Page 32 - Security Today, April 2018

and the greater potential for shoplifting requires monitoring. Video systems can help businesses and retailers in airports to manage these unique concerns by providing alerts, video verification of incidents, video integration with point of sale systems for transaction checks, and general surveillance for improving and streamlining front- and back-of-house operations.
Parking fraud & driver management. Airports have huge parking lots and structures to maintain—with thousands of parking spots not uncommon. Unfortunately, a typical occurrence is for some driv- ers to use the lots without paying by enlisting a friend to obtain a new parking stub. A driver in long-term parking would use a new stub to pay for 15 minutes of parking, and the friend then claims he lost his ticket. In response, airport security teams are working to reduce fraud and recover lost revenue by digitally recording license plate numbers and associating them with the stubs.
Ride share verification. As large cities begin to impose fees for ride-share drivers directly through smartphone apps like Uber and Lyft whenever their phones’ GPS indicates they’re at the airport, a level of verification has been needed. To resolve disputes from driv- ers claiming they were there for personal business, airports are using high-definition, curbside cameras and video management systems to retrieve time-stamped images of license plates and people entering cars. Additionally, License Plate Recognition (LPR) video analytics help curbside management systems automatically request additional taxi cabs from the waiting lot when needed, as well as ensure the cor- rect charge for rideshare and taxi services who conduct business on the property.
Managing baggage. With thousands of suitcases to be managed, video monitoring at bag handling areas allows the airport operations division to watch for congestion and dispatch staff as needed. Dur- ing an event where there was a glitch with a TSA baggage screening system, one airport granted video access to the airline and terminal involved, so they could monitor all the luggage as everything had to be pulled and rescanned. The video provided information to the af- fected airline’s incident commander so he could see what was happen- ing with the different rows of luggage, and it also provided visual data to the emergency operations center, where the staff could monitor the situation from their point of view.
Perimeter protection. Airports are often early adaptors of leading technologies designed to detect and report on anomalies in the pro- cess of managing people, vehicles, and aircraft. One example is the use of new Doppler-radar detection systems such as SpotterRF to quickly identify people or vehicles approaching the fence line of the airport, or rogue objects on the widespread property and runways.
Mobile access. Managers today don’t necessarily have to be in the facility to monitor events at the airport. Top executives can access live camera feeds on their mobile devices using a Milestone Mobile client accessible through a VPN. With mobile video monitoring, security and operations teams alike can have video system access from their tablets or smartphones for situational awareness, and technicians use mobile access for troubleshooting or checking and adjusting camera settings and positioning.
Open Platform Design
Enlisting multiple camera models and legacy equipment to meet these new challenges would not be possible without an open, adapt- able system for networked video management. It no longer makes sense to have the disparate systems of yore. There’s technology avail- able, like service-oriented architecture, where data can be managed from a central location but distributed to multiple sites and systems for various uses.
Many airports around the world have selected the Milestone XProtect open platform for its flexibility to operate with multiple third-party solutions. XProtect is compatible with more than 6,000 security and surveillance devices from more than 150 manufactur-
ers. Alliance partners include providers of network video cameras, encoders, DVRs and NVRs, storage equipment, alarm and detection systems, video analytics, GPS technology, laser scanners, emergency call boxes and much more.
Planning for Expansion into the Cloud
Since adopting Milestone video management software several years ago, one airport customer is now replacing older analog video moni- tors with advanced workstations for their new terminal displays. That security team is also converting the airport’s analog cameras to IP- based digital cameras, and moving video storage to the cloud. Sev- eral potential improvements in airport operations can be identified to justify such an investment, including more cost-effective use of video analytics to monitor crowds and dispatch ground transporta- tion more efficiently.
New license plate recognition technology can replace a parking vendor’s aging system, opening the possibility of managing access for valet drivers taking vehicles off-site for cleaning and oil changes, gen- erating another revenue stream for the airport. On the public-safety front, analytics can help spot security threats like oversized trucks among the millions of vehicle trips recorded at an airport annually.
The needs of different airport departments will continue to evolve, which can be met by a philosophy that is as much about operations and service as it is about IT. The cameras may look the same as in recent years, but what they accomplish can be shaped by open plat- form software to the future demands of airports, through new ways to manage and add to their data.
As one airport’s IT manager summed up the situation, “I see this new approach as a way to grow our technology presence and help solve problems by building with a focus on multi-purpose solutions. And with open platform video management, we’re very excited about the future.”
Courtney Dillon Pedersen is the communications manager at Milestone Systems.
References
1 U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/press_releases/bts017_17
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