Taking New Flight
You are now free to realize security efficiencies and cost savings
- By Lee Caswell
- Jan 03, 2011
There are many challenges to creating an effective security program
in any airport infrastructure. Technology plays a significant role in any
robust airport security initiative and, when deployed properly, can help
security personnel address potential vulnerabilities in a more timely
fashion, in addition to increasing effectiveness overall. With this in mind, airport officials
seek out new technologies that help them meet these goals while maintaining high
levels of protection for passengers and employees.
Many airports realize the value and benefits IP-based security devices can
bring to their facilities and are moving forward with plans to transition CCTV systems to
network-based technologies. Furthermore, the value of high-definition video surveillance
as evidentiary support has grown, and airports are deploying more high-resolution cameras.
There also are plans to integrate video surveillance with other technologies -- such
as access control, video analytics, license plate recognition and facial recognition -- to
streamline security operations and reduce the need for manpower. Even with these
upgrades and new installations, there is no room for scheduled system downtime.
“Security systems in airports are categorized as mission-critical systems, so
those systems cannot be down,” said Danny Peleg, director of market development
for transportation at Genetec. “When an airport transitions from one system
to another, it is important that they still be able to maintain and use their system
regardless of the transition. The transition has to be smooth, relatively fast, and
cannot impact the performance and reliability of the system.”
Peleg added that airports can make use of existing technologies to maximize
existing infrastructure. Facilities with an open-architecture video management
system have an easier time of it. Some VMS vendors offer systems with a closed
architecture, making interoperability between systems and technologies nearly
impossible. The beauty of open architecture is that it makes it easier to integrate
on both the hardware and software level, and it avoids the additional costs of a complete overhaul.
As long as an airport has network
connectivity among its systems, technologies
and sites, it is possible to integrate
various system components.
“However, this depends on the
other systems and technologies that
will be connected,” Peleg said. “As
long as those systems speak the same
language -- in other words IP -- then it
should not be a problem. In the case of
cameras, for example, adding IP encoders
to an analog camera would help rectify
this issue.”
The Absolute Value of Surveillance
Video surveillance is a proven method
of reducing crime and speeding up investigations,
which is why there is an influx
of camera deployments on a global
scale. There also is an uptick in the use
of high-resolution cameras and digitalbased
systems.
“Airport security executives recognize
the value of high-resolution video,”
said Robert Hile, director of integrated
security solutions at Siemens Industry
Inc. “The adoption of these emerging
technologies provides an enhanced
layer of security for employees and passengers,
and reduces the likelihood of a
terrorist event or security breach.”
Peleg said for an airport to move
to a feature-rich, IP-based system, it
needs network infrastructure in place
before beginning a transformation.
This means all elements of the IP security
infrastructure, including the
physical network, switches, storage
and workstations. With these necessary
elements in place and a clear action
plan for the transition itself, an
airport should be able overcome any
challenges and successfully implement
an IP security solution.
An open-architecture VMS can
quickly retrieve recorded video footage
and security data, which is critically important
because every minute that goes
by when a potential breach occurs costs
airports $20,000 to $25,000, according
to Peleg. Fast retrieval of security video
and data is thus vital, he said.
In the same respect, failover and
redundancy features also are important
to ensure access to all live and
archived camera feeds. This capability
is requested in almost all airport applications.
Airports need to have a system
that guarantees 24/7 access to security
data, he said. If the system is down, airport
officials would not be able to pull
up video and data during that down
period. For airports, that scenario is
unacceptable.
Increased Security and Cost Savings
All of the above lends itself to a high
demand for IP storage devices. In a
typical surveillance installation, storage
can comprise up to 50 percent of
the cost of the system, including acquisition
and ongoing maintenance fees.
This can lead to a significant investment
from a user standpoint.
Virtualization can reduce hardware
investment and increase availability in high-capacity environments such as airports.
As storage is a significant portion
of the cost of a traditional surveillance
system, facility managers often make
compromises on retention times, video
resolution or camera counts to meet
their budgets.
These virtual servers reside on storage
appliances, allowing airports to
eliminate stand-alone servers and saving
them about 25 percent overall. In
addition to having lower support costs,
virtual servers can help airports realize
about 40 percent savings in power and
cooling and in rack space. And virtual
servers still meet the reliability, performance
and management needs of today’s
surveillance systems.
“Anytime you can help customers
reduce the amount of storage hardware,
you help them tremendously,”
Peleg said. “Why? First, space is limited
in airports, and these facilities do
not always have enough real estate to
hold a significant number of storage
and server devices. Secondly, purchasing,
maintaining and cooling physical
storage devices can become expensive.
