Amsterdam International Airport Turns to IP Video Analytics

Dec. 19, 2006
Schiphol using IndigoVision's analytics suite

Hoboken, N.J. – Schiphol, Amsterdam's International Airport, is using IndigoVision's advanced IP Video analytics to prevent accidental or malicious intrusion onto runway and hanger areas. With over 20m passengers passing through the Netherlands' busiest airport each year, the airport operators were eager to install the latest technology to help improve the safety and security of aircraft movements.

The analytics algorithms, which are part of IndigoVision's complete end-to-end IP Video solution, 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 fiber and wireless LAN. The analytics mode 'Virtual Tripwire' is used to designate unauthorized areas in each camera's field of view. Whenever a vehicle or person crosses into these areas an alarm is automatically triggered and the appropriate camera view is displayed in the control room. The system was designed and installed by GTN Systems, IndigoVision's Dutch based approved integrator.

"It is not possible to implement such a system using traditional analog video systems, because of the distances involved and the need to use real time analytics," said Dr Oliver Vellacott, IndigoVision's CEO. "The combination of IP Video and wireless networks is opening up a whole new range of applications for CCTV, particularly for site-wide monitoring of rail networks, ports and airports."

'Control Center', IndigoVision's enterprise video and alarm 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 of IndigoVision's 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.

Each camera connects to an IndigoVision 8000 transmitter/receiver unit installed with the camera. The 8000 converts the camera signal to DVD quality, high-resolution digital video for transmission over the LAN. The LAN is based on an existing fiber network installed within the airport building which was extended using a fault tolerant wireless mesh network. The furthest camera is located nearly 1 mile from the control room. IndigoVision's advanced compression technology ensures that the operations staff can view and record CCTV images that are indistinguishable from analog while minimizing bandwidth on the LAN.