- Written by Alex
- Published: 22 Jun 2021
CHALLENGE
The Romanian Government made a commitment in front of UEFA and the EU Commision to build the railway connection from Bucharest main railway station to Otopeni Henri Coanda Airport before the start of European Football Championship 2020.
”Representatives of the national rail operator CFR presented detailed plans for the Northern Railway Station – Otopeni Airport railway link in a press conference on Monday. The upgrade of the train line will cost RON 584 million, and the 2.95 km link from the existing railway to the Arrivals Terminal of the airport will be built on 42 pillars.
The new link should be ready by the time the European Football Championship EURO 2020 begins to facilitate the transport to central Bucharest for fans arriving at the Henri Coanda Airport. The plan has the works being completed in 14 months after the planning phase, which is scheduled for April of this year. ” Business-Review 19/02/2019
The project’s tender for design and execution was launched in March 2019, and awarded in June 2019 to „Arcada Company SA, ISPCF and DB Engineering & Consulting” consortium. Design phase started right after the contract was signed, considering that the deadline was before June 2020 when the championship was supposed to start. Aracada Company started the construction of the viaduct in force although the Autumn was knocking at the door. Bad weather did not slow the construction team who were working at full capacity to respect the project plan.
Besides the civil works for the challenging viaduct, the construction of the new railway terminal design phase had to be completed in a very short period. ISPCF (Studies and Design for Railway Infrastructure Insitute) was in charge of the design of the architecture, civil works, rail signalling system and telecommunications. As the new railway terminal was required to be fully compliant with all related EU regulation and directives, plus, that the emplacement of the new station was within the airport’s premises, the design of the new railway terminal’s security & safety solutions as well as the passenger information one had to be in line with all applicable requirements for airports and rail transport.
Alfred Net was selected by ISPCF to support the design of the safety & security as well as for the new passenger information solutions to equip the railway terminal and respond to all required regulations and operational ones. It was a great challenge and responsibility for Alfred Net team to design these solutions for this new railway terminal. The solutions were supposed to meet the expectations of the passengers that travel to and from Henri Coanda Airport, to touch a high level of technology and respond to the demands of resilience for such an industrial environment.
SOLUTIONS
Security & Safety – the new railway terminal security solution was design based on a rigurous Risk Assessment Report elaborated in line with the security requirements of the airport and considering the worst case scenario that could threaten people’s integrity, as well as railway and airport assets and operations.
Tyco Security solutions were selected by Alfred Net design team to respond to the security & safety requirements of the new terminal. By using JCI Tyco, an integrated system was designed, that combines intrusion detection, physical access control, fire detection and video surveillance & analytics into one unitary solution, under Victor Unified Video Management Application, capable to monitor and manage the security & safety operations for the new terminal.
Passenger information system – was designed based on a mix of solutions from INFOPIX (IT.DOT), ASL Control UK and MobaTime CH that combined together resulted an integrated PIS/PAS[1] solution capable of managing and delivering correct and comprehensive visual and audio information to passengers and staff.
To achieve the most accurate sound and compliance with Commission Regulation (EU) 1300/2014, Alfred Net contracted ASL Control UK and Acoustics Plus to elaborate the acoustic study for the new terminal. Only based on this study, it was possible to determine the correct number of speakers, their tapping power and their exact position in order to deliver the expected sound and meet the STI PA level required by the TSI (4.2.1.11 Spoken Information, page 17 from EU 1300/2014 regulation document).
After the design phase, the main contractor, Arcada Company, selected Alfred Net for the implementation and commissioning of these solutions. „It wasn’t an easy decission to make, significant resources to involve for a short deadline, but still, the challenge has been accepted. It was an oportunity to be part of this project that ended with such a great achievement.” - Alex Vladutoiu – Managing Director & Solutions Architect at Alfred Net said.
[1] PIS/PAS – Passenger Information System / Public Address System
IMPLEMENTED SYSTEMS
- Video surveillance & video analytics: Victor Unified Management, VideoEdge & Illustra cameras
- Physical access control: CEM Systems & AC2000 with eDCM350 OSDP IP door controllers
- Intrusion detection: DSC PowerSeries Neo
- Fire detection: Zettler - Profile Flexible addressable panels, flame detectors and smoke sensors
- Train & security detection: Optex RLS2020S outdoor laser sensor
- Passenger Information: IT.DOT - INFOPIX: software solution, displays & monitors, infokiosks
- Public Address & Voice Alarm: ASL Control UK: PAVA equipment & speakers
- Clocking information: Moser-Baer AG – MobaTime, Master Clock / NTP and NTP based IP slave clocks
- Text-to-Speech: Paragon Semvox – Cerence TTS solution: English & Romanian voices
- Window Intercom: Opus Technologies
- Data infrastructure: KBC Networks, Cisco, DELL Technologies and Western Digital
- Power Infrastructure: Vertif and Riello UPS solutions
all combined together into one unitary solution were designed to meet the demanding operations of the new Henri Coanda Airport Railway Terminal.
