Springfield-Branson National Airport (SBNA), located in Springfield, Missouri with a population of 400,000, recently underwent a large expansion project. Its six gate terminal was no longer supporting the increasing air traffic from its four airlines. The airport recently built a brand new terminal on the opposite side of the airfield. The new terminal currently has 10 gates with the capability of expanding to 50+ gates.
Springfield-Branson National Airport (SBNA), located in Springfield, Missouri with a population of 400,000, recently underwent a large expansion project. Its six gate terminal was no longer supporting the increasing air traffic from its four airlines. The airport recently built a brand new terminal on the opposite side of the airfield. The new terminal currently has 10 gates with the capability of expanding to 50+ gates.
A new terminal required a new security management system. Randy Riley (IT Manager), Airport Director and Assistant Director of Operations for SBNA chose to install Amag Technology's security management system platform. The system integrated with several third party vendors to provide a sophisticated, yet easy to use system that met strict TSA requirements. The security platform secured the main terminal building, its seven satellite buildings, the perimeter fence and 10 vehicle gates via fiber optic cable that surrounds the whole airfield.
The SBNA employs a police department that monitors security in the Airport Operations Center (AOC). Inside the AOC, which is furnished with Winsted consoles, sits two workstations that include three large monitors. One monitor graphically shows an overview of the entire airport. The police can see the whole building and zoom in on areas that are in alarm while a rolling count of who is swiping their card throughout the airport is displayed in real time. The second monitor displays camera views using the video matrix. The third monitor is for alarms. When an alarm sounds, the camera associated with the alarm zooms in on the area. A trigger is set up in security system
so a pop-up screen appears on the monitor to provide a closer look. That pop-up screen will also appear on a 50” wall monitor, normally used to display flight information, to provide a larger look at the area in alarm.
"The camera view is automatically tagged to its alarm," said Riley. "If the police want to go back and review the video, they can pull up the video on the screen to instantly view it."
The video is stored in an Intransa server/storage appliances for 30 days. The server/storage appliances holds 58 terabytes of video optimized, RAID protected storage, and eliminates the risk of lost video and downtime.
C&C Group, building automation and security provider, installed the comprehensive security management system for the SBNA. They installed over 150 fixed and PTZ Axis IP cameras that monitor all access controlled doorways, jet bridge doorways, general areas, and the holding room.
When an alarm sounds, all officers on duty are alerted through a page, including the sergeant. The airport found it beneficial to have all police officers notified simultaneously. Everyone is up to date, and the officer closest to the alarm can respond. In an emergency situation, all officers can respond and call for backup if necessary.
Badging Requirements
All personnel, contractors and vendors wear color coded badges to identify themselves and where they are allowed access in the airport.
TSA rules require that all commercial airport employees who need a badge must pass an online training test, and TSA and the FAA require a background fingerprint check to enter the Secure Identification Display Areas of an airport. Once they pass the background check, commercial airport employees are issued a badge that identifies they have access.
General aviation personnel only have access to non-commercial ramps, and their badge color reflects their access areas.
Hot Swappable Protection
All components of the Amag security management system are connected to an NEC fault tolerant server. NEC servers provide an innovative solution to address planned and unplanned downtime for these important security applications. The series servers deliver continuous uptime through its fully redundant modular hardware which provides continuous availability in all components: CPU, memory, motherboards, I/O, hard disk drives, and cooling fans.
In the event of a failover with any server component, the server automatically switches over to the redundant server and reports the failure through Symmetry to the police, for component replacement.
Intercom
Managing the flow of traffic on and off the airfield is managed by 10 vehicle gates surrounding the airfield. Each vehicle gate requires a card swipe to enter the airfield. If a service truck needs to gain access, TSA requirements demand a positive identification of all people entering the airfield. A Stentofon intercom provides a fast way for officers to speak with drivers. When the Stentofon intercom is activated, it alerts the Airport operations center via Amag platform and a camera zooms in on the driver. An officer can speak to the driver as well as verify identity and allow access.