As the international awareness of terrorist threat has increased over recent years, the surveillance industry has seen willingness from global leaders to increase CCTV coverage in many areas. Terror attacks on rail networks, including the 7/7 bombings in London, the Madrid bombings in 2004 and the Mumbai bombings in 2006, have all contributed to the requirement for comprehensive CCTV coverage on all major rail networks. The demand for surveillance upgrades has been resilient through the global financial crisis proving that in uncertain times, maintaining safety and security is viewed as being more important than ever.
As a video surveillance supplier specialising in products for the transport industry, COE's comprehensive range of video surveillance, transmission and management equipment has been installed in a number of high profile rail networks worldwide. COE products have increased surveillance coverage and assisted the activities of security professionals at these sites providing faultless highest quality video transmission year after year. COE have delivered solutions for major rail and metro networks worldwide, including the London Underground, France's SNCF network and Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit system.
The Challenge
The most recent project success by COE in the rail sector has been to provide a comprehensive upgrade of the video surveillance system for the Seoul Metropolitan Subway network in South Korea. This project provides a number of challenges, not least because of the extended network and intense usage endured by Seoul Metro. It is the third most heavily frequented metro system in the world with more passengers than either London or New York's respective networks, logging over 8 million journeys daily1 in and around the capital of South Korea.
Due to the logistical constraints and expenses faced when performing network upgrades in tunnel environments, COE was faced with the challenge of providing a system which would not only transmit video over a limited existing fibre optic network, but which also would provide high levels of redundancy safe-proofing to prevent video and control loss, and potential downtime of the network.
Another key challenge was the operators' requirement for instant access to highest quality real-time video at three separate control rooms across the network. Real-time access to uncompressed video is very important for rail networks where operators must give reactive decisions to support their observations, and also for the purpose of evidence provision in criminal prosecution.
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| COE X-Net VI identifies suspect packages and activities with over 1000 cameras for the network |
The Optimum Solution
COE's 20 year legacy of providing CCTV equipment proved invaluable in devising the optimum system specification for Seoul Metro. As the only video transmission provider to receive UK Network Rail approval for use of our products in safety critical applications, COE has a clear understanding of the requirements of security professionals in the transport sector, and has developed products specifically for use in rugged, demanding environments such as these.
In total, equipment will be installed at 70 stations over lines 1, 3 & 4 of Seoul's Metro system, with a camera capacity of between 64 & 128 cameras at each station, bringing the total transmission & management capacity of the network to well over 8000 cameras. A common framework for COE IP and fibre transmission modules and a single comprehensive management solution will ensure that future expansion & development requirements for the network can be easily accommodated. To enable transmission of uncompressed video from such a large number of video channels from each station across Lines 1, 3 & 4, COE will deploy Coarse Wave Division Multiplexing (CWDM) technologies to optimise the available fibres and to enable a high channel count across the network. This technology allows transmission of up to 144 channels of video over a single fibre, and is uniquely available across COE's entire fibre product range by using CWDM enabled Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) Optics with hot-pluggable optic ports integrated with our products.
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Product Focus - Small Form-Factor Pluggable Optics
SFP optical lasers have a large number of benefits over traditional fibre optic lasers, such as:
- Increases to network redundancy levels
- Drastically decreased repair time
- Decreased necessity for spares holding (as optics are interchangeable)
- Increased distance range of transmission
- Field upgrading to enable CWDM or transmission range enhancement.
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By integrating SFP laser ports into their X-Net fibre products, COE have created a universal product set capable of fulfilling any project requirement requiring fibre optic transmission. COE's integration of SFP optics has also ensured a best of breed performance in delivering faultless video across networks which encounter high optical losses such as Seoul's Metro network.
A key requirement for surveillance systems in rail operations is consistency of operation. Downtime can be costly and dangerous in this environment, and to ensure that any potential downtime is eliminated for Seoul Metro, COE will provide a product set with integrated redundancy safe-proofing technologies augmented by a project network design offering unparalleled levels of redundancy.
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| Each station will have 64 - 128 cameras for lines 1, 3 & 4 to provide total surveillance of the sites |
Dual transmission rings, automatic transmission route-switching at point of failure, dual power sourcing and dual CPUs have all combined to ensure that both video and operational control over the network (including Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) camera control and camera switching), will never be affected by failure at single or multiple points across the network.
This safe-proofing is reinforced by a fully redundant recording solution, introducing a hot-swap digital video recording server; to which recording is automatically switched should a unit fail in the system. This ensures video loss will not be encountered.
Control for Seoul Metro is split over three dispersed control rooms, each gaining rights-based access to viewing from any camera at any point across the entire network should the need arise. Operators' activities will also be supported by up to over 1000 sets of electronic eyes; cameras enhanced by COE's X-Net VI automated intelligent video software. This intelligent analytical software is the latest development in CCTV network security. X-Net VI raises alarms relating to a large number of potential threats around the network by responding to a wide variety of rules based analytical processes. These rules have been developed to support CCTV operators' activities, and they include:
- Auto-tracking of PTZ cameras to monitor individuals.
- Alerting to suspicious packages abandoned in a station.
- Alerting to groups of individuals behaving suspiciously.
- Zone-alarms to register when an unauthorised person has entered a restricted area.
- Registering ticket barrier avoidance at a station.
Rules can be combined to create comprehensive tracking and alarm management for a network. This new technology refines the role of the CCTV operator in security management of a site, and can greatly enhance his performance in incident identification and response.
COE's Telecommand management solution is utilised for the management and recording solution of Seoul Metro 8000+ camera network. Modular expansion may also be undertaken at a later date to ensure the system can grow with the requirements across the network. Telecommand is also found in many other networks around the world, including urban CCTV networks of many cities throughout the United Kingdom.
Ian Jefferson, CEO of COE Ltd comments of the project: "Systems of this size and complexity demand high reliability rugged products coupled to efficient operations. COE designs its solutions around these criteria whilst integrating state of the art techniques and technologies. COE is the only company that designs and manufactures a complete integrated solution for a fully redundant CWDM fibre optic video transmission system, video matrix system and integrated video analytics. This combination of technologies makes COE uniquely suited to fulfil the demands encountered when approaching large and complex projects such as this."
Through maintaining a UK design and manufacturing base with field representation for projects around the world, COE provides highest quality video surveillance products whilst maintaining regional support for projects. Seoul Metro will see the benefits of their surveillance network upgrade for many years to come, and the new system will play a critical role in maintaining the highest standards of security over lines 1, 3 & 4 of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway network.
1Jane's Urban Transport Systems, 2002-2003 edition
