RayTec illuminators provide LPR for Columbian police cars

Raytec illuminators have been put to an exciting use by the police force of Bogota, Colombia.

With a growing need for accurate, reliable and mobile licence plate capture to combat speeding in areas with no fixed monitoring, Bogota police cars were outfitted with licence plate cameras from IndigoVision, and VARIO Infra-Red illuminators from Raytec.

A mobile and highly flexible solution was essential. But achieving proper illumination was also a hurdle, as high quality lighting is mandatory to allow licence plate cameras to perform at their maximum proficiency 24 hours a day. The hardware, designed to mount on the top of patrol cars, was designed by Bogota based integrator EGC who made the decision to use Raytec illuminators. After testing was carried out to compare different manufacturers, the build quality and overall performance superiority of the Raytec illuminators established the Raytec VARIO i4 as the illuminator of choice.

“Night time testing was crucial for the customer. The performance of the VARIO i4 was excellent and it delivered clear illumination to allow us to effectively capture licence plates in darkness” Jefferson Valencia of EGC explained. “After trialing models from other manufacturers, we quickly assessed thatRaytec was the only choice.”

The design allowed for the lights and LPR cameras to be integrated on top of the vehicle, allowing the cameras to get a perfect, illuminated shot of any plate. Raytec’s VARIO i4 units are equipped with holographic lensing with hot-spot reduction technology (HRT) providing a highly targeted and even light distribution for superior image quality and greater distances.

All VARIO illuminators can also be powered from any 12-24V battery, making them perfect for this mobile application. In addition, VARIO’s interchangeable lens system provided the flexibility needed to adjust the output angle of illumination whenever required to suit any scene; by simply slotting a different lens into the unit. Not possible with traditional fixed angle illuminators.

Having developed many bespoke CCTV solutions for the Colombian government, EGC recognized that the police force were facing the challenge of needing high quality and reliable mobile LPR illumination almost daily and have delivered a solution that the end user is delighted with. While the project started in the city of Bogota, the implementation of this Raytec lighting and LPR integration has been planned across Colombia.