Nueva Commercial building to be the first of in kind in Trece Martires City, Cavite to have a 24/7 working CCTV portal available to their long-term parking customers.
This portal allows our customers to view the parking space at the front and has been added to provide free value-added services that rivals big companies that offer the same service to the neighborhood.
One weekend of business focusing activities, I am proud to announce that we are rolling out the solution to view the parking space online, and I’m excited to share how I built it from the ground up.
The Idea Behind the Portal
Parking has always been a key part of our commitment to the community. However, I’ve noticed growing concerns from customers about areas that go beyond what we currently offer. Some have asked how they can keep an eye on their vehicles remotely, even from home. While a walled fence provides physical security, I want to explore offering a more convenient solution—something that allows them to monitor their cars without needing to walk back to the lot or rely solely on our security team.
There have been situations where a customer wanted to know why their tire was flat or what might have happened to their vehicle. Others asked if we noticed a window was left open. These instances show a need—not just for protection, but for transparency and real-time awareness. If we’re doing inspections, can we track when issues were identified? This kind of visibility can go a long way in strengthening trust and peace of mind.
The portal is designed to show a video feed from the parking area’s CCTV cameras, streamed securely through a web interface. While users can’t interact with the cameras or access the CCTV system directly (for security reasons), they can see real-time streams of their vehicles, providing reassurance.
The Technology Stack
| System | Description |
|---|---|
| CCTV Setup | The backbone of the system is the IP cameras already in place in the parking lot. These cameras are connected to a local network and stream video via RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol). |
| FFmpeg | To serve live streams efficiently, I used FFmpeg, a powerful multimedia framework, to transcode and stream the video feed to a web-friendly format. One of the challenges here was ensuring minimal latency while keeping bandwidth usage low, especially considering that the backhaul is capped at 1Gbps for internal traffic. The stream is handled via a RAM-disk setup I named “videoram” to avoid interference with other commands. |
| Front-end Website | I coded the frontend using HTML, JavaScript, and a bit of PHP to ensure a seamless experience. Customers log into a secure section of the website, where they can view the live feed of their parking spot. Bootstrap was used for responsiveness, making the portal accessible from both mobile devices and desktops. |
| RAM-Disk for Streaming | To optimize performance, I created a RAM-disk specifically for video streaming. By processing the video feed in memory rather than on disk, I significantly reduced latency and increased the system’s overall responsiveness in addition to the wear and tear of the disk. This was especially helpful given the high number of users accessing the stream simultaneously during peak hours. |
Final Thoughts
Creating this portal was both a technical challenge and a rewarding experience. Not only does it provide additional value to my parking customers, but it also demonstrates how relatively simple technology—when implemented thoughtfully—can enhance the customer experience.
In the future, I’m considering adding push notifications that alert users if any unusual activity is detected around their cars, or even time-lapse features that allow customers to review footage of their car over a specific time period.
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