The security & safety solution is designed and implemented to repond the multiple security threats scenarios, having implemented into Victor platform events and alarms procedures based on the logical interconnections between subsystems as well as response procedures based on well defined severity levels of alarms. The operators are capable of monitoring 99.9% of the railway terminal surface in order to proactively respond to any situation that may occur within the security operations.
The passenger information solution, based on IT.DOT’s iPIS software if capable to manage automatically the train traffic schedule, process and deliver to passengers the right visual and audio information at the right time. Based on the software interface with railway traffic application - IRIS, iPIS collects and process the trains arriving and departing from the terminal. Based on a direct interface with Airport’s PIS application, INFOPIX’s iPIS also collects, process and display the flights traffic and deliver the information automatically without the need of operators intervention. The iPIS GUI provides an easy to use and very intuitive tools to manage different scenarions when traffic information is not automatically delivered or available from railway traffic management software application. Using IT.DOT’s Element Manager software application, it is possible to monitor in real time the diagnosys data of all equipment of the systems in a very granularized way.
Based on Optex RLS2020S outdoor laser sensors, both video surveillance and PIS applications are receiving detection data for PTZ movement as well as for train detection that correlated with IRIS information supports iPIS to deliver the correct arriving and departing times in and out the terminal and the stop.
MobaTime Master Clock with NTP server, GPS based, synchronize the clock of all subsystems within the terminal and the stop. Using NTP for time syncronization is vital when operating an integrated system. Official hour is displayed to passengers. Information, both visual and audio is delivered at accurate time. Video surveillance uses precise time and interconnection with the other security and safety subsystems runs at the same second.
„It is the first time when technologies like: video analytics, flame detection based on video technology,laser detection, RGB LED displays and RGB LED wall, digital signage, IP based PAVA, IP based clocking with NTP master clock/server, Text-to-Speech technologies were implemented for the Romanian railway system. It is also the first integration performed at such level of complexity for a railway terminal.” Alex Vladutoiu explained.
Both Fire Detection and Public Address and Voice alarm systems are EN54 compliant and they work together in case of an emergency situation such as fire alarm, when PAVA[2] automatically plays the evacuation announcements, PACS[3] unlock the doors, stops the travellators and elevators and Victor platform delivers with priority to operators the video footage from alarmed zones, and procedures to react to the alarm in a well defined scenario. 99.9% of time, all subsystems function automatically.
The solution manages the railway terminal, the railway information displays inside the airport terminal, and the stop point that was built near Telekom Skating Arena located at 900m far from the terminal. In this way, the Bucharest Nord – Henri Coanda Airport trains serve the passengers that travel to and from the airport such as turists as well as the people that work in the airport and adiacent areas plus the ones that come to work daily on the west part of DN1 (National Road 1), opposite the airport. Starting 1st of June 2021, the Telekom Arena railway stop (named PO Patinoar) became operational.
Both safety & security and passenger information solutions rely on the power and data infrastructure also designed by the Alfrednet’s team. „I could say that what we have designed and implemented at this terminal, although it servers different operations, it is a complex, integrated and unitary solution where all subsystems work together based on the processes and procedures implemented into the managing platforms, Victor and iPIS” – declared Alex Vladutoiu – Managing Director & Solutions Architect at Alfred Net.
[2] PAVA – Public Address & Voice Alarm
[3] PACS – Physical Access Control System
RESULTS
Starting 13th of December 2020, the railway terminal became fully operational, receiving and sending a total of 72 trains per day, 36 pairs, arriving and departing at every 20 minutes from the terminal to Bucharest Nord station and return. After the pandemic restrictions were relaxed, on 1st of June 2021 the terminal counted more than 1000 passengers per day and it becomes more popular for passengers everyday as being an easy and fast way to reach the airport in time.
