The Challenge
Port Macquarie Airport is located along the coastal region 420kms north of Sydney, Australia. The airport caters to around 2,500 passengers a week, including scheduled flights to major cities throughout Australia. The airport is also home to aircraft, which are kept at the airport every night.
According to the airport's manager, Lane Dechaineux, it's an extremely busy airport with many third party services using their facilities including air charter operations, flying schools, airfreight transport and aerial ambulance operations.
Following the release of the Aviation Transport Security Act outlining airport security procedures, Port Macquarie Airport conducted a risk assessment and it became clear that an upgrade of their entire security system was needed.
One of the key issues for Port Macquarie Airport was perimeter access and intrusion detection. Airport governing bodies regulate that airports must have a degree of perimeter protection to keep trespassers out. However the problem here is that traditional perimeter systems, such as fences and gates are cost prohibitive to have installed, especially for regional airports with smaller budgets.
According to Simon Hall, security advisor and area manager, QOLiT, deterring unauthorised access airside is an expensive problem, "Generally airports will spend as little money as possible on perimeter security because fencing systems are expensive and easily bypassed and airports know this. All an intruder needs is a good pair of wire cutters."
Perimeter breaches are not only a security issue, but also a public liability issue. If an intruder did gain access to the runway it could create an expensive liability problem for the airport.
Hall says incidence of unauthorised access to runways is not uncommon. "Airports have no way of detecting a fence climber," he says. "It's not just a problem in one airport, it's a concern throughout the industry."
Dechaineux said this was one of the reasons why creating a business case for the project was so straightforward. "With a low perimeter fence around the airport we needed to address two things, public safety and security. We have to keep people out of certain areas for their own safety and we have to ensure the aircraft parked here overnight is secure. With a replacement cost of over ten million dollars per aircraft, it was an area we needed to look at," he said.
In addition to perimeter intrusion detection, Dechaineux said they also needed a video surveillance system to monitor human activity in all areas between the passenger terminal, the runway and the car park.
The Solution
Dechaineux said he was looking for a surveillance system that would enable personnel to be proactive in securing the airport. They wanted immediate notification should an incident occur. After an exhaustive process of reviewing applicants for the project, the airport selected specialist security integrator, QOLiT. "We went with QOLiT because they were offering a complete turn-key system that would cater to all of our security needs. We ended up with a high definition digital camera system with fast fibre-optic backbone and a video analysis package. We were very happy because the entire project was completed in just three weeks for under $400,000."
The artificial intelligence within the VI Activity Detection software captured Dechaineux's attention. "The new security system from QOLiT is empowering in that it provides airport personnel instant alerting of any suspicious events or behavior such as - perimeter breach, slip and fall and loitering in sensitive areas of the airport. The system also counts the number of people moving to and from the terminal, which is useful to us."
According to Simon Hall, video analytical systems such as QOLiT's VI Activity Detection are very different than that of standard video motion detection in standard systems. Using complex algorithms, the VI Activity Detection system will detect any number of specific behaviors and events that fall into the ‘need-to-know-about' classification. Some examples could be - someone falling down due to attack, illness or accident. Human activity in a sensitive area, a suspicious object or vandalising and graffiti.
Hall said that the perimeter intrusion detection feature within the system was of interest to the airport, as high security fencing was not an option for them. "Leveraging off the perimeter detection feature within the VI Activity Detection system costs less than a tenth of what perimeter fencing would have cost. Plus you don't have the up-keeping costs of fencing repairs and maintenance." says Hall.
Using a 3D scaling tool within the VI Activity Detection system, users can easily create and preset invisible ‘trip wires' and ‘barriers' in the software. Should any human trespass the invisible barriers, even if the perimeter is a long way off in the distance, the algorithms can discern between the sizes and aspect ratios of objects regardless of how near or far they are from the camera. In this way, unimportant activities such as sudden changes in lighting conditions or movement of small animals can be ignored, regardless of where they are in the image.
It appears that the real power of video analytics is in its ability to keep what does need to be addressed and filter out what doesn't, alerting only when someone or something seems suspicious. "What Port Macquarie particularly like so much about the QOLiT VI Activity Detection system, is that they are alerted to situations that of importance to them. They are getting about ninety eight percent plus accuracy on event alerting, which is what they wanted." he said.
The VI Activity Detection system can keep track of multiple events at the same time. For example, it can raise an alarm if someone slips and falls, count the number of people entering and exiting the terminal and alert staff if someone is breaching a perimeter line in the far off distance. According to Hall, all of this can be done without having to pay someone to sit there and watch a wall of video monitors. 
"Video analytics are enabling companies to scale down the size of their control rooms and reduce the number of operators, which is a huge cost saving to any organisation." he said.
Port Macquarie Airport now owns a security system that effectively keeps risk to a minimum. With the peace of mind of having artificial intelligence keeping watch over things, the airport staff can feel safe about focussing on the business at hand.
