Given its 259 charging points, Merklingen train station can well claim to be the world’s largest e-car charging park. Between the German cities of Stuttgart and Ulm, Merklingen was inaugurated in December 2022. The new train station serves about 1000 to 1300 passengers daily, and includes locally generated solar power to charge vehicles.
As a transport hub for the municipality of Merklingen, management of the Zweckverband Schwaebische Alb contacted the VdS installation company Reif GmbH looking for a video system to support the management of the station’s e-car charging park. Systems on the market did not meet the customer’s requirements, specifically National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) compliance which was important from a GDPR perspective. The customer also wanted a video management system (VMS) to help daily operations and with event investigations.
Hanwha Vision was chosen thanks to its WAVE VMS, NDAA compliance, open platform, and camera features. As a Diamond Partner, Reif GmbH was also able to offer a five-year warranty on the Hanwha Vision cameras. In total, 37 cameras are installed around the station’s car park, with WAVE VMS enabling monitoring of the building and surrounds. The cameras include the QNO-8080R, a 5MP Network infra-red bullet camera, a TID-600R intercom and the XNO-9082R, a 4K infra-red bullet camera with the Wisenet7 chipset and video analytics including directional detection, audio detection, shock detection, and face and upper body detection.
The manufacturer’s open platform offered the future-proofing sought by the operators, notably in supporting an integration with a custom in-house AI parking control system that was developed with a regional software company. This automates parking management removing the need for staff to issue access, exit, and parking fees for the station car park. The open platform can also support expansion of the station video surveillance if needed, or further features and uses.
The cameras work with the in-house parking management system to prevent unauthorised vehicles from entering. They have also captured footage that was later used to investigate damage to property, helping operators to resolve such cases with the video evidence. The XNO-9082R performs in different lighting thanks to Wisenet7, delivering images back to operators to help with situational awareness day and night. IK10 water and vandal protection was another selling point, as the cameras are all placed outdoors.
Meeting GDPR
Hanwha Vision cameras are NDAA compliant, meeting the GDPR requirements for the station. No productive data is passed on to external third parties and the system can be operated completely on-premise to meet data protection regulations. Data can only be viewed by those authorised. Due to the WAVE VMS, maintenance staff can access the on-premise server in an emergency or malfunction with remote access through WAVE Mobile.
Andreas Baumann, Managing Director at Reif GmbH, said: “The performance and quality of Hanwha Vision cameras along with the open WAVE VMS that could work with the in-house AI parking management system made it the logical choice for the Merklingen station project.”
