march2023 - 28

Technology
How Video
Surveillance
Technologies
Are Changing
the Way
Airports Operate
Using camera technology for more than security
provides a wider view of airport operations.
BY ANTHONY INCORVATI
A
irports are among the busiest locations on the
planet. At any given moment, there might be thousands
- even tens of thousands - of people present
inside an airport, boarding flights, departing flights,
grabbing a bite to eat or just killing time before they depart.
Most people at an airport have just one goal in mind: to get
to their destination safe and sound - and on time.
As travelers are ready to spend money on post-pandemic
vacations, airports - and airline employees - must be ready to
handle this influx of passengers, even as staff shortages and precarious
viral outbreaks may continue to loom. Fortunately, new
and emerging surveillance technologies have allowed airports
to leverage additional operational capabilities that are helping to
keep things running smoothly in the face of adversity.
Leveraging Improved Technology
As the demands continue to increase, airports are considering
how to manage the increased volume as efficiently as possible.
Security teams at many of the globe's most forward-thinking
airports now recognize that surveillance technology like internet
protocol (IP) cameras equipped with advanced analytics can
play a role that goes well beyond traditional security measures.
In fact, many users of the video system are of non-security-related
functions including operations, maintenance and others.
The vital surveillance role these devices play helps improve the
overall traveler experience in three ways: it can drive efficiency,
increase profitability and - even in the face of lengthening
queues - assist with creating a better passenger journey.
Before the invention of the IP camera, surveillance devices
had limited utility in airports, serving primarily to help
28 || Ground Support Worldwide || March 2023
investigate crimes after the fact. True, a security team member
might notice a significant commotion occurring on a bank of
wall monitors, but in general, the technology was reactive rather
than proactive. Continuous advances in camera technology
have changed this. Not only has image quality improved dramatically
over the past decade, but chipsets have also become
more advanced, increasing processing power and enabling
these devices to run analytics applications natively at the network
edge. Thanks to today's AI capabilities, data can now be
aggregated and analyzed on the devices themselves, sending
relevant metadata to cloud servers and decreasing the amount
of bandwidth and data storage needed to operate. This has made
modern analytics solutions significantly more accessible and
allowed airports to handle larger deployments of cameras with
vastly improved capabilities.
Among the new abilities the technology has enabled are
immediate alerts that are more suitable for real-time operations.
Today's AI-enabled IP cameras are better than ever at tasks
like object recognition, motion tracking and more. They can be
trained to issue alerts when certain conditions are met - such
as trespassers in a restricted area, a vehicle traveling in the
wrong direction, or aggressive or violent behavior within the
terminal. By raising an alarm as soon as suspicious or offending
behavior is detected, this technology can dramatically decrease
response times and even allow potentially dangerous incidents
to be stopped before they can escalate.
While this technology has its roots in security, it has also
enabled airports to optimize their operations at the speed at
which situations happen when they happen. Airports are now
deploying this same technology in ways that allow them to
march2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of march2023
