The Challenge
In 2001, the City of Florence laid the foundation for a video surveillance system by installing 30 analog cameras at strategic locations to alert police to traffic congestion problems. Law enforcement authorities immediately saw the value of the system and requested more cameras, but continuing with a point-to-point fiber optic network was deemed cost-prohibitive.

The Solution
Working with Cieffe, the Milan-based video surveillance vendor acquired by March Networks, the City of Florence opted for a much more economical and efficient Metropolitan Area Network. Rather than running fiber from each camera to the monitoring center in a point-to-point configuration, the City uses Ethernet cable and Ethernet to fiber–optic converters to link cameras to the nearest point on the fiber ring.