The Tide of Security
Europe’s second largest seaport relies on open-platform video for security, logistics and environmental protection
- By Courtney Dillon Pedersen
- Dec 01, 2018
With a central location in the industrial heartland
of Western Europe and a capacity to handle the
world’s largest ships, the port of Antwerp is experiencing
high traffic both in terms of freight
and port users, rendering it impossible for port
authorities to be physically present everywhere, all the time.
Covering almost 30,000 acres, the Port of Antwerp is the largest
seaport in Belgium and the second largest seaport in Europe. The
port faces many daily operational challenges ranging from environmental
concerns to safety, security and logistics issues.
Common accidents include oil leaks from ships during refueling
and events such as when ships run against the quay or lock walls pier,
causing damage that requires repairing. The early detection of oil
spills is vital for minimizing the impact on plant and animal life, and
for compliance reporting. The ability to document ship/port impact
incidents and the resulting damage proves highly important for dispute
resolution.
Extending the Coverage
Before installing a networked, open-platform, VMS solution, the
Port of Antwerp had a standalone DVR system with no networking
capabilities and no open platform support, meaning only a limited
number of camera brands were supported. Additionally, the previous
system only covered certain parts of the vast port area, so events frequently
occurred in locations that were not monitored by authorities,
costing the Port of Antwerp dearly.
With the VMS distributed solution, port authorities can now
monitor the entire harbor area from one central location. This provides
much better situational awareness enabling much faster detection
of unusual events and accidents. Operators can initiate immediate
mitigating action with early response that limits the impact of
the incident.
Integrated Flexibility
The complete solution combines Milestone XProtect Corporate and
XProtect Smart Client combined with third-party integrations. A
majority of cameras are from Bosch, and the management structure
is built on a mixture of IBM (Lenovo), DELL and virtual servers on
VMWare.
The solution is very flexible thanks to Milestone Interconnect,
which allows XProtect systems to be joined to the network. This
supports the Port of Antwerp to easily expand the solution to cover more of the area. As XProtect supports
more than 7,000 camera models, encoders
and sensors, the harbor authorities have total
freedom to choose the best device for the
task, freeing them for the limitations posted
by the old system.
In addition, the open platform VMS technology
enables the Port of Antwerp to easily
integrate the system with other authorities,
such as the port’s Facility Management and
Shipping Police, allowing all relevant parties
access to the same video data when necessary,
so incidents can be addressed before
they potentially escalate.
Visible Results
After implementing the open-platform
VMS solution, the Port of Antwerp has experienced
a reduced number of accidents,
improved access to high-quality proof of
damage, less vandalism and theft, better
management of shipping traffic and the ability
to protect the environment in instances of
oil leaks.
The high-resolution, situational overview
provided by the monitoring solution enables
fast detection of unusual events, which has
significantly brought down the number of
incidents at the large harbor. When incidents
do happen, the Port of Antwerp now has access
to better proof of damage, saving both
time and money.
According to a harbor operations manager,
easy access to high-quality images
from the VMS system have significantly improved
the harbor’s arbitration of disputes,
and has saved substantial time and money
by providing evidence of damage for law enforcement.
With the previous DVR system,
the review and export of video evidence was
highly time-consuming, and the quality of
the evidence was not always sufficient for
official use.
The flexibility of the software enables the
harbor to easily expand the system to more
areas, and the ability to choose the cameras
most suitable for the diverse
needs in this challenging
environment.
This article originally appeared in the November/December 2018 issue of Security Today.
About the Author
Courtney Dillon Pedersen is the communications manager – Americas at Milestone Systems.