IP
Video - CCTV Solutions for the Transport Industry
Oliver
Vellacott, CEO of IndigoVision, describes how IP Video is offering the
transport sector unique solutions to its surveillance needs.
The
threat of terrorist attacks in recent years on transport infrastructure
has led to a demand for high-quality and reliable CCTV surveillance
that can be continuously upgraded to meet the growing threat. 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
that are not technically possible or economically viable with traditional
analogue CCTV systems. The many features and benefits of IP Video can
be best highlighted by looking at a number of field-proven case studies.
Munich Airport: Hybrid IP-Analogue Systems
Munich is one of Europe's fastest growing airports with nearly 30 million
passengers expected through its two terminals in 2007. 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, consequently Munich Airport 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 CCTV system.
The furthest camera was located over 2.5km from the central control
room, the main monitoring point for the airport's entire 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 systems to have access to the
images from the new secure access areas.
IP Video was an ideal choice for this application as it provided high-quality
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 for the future.
The new IP Video additions have brought many benefits to the airport,
but have also ensured that the original investment of CCTV equipment
was protected.
SkyTrain Light Rapid Transit System: Maintaining Investment
TransLink in Vancouver, Canada is about to embark on an upgrade to the
880 camera CCTV system on SkyTrain, the world's largest automated light
rapid transit system. SkyTrain transports 200,000 passengers a day along
49km of elevated track through 33 stations located in and around Vancouver.
IP Video technology will be used to upgrade the existing analogue matrix/VCR
CCTV system and provide a scalable solution that will meet SkyTrain's
video recording and future surveillance needs.
The new system will allow the recording of much higher quality video
and provide station operators with tools to quickly access and analyse
recorded footage - important features to meet the demands of homeland
security.
Choosing the flexibility of an IP Video system enables SkyTrain to keep
most of their original investment in the existing CCTV equipment, while
creating a platform for future growth. All the original 880 cameras
will be re-used together with the existing matrix switching hardware.
At each of the 33 stations the cameras will be connected to IP Video
transmitter/receiver units.
These will convert the analogue camera signals to high-quality MPEG-4
digital video for transmission over the local IP network at each station.
Standalone Network Video Recorders (NVRs) will be installed in each
station to provide advanced recording facilities for each camera stream.
This will create a hybrid digital/analogue CCTV solution that will provide
a replacement for the ageing VCR-based recording system. In the long-term,
the flexibility of IP Video will allow SkyTrain to benefit from the
power of a fully networked system by deploying a virtual matrix to replace
the existing analogue switching.
Doha
International Airport: Integrating CCTV and Access Control over IP
As part of the preparations for DOHA 2006, the 15th Asian Games, Doha
International Airport (DIA) in Qatar installed a fully integrated system
consisting of over 600 cameras and 200 access control points. The 'GE
Secure Perfect' access control system was seamlessly integrated into
the IP-CCTV system to provide a single security solution.
The entire system is IP-based using the airport's LAN and provides a
high level of flexibility and scalability. A CCTV camera or access control
point can be located at any point on the network. The alarms from both
systems are monitored via the IP Video management software. This is
the ideal place to consolidate alarms from an integrated IP-Security
system as CCTV is the application most monitored by security staff.
The IP Video management software allows operators to monitor live video
feeds and recorded footage from the Network Video Recorders (NVRs) as
well as status information and alarms from the access control system.
The tight integration of the access control and video management allows
the virtual matrix to be driven by alarm events, e.g. a salvo of cameras
can be displayed when an alarm is raised from a given access point.
Events within the video management software are generated and logged
for card swipes, illegal access and tamper detect.
Adelaide Traffic System: A Migration Path to IP Video
The challenge facing the traffic monitoring system around Adelaide in
South Australia is typical of many analogue CCTV systems worldwide -
the prohibitive cost to expand the system. This is why IP Video technology
was chosen to provide a migration path to a fully digital CCTV system.
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 surveillance.
The South Eastern Freeway Tunnel was chosen as the first project and
was a good example of how IP Video technology can be deployed as part
of a migration strategy. The existing CCTV cameras in the tunnel were
connected to transmitter/receiver units. These converted the analogue
video to MPEG-4, 25fps 4CIF high-quality 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 system and that the configuration of the Norwood Traffic
Control Centre, situated 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 to allow new digital video signals to 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: Remote Monitoring with IP
NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen), the Dutch rail authority, is one of the
world's busiest rail systems with 25,000 employees operating over one
million passenger journeys every day. NS is currently 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 alongside to
the rail network and so an IP Video solution was the obvious choice
for CCTV surveillance - providing high-quality 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 was keen to
embrace future technologies such as analytics so future-proofing was
also an important requirement.
Over a period of 18 months IP video equipment was installed in 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 security, passenger safety, network maintenance and staff
costs. This project simply would not have been economical to implement
using analogue CCTV systems.
Turku
Port, Finland: Wide-Area Surveillance over IP
The Port of Turku, Finland's second largest seaport, has invested in
a complete end-to-end IP Video solution to provide an innovative approach
to site surveillance. 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 high-quality
digital images via a wireless LAN, which spans an area around the port
of over 10km2. 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: IP-based Analytics
Schiphol, Amsterdam's International Airport, is using advanced IP Video
analytics to prevent accidental or malicious intrusion onto runway and
hangar areas. With over 20 million 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 CCTV 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 Network 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 these case studies is the huge distances
over which the systems are deployed, 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 Video 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 (pictured right)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.
Dr Oliver Vellacott, CEO, IndigoVision Group plc,
Tel: 0131 475 7200
Web: http://www.indigovision.com