Dallas - Love Field Airport Installation

We helped design and supply a unique new system installed at the Dallas - Love Field Airport. This system allows the transmission of video and audio from multiple remote camera sites via microwave to a single frequency receiver. Until now, each microwave transmitter, in a geographic area, has required its own corresponding receiver with its own separate frequency. This installation also incorporates a solar/battery power supply that, in combination with the microwave system, eliminates the need for any external physical connection. This is the first solar/battery power supply to use Nickel Metal Hydride batteries in an application of this type. It’s 11:00 P.M. The airport manager is at home watching TV when he receives an alert over a standard, dedicated home telephone line. All employees left the airport at 9:00 P.M. He presses the Line-In button on his TV’s remote control. There on his TV screen is the view from the camera that caused the video based activity detection system to send the alert. There are eight cameras at the airport. Four of them are tied into this activity detection system. All 8 are available for control from his home system, including pan, tilt and zoom from his keypad control unit, which is now sitting in his lap. After viewing the situation he determines that it is a customer entering his own aircraft. There is no need to take any action. He takes a quick tour of the airport from his easy chair, sequencing from camera to camera, then he disconnects. This entire session was recorded and time and date stamped by an event activated VCR located at the airport. It’s bedtime and he would rather not be disturbed any further that night. He forwards the system via telephone to the Sheriff’s Department or to a security company’s monitoring center. In the morning, he will transfer monitoring and control to the PC on his office desk or to that of an employee. There are over 12,000 airports in the US Only twelve hundred have security, of any kind. In fact, there are 31 airports within a thirty-five mile radius of DFW Airport. Only 4 have manned security. Most have no security, at all. Billions of dollars in aircraft and equipment sit unprotected every night. One small corporate jet typically contains $250,000 in easily removed avionics. Mishaps occur at all airports. All but a few airports are owned and managed by local city, county and state entities. Most liability lawsuits could be shortened or settled if all events were being videotaped. CCTV cameras and microphones can now be placed in remote or virtually inaccessible locations through use of solar/battery power and microwave.

Airport Security Patrol
Its 2:00 A.M. An airport security guard is making his rounds in an airport vehicle. He receives an alert and an image on his color LCD video and audio monitor. On the screen he sees the activity that initiated the alert which was signaled by the activity detection system. It isn't necessary to search the screen because the initiating activity is highlighted by a shadowed trail. The activity appears normal, an authorized lineman is loading baggage into a corporate aircraft. The guard aims the dome camera at the lineman and zooms in at 22 X 1. The lineman’s face fills the screen. Backing off, he sees the uniform and security badge. The guard pans the area and sees two civilian cars parked on the ramp. He zooms in on each, and each time the license plates are read. There is no need to jot down the numbers. The event-activated VCR has been recording the entire session, logging the date and time since the alert. He releases the camera and the system hibernates. Once again, he has avoided responding to a false alarm. This is especially good because that camera site was three miles away.

Before continuing his rounds, he remembers that, hours earlier, he had told an operator to have some illegally parked cars removed from the front of his building. The guard punches up the camera in front of that site. It’s two miles away in the opposite direction. The event-activated VCR begins recording. It logs the time and date. On the keypad control unit, he maneuvers the joystick and the remote camera pans the area. The cars are still there and the VCR tape will provide evidence for the citation to be issued. He releases the camera and continues his rounds. As he passes another camera’s view the system does not go into alert, but it does log the authorization number of his vehicle and the time and date. This is because there is a transponder card, no bigger than a playing card, fastened to the inside of the windshield. Readers at each location recognize this as an authorized vehicle. He can also pass through any gate that recognizes his specific code as being authorized.

There are 150 camera sites at this airport. He could control over five hundred from the front seat of his security vehicle. These cameras can also be viewed and controlled from the airport headquarters. The airport covers 15 square miles. That’s a lot of territory to cover for a handful of security guards. It’s also a lot of cable, trenching and dug up runways, taxi-ways and ramp. However, no cable was laid and no real-estate was disturbed to install any part of the system. The microwave equipment located at each camera site and at the airport headquarters relays imaging, audio, camera control and operator authorization code information. Without hiring additional personnel, the airport has vastly expanded its security patrol capabilities. CCTV cameras and microphones can now be placed in remote or virtually inaccessible locations through use of solar/battery power and microwave.

More applications of this new technology