Surveillance: debunking the biggest transport security myth

Surveillance: Debunking the Biggest Transport Security Myth

Why safe travel doesn’t have to mean slow travel

All transport hubs, whether consumer or commercial, face two significant challenges: keeping people and property safe, and ensuring that both pass from entrance to exit efficiently and economically.

A common view is that tackling one inevitably has a negative impact on the other, for example that increasing security measures in response to heightened threat levels, will always lead to slower passenger or cargo processing. According to global surveillance business Synectics, it’s a myth that needs debunking.

Attending this year’s Transport Security Expo taking place at Olympia in London (2-3 December), Synectics suggests that by enhancing situational awareness with intelligently integrated surveillance, transport hub operators have the opportunity to make significant improvements in both these important areas.

Chris Bishop, International Business Development Manager at Synectics, explains: “Whether discussing sea ports, railway stations, bus terminals or busy airports - identifying and responding to potential threats boils down to one thing. Awareness.

“Transport hubs operate a vast range of security, emergency and operational systems to protect people, goods and infrastructure. But monitoring these systems separately is time consuming, can be a significant draw on resources and does not afford operators a holistic view of the site in question. Data, though abundant in volume, is often fragmented.

“This is a situation that perpetuates transport security misconceptions, as a disjointed approach can (and often does) mean that increased emphasis on safety and security impacts negatively on operational efficiency, and vice versa.

“However, adopting an open architecture, intelligently integrated surveillance command and control platform to collate that data – enabling it to be monitored, controlled and (with the help of analytics) understood, in a single unified environment – dramatically improves situational awareness. This in turn facilitates multiple benefits across an entire site, without forcing compromise in any one specific area of operation.”

Some of the benefits that Synectics will be highlighting at Transport Security Expo include:

  •          Real time threat detection and improved response times
  •          Passenger bottleneck analysis and prevention
  •          Person of interest identification and tracking
  •          Improved interaction between security and passenger facing operational teams e.g. baggage claim, check-in and boarding desks
  •          Personnel verification and location awareness
  •          Improved workflow consistency and audit trails

At the show, Chris Bishop will also be presenting a seminar specifically for the aviation industry. Entitled “Four Success Factors and Drivers in Aviation Safety and Security”, the presentation will explore topics such as airport system integration opportunities, improved operational and security incident response based on real-time data and analytics, and future-proofing technology implementation.

In addition to discussing the practical benefits of systems integration and improved situational awareness, Synectics will be providing visitors to booth J30 with live demonstrations of relevant solutions in action. Solutions to be showcased include Synergy 3 command and control platform – specified by Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport - and COEX camera stations – recently ordered as part of a surveillance solution for 2 LNG carriers being built by a South Korean shipyard.

David Petrook, Commercial Director at Synectics, said: “Synergy 3 is ideally suited to the transport sector. It enables a wide range of sub-system integrations, and ensures that incident detection, response and reporting procedures comply with specific Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). For transport hubs that want to address risk mitigation and operational efficiency, features such as GIS mapping and user-driven dynamic workflows are valuable tools. To be able to showcase these features, and demonstrate deliverable results, at such an important and highly respected event is a great opportunity.”

To further support transport operators interested in understanding and adopting surveillance technologies, Synectics has produced a series of reports and white papers with topics including at-sea navigation in ice-class conditions and airport management.

Featured

  • New Report Reveals Top Security Risks for U.S. Retail Chains

    Interface Systems, a provider of security, actionable insights, and purpose-built networks for multi-location businesses, has released its 2024 State of Remote Video Monitoring in Retail Chains report. The detailed study analyzed over 2 million monitoring requests across 4,156 retail locations in the United States from September 2023 to August 2024. Read Now

  • Gaining a Competitive Edge

    Ask most companies about their future technology plans and the answers will most likely include AI. Then ask how they plan to deploy it, and that is where the responses may start to vary. Every company has unique surveillance requirements that are based on market focus, scale, scope, risk tolerance, geographic area and, of course, budget. Those factors all play a role in deciding how to configure a surveillance system, and how to effectively implement technologies like AI. Read Now

  • 6 Ways Security Awareness Training Empowers Human Risk Management

    Organizations are realizing that their greatest vulnerability often comes from within – their own people. Human error remains a significant factor in cybersecurity breaches, making it imperative for organizations to address human risk effectively. As a result, security awareness training (SAT) has emerged as a cornerstone in this endeavor because it offers a multifaceted approach to managing human risk. Read Now

  • The Stage is Set

    The security industry spans the entire globe, with manufacturers, developers and suppliers on every continent (well, almost—sorry, Antarctica). That means when regulations pop up in one area, they often have a ripple effect that impacts the entire supply chain. Recent data privacy regulations like GDPR in Europe and CPRA in California made waves when they first went into effect, forcing businesses to change the way they approach data collection and storage to continue operating in those markets. Even highly specific regulations like the U.S.’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) can have international reverberations – and this growing volume of legislation has continued to affect global supply chains in a variety of different ways. Read Now

Featured Cybersecurity

Webinars

New Products

  • Camden CV-7600 High Security Card Readers

    Camden CV-7600 High Security Card Readers

    Camden Door Controls has relaunched its CV-7600 card readers in response to growing market demand for a more secure alternative to standard proximity credentials that can be easily cloned. CV-7600 readers support MIFARE DESFire EV1 & EV2 encryption technology credentials, making them virtually clone-proof and highly secure. 3

  • Unified VMS

    AxxonSoft introduces version 2.0 of the Axxon One VMS. The new release features integrations with various physical security systems, making Axxon One a unified VMS. Other enhancements include new AI video analytics and intelligent search functions, hardened cybersecurity, usability and performance improvements, and expanded cloud capabilities 3

  • EasyGate SPT and SPD

    EasyGate SPT SPD

    Security solutions do not have to be ordinary, let alone unattractive. Having renewed their best-selling speed gates, Cominfo has once again demonstrated their Art of Security philosophy in practice — and confirmed their position as an industry-leading manufacturers of premium speed gates and turnstiles. 3