APS is Arizona’s leading producer of electric power and the state’s largest electric utility, providing reliable power with quality service at a reasonable cost for over 100 years. APS serves over 1.1 million customers in 11 of 15 counties in Arizona.

APS needs to monitor their critical infrastructure and their substations, which are located all over the state and in areas often difficult to reach. APS already has a video-surveillance system in place, equipped with a series of thermal imaging PTZ. Due to the high failure rate and the high cost of maintenance of these units, APS has moved to Videotec’s solution for effective day / night surveillance.

ULISSE positioning system integrates a high performance P&T head with housing, telemetry receiver and two infrared LED illuminators without external rotating cables.

The rotation on the horizontal axis is continuous with a variable speed up to 40°/s while the amplitude on the vertical axis varies from +90° to -40° with a maximum speed of 30°/s. ULISSE controls patrol with a tracking accuracy of 0.02° on preset positions recall.

The ULISSE PTZ with twin 20° IRBD illuminators have been fitted with a 1/2in CCD camera and a mechanical zoom lens which gives about 900ft (275m) FOV in black and 1,350ft (400m) FOV in daylight. Integration with different cameras and motorised zoom lens combination is straight forward thank to its side opening housing and connection boards with preinstalled BNC. The ULISSE can be integrated in several different installations thanks to the several integrated protocols or in IP-based systems thanks to its seamless integration with most VMS.

APS deployed 40 of these units in 2010 to monitor APS substations, with a typical installment consisting of two to nine units.

Active infrared night vision like ULISSE PTZ incorporates illuminators that produce high levels of infrared light, and the resulting images are typically higher resolution than other night-vision technologies.

Gianni Viero, VP at Videotec Security, said: “Working close with APS, we offered a valuable solution with one of our state-of-the-art solutions for effective day / night surveillance.”