360-Degree IP Cameras Help Keep Watch On Royal Caribbean’s Newest Cruise Ship
When Royal Caribbean International’s newest cruise ship, Allure of the Seas, began its inaugural season on Sunday, the more than 6,300 passengers, 16 decks and nearly 2,100 crew members from 65 countries are to be guarded by an advanced surveillance system designed for the two largest and most technologically sophisticated cruise ships in the world.
Protecting the safety of those on board the ship, which departs from its homeport, Port Everglades cruise terminal in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is a high priority. As a cruise industry leader, Royal Caribbean has deployed extensive security networks for both public areas and even some not-so-public regions of its fleet of cruise ships, including Allure of the Seas and its sister-ship, Oasis of the Seas.
“A well-designed video surveillance system is an important tool for the safety and protection of everyone,” said James Ionson, CEO ofOncam Global Inc. “It provides invaluable assistance to security personnel in resolving incidents, such as helping to identify a noise in the engine room, responding to passenger medical emergencies and determining liability issues, for just a few examples. With the right information, they can appropriately react.”
Among the security cameras in the robust Allure of the Seas surveillance network, there are more than 300 Oncam IP 360° 5-megapixel cameras, many situated in public areas of the ship with multiple entrances, enabling simultaneous monitoring of all those entrances.
“By making Oncam IP 360° cameras the foundation of the liner’s security system,” Ionson said. “RCI has achieved comprehensive video surveillance without an excessive number of camera installations.With just a single Oncam IP 360° camera in the ceiling of a hallway with elevators on opposite sides, all traffic is captured in the hallway, in and out of both elevators and to and from the adjacent stairway. This installation replaced four traditional CCTV cameras.”
Unlike narrow-field-of-view fixed cameras, these panoramic-view cameras deliver total situational awareness over a wide area with a retrospective analysis capability, which during playback allows security personnel to pan, tilt and zoom around a 360-degree field of view with as much control over the scene as during live viewing.
In addition to incorporating the IP 360-degree cameras into Allure of the Seas’ and Oasis of the Seas’ security systems during their construction in Finland, RCI has been retrofitting these advanced cameras into the surveillance systems of its other cruise vessels since 2006.