An interview with Christoph Kreis, Sales Manager, Dallmeier. By Ross Falconer
It is a problem familiar to airport operators: unauthorised individuals entering the security area, for example when passengers go back to the airside from the landside after passing through customs or wander between ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ zones inside the security area.
Christoph Kreis, Sales Manager, Dallmeier: “The response from airports has been extremely positive so far, since Dallmeier can now offer a cost-effective monitoring solution for the security area. With many terminal closures in the past years, airports are quite happy to have such a solution.”
“The task of detecting and intercepting these ‘strays’ quickly, and resolving the situation, places enormous strain on personnel resources, and not infrequently is unsuccessful,” explains Christoph Kreis, Sales Manager, Dallmeier. “The consequence – the threat of partial or even complete terminal closures with the associated enormous costs – is real.”
Video security equipment manufacturer Dallmeier has developed a system based on 3D real-time location tracking, innovative video technology and mobile response team control, which is said to enable reliable, fast incident investigation while reducing overall costs by as much as 50%.
To achieve this, the Dallmeier solution combines the patented Panomera camera technology with 3D sensors and a software package that provides functions for detecting individuals, real-time positioning and automatic ‘wrong direction’ detection.
“Now if one or more people in the monitored area are moving in the wrong direction, they are detected by 3D real-time positioning, ‘captured’ as objects in the positioning system, and can be tracked seamlessly from then on,” says Kreis. “The response teams automatically receive an alert, a portrait photo of the intruder, and an overview image updated once a second on their mobile devices. In the bottom half of the screen, real-time information about the person’s position and direction of movement is displayed on the building map. The control centre has the same map view and image information of the events, and is thus able to coordinate the activities of the response team.”
At the same time, team members can switch between recordings on their mobile devices with simple swiping gestures, so they always know exactly where the individuals they are looking for are located. In this way, the persons they are searching for can be found immediately and critical situations can be resolved much faster.
“The response from airports has been extremely positive so far, since Dallmeier can now offer a cost-effective monitoring solution for the security area. With many terminal closures in the past years, airports are quite happy to have such a solution,” Kreis comments. “For example, since using our solution for over six months, a major European international airport detected all intruders or individuals walking in the wrong direction.”
The Dallmeier solution combines the patented Panomera camera technology with 3D sensors and a software package that provides functions for detecting individuals, real-time positioning and automatic ‘wrong direction’ detection.
Dallmeier has been offering solutions for specific airport areas, such as runway, apron, exterior and interior terminal areas, check-in, security or car parks, for many years. “We maintain a huge customer base in the airport sector, with customers including both major international hubs such as Frankfurt, Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Copenhagen, and medium-sized airports such as Bristol, Kazan or Prague.”
Besides considerably faster investigation of threat situations, Kreis explains that the Dallmeier solution also offers financial advantages over conventional approaches. Whereas previously a dedicated 24/7 presence was needed for every security checkpoint or passageway throughout the airport, with the Dallmeier solution security for the corresponding areas can be automated, and the teams only have to intervene when an alert is issued.
“With Dallmeier’s new semi-automated monitoring solution, airports benefit from three key advantages: prevent terminal closures, counter symptoms of fatigue among safety personnel, and minimise total cost of ownership compared to conventional solutions,” Kreis concludes.