“Therefore, the ideal is to find a storage
solution that can help airports store
massive amounts of video and security
data in the most efficient and cost-effective
way. Seattle-Tacoma International
Airport, for example, opted for a virtual
storage solution that helped reduce
costs and save energy. And similar to IP
video management systems, leveraging
the IP network for storage purposes
with virtual servers offers flexibility and
ease of growth.”
There is rapid adoption of combined
storage and server solutions in
the transportation market because the
reliability requirements are well-suited
to the failover and recovery features
these facilities require. On top of that,
Peleg said the cost savings and environmental
benefits are immediate.
“Being environmentally friendly
comes down to using storage that is
more efficient, that does not require additional
hardware purchases, maintenance
and climate control,” Peleg said.
“On the VMS side, working with an
open-architecture system helps airports
reuse existing equipment and leverage
existing network infrastructure. Using
an advanced VMS gives airports the
ability to host 300 cameras per server.
In a physical storage option, this means
an airport would require less storage
hardware and therefore benefit from
another alternative for energy-savings.”
No Room for Error, or for Downtime
Airports rely on video surveillance as
a tool to help limit risk, increase safety
and investigate incidents. Peleg said
that the high cost of shutting down
means there is no room for system failure
or subsequent downtime.
When it comes to storage appliances,
drives are the most common
component to fail. When a failure does
occur, system administrators must have
immediate access to replace the drives
quickly and easily. Storage systems that
do not provide simple user access or that require removal of drive trays are
more difficult to maintain and often require
scheduled downtime because the
drives cannot be removed without overheating.
Therefore, storage appliances
with front-accessible drives are strongly
preferred for critical environments that
rely heavily on captured video because
faulty drives are easily replaceable and
easier to maintain. Users can simply replace
a failed drive by plugging a spare
into the system while it is running.
“Digital storage appliances store recorded
video for longer periods of time
and are more cost-effective and reliable
than traditional storage products,” Hile
said. “Furthermore, these platforms experience
less downtime due to the ease
in drive replacements and, for the user,
make video readily available for forensic
purposes when needed.”
Real-world Results: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport,
which sees more than 30 million travelers
each year, is a perfect example of
an airport facing a variety of security
changes and challenges, and it is taking
them head-on.
Sea-Tac, a division of the Port of
Seattle, was looking to upgrade its
six disparate and analog-based video
surveillance systems with one fully
merged IP-based solution, while preserving
its existing investment in analog
cameras. On the recommendation
of systems integrator Ingersoll Rand,
the airport chose Genetec Omnicast as
its security management platform, as
it could leverage the airport’s existing
security infrastructure. The Omnicast
system also allowed the airport to fully
integrate its surveillance system to a
third-party access control solution, as
well as to an internal application that
provides situational awareness to key
airport managers.
Today, the airport’s surveillance
system consists of hundreds of analog
cameras that are IP-enabled with encoders
and a mix of IP-based surveillance
cameras in critical areas. Sea-Tac
Airport also opted for Pivot3 Cloud-
Bank appliances for video storage, archiving
recorded video on 11 virtual
servers. The airport saved 40 percent
in power and cooling by leveraging the
Pivot3 Scale-Out Application Platform,
which combines server functionality
and storage into a single appliance.
Overall, Sea-Tac uses 120 terabytes
of Pivot3 storage with embedded virtual
servers to support more than 1,100
cameras. Virtual network video recorders
eliminated the need for stand-alone
physical servers.
The virtualization strategy also delivered
failover for video applications to
meet the TSA’s stringent requirements
for reliability during failure scenarios,
and the system supported the upgrade
to digital storage while preserving the
existing investment in analog cameras.
The combination of Omnicast,
which enables users to pre-set recording
resolutions of all cameras, and Pivot3’s
cloud computing servers, provided Sea-
Tac with a significant and immediate
storage-space savings, and a reduction
in energy consumption. With the Genetec-
Pivot3 solution, the airport was
able to reduce the amount of equipment inaaits main equipment room by 80 percent. This was good news for the
Port of Seattle, which oversees the airport: According to Chris Evans, Sea-Tac’s
electronic systems foreman, who has administrative responsibilities
for the physical security system, the authority strives to be
the “greenest” authority in the country. Thanks to Pivot3’s virtual
storage capabilities, the Port of Seattle is one step closer.
This article originally appeared in the January 2011 issue of Security Today.