress by about three to four months,” he explained.
Stuart had no doubt that he needed to find more suitable products for EastLink, and quickly.
That led him to OSA’s doorstep.
Stuart explained, “I started to search online for products. We trialled different products from various manufacturers but they didn’t meet our requirements.”
“Then, inside the OSA booth at a communications conference, Andrew Whan and Sam Ford helped me find the exact media server product that I was looking for. The Korenix product ticked the boxes for EastLink,” he added.
“EastLink quickly received a trial item from the OSA team, tested it and it worked perfectly. The rest is history,” said Stuart.
And from that day forward, EastLink has received their media converters exclusively from OSA.
OSA supplied the Korenix JetCon3710GP-U series, an industrial media converter with high power PoE. The Korenix series offers an operating temperature of -40 degrees Celsius to +75 degrees Celsius with a five-year manufacturer’s warranty.
Korenix is one of the first industrial networking vendors to offer the new high powered standard in their product range. The newly ratified PoE standard is IEEE802.3 BT, which provides up to 90 Watts at the pole mounted cabinet and delivers 71.3 Watts to the powered device.
Any industrial device is only as good as the power source feeding it. For this reason, OSA also supplied the Delta CliQII Industrial Switch Mode Power Supply into the solution.
The CliQII DRP 48Vdc 120 Watt is a DIN Mounted PSU manufactured to the highest global standards for reliability, power stability and protection at high operating temperatures, supported by a three-year manufacturer’s warranty.
The 160 Korenix JetCon3701GP-U media converters and 160 Delta CliQII PSUs were all supplied on time, and installed by EastLink’s road operations alliance partner Ventia in February 2019.
Since the installation on EastLink, the products have worked seamlessly.
Exceeding expectations, the products even survived a lightning strike on one of the camera poles! The Delta CliQII PSU absorbed all of the brunt, and the Korenix JetCon3701GP-U media converter was not damaged at all by the strike. The PSU did not fare so well, but did succeed in its job of isolation.
OSA are the sole Australian distributors for Korenix, a global leading designer and manufacturer of innovative industrial networking products.
Korenix’s high-quality wired and wireless networking solutions deliver reliable industrial networks for a range of vertical markets, including surveillance, machine-to-machine (M2M), automation, remote monitoring and transportation.
Their industrial Ethernet switches and Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) technology deliver efficient video sequence data to control centres for analysis either in real time or after an event occurs.
OSA supplies the entire Korenix range, which includes:
Stuart and his team couldn’t be happier with the results in what is a harsh environment. Not only did he receive the exact solutions that his team required for EastLink, but he’s also pleased with the strength of his relationship and collaboration with OSA.
“I’ve worked with OSA for the last twelve years and they have always been reliable when it comes to fibre optic solutions,” said Stuart.
“In all my communications with Andrew Whan both face to face and over email and phone, I’ve always appreciated his technical knowledge. OSA have also been open and collaborative to our solutions and we share a lot of technical knowledge with one another.”
“The OSA team has always been able to support us with our unique issues and are able to give us the best advice on products and solutions, no matter what we need,” concluded Stuart.
Here at OSA, we can help determine exactly what your business networking requirements are, to ensure your network is working at its optimum level, whilst mitigating risk. When you are ready to upgrade your system or simply need some advice, contact us today for a no obligation chat.
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