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London Luton Airport adopts large-scale IP CCTV

Intruder International has designed and installed the UK's largest single-site IP-based CCTV system. London Luton Airport has embraced IndigoVision's VideoBridge technology to convert its entire analog CCTV to an IP network-based system. Over 180 existing analog camera feeds have been converted and 70 new IP-cameras have been installed all streaming video across the airport's existing LAN/WAN.

The system is not only utilised for security and anti-terrorism operations, but for baggage handling, customs and excise, cargo sheds, airside gates, retail establishments, car parks and aircraft movements on the taxiways and runways via cameras mounted directly in the Control Tower. Utilising IndigoVision's Control Centre software suite, the majority of the airport operations are monitored and controlled from the Network Operations Centre. Here the CCTV images from any of the 250 plus cameras can be displayed on a large plasma video wall along with other important information such as air traffic control data and up to the minute weather reports.

One of the many advantages of the Video-over-IP solution is the ability, in the event, of an emergency, to transfer all of the control and monitoring capability to any other point on the corporate network, both on site or even at another of the group's airports such as Cardiff or Belfast. The IP-networked solution offers excellent flexibility and scalability. Until the adoption of the IP-network, to install a new remotely located CCTV camera would have involved the installation of many hundreds of metres of fibre-optic cable, now it is simply a matter of installing a new network point. As the airport expands, the scalability of IndigoVision's VideoBridge technology allows new cameras to be added seamlessly with the minimum of overhead and cost.

All CCTV images are streamed as high definition digital video at realtime 25 frames a second across the airport's existing 1 Gbit LAN/WAN. By utilising advanced network protocols and IndigoVision's multicast capabilities it is possible to view the live video at multiple locations with minimal bandwidth impact on the network. At present over 15 separate locations utilise CCTV images simultaneously for a variety of uses.

Presently, all digital images from key cameras are converted back to analog and recorded on conventional digital recorders. The next phase of the project, which is already underway, is to record all the digital video streams directly from the network in realtime utilising network video recorders. This will incorporate dual redundancy and Raid 5 capability as standard and give true, high quality, 25 frames a second recording and playback.

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