The Right Combination
North Central Washington airport seeks performance in security upgrade
- By Michael Hardy
- Jun 01, 2017
Jointly owned and operated by the ports of Chelan and
Douglas Counties, Pangborn Memorial Airport plays
a vital role in connecting the North Central Washington
region to the national and international air transport
systems. The airport’s daily scheduled service to
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport provides the region with onestop
connecting service to 20 major international and 75 domestic
destinations. A 2001 study commissioned by the Washington Department
of Transportation found that Pangborn Memorial Airport directly
and indirectly supports 632 jobs and contributes more than $47
million annually to the local economy.
Accommodating Growth
For Pangborn Memorial Airport, the reasons for a network refresh
were many. Airport growth was prompting the addition of new technologies—
such as VoIP phones, an IP-based TV system, a new security
access control system, a parking payment kiosk and an IP surveillance
system—all of which required a stronger and more robust
network to handle the increased traffic.
The airport’s previous network gear was severely limited by 100
MBps switching. In order to carry the airport’s new IP surveillance
data, VoIP and IP-based TV traffic, its network needed a Gigabit
backbone, PoE functionality and the ability to prioritize data traffic
across VLANs.
While these changes were planned to take place gradually over
the course of two budget cycles, other factors prompted the need for
a quicker timetable.
On April 30, 2015, a community partnership between the Douglas
County Sheriff’s Office, Douglas County Fire District, Pangborn Memorial
Airport, RiverCom Dispatch and Ballard/Lifeline Ambulance
had planned to conduct a full-scale mock “Active Shooter” training
and functional emergency exercise at the Pangborn Memorial Airport.
To capture the important footage from this exercise, Pangborn
Memorial Airport moved the installation of IP surveillance cameras
to the top of the priority list.
Network cameras for IP surveillance, plus managed Layer 2
switches that provide secure connections, faster speed, enhanced performance
and improved manageability.
With a pending network overhaul and the fast-approaching emergency
exercise, Pangborn Memorial Airport was driven to action. It
needed full network performance and comprehensive IP surveillance
coverage quickly, all within a very tight budget. Since the current system
upgrade was too expensive, the airport began to explore a more
affordable solution.
For assistance, Pangborn turned to its technology reseller, Firefly
Technology, which also serves as the outsourced IT department for the
airport, as well as the Ports of Chelan and Douglas Counties. Because
Firefly was already familiar with D-Link’s business-class switching and
networking gear, recommending D-Link was an easy choice.
“Although the gear previously installed had all the capabilities
Pangborn needed, the cost was significantly higher, especially when
you consider all the ongoing SMARTnet contracts to keep the firmware
warranties and support active,” said Denton Meier, CEO and
chairman of Firefly. “With D-Link, all of the support and warranties
are included for life. It just came down to price-per-performance. In
addition, the Port of Chelan County had already been using D-Link
networking equipment for a number of years and was more than satisfied
with its performance.”
With that decision made, Pangborn Memorial Airport began purchasing
and installing networking equipment in stages as budget dollars
became available. During this time, Firefly was able to upgrade
various parts of the airport’s network infrastructure, linking the main
terminal to the maintenance facility, the fire station and the general
aviation terminal (located about a half-mile away).
“The airport purchased half of the gear last year and the other
half this year,” Meier said. “We were all set to deploy the final portions
of the solution this year, but the installation got ramped up to a
very quick deployment due to the live shooter exercise.”
To get the job done, Firefly installed D-Link managed switches at
the network core and light-managed (Smart) switches on the periphery.
“The Smart switches are great because
they can do all the VLAN functionality needed
for the network edge, while the midrange
managed switches had the right feature set for
the heavy lifting at the core,” Meier said.
With less than two weeks’ notice, Firefly
also installed a variety of D-Link IP cameras—
two to upgrade those supervising the
payment kiosk in the parking area and another
11 cameras to monitor other areas of
the airport. All footage is currently running
through Video Insight VMS.
“Once the maintenance team finished the
wiring, the whole implementation only took a
couple days,” Meier said. “We installed all the
cameras, configured them, integrated them
with PoE and the NVR software—and finished
just in time. I did the final test the night
before the shooter exercise. There was a little
pressure, but everything worked out great.
“The setup was very easy, and now Pangborn
enjoys way more functionality and
faster overall networking speed and support
for their new services,” Meier said. “Furthermore,
with proactive alerts, our company can
do a lot of the airport’s network management
remotely, which saves us time and helps
keep the airport’s costs low.”
In addition, the IP surveillance is doing
an excellent job of monitoring multiple locations
around the airport and increasing
overall security. Recently, the cameras captured
high-quality footage of an after-hours
vandalism incident in progress—complete
with a perfect face shot of the vandal. The
footage was turned over to the authorities for
follow-up.
In addition, the active shooter exercise
proved extremely helpful. Footage collected
from the IP cameras was turned over to the
North Central Washington Skill Center,
where video production students created a
recap documentary of the event to be used
for future training of police departments,
sheriff’s offices, fire departments and other
emergency responders in the community.
In the next 12 months, Pangborn Memorial
Airport plans to expand its IP surveillance
network with at least three more DLink
cameras. One will be a high-speed PTZ
outdoor dome camera that can quickly zoom
onto the runway or other areas to capture
specific incidents. Another will be a 360-degree
camera that can cover the entire airport
grounds at all times. A third camera will capture
vehicle licenses at a
security gate.
This article originally appeared in the June 2017 issue of Security Today.