Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de La Laguna Airport (TFN) has had installed Panomera multifocal sensor cameras from from Dallmeier. The airport mainly handles domestic flights that connect to the other islands in the Canaries, besides scheduled flights to the Spanish mainland.
A tender document specified the installation of a monitoring and control system to detect, supervise and record operations in high resolution of the runway (with a focus at both ends), apron, taxiways and service roads beside the apron. It was not possible to place camera masts randomly on the movement area, so buildings had to be used as installation points. Carlos Jesús Delgado Gómez, Head of the Director’s Office at TFN says: “We wanted to minimise the number of installation points and camera systems to avoid the need for additional infrastructure such as masts, cabling, communication interfaces, and to simplify subsequent maintenance processes. And, of course, airports have strict regulations for any type of installation, especially in the movement area. That’s why there were very limited options when it came to selecting installation points. Nevertheless, the desired area had to be monitored at the highest resolution – and the recording always had to be at maximum resolution.” High-resolution coverage of such large areas and a minimum number of installation points and camera systems could not be resolved with conventional single-sensor cameras. By combining multiple lenses and sensors with different focal lengths in a single optical unit, Panomeras can capture even distant objects, and fewer cameras are required overall. Delgado Gómez adds: “We were able to install the Panomera on existing building facades and roofs without any problems. No other camera system was able to cover such a large area with so few cameras and installation points at such a high resolution.”
Operational safety
The installed video technology not only increases operational safety, but also allows processes to be optimised and disputes to be resolved quickly and clearly. One of the areas monitored is the aprons, where aircraft park and are prepared for the next flight. Since every minute spent parking is money for the airport company, there are always disputes about who is responsible for delays and the resulting additional parking fees. Was the fuel truck there on time? Did the catering arrive on time?
Damage management can now be carried out quickly and objectively thanks to video recordings. For example, did the damage occur while the aircraft was parked or docked, or was it already there?
Multi-user capability
In addition to its ability to cover large areas, multifocal sensors allow for multi-user capability. Panomera works like a virtual combination of any number of PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras – with the advantage that the operator moves virtually in the image, rather than moving the camera mechanically as with PTZ cameras. As a result, any number of operators can access the image at the same time, each zooming in on the area of interest. Unlike conventional PTZ cameras, the entire image is always recorded.
Bandwidth
As several users always need to access the live stream at the same time, a multicast capability was another advantage of the Panomera. Multicast allows data from a single source to be sent to multiple recipients simultaneously. This means that the video stream can be distributed to multiple devices or users without having to send the data multiple times.
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