The Turning Point
Cargo terminal ditches analog-based system to newer networked video solution
- By Mariann McDonagh
- Jul 06, 2007
CRITICAL infrastructure organizations, including airports, seaports, energy manufacturing facilities and telecommunications networks, are essential to functioning of societies and economies. The role of these facilities in international commerce makes security a top priority. But given the complex and often geographically dispersed nature of facilities and assets, critical infrastructure security often presents a daunting challenge.
Widespread geographic perimeters can encompass open waterways, rail yards, indoor and outdoor facilities and roadway systems that fall under the jurisdiction of multiple law enforcement and security organizations. These factors make it difficult to efficiently and effectively monitor critical infrastructure environments and to generate actionable intelligence—information delivered to the right people in time to make critical decisions.
Critical infrastructure security managers are realizing the benefits of networked video solutions that help improve security management in these complex environments. Features, including resilient system design, integrated video analytics and intelligent video distribution, make networked video management a natural fit in critical infrastructure environments. By working with vendors that provide end-to-end solutions and experienced integration partners, deploying and managing an enterprise-wide networked video security solution can be cost-effective and quick to yield strong results.
Protecting Cargo
One example of a critical infrastructure organization that is successfully leveraging an end-to-end networked video solution is Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited. HACTL manages SuperTerminal 1, the largest cargo handling facility, which is located at Hong Kong International Airport—the world’s busiest airport in terms of international cargo. Occupying more than 328,000 square meters, SuperTerminal 1 is large and has the capacity to handle 3.5 million tons of air cargo per year for more than 70 international carriers. In excess of 1,700 cargo handlers work within the $1 billion facility, moving approximately 70 percent of cargo and goods going into or out of China. HACTL needed a comprehensive networked video management solution that would help secure the goods, assets and people that comprise this vital link in China’s economic backbone.
When operations began at SuperTerminal 1 in 1998, the security system in place required a significant forklift upgrade in order to effectively protect the new cargo handling centers, tarmac and fenced perimeter. Hundreds of new security cameras were deployed, requiring expansion of video management and storage resources to comply with international regulations that govern the recording and archiving of cargo handling.
Existing video resources included disparate DVRs scattered throughout the facilities. This lack of centralized management and video storage negatively impacted the quality of video data and made it impossible for security personnel to centrally monitor video recorded in locations throughout the facility. Additionally, in the past, security personnel closely monitored banks of CCTV screens in search of suspicious activity. The additional cameras required to secure the expanded facilities made it virtually impossible for security personnel to effectively monitor the entire perimeter using the old, information-overload technology.
Bringing Systems Together
To meet the needs of rapid expansion, HACTL required an end-to-end networked video solution that included the power to tie together disparate security systems for a more holistic approach to facility and perimeter security management. Terminal officials turned to Verint Systems to design and deploy a comprehensive solution that would help leverage security resources already in place while adding new technology to more effectively monitor expanded facilities. The system would need to be scalable enough to accommodate future expansion and growth.
The Potential Role of Video Analytics in Critical Facilities
Integrating video analytics into a networked video management platform at a critical infrastructure facility like HACTL allows users to deploy a variety of applications to secure wide-area, unmanned perimeters.
Intrusion detection allows users to define virtual boundaries around an area of interest and track movement within that sector.
Loitering applications detect people or vehicles that remain near secure equipment for extended periods of time.
Tailgating allows security personnel to detect people or objects that gain unauthorized entry through a secure access door by closely following authorized personnel.
Virtual view applications enable users to track events or suspicious behavior over multiple locations by “stitching” separate camera views together into one scene. |
“In the past, we used disparate DVRs to monitor our facilities, and it became challenging when our networks grew and we were unable to manage our entire video surveillance operations using a single management platform,” said a representative from HACTL.
HACTL chose Verint’s Nextiva Critical Infrastructure solution. Nextiva Critical Infrastructure is an enterprise-class video management platform designed to protect physical systems and facilities that are integral to the well-being of nations, their citizens and their economies. The system provides intelligent video distribution, resilient system design, wire-line and wireless intelligent video encoders and an open, IT-friendly architecture to address security challenges that exist in HACTL’s complex distributed operations.
The Deployment
HACTL had a large amount invested in its analog security systems, so it was important for the solution to leverage the benefits of next-generation IP-video analytics, management and storage technologies.
“We were looking for a networked video system that had the ability to quickly scale as our operations grew, but we did not want to have to overhaul our existing infrastructure in the process,” said a representative from HACTL.
HACTL’s new security solution is flexible enough to fit into the organization's existing security infrastructure. Nextiva is built on open, accepted IT industry standards, making it easy to integrate with HACTL’s video cameras and storage systems and operate seamlessly with physical security solutions that are already in place—and those that have not yet been deployed, such as access control and biometric readers.
HACTL also wanted a way to simplify the management of its complex, large-scale distributed video environment. It wanted a tool that could centralize the maintenance of video security systems and proactively alert personnel to system outages and required upgrades.
“We wanted to simplify video management. Now, with a single login, we have access to video intelligence from every corner of our organization,” said a HACTL representative.
The new system provides HACTL with comprehensive video system health monitoring, automatic system event notification and required response. A management portal was put in place to configure, manage and secure facets of video operations at SuperTerminal 1, significantly decreasing the complexity of security management at the facility.
Given the critical nature of operations at SuperTerminal 1, robust system security features also were a requirement. SSL authentication was put in place to prevent unauthorized access to edge devices and video streams, leveraging LDAP support and integration with HACTL’s existing network security systems for user profile management. Nextiva Critical Infrastructure also includes sophisticated storage management that provides HACTL with the redundancy, fault tolerance and continuous storage monitoring that is essential to comply with international mandates related to security video data handling and storage.
Proactive Prevention
One of HACTL’s goals for the new security solution was to enable a more proactive approach to security threat prevention. Proactive threat detection begins with video analytics embedded at the edge of the IP security network.
Video analytics applications help HACTL sort through massive amounts of video data collected by any number of security cameras throughout its facilities, and it identifies only the most critical events and behaviors of interest. By extending the resources of existing HACTL security personnel, video analytics help prevent information overload and deliver the actionable intelligence required to eliminate threats at SuperTerminal 1 before they escalate. However, the effectiveness and cost of video analytics applications are often determined by the location in the security network.
Placing video analytics technology at the network edge, where video is captured, is the most accurate and cost-effective method of deploying and scaling this technology within an organization. Embedding video analytics technology in intelligent edge devices, including IP cameras, wire-line and wireless video encoders, will dramatically reduce bandwidth and storage requirements placed on the HACTL system by eliminating the need to send video data to a centralized server for analysis.
“Using intelligent edge devices with embedded analytics is the most effective, economical and scalable approach to deploying video analytics for proactive threat detection,” said Jim Clark, general manager of Verint Video Intelligence Solutions. “By placing analytics at the network’s edge, where video is being captured, organizations can analyze the highest-quality images possible and only send back the most critical information over the network. This greatly reduces false positives and dramatically reduces bandwidth usage.”
Additionally, analyzing high-quality video at the point of capture inside cargo handling facilities and on the tarmac can greatly increase the accuracy of alarms and alerts generated by analytics applications, reducing the likelihood of false positives and focusing security resources on legitimate threats.
This article originally appeared in the issue of .