To ensure a safe ride for passengers, it is imperative to increase metro safety with modern technologies and monitoring equipment.
By Security Sales
Recife's urban train system transports around 400 thousand passengers per day, it is the third largest railway operator in number of users in Brazil.
The main challenge was to adapt the technology to specific conditions, such as lighting, the flow of people and the speed of the metro station, without interrupting the transport service. Therefore, the ease of operation, installation and high availability in the system, the prerequisites for choosing the surveillance solution.
Solutions
The Brazilian Urban Train Company (CBTU) began a recovery plan for stations, trains, electrical systems and permanent tracks last year, with a contribution of R$61.5 million (US$16.3 million) to invest in improvements to the Pernambuco metro. It then inaugurated a new phase of the surveillance operation with the acquisition of 1,380 high-resolution cameras from Dahua Tecnología for the deployment of the surveillance system.
The Dahua intelligent surveillance system with integrated analytical video, monitors 52 places spread over the 71 kms of the railway line in the capital and the metropolitan region. The project led by Avantia Group from the publication of the tender to the installation combines four models of Dahua cameras: DH-IPC-HF5231EN-Z-S2; DH-IPC-HF5231EN-S2; DH-IPC-HDBW8231E-ZS2; and DH-SD65F230FN-H, all are equipped with H.265 compression and video analysis.
These cameras work every day capturing and identifying images. With a quantity of data that must be analyzed daily, the compression pattern of H.265 video, a format twice as efficient as its predecessor (H.264), is essential since it uses only 50% of the bandwidth, maintaining the same quality.
Equipment using Dahua's main features (H.265 compression, analysis, Starlight) has beefed up the safety of the Pernambuco Metro's Central and South lines and allowed operators to get views of metro operations, especially at peak times or during tourist events, such as carnival.
Day and night, in difficult lighting conditions and even in extreme low light, Dahua's exclusive Starlight cameras deliver sharp and colorful images to the surveillance center to ensure the best performance in very low light conditions (0.005 Lux).
The technology strengthens user protection in a general way, as it prevents intrusions into vital areas of operation, depredations or other occurrences that could hinder the transport of passengers. With video analytics, even if the video surveillance operator is not tracking images from a specific camera, the system automatically identifies and alerts a detected movement in a restricted region, for example.
In addition to high technology, Dahua also provides professional technical assistance to ensure the success of the installation process, which did not hinder the operation of the subway. As revealed by Avantia's Chief Operating Officer, Hamilton Valentin: "The partnership with CBTU has been very successful, due to the peculiarities of the implementation of the security system. It was a big challenge, as all the systems at the stations were fully operational. It was the result of an outstanding team effort with the full support and collaboration of the client, so that the implementation was carried out in the best possible way and with minimal interventions in the metro system."
Proceeds
With the help of Dahua network cameras, passengers coming and going from the Central and Southern lines are now protected by security teams at multiple locations throughout the subway operation. The new video surveillance system was designed to work in a centralized management, which differs completely from the previous single management model. Thus, with this change, it was possible to make better use of the human resources of the security team in the 37 stations.
It was thought that Dahua's entire video surveillance system will not only ensure the physical safety of each user, but also avoid a common problem that causes a huge impact on the quality of service: vandalism. On some occasions, a window broken by a user can delay the routine of thousands of passengers. With video surveillance cameras it is possible to identify suspects, activate the maintenance service in a more agile way and minimize the impact on the operation.
Video footage of events occurring within the Urban Train System facilities can be shared with the Military Police who, if necessary, can search the image database and use resources such as Zoom to capture details that aid in investigations. The operators themselves can alert the authorities depending on the incident.
This is the first project of CBTU, which also manages urban rail transport in other Brazilian capitals, such as João Pessoa, Maceió, Natal and Belo Horizonte. "With this success story, Dahua Technology once again ratifies its experience in projects for the public segment. The solution offered will allow the end customer to have a fully intelligent video surveillance system that will provide optimal lighting in dark environments, protection to restricted areas 24 hours a day, incident alerts and high performance for operators. All this will focus on the prevention and alert of possible situations that endanger the metro system, as well as the safety of its users," said Fabio Lopes, Channel Sales Director of Dahua Technology Brazil.
The client
"The cameras are being installed and monitored centrally, in a control room. In the future, we intend to achieve a cost reduction for the company, since with the cameras we were able to reduce local surveillance in some metro stations, but the great advantage will be seen in the safety of our passengers. The images help us identify crimes at stations and send this information to the police. We are in the implementation phase and we start operating with smart technology, the results have already begun to be seen; we have already managed to identify and arrest the suspects, referring them to the police. We are using all efforts to train and hire new agents and I am sure that we will achieve greater profits in the future," said Leonardo Villar Beltrão, Superintendent of CBTU of Recife.
The integrator
"The partnership with CBTU has been very successful, due to the peculiarities of implementing a state-of-the-art security system. It was a big challenge, as all the systems at the stations were fully operational. It was the result of an excellent team effort with the full support and collaboration of the Client, so that the implementation is carried out in the best possible way and with minimal interventions in the metro system", Hamilton Valentin - Director of Operations of Avantia
The distributor
"This project is of paramount importance to Spectra. We have been close to Avantia and Dahua Technology throughout the implementation process, providing them with all the necessary support in the delivery of solution", Reginaldo Mattos, Director of Spectra Systems.
