Transportation

Huge Pelco PAL System Integrates Video Security at Dubai International Airport
by Denise S. Dieser, Marketing Communications Writer, ddieser@pelco.com

Dubai is a city of contrasts with soaring skyscrapers and other modern architecture juxtaposed with suburban villas and traditional Arabic homes. It is one of the most successful business centers in the region and has claim to one of the busiest airports in the world.

Recognized as the aviation hub of the Middle East, Dubai International Airport is considered the Middle East’s premier airport. With 13.5 million passengers passing through its gates in 2001, it is also one of the fastest growing airports in the world, accommodating 96 airlines flying to over 136 destinations. Anticipating passenger growth of up to 30 million people by 2010, the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation began a $540 million expansion program in 1997 and is on the verge of another phase estimated at $2.5 billion to be completed by 2006.

Airport Expansion Includes Video Security Integration

An integral part of this expansion has been its video security system, which is being used for security and surveillance by the Dubai Police. The scope of the project integrated Pelco video security surveillance equipment with the airport’s security access control.

"The system gives the client better surveillance capabilities and further allows the police to reduce their manpower requirements," said Akbar Thakur, Sr. Account Executive – Fire & Security, who heads up the project sales group at Honeywell in the United Arab Emirates. "The end user is satisfied with the system and the quality of the pictures, especially in comparison to the Philips and Vicon systems previously installed at other locations of the Dubai Airport."

Accomplished in several phases, the video security project was started in November 1998 with installation completed and the Dubai Airport operational on April 15, 2000. Other expansions to the video security system have been ongoing since that time.

"Working in phases was extremely challenging and difficult and needed very close coordination with all parties concerned," said Thakur, who was the Senior Project Manager for this system and responsible for delivering multi-million dollar projects on time and within budget.

"Presently we are adding another building called the Super Gate and installing approximately 27 new cameras, 5 monitors, DVRs, and other equipment to the existing Dubai Airport system installed earlier."

Pelco and Honeywell Team Up

This particular branch of Honeywell and Pelco have been working together since June 1997, said Gerrit Hurenkamp, Pelco International Business Development Manager, but the relationship with other Honeywell branches dates back much further.

"We have done other projects together, but the Dubai International Airport was by far one of the larger PAL systems (in terms of total camera inputs) supplied to date," said Hurenkamp.

"We started off with 60 cameras at the first stage," said Oraib Bustami, CCTV Operations Manager for the airport. She said they now have several hundred. Bustami, who has been working in the CCTV industry for many years, has been with airport management for three years.

"The number of Pelco cameras installed at the Dubai Airport, including the new Super Gate, is 454," said Thakur. That brings the total number to over 600, including existing cameras.

Hurenkamp said that in order to win this project, Pelco worked with Honeywell to design a system that was different from what was originally tendered in order to provide a better system design at a lower cost by using the networking capabilities of the Pelco System 9760.

An extremely hot and dusty environment was one of the many special concerns encountered with this installation. Due to the airport design itself, bright sunlight throughout the buildings also made backlight compensation a must, with pan and tilts – including domes – having to be suitable for continuous operation.

"A very large number of cameras are installed in pressurized enclosures to keep sand storms from disabling the cameras inside. Normal IP65 rated enclosures, such as the EH3512, would not work." Hurenkamp went on to say that the installer customized many of the indoor Spectra domes to match the colors of the metal columns on which they are mounted so they would blend in with their surroundings.

Thakur said that the customer’s goal has been accomplished with the installation of this system, and that it had a unique requirement of ultimately having three switchers.

Hurenkamp said the original specification required a single matrix with recording units behind the matrix, and Pelco suggested splitting the matrix into two separate units. This later became three. Two are networked together.

"There are a total of three switchers installed. One in the Terminal 1 Control Room, a second in the Concourse Control Room, and the third in the Duty Free," said Thakur. The Terminal 1 Control Room and the Concourse Control Room switchers are networked and the Duty Free is a standalone.

"We first had to provide an interim matrix to allow operations to continue while the control room was being refurbished and extended. In the second phase, the terminal switcher was completely replaced, and finally a switcher in the concourse building was installed and networked to the central system. After that, various additions to the system have been implemented," said Hurenkamp.

Obstacles Overcome

"During construction we were presented with some challenges due to the extremely bright sunlight in the region. The resulting highly dynamic video signals defied common design rules and made it necessary for us to modify our video amplifiers to ensure a good picture at all times." Hurenkamp went on to say that several engineers from Pelco’s New York team visited the site to observe the phenomenon and conducted measurement tests that enabled them to deal with these extremely dynamic signals.

"After several trips to Dubai and gaining a real understanding of the problem, Pelco engineers redesigned the video input and output cards with increased screening between the video circuits, providing an almost interference-free video output to the satisfaction of the client," said Thakur.

"The system has not been without its problems, but the quality of the cameras is as expected and technical support has been very good. Pelco engineers were able to analyze and solve the initial problem, and I give credit to them for that. Their responsiveness is remarkable and serviceability excellent," said Bustami.

"On this project we worked with Philips and Pelco and found the response from Pelco – especially Gerrit Hurenkamp, Mark Carusa, and Abel Gutierrez – as excellent, and decided to go ahead with Pelco. You have excellent support, good product, and high-level integration with Honeywell EBI (Enterprise Building Integrator software) at the front end," said Thakur. "Keep up the good support."