At each polling station, the company’s specialists installed compact video cameras with a flash card with a capacity of at least 64 GB, an access switch, an anti-vandal cabinet and an uninterruptible power supply with a battery life of at least 20 minutes. The cameras captured with a wide angle of vision the workplaces of the members of the electoral commissions with lists, ballot boxes, security packages, areas for the delivery of ballots and the final counting of the votes. The cameras were installed in such a way that blind spots were minimized and voters’ right to secrecy of the vote was not violated.
The broadcast from CCTV cameras was carried out on the special service portal “Our Choice Online” from the first day of voting until the completion of all electoral procedures: data entry and preparation of protocols on the voting results. Participants in the electoral process identified by the Central Election Commission of Russia, a total of 13.7 thousand people, had access to the service portal. The video file will be stored on the portal for three months.
To organize video surveillance, transmit and store video recordings, the company’s own secure high-speed optical communication channels and seven distributed data centers with the latest protection systems against hacker attacks were used.
“The technical means we organized to monitor the progress of the elections and count the votes guaranteed the transparency and legitimacy of the voting process. Our company once again demonstrated the impeccable quality of the online broadcasts, the system worked stably and repelled numerous cyber attacks. Total security Video recording will also be guaranteed within the established deadline. Simultaneously with the summary of the election results, we have already begun to prepare a video surveillance system for the presidential elections in March 2024. The extensive experience of the company in the organization of projects at the national level. The scale allows us to say that next year the video surveillance system will perform the task perfectly,” noted Valery Ermakov, senior vice president for work with the corporate and government segments of Rostelecom.
During the election period, more than three thousand technical specialists of the company monitored the operation of the equipment around the clock, provided technical support to the video surveillance portal and ensured its protection. For their effective coordination and quick response to emergency situations, a 72-hour uninterrupted video conference at the federal level was organized on the TrueConf video conferencing platform. It united all Rostelecom employees in service and allowed them to stay in continuous contact during the three days of voting.
TrueConf Server was used as the main video conferencing platform, which is optimized for uninterrupted and fault-tolerant operation even on weak communication channels. In addition, some of the company’s employees connected to the conference using hardware video conferencing terminals from the Russian group TrueConf, which allowed them to remain in the conference without interrupting the connection for the entire time.
To unite all the hardware videoconferencing terminals used for the connection, the classic TrueConf MCU videoconferencing server was used. Thus, the organization and management of the entire video surveillance process was carried out using national technologies and products included in the national software registry.
“The entire coordination process between the specialists who implemented the project was carried out using domestic technologies for three days continuously. This once again emphasizes the high level of skill of Russian engineers, as well as the reliability of the products of national IT to solve any assigned task,” said TrueConf Development Director Dmitry Odintsov.
To help users of the “Our Choice Online” service portal, a free hotline was organized, with service support provided by the Rostelecom Contact Center. In total, 486 requests were received during the operation of the service. The support hotline will continue to operate as long as video recordings are stored.
“This is not the first year that we successfully organized technical support to ensure uninterrupted operation of the video surveillance system during elections. Employees participating in the hotline received special training and quickly resolved any problems that arose. This year, for convenience of operators and to get the fastest and most complete answers. The most modern digital solutions are used, including a self-designed knowledge management system, which allows you to instantly access information in one window,” said Sergey Shishmarev, executive director of the Rostelecom Contact Center.
PJSC “Rostelecom”
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