Rize–Artvin Airport is based off the coast of Rize Province, in north eastern Turkey, serving mainly Turkish Airlines, AnadoluJet, and Pegasus Airlines.
As a completely new airport, the General Directorate Of State Airports Authority (DHMI) sought to install video surveillance that would secure the airport itself, protect staff and passengers, and monitor any assets, vehicles, equipment or aeroplanes. The surveillance also needed to be flexible enough to scale as the airport grows.
Mubin Cakmak, CEO of system integrator Bes Teknoloji, says: “The safety of passengers and staff is vital to the airport experience. Recognising this, the Rize–Artvin Airport security team wanted to install a comprehensive and reliable video surveillance solution that also worked seamlessly with access control, perimeter protection, and the announcements system.”
The airport building covers an area of 48,000 sq ft with a 3000m runway. As at all airports, the scale and range of areas to protect adds to the complexity of the surveillance. Not only does airport security need to monitor for suspicious behaviour or trespassing; they also have to be aware of left baggage, vandalism and equipment tampering, missing children, and theft among other crimes.
Wisenet cameras from Hanwha Techwin were chosen due to their analytics – including directional detection, virtual line, tampering functions, appear-disappear, and enter-exit. This provides operators with contextual awareness of what’s happening on site. As Cakmak adds: “Advanced analytics is becoming more important for security teams today as a way to add contextual information to improve responses, proactively manage security, and respond to events quickly. Alerts are sent to operators based on pre-set rules, so they can rest assured that the system is continuously monitoring for any threats while they can get on with other tasks.”
In total, 710 Wisenet cameras were installed including TNO-4050T thermal cameras for perimeter and runway security, XNV-6080R dome cameras inside and outside the airport, XNO-6080R bullet-type cameras inside the airport’s car park, and XNP-6321H PTZ cameras inside of the terminal building.
The cameras run on the Milestone XProtect video management software (VMS) and are integrated with the airport’s fire alarm and access control. The main control room receives video feeds and other insights 24/7, with additional access to the surveillance system via monitors inside the airport building, for security staff to see video footage without having to return to the control room.
Starting from outside the airport site, a multi-level security system was created that requires verification at every crossing point, runway, elevators, and counters. This, plus line crossing analytics (that detects potential trespassing via cameras around the runway) offers flight safety by preventing unauthorised runway access. Also in place are thermal cameras that detect people moving on the runway in low light.
The system has five years’ warranty as integrator Bes Teknoloji is a Hanwha Techwin STEP partner. Installation took place over 16 months, from February 2021 to June 2022.