Now, as the European Football Championship 2020 is resumed (as it was postponed for 12 months due to the pandemic outbreak), this new railway connection, railway terminal and stop will demonstrate their utility for commuting the football fans, the employees, the tourists and staff within 20 minutes from Bucharest Nord (main railway station) to Henri Coanda Airport and back. „Great opportunity, big challenge, best team, really nice project, designed and implemented in less than one year!” – admitted Alex Vladutoiu.
ABOUT ALFRED NET
System Integrator for security, telecommunication and ITS[4] solutions, having a strong experience in delivering complex, site and multisite integrated systems for transportation, financial, industrial and more. Solution Architecture Design, Consultancy and Project Management experience of Alfrednet’s staff help organizations to define, select and implement the correct solutions that meet their operational requirements for mid and long term.
PROJECT TECHNOLOGY & PARTNERS
- TYCO SECURITY PRODUCTS from JOHNSON CONTROLS
- CEM SYSTEMS from JOHNSON CONTROLS
- DSC from JOHNSON CONTROLS
- ZETTLER from JOHNSON CONTROLS
- INFOPIX from IT.DOT
- VIPEDIA RANGE & LOUDSPEAKERS from ASL CONTROL UK
- MOBATIME from MOSER-BAER AG
- CERENCE from PARAGON SEMVOX
- WINDOW INTERCOM from OPUS TECHNOLOGIES
- INDUSTRIAL TRANSMISSION from KBC NETWORKS
- LIDAR LASER DETECTORS from OPTEX
[4] ITS – Intelligent Transportation Systems
Posted in Case studies, Latest Updates, Recent Blogs
General information
Quantum Secure provides an out-of-the-box enterprise PIAM (Physical Identity and Access Management) software solution (SAFE) using which security administrators can get a single self-service view of who has (physical) access to where, why, when and how thereby complementing existing security infrastructure of physical access control systems (PACS) and other IT systems such as HR and Logical Identity Management.Challenges Addressed by Quantum Secure’s SAFE:
Typically, PACS (physical access control systems) only provide information about who has access to where and when. But aspects of how and why someone was given access are captured through administrative processes outside of PACSs' remit. Through SAFE, security administrators can maintain and access an audit-able trail associated with all their physical access management processes which otherwise is managed manually over disparate sources such as phone calls and emails. This helps in measuring compliance and identifying (thereby avoiding) any risks such as people who continue to have access to areas which they should not. Additionally, this also helps in automating or streamlining redundant processes such as those around access attestation and role based access provisioning. The cost savings and benefits around risk reduction and compliance assurance are significant in the context of any enterprise hence could be easily validated at an enterprise through a scoping workshop.Technical Perspective
These benefits are achieved using the following inbuilt components of SAFE:-
- Framework to integrate with different physical access control systems (PACS) and other IT systems such as HR and Logical Identity Management (IDM) systems. Currently, SAFE integrates with over 90 such systems and this library (of connectors) is growing as Quantum Secure continues to work with new PACS at new customer organizations around the world.
- Policy/ Workflow Engine to enable workflows around various physical access management processes which are otherwise managed manually or over disparate systems and processes in an enterprise.
References
Quantum Secure’s SAFE is applicable for all organisations with a focus cost effective risk management and compliance assurance. Therefore aspects like size, scale, standardization (or disparity) of PACS do not matter. Currently, SAFE is live at over 150 organisations globally including major banks, oil and gas companies, transport authorities, airports and IT services providers in Europe.
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Main problem that CSOs (chief security officer) / companies are facing nowadays is given by the lack of awareness in what’s happening within their enterprise and remote security operations. A singular site could be somehow under control, but if has to manage multiple assets the problems escalate; almost zero awareness among remote locations, having no idea if security procedures are being followed, if there is any level of threats, if the security contractor is doing the job for which it is paid, if assets are safe. Most of the CSOs just get informed eventually by the security contractor, after an incident occurred, and has to physically go on site and try to get evidence from different sub-systems in the scope that maybe the CCTV system caught the reason and individuals that caused the incident. In addition, quite often it happens that the time is not synchronized between the security sub-systems, which cause more time spent on post-event investigation and evidence collection (if available) for being given to low-enforcement. It is worth to be mentioned about the loses (direct and indirect) generated by a security incident realizing that such a scenario could have been prevented or avoided if remote sites would have been monitored centrally in real time.
This white paper focuses upon the intelligent use of available technology and assumes that proper risk assessment was performed and security policies & procedures are already implemented. These two components are mandatory and represent the base in developing the technology architecture and requirements that shall match the operational requirements of each particular enterprise.
