Summer Olympics safety

August 2008 Surveillance

The Olympic Games is the longest-running athletics competition in history, and the Summer 2008 Olympics will be held in Beijing, China, from 8 to 24 August.

This year’s event is known as the XXIX Olympiad Games and carries the slogan 'New Beijing – Great Olympics'. Hundreds of thousands of athletes, celebrities and state officials, as well as journalists and tourists, are expected to flock to China for the Games. Naturally, security becomes the top priority to guarantee a safe and smooth staging of the Olympic Games in Beijing.

The Games not only showcases world-class athletes, it will showcase world-class security technologies and services from the local industry. In an era of heightened terrorism concerns, it could be argued, high-tech surveillance will be an indispensable part of China’s security preparations for the Games. Given a prime opportunity, plenty of corporations in the security industry are eager to get a foothold in the Olympics, and Hikvision was selected to provide technical support in the audio and video category, enabling viewing of the Games via its high-definition DVR.

Hikvision has created one of the event’s largest DVR networks – a large quantity of Hikvision Net DVRs installed in 'Bird nest', the home of the Olympic Stadium – to help ensure security for those involved in all aspects of the Games.

Featuring realtime OS and embedded MCU, the third-generation of Hikvision Network DVR is a digital surveillance product, with an integration of digital video recorder (DVR) and digital video server (DVS). Highlights of this network DVR include: each video input can max support D1 resolution in realtime, using the H.264 video compression algorithm; support multizone motion detection and mask function to mask sensitive area; support network voice talk and local as well as remote control of PTZ, all of which meet the requirements demanded by such high-profile events. Polo Cai, vice president of Hikvision, says the company wanted to “make it possible for people around the world to share the passion of the Olympic Games with our H.264 technology.”

With an investment of $28,5 million, which accounts for 33% of the total, extensive video monitoring systems, including a large number of Net DVRs and CCTV cameras, the system will be relied upon heavily to capture and record any breach in security. At the Olympic venues’ security control centre, security staff use a bank of television monitors to keep an eye on all events and the stands, as well as nearby roads. In order to meet the high Olympic security requirements, security checks have, for the first time, been installed at the outside gates of the sports centre, instead of at the stadia’s entrances. So, the external walls of the sports centre are also part of the security system. When there is trespassing, the system will alert security cameras to follow the suspect until the situation is brought under control.

The range of supervision during events could extend to as far as 10 kilometres from the venue. This is the first time such a control centre is monitoring the surrounding area with realtime images, and the video footage is available to the city’s public security control network. “All the images can be transmitted to the municipal public security bureau and all the district sub-bureaus,” Feng Yonglin, a leading police official in Chaoyang District told Beijing Youth Daily, “Previously, we could only communicate by radio. Hikvision is likely to emerge from the Olympics with remarkable surveillance capabilities.”

“Hikvision is proud to provide reliable security technologies for one of the world’s premier events,” says Hu Yangzhong, president of Hikvision, “Our participation in this year’s Games underscores our commitment to providing sophisticated and practical products that streamline efficiencies while maintaining appropriate safety and comfort levels.”

For details contact Hikvision, [email protected], www.hikvision.com





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