Just under 7000 km as the crow flies from Moscow is the largest airport on the Russian island of Sakhalin – Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk airport. It was awarded the status of International Airport by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 1990, and with about 1 million passengers per year it is the largest airport on the island. Generally, these days, it is difficult to imagine airports without security measures. This is especially true for airports which are entitled by certification of the ICAO to call themselves "International". The ICAO defines principles and guidelines for civil aviation. To receive certification, airports are obliged to adopt arrangements in keeping with the ICAO statutes for maintaining measures including but not limited to video security – such as for the apron and runway – and to implement corresponding solutions. In this context, the airport operators must also constantly take stock of advances and the latest development standards in the related technologies.

High-quality video material is essential

To satisfy these requirements, the operators at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport extended video surveillance to include the apron and runway areas. The use of the most up-to-data security equipment is intended to ensure the safe, expeditious and orderly movement of aircraft on the aprons and runway. These security areas are only accessible for authorised personnel, but the operators must still ensure that all activities relating to the aeroplane, such as the presence of unauthorised persons on site, or any damage incidents can be investigated quickly. Visual verification of all processes is assured by a Dallmeier Security solution based on the patented Panomera multifocal sensor technology. These special camera systems offer uninterrupted tracking of activities in large spatial relationships with uniform image quality despite the distance differences which apply for both the runway and the apron. The Dallmeier software technology enables operators to receive the overview images from the Panomera in one image and depending on the demands of the situation to select one or multiple zoom areas in the overall image with just a few clicks of the mouse, which they can examine closely as if they were in PTZ mode. But opposed to traditional PTZ-cameras, a high-resolution total overview of all other areas is always preserved both in the live mode and in the recording.

Thus, all processes relating to the aircraft whether it is arriving, departing, or even parking, such as refuelling, maintenance or cleaning, can be supervised seamlessly and recorded permanently with in high resolution.

A single Panomera system replaces many PTZ and megapixel cameras. For the operators of the airport, this has several financial advantages, since it entails considerably reduced expenditure on infrastructure, the cost of camera management is reduced by a correspondingly substantial factor, and the objective can also be achieved with reasonable human resources. The smart operation of the Dallmeier Video IP-Client software from the workstation both in live mode and in playback mode enables the operator to analyse the recordings quickly and conveniently. One particularly important advantage is derived from the capability to allow several operators to access zoom areas at the same time without ever losing the general overview. Thus, for example in the event of a security alert the police can use the camera system, but at the same time the apron controllers still retain a full view, and even service companies can continue to use the camera views undisturbed.

Zoom detail even in recorded images

IT Director Dmitry Golovanov and Project Manager Renat Mardanov are highly satisfied with the Dallmeier Airport solution. "Another important factor was the stability and reliability of the system because we must record the entire situation permanently to ensure optimal loss and safety management and for investigating incidents. The multifocal sensor technology enables us to zoom into detail situations at any time, even in the recorded image data, and verify any occurrences with certainty. The Dallmeier Panomera has already been deployed successfully in many international airports, so it was not difficult for us to reach a decision after we were able to convince ourselves of the systems' quality.", recounts Dmitry Golovanov, "Even the considerably smaller number of cameras compared with solutions using PTZ and megapixel cameras made installation and operation much simpler for us, which in turn helps to relieve the burden on our processes and lower total costs."

Project Manager Renat Mardanov adds to his colleague's statement: "The execution of the project was flawless, the thorough training of our installers and support during implementation and setup of the entire system on site ensured that we could go live rapidly and without problems, and in Dallmeier we have found the right solution partner for a complete implementation of our new security solution."

Scalability and integral approach

Analysis tools and business process optimisations are topics which will become increasingly important for the airport in future. They can set their own schedule since the currently installed systems are scalable in all directions at any time and will remain fit for purpose in the future. An implementation of a wide range of tools, such as an upgrade to AI-based instruments and analysis functions is also possible at any time in the future.