Moving more than 2.5 million passengers daily, the Tehran Metro has also greatly reduced congestion and pollution in the rapidly growing metropolis. Consisting of five lines at a combined length of 152 kilometres, with two more lines currently under construction that will bring the total length to 430 kilometres, the Tehran Metro is also linked to Iran’s regional rail network and has become a crucial part of the great city of Tehran.

As of 2010, approximately 2 billion dollars has been spent on the Tehran Metro project, evidencing the Tehran Metro Company’s commitment to providing the very safest, most convenient experience for its 2 million daily passengers.

Tehran Metro’s development of new lines involves a vast working area. In order to ensure the safety of this line’s future commuters, as well as the safety of its current workers, Tehran Metro required a surveillance system to cover the tunnels, platforms, and workshop areas of this rapidly expanding network. The area requiring coverage, which was not only devoid of natural light and thus often very dark, but also often extremely dusty and humid, required a range of network cameras that would not only provide clear and reliable surveillance in low-light conditions, but would also be able to stand up to the harshest operating conditions.

The broad range, high resolution, flexible storage capability and durability of Vivotek’s surveillance systems ensured that Tehran Metro Company could continue work on developing its new line, secure in the knowledge that the working areas, tunnels and platforms could all be monitored on a secure and stable high-performance IP network system. With Vivotek’s wide range of IP network cameras, advanced network video recorders and video management systems, the often-chaotic construction areas where able to be simply, easily, and thoroughly secured.

A total of 82 Vivotek IP network cameras were installed throughout the construction area of the Tehran Metro. The difficult lighting conditions of the tunnels and workshop areas called for extremely capable cameras, and for this task Vivotek’s IP8371E low light corridor view network bullet camera with Smart IR was perfectly suited. The IP8371E’s 3D noise reduction technology empowers it to capture clear video under low-light conditions, and also helps to reduce bandwidth from sensor noise. Further enhancing the coverage of Tehran Metro’s construction areas, this camera is equipped with powerful 30 metre-range IR illuminators, and because Vivotek knows that lighting conditions can change throughout the day and night, the IP8371E also features Smart IR technology which prevents overexposure and provides noise reduction to adjust the IR lighting intensity instantaneously based on the changes of light in the ambient environment.

For entrance areas, Vivotek’s IP8335H was chosen for its excellence in providing high-detail, high-quality footage in both high and low-light conditions. The IP8335H WDR Pro feature enables the camera to capture both the dark and bright parts of any image with double-shutters, enabling two frames to be combined to create a highly realistic image of the original scene, providing video quality close to the capabilities of a human eye. To add to this, the IP8335H also features automated shutter control, or P-Iris. P-Iris controls the iris with extreme precision with a built-in stepper motor, maintaining the opening at an optimal level at all times, resulting in superior image clarity and depth of field as well as image quality – no matter what the lighting conditions. So the entranceways of the Tehran Metro construction areas, which were often effected by changes in ambient light, can now be reliably monitored.

Both the IP8371E and the IP8335H are encased in weather-proof, dust-proof, and vandal-proof IP67 rated housing. The IP67 rated housing is designed to help the camera body withstand rain and dust and ensures operation under a multitude of harsh weather conditions. Thus, despite the constant dust generated by the large scale construction of the Tehran Metro, both IP cameras are able to continue providing high-detail and reliable footage, and while the working area is often extremely humid, the wide operating temperature range of both cameras ensures seamless operation, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Finally, the construction area of the Tehran Metro, though covering a vast area, is all able to be monitored from a single location thanks to the intelligence of Vivotek’s Vast video management software. The features of Vast allow flexible monitoring of a large network of IP network cameras over a variety of locations by a small number of security staff, with new cameras able to be added at any time; meaning that as the Tehran Metro construction project grows or changes, the entire surveillance system can grow or adapt with ease. So now Tehran Metro can get on with task of expansion and providing the people of Tehran with ever more convenient services, confident that Vivotek is there to support them in this challenging project.