City of Calgary Enjoys a New Light Rail System with Genetec Video Surveillance

  • Nov 08, 2011

As Calgary's transportation system welcomes a new light rail, the city also amps up its security surveillance.

Calgary Transit, located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, has installed Genetec’s Omnicast video surveillance system on its popular, highly-used light rail transit (LRT) system. Omnicast was installed as a stand-alone IP video surveillance system within the Security Center, Genetec’s unified security platform, and helps to ensure the safety of Calgary Transit’s 270,000 daily (weekday) LRT customers.

Calgary Transit selected Contava, a Genetec Unified Elite Integrator, to manage and supervise the design, deployment, and configuration of a new video surveillance system to replace the existing platform. David Sime, Director of Operations at Contava, suggested Omnicast. By selecting an IP-based platform, Calgary Transit has been able to establish a robust IP network onto which additional technologies can rely in the future.

The new system is comprised of 471 Panasonic megapixel NW502 IP cameras in addition to 23 Panasonic NW964 PTZ (pan tilt zoom) IP cameras. It is managed by Dell servers with distributed archiving throughout Calgary’s 38 LRT stations and centralized redundant archiving at the City Hall data center. Operators can monitor the security system at each station and video can be remotely viewed at the central location.

The Omnicast system replaces Calgary Transit’s old system of analog cameras, which transmitted, recorded and switched analog video. Transitioning to the Genetec platform provides Calgary Transit with an interactive system, and many additional possibilities.
“This new system has increased our coverage, while keeping our costs lower on a per-camera basis,” said Colin Adderley, Project Manager and Engineer for Calgary Transit’s CCTV system. “We currently are able to use it for observing train arrival times and ensuring interlocks are working correctly. In the future, there are a number of additional initiatives planned for the platform that will help improve and support our operations.”

Among the advantages of the Omnicast platform is its ability to integrate with other technologies, for example, by allowing Calgary Transit to integrate video surveillance with its emergency phone and elevator SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system to facilitate centralized alarm management. Operators can communicate with their mechanical systems directly via the surveillance platform, which syncs the video feed to the task at hand.

“Honestly, Genetec simply provides the strongest video management platform, both from usability and scalability standpoints,” said Mr. Sime, “Add to that Omnicast’s ability to integrate with transit operation technologies, and I believe Genetec is a great choice for any transit deployment.”

“We are excited to add Calgary Transit to the long list of Genetec’s mass transit customers,” said Danny Peleg, Director of Business Development for Transportation. “Securing LRT systems is not an easy feat, especially in recent years. With the Security Center, our mass transit customers can rely on two essential elements: high-system availability and ease of interoperability between their various systems.”

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