Step 1 – Establishing the Command & Control Room
In order to start central monitoring and managing your security operations, it shall be a priority to define and put bases of the command & control room / dispatch. The entity shall be owned and managed by the beneficiary. The operators though can be internals (recommended) or can be subcontractor’s personnel. The control room shall be sized based on the complexity of the enterprise’s assets and activity that need to be controlled. As biggest it is, more intelligent the technology shall be in order to efficiently manage the operations with lower dispatching personnel. Further changes in the human resources structure within the command & control room can be performed based on the events & alarms load.
Step 2 – Communication Infrastructure
Remotely monitoring and controlling geographically dispersed locations and assets require communication infrastructure. This means that each location shall be connected in the same network with the command & control room. This can be achieved by using different methods taking into consideration the necessary bandwidth, available connections (providers), information security policies, particularities of each location and so on. Once remote locations are in the same LAN it is just a matter of starting connecting the distant sub-systems. The entire architecture of security System shall be edge-to-core. Nevertheless, the control room shall be backed up by a data centre that will host the brain of the centralized solution.
Step 3 – Centralized Video Surveillance
Main step for centralized monitoring and management is to use a VMS (video management software) based solution. In each site, all cameras shall be connected to a NVR (network video recorder). The NVR can be either a box with embedded operating system (proprietary software) or can be a COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) machine with Windows OS and VMS instance installed. Remote NVRs shall be part of the centralized Video Management System. Therefore, centrally, each remote NVR is assimilated into core VMS, seen as remote site, but within the dispatch all remote sites are part of a unitary system. Thus, all cameras can be monitored and controlled by the operators without the need to separately access each location. There will be one GUI (graphical user interface) presenting all locations, all cameras or devices belonging to the surveillance system.
Step 4 – Centralized Access Control
Using the same architecture as video surveillance, each access control instance within a remote location shall be part of a centralized access control system. In order to achieve this, access control software application shall be used so that each location to be part of the same system and all remote controllers and readers to be seen as a unitary solution. Does not matter either is a physical controller or a software one as long as the access control software can monitor and manage all from the central server. In this way, all access control points can be centrally managed, applying access control rules and levels among the entire enterprise and making sure that a user badge works in any of the Enterprise location based on the associated access rights. In addition, access control can be consolidated by implementing an access management application on top allowing the full control of users, access zones, access levels, rights and permissions.
Step 5 – Interconnection of Sub-Systems
Video surveillance and access control are the only systems that can be self-centralized if they are software based. They can be interconnected at the central level (using software connection e.g. SDK/API) so that the video system to react on access control events or vice-versa. The rest of the sub-systems such as intrusion detection, motion sensors, fire detection and any other sub-systems on site cannot be self-centralized and depend on video management software, access control software or Integration Platform (e.g. PSIM). Interconnection between subsystems is mandatory to achieve centralized monitoring and management. It will allow reaction of video surveillance system to any event or alarm generated by access control, intrusion, fire detection and any other sensor that has a video camera in proximity. Having this interconnection, not only that all the subsystems will have a unique timing, but the operators from the control room are instantly notified upon these events and receive real-time images from the scene for visual confirmation. Interconnection between subsystems can be either at local level or centrally, depending on the systems, complexity and alarms load.
The Icing on the Cake
With these 5-steps presented already, centralized security operations can be achieved. One big move ahead has been done, from almost no control among remote locations and operations to centralized real time monitoring and understanding of what is happening within the enterprise. But more can be achieved, using Integration. The 5-Steps approach was already preparing your environment for this last step – integration – for an easier and cost effective one. Depending on the size and complexity of operations, the icing on the cake might not be necessary. Integration is shaped through a software application instance, fully independent of the sub-systems, and able to bi-bidirectionally communicate with them. This provides not only monitoring the systems, but also their management. Thus, the operators get events and alarms and can also send commands to remote sub-systems. In addition, complex filters and criteria can be applied in order to automatically determine the severity level of an event and generate a real alarm to operators. It allows full customization of how the system reacts depending on alarm type. SOPs (standard operating procedures) are embedded into the platform, so the correct response procedure is applied by the system that provides to operators full guidance for reaction and resolution of the alarms.
Contact us to discuss how you can benefit from the tailored version of this 5-steps approach in order to get the highest value of investment that meet your security challenges and address your operational needs.