Cardiff Airport has replaced its surveillance capability with an IP video system from IndigoVision. Operated by TBI Abertis Airports, Cardiff Airport is the national airport of Wales with passenger traffic reaching more than 1.6 million in 2009. It is an important business and charter airport offering flights to domestic and European destinations as well as connecting flights onwards to worldwide destinations.
Cardiff Airport has replaced its surveillance capability with an IP video system from IndigoVision. Operated by TBI Abertis Airports, Cardiff Airport is the national airport of Wales with passenger traffic reaching more than 1.6 million in 2009. It is an important business and charter airport offering flights to domestic and European destinations as well as connecting flights onwards to worldwide destinations.
Choosing IndigoVision's technology was an easy decision for the airport having had more than eight-year experience of operation from a similar system at London Luton Airport, which is also operated by TBI Abertis Airports. The system at London Luton Airport was first installed in 2002.
“All surveillance images are streamed as digital video in real time at 25 fps across the network. By using network protocols and IndigoVision's multicast capabilities it is possible to view live video at multiple locations with no impact on the network bandwidth. Numerous separate viewing locations are able to view the surveillance images simultaneously,” said Steve Tyler, MD of Touchstone Electronics Limited, IndigoVision's partner and system integrator for the project.
IndigoVision's security management software is used to monitor live and recorded video from any of the cameras. It is used by the airport's operations and security teams, and also by government authorities including South Wales Police and the UK Border Agency. Potential security threats can be identified much faster with IndigoVision's analytics and search facilities on the platform, such as the thumbnail search feature that allows 24-hour of video to be searched in a matter of seconds.
Touchstone Electronics installed 96 of IndigoVision's H.264 fixed, dome and PTZ cameras and 26 of standalone NVRs. The NVRs are mirrored creating a redundant and fault tolerant recording solution. Video from each camera is continuously recorded onto a primary and backup NVR simultaneously. In the event of a NVR failure, no recordings are lost. In addition, the NVRs have dual redundant power and network connections and are fitted with RAID configured, surveillance rated disks. A total of 104 TB of disk storage allows the airport to archive 4CIF 25 fps video from each camera 24/7 for more than 30 days. In the event of an incident, evidential quality video can be exported to assist with investigations and for use in court.