Oliver Vellacott, CEO of IndigoVision discusses how IP Video is offering the transport sector unique solutions to its surveillance needs.
IP video is providing the CCTV industry with a unique set of tools for solving today’s surveillance applications. This is particularly true in the demanding transport sector where IP video is providing many solutions not technically possible or economically viable with traditional analogue CCTV. The many features and benefits of IP video can be best highlighted by looking at a number of field-proven case studies.
Munich airport
Munich is one of Europe’s fastest growing airports with nearly 30m passengers expected through its two terminals in 2006. In accordance with new EU regulations all airport employees are required to undergo the same security checks as passengers when entering the secure airside area, Munich undertook a security reconfiguration of its staff access points. This included scanners, security arches and CCTV surveillance, for which Munich airport chose IP video technology.
The IP video system was installed in both terminals alongside the existing 1800-camera system. The furthest camera was located more than 2.5km from the central control room, the main monitoring point for the airport’s surveillance system. The system was interfaced to both the existing digital MJPEG system in Terminal Two and the analogue matrix system in Terminal One. This allowed users of the existing CCTV to have access to the images from the new secure access areas. IP video provided MPEG-4 CCTV images from cameras located over a large area of the airport and a flexible interface path to the existing hybrid mix of CCTV systems. Extending the existing systems would have been far more expensive and would not have provided the same level of scalability. The new IP additions have brought many benefits to the airport, but have also ensured that the original investment of CCTV was protected.
Adelaide traffic
The challenge facing the traffic monitoring system around Adelaide in South Australia is typical of many analogue systems worldwide – the prohibitive cost to expand the system. This is why IP video technology was chosen to provide a migration path to fully digital CCTV. South Australia’s Department of Transport had been looking to improve their traffic monitoring systems and recognised that IP networked video was the future for CCTV. The South Eastern Freeway Tunnel was chosen as the first project and was a good example of how IP video can be deployed as part of a migration strategy. CCTV cameras in the tunnel were connected to transmitter/receiver units. These converted the analogue video to MPEG-4, 25 frames per second 4CIF digital video for transmission over a newly installed fibre-based network.
It was important that these new additions were seamlessly integrated into the existing CCTV and that the configuration of the Norwood Traffic Control Centre, 15km from the tunnel, initially remained unchanged. To achieve this, further transmitter/receiver units were installed in the traffic control centre to convert the digital video from the network to analogue, which was then fed into the existing matrix for crosspoint monitor switching. The only difference the operators saw was the significant improvement in the quality of the video from the tunnel cameras. This project illustrates the simple migration path an IP video solution can provide. Existing analogue cameras and matrix/switching equipment can be used in order that new digital video signals can be integrated into existing configurations. Eventually the analogue matrix can be replaced with a "Virtual Matrix", using video management software and cameras can easily and cost effectively be added to any point on the network.
Dutch National Railway Network
NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen), the Dutch rail authority, is one of the world’s busiest rail systems with 25,000 staff operating one million passenger journeys every day. NS is operating over 385 full service rail stations throughout the Netherlands and running approximately 5000 train journeys every day. To protect so many stations, it was neither practical nor cost effective to locate CCTV monitoring staff at every station and so a centralised remote monitoring system was developed. A nationwide fibre network had already been put in place in parallel to the rail network and so an IP video solution was the obvious choice for CCTV – providing video, low video latency and a future-proof architecture. It was important that the operators could not tell the difference between the digital video and equivalent analogue images. Low video latency also ensured effective camera PTZ control, even across the large distances between the remote monitoring centre and the stations. NS were keen to embrace future technologies such as analytics so future-proofing was also an important requirement.
Over 18 months IP video equipment was installed on 12 stations around the network, with the largest single installation being 96 cameras. Over the coming years the system will be expanded to accommodate more and more stations. IP video technology will eventually allow NS to monitor all of its stations from a single central control room. This brings with it huge advantages in terms of passenger safety, network maintenance and staff costs. This project simply would not have been economical to implement using analogue CCTV.
Turku Port, Finland
The Port of Turku, Finland’s second largest seaport, has invested in a complete end-to-end IP video solution. More than four million tonnes of cargo and over four million passengers pass through the port every year and safety and security are paramount to the port’s operation.
The CCTV system includes numerous dome cameras, providing digital images via a wireless LAN, which spans an area around the port of over 10 square km. The cameras provide surveillance for the main entrance, car parks, the port’s rail network, the docks and the approaching seaways. In addition the port operates a mobile CCTV vehicle that provides flexible surveillance quickly and easily to any area around the port. The vehicle is based on a standard saloon car and is fitted with a range of environmental sensors, for measuring parameters such as radioactivity and toxic gases, as well as a wireless CCTV camera and monitor. Should a large or unusual ship enter the port the vehicle can be dispatched to monitor the event in areas that are not covered by the fixed cameras.
The wireless IP Video system resulted in considerable savings for the port operator compared with a traditional analogue CCTV solution. The combination of wireless and IP Video provides an ideal solution for site-wide monitoring of large areas.
Amsterdam Airport
Schiphol, Amsterdam’s International Airport, is using IP video analytics to prevent accidental or malicious intrusion onto runway and hangar areas. With over 20m passengers passing through the Netherlands’ busiest airport each year, the airport operators were keen to deploy the latest technology to help improve the safety and security of aircraft movements. The analytics algorithms run in real time at the camera ensuring that operations staff in the dedicated control room are alerted automatically to intrusions as they are detected. This ensures a timely response to any potential emergency or security situation. Seventeen fixed cameras cover the active airside area of the airport and these are connected back to the control room via a hybrid fibre and wireless LAN. The analytics mode ‘Virtual Tripwire’ is used to designate unauthorised areas in each camera’s field of view. Whenever a vehicle or person crosses into these areas an alarm is automatically raised and the appropriate camera view is displayed in the control room. It was not possible to implement such a system using traditional analogue video systems, because of the distances involved and the need to use real time analytics.
Video management software allows the operations staff in the control room to view live and recorded video from any of the cameras. All video is recorded on two Networked Video Recorders (NVRs), providing up to 14 days of continuous real time recording. The operations staff can also run the same analytics on the recorded video for post event analysis.
The LAN is based on an existing fibre network installed within the airport building which was extended using a fault tolerant wireless mesh network. The furthest camera is located in excess of 1km from the control room.
Summary
The overriding feature of all of these case studies is the huge distances involved, whether it is the long distances of a rail or road network or the wide areas associated with airports and ports. Cost effective and reliable CCTV surveillance over these distances can only really be achieved using IP video. The case studies show that IP can co-exist with legacy systems and provide a simple migration path for the future, an important benefit for end users considering an IP video solution for their application.
About the author
Oliver Vellacott founded IndigoVision in 1994. He was previously a product manager with a background in intelligent camera products. Oliver studied piano at the Guildhall School of Music before gaining his first degree in Software Engineering from Imperial College London and then a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Edinburgh University.
