The company provides specialist aviation services to regional airlines, business and commercial aviation companies, including fuelling, ground handling, maintenance and fuel purchasing. The operation manages in excess of 13,000 air traffic movements annually - comprehensive and reliable security is therefore a major requirement.
Martin Gould of system installers CAMS Fire & Security PLC explains: "The new aviation hangar has allowed the flight support operator to meet increased demand for its services as well as gaining additional revenue from renting out commercial office space.
The inclusion of commercial organisations within the hangar, however, has meant that strict discrimination is required to recognise authorised airport personnel and to prevent users of the commercial office space passing through doors to the aircraft side."
The situation obviously called for a bespoke system solution, integrating both digitally networked CCTV and sophisticated access control and intruder alarm technology, installed by CAMS during the construction stage.
The Solution
'We specified one of Dedicated Micros' digital video recorders (DVRs), as its open architecture allowed us to bring all the security components together by writing our own front end and interface.'
The DVR controls images from cameras located both around the hangar on the aircraft side and over the doors controlling the perimeter to the commercial offices.
A holding area between the two sections is enclosed by controlled secure doors on both sides. Personnel wishing to enter the aircraft area present themselves to an access control entry panel camera while showing their access control card to the reader. This instructs the computer to show the corresponding image of the person, already stored on a personnel database, up on screen in the dedicated security office. Additional surveillance cameras ensure that no other personnel in the holding area pass through at the same time.
The hangar access control system has also been made compatible with the wide variety of other systems at the airport, allowing authorised personnel from other organisations to access the aircraft hangar without needing a second card.
As images are networked over a Local Area Network, operational departments located in a completely different part of the building enjoy the convenience of instant access to camera images on their PC screen. Pictures are stored on the DVR's integral hard disk and are downloaded and archived onto CD-ROM.
Martin Gould added: 'At a time when airport security has never been more important, the company operates a 24-hour service for their customers and therefore high-level security surveillance at all times is critical. The new system has enabled the company to satisfy London Luton airport's strict aviation security demands while providing a useful management tool for the rest of the business.'