| 360-degree cameras have been placed at the boarding gates in the large, congested area used by low-cost airlines |
Shannon Airport is located on the western-most part of Ireland and is considered to be the gateway between Europe and the Americas. It handles approximately 3 million people a year, and nearly 50,000 metric tons of freight gets transported through its cargo area. The facility is enormous, with 40 check-in desks, 5 baggage carousels and 14 boarding gates (including 6 air bridges). There are nearly 40 aircraft parking stands. The car-parks can hold more than 5,000 cars.
John Francis, the security manager at Shannon Airport, faces myriad challenges, and he tackled the terminal first.
360-degree cameras have been placed at the boarding gates in the large, congested area used by low-cost airlines. The main reason for surveillance here is health and safety. “We’re looking for slips and trips,” says Francis.
Other cameras are positioned in the arrivals area, which houses vending machines, ATM's, car-hire desks and pay stations for the car park. “The PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom camera) was always looking the wrong way when something happened, and was sometimes left zoomed in by an operator,” he said. “This is never the case with the 360; we see everything.”
Shannon needed solutions designed for unique situations. “We required total situational awareness for this location, but it had to be discrete and customised while the costs had to be as low as possible,” said Tony Sinden from VMS.
VMS decided upon the 360-degree experience from Oncam because it has so many advantages. Customers save money by reducing camera counts for any location. The technology allows for retrospection, which means that owners can go back to any event and go inside an image to find a person or an incident because the camera gives them 24/7/365 situational awareness, and the de-warping software makes an image taken with a fisheye lens smooth and readily discernible.
“We’re seeing a sharp rise in the use of 360-degree technology, “said Greg Alcorn, senior vice president at Oncam. “It’s gratifying to see more companies and security professionals recognizing the power of our 360-degree technology, and it’s even nicer to have provided them mobile access to their business critical assets through our popular app, OnVu360.”