Talking about the Application and Development of Network Video Surveillance Technology in Airport Security

In order to safeguard national security and social stability and prevent and combat violent and terrorist crimes, the National Development and Reform Commission released in 2015 its “Several Opinions on Strengthening the Networked Application of Public Security Video Surveillance Construction” (referred to as “opinions”). According to the Opinions, by 2020, it will basically realize the application of “public domain coverage, whole network sharing, full-time availability, and full-controllable” public safety video surveillance construction networking. Under the current situation, we will make full use of network video surveillance technology, strengthen public security prevention work, and promote the construction of safe China.

At present, the airport has become an international transportation hub and safety work is particularly important. The Capital Airport, as an international large-scale hub airport, carries the highest volume of passenger and cargo transportation among the world's major airports, and safety work cannot be ignored. The "four all" in this "opinion" undoubtedly put forward higher requirements for the capabilities of network video surveillance technology at domestic airports, especially at the Capital Airport. In view of the current technological upgrading needs, this paper briefly analyzes the future development trend of the airport video surveillance system from the aspects of airport security work and other aspects.

First, the characteristics of airport video surveillance

Airport video surveillance has a wide layout and many monitoring points. Large-scale hub airports have a scale of thousands of monitoring sites. Such a large number of distribution points require different types of cameras and installation methods. The technical solutions must be designed according to their respective needs. Secondly, there are many internal departments in the airport, including security inspection, public security, customs, frontier inspection, command center, etc. All need to use video surveillance systems, and the demand characteristics are not the same. Therefore, when designing a video surveillance system, it is necessary to consider various departments. The actual needs, in order to avoid the use of advanced technology, such as poor results. In addition, due to the wide coverage of the airport, the area covered by the terminal building and the perimeter is large, and the signal transmission quality and efficiency are relatively high. Therefore, it is necessary to use the network resources rationally.

Second, the analysis of video surveillance needs in various regions of the airport

The airport area from the outermost layer to the innermost layer mainly includes the perimeter, public area, isolation area, and flight area. These four areas can form a closed loop, which can be called a safety ring. The security of airports cannot be separated from the security of each security ring. At the same time, each security ring has a hierarchical relationship of mutual influence. As shown in Figure 1, the hierarchical relationships of the security rings formed in each area of ​​the airport.

Figure 1 Levels of Security Circles at Airports

Airport perimeter

The perimeter of the airport is extensive, radiating to dozens of kilometers to the surroundings, the surrounding environment is complex, and the safety and controllability are small. However, it is also the first barrier of airport flight area safety precautions, so its security level can be regarded as the highest level. In terms of technology, due to the need to cope with day and night environmental changes, infrared imaging technology and visible light imaging integrated monitoring equipment are more suitable for the security requirements of the region.

2. Airport public area

Airport public areas cover terminal halls, parking lots, etc. Among them, the passenger flow pressure in the terminal lobby is the key monitoring area for the terminal building. For this area, the image sharpness of video surveillance is the key to implementing the system's intelligent analysis function. In order to screen suspicious passengers through portrait recognition technology and capture key figures in a certain location for a long time, the video surveillance system needs to be capable of presenting various details of the monitored objectives as well as features such as clothing and appearance. Due to the dense flow of people in the lobby of the terminal and the vastness of the venue, the camera is required to be able to monitor the characters in all directions and without any blind spots.

In addition, considering the energy conservation and environmental protection, the lighting facilities in the public areas of the airport will increase or decrease over time, and there will be poor light conditions in a certain period of time. This stage is also the high incidence of security incidents. Therefore, the requirements for the noise reduction efficiency and the sensitivity of the camera are relatively high, so that the characteristics and the activity trajectories of the moving objects in the monitored area can be captured in a low-illumination environment.

3. Airport separation area

The airport isolation area is a major area that enters the flight area. Therefore, the video surveillance system of each channel entering the isolation area requires higher intelligence. The degree of intelligence needs to automatically enable the defense function according to the channel opening time, and can be linked with the alarm system to prevent unscrupulous personnel from escaping the quarantine area. The “reverse traverse detection” function is used to prevent personnel from illegally entering and retreating into the quarantine area.

4. Airport flight area

The airport flight area is the last point of safety precautions. The video surveillance system in this area needs to complete tasks such as apron monitoring, aircraft takeoff and landing tracking, and runway monitoring. For the camera's high-definition technology and image acquisition range and other requirements are high. Far-infrared camera, laser-assisted lighting, long-distance high-definition camera and PTZ camera application is the key.

From a brief analysis of each region, in terms of functionality, suspicious face recognition, automatic tracking, regional intrusion detection, reverse traverse detection, legacy detection, item removal detection, warning and alarm are all key functional links in the airport video surveillance system.

Third, the airport video surveillance technology outlook

Considering the monitoring characteristics of each area of ​​the airport, and considering the overall video surveillance system at the airport, the security of the airport has gradually evolved toward digitalization, networking and integration. That is, video digitization, network monitoring and software integration. Figure 2 shows the network video surveillance system.

Figure 2 Network video surveillance system

In terms of digitization, the digitized processing of captured video images can make full use of the computer's rapid processing and analysis capabilities, detect abnormal situations in a timely manner and carry out linkage alarms, reduce personnel on duty, and reduce the labor costs of airport operations. At the same time, the digital information has strong anti-interference ability and is not easily affected by signal attenuation of the transmission line. It can also realize encrypted transmission and can meet long-distance real-time monitoring. This advantage is applicable to airport security where the monitoring area covers a wide area.

In terms of networking, due to the rapid development of computer network technology, the construction of a networked video surveillance system has been widely used. At present, all-IP surveillance systems including IP cameras have been applied in the security of several large airports in China. For example, the T3 terminal of the Capital Airport, the airport of Kunming Changshui and the T2 terminal of Pudong Airport have all adopted the network video surveillance system. This technology has made great breakthroughs in the surveillance system using analog cameras and codec architectures in previous airports, which has solved the limitations of the matrix of analog video surveillance systems, and the configuration of its functions is more flexible and autonomous, with a simple architecture and low cost. This is also an important change in the development of airport video surveillance technology, marking the transition to the all-IP era.

In terms of integration, as airport security is a complex project, in addition to video surveillance, the alarm system, access control, and many other, involved a wide range of product types and brands. At present, each subsystem is often independently constructed and operated. As a result, higher management and maintenance costs are incurred, and there are also many inconveniences when operators use it, which is not conducive to the analysis and prediction of the security situation of airport management personnel.

Security management is a systematic project. It has become an inevitable trend to integrate all security subsystems on one platform to improve the efficiency of airport operations and management. Moreover, the integrated video intelligent management platform construction will be the dominant direction for future development. Since airport security is closely related to all aspects of airport operations, the integration of security subsystems is only a development stage, and the complete integration of security and airport business systems is the ultimate goal. Through the integration of front-end, network and platform construction and system integration and integration can meet the needs of airport security work on centralized and decentralized command, control, coordinated scheduling and analysis and prediction, alarm and other functional integration needs.

At the same time, in terms of camera image quality improvement, high-definition network cameras will also become the main development trend of airport video surveillance systems. Its high definition, effective pixels, rich image details, wide coverage and other characteristics suitable for airport monitoring point-intensive and large coverage area of ​​the camera needs. High-definition surveillance is an overall solution that covers multiple aspects such as video capture, encoding, transmission, storage, control, decoding and display. With the development of technology and the reduction of equipment costs, it will also be widely popularized.