Bringing Underground Camera Feeds to the Browser for APC Global Systems

Underground mines are hard on technology. There is no daylight, there is dust and water everywhere, and equipment takes knocks from people and machinery. Remote sites also tend to be a long way from the specialists who can fix things, so whatever goes in has to be tough and simple to run.

In 2014, APC Global Systems was supplying monitoring and communication systems to an underground copper operation in Zambia. Its IP cameras were built for those conditions: sealed to IP66 and IP68 against dust and water, vandal-proof, with infrared for areas without light, and powered over the same network cable that carries their video. The streams were designed to use little bandwidth, which matters on a mine network. APC placed them at points such as tip points, junctions, workshops, and crib rooms, on the surface and underground.

The cameras let people on the surface check an area for flooding or smoke before anyone goes in, see when a breakdown has stopped production, and check that procedures are being followed. That needed one place to find the right camera and watch it live, using only a web browser.

APC designed the cameras, the system, and the screens. Working from Sydney, Sakura Sky turned them into a remote security and monitoring application, delivered over the web to anyone on the mine’s network. This kind of work is part of our Professional Services.

What we did

Test bed (September 2014). We started with a test bed in Sydney, using one of APC’s cameras, so we could build the viewing screens against a real camera.

Web application (October 2014). We turned APC’s screen designs into a working web application:

• Camera selection. Users find cameras by where they are in the mine (site, area, and location) and by purpose: emergency, safety, monitoring, or traffic.
• Live view. The application was scoped to show up to 16 camera feeds side by side.
• Screen sizes. The screens are responsive, built on the Bootstrap framework, and adjust to phone, tablet, and desktop screens.
• Accounts. Login, profile, and administration screens.

We built the application with Python, Django, Celery, MySQL, Redis, and Nginx on Ubuntu, and APC’s plan was to host it on virtual machines on site. We tested it with APC’s hardware, trained APC’s team, and handed over the documentation they needed to run it.

Built to be run from anywhere

With the mine in Zambia, the development team in Sydney, and APC staff in both countries, the technology had to be simple. The application runs in an ordinary web browser, with nothing to install for the people watching. We built and tested it against a real APC camera in Sydney before it reached the mine, and APC’s team installed it on site. After that, anyone with access to the network could open it from wherever they were.

Outcomes

• One place in a browser to find and watch APC’s cameras across the operation.
• A way for people on the surface to see an area on camera before anyone goes there.
• A system built in Australia, installed in Zambia, and handed over to APC’s own team to run.

If you need to see what’s happening at sites your people can’t easily reach, contact us.