When Royal Caribbean International’s newest cruise ship, Allure of the Seas, begins its inaugural season, the more than 6,300 passengers, 16 decks and nearly 2,100 crew members from 65 countries will be guarded by a surveillance system.
When Royal Caribbean International's newest cruise ship, Allure of the Seas, begins its inaugural season, the more than 6,300 passengers, 16 decks and nearly 2,100 crew members from 65 countries will be guarded by a surveillance system.
Protecting the safety of those on board the ship, which departs from its homeport, Port Everglades cruise terminal in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is a high priority. As a cruise industry leader, Royal Caribbean has deployed extensive security networks for both public areas and even some regions of its fleet of cruise ships, including Allure of the Seas and its sister-ship, Oasis of the Seas.
“A video surveillance system is an important tool for the safety and protection of everyone,” said James Ionson, CEO, Oncam Global. “It provides 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 Allure of the Seas surveillance network, there are more than 300 Oncam 5-megapixel cameras, many situated in public areas of the ship with multiple entrances, enabling simultaneous monitoring of all those entrances.
“With just a single Oncam network 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 surveillance cameras,” Ionson said.
Unlike fixed cameras, these panoramic cameras deliver total situational awareness over a wide area with a retrospective analysis capability, which during playback allows security personnel to PTZ a panoramic view with as much control over the scene as during live viewing.
“The cameras' retrospective feature has enabled surveillance teams to investigate and document questionable shipboard incidents from multiple angles,” Ionson said. “With the Oncam cameras, in the event of an incident, security personnel can more reliably “get to the bottom of it,” he added, noting that the cameras also serve to provide the cruise line with liability protection.