United Airlines enhances security with fiber-optic transmission equipment

United Airlines enhances security with fiber-optic transmission equipment

Feb 1, 1997 12:00 PM
By Staff

In an ongoing effort to protect flight attendants, pilots and mechanics from vandalism, theft and physical assault, the United Airlines maintenance Operations Center at San Francisco International Airport recently upgraded its CCTV surveillance system. Focusing on five employee parking lots, United installed Panasonic digital CCD cameras and two-way fiber-optic video transmission equipment from Physical Optics Corp.

First implemented in the early 1970s, United's 24-hour parking lot surveillance system now consists of eight Panasonic cameras - most of which are outfitted with 160mm zoom lenses - mounted on buildings adjacent to the parking lots. The POC fiber-optic transmission equipment - specifically designed to work with the Panasonic cameras and controller - allowed United to add the new cameras to the system without going through costly and time-consuming addition of fiber. POC's plug-and-play transmission systems - which send several video and pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) control signals concurrently over multimode fiber-optic cables - required no optical or electric adjustments.

One video transmission system, also called a link or extender, was rack-mounted in United's LAN room, while another was installed in the control room. In this configuration, each POC device transmits two video and two PTZ signals up to a distance of 4,800 feet without amplifiers or repeaters. The video/PTZ extenders from Physical Optics rely on pulse frequency modulation (PFM) electronics and four-channel wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) optics to transmit the signals over a single optical fiber. Designed for connection to Panasonic single-coax multiplexers and receivers, the units can be switched from one fiber to another without adjustment, reducing downtime in the event of a fiber reconfiguration or failure.

Record up to 48 cameras onto a single VCR with the EXZ9300 (black and white) and EXZ9400 (color) frame switchers from Elbex. The Framelock sync. and I.D. Code technologies have a refresh rate of 0.8 second in real-time recording mode and transmit all 48 video signals over a single transmission medium to Elbex Serial receivers. Signals can be displayed in single, quad, nine or 16 split formats. Frame Switchers are available in eight, 16, 32 and 48 camera sizes.

The 7105 1/3-inch black and white camera from Appro Technology has 420 lines of resolution and a minimum illumination of 0.02 lux at f1.4. The electronic shutter operates from 1/60 to 1/100,000 making it suited to indoor and outdoor applications, according to Appro. It operates at 12v DC or 24v AC, accepts DC or video auto iris lenses, and has gamma correction. It is C/CS mount and has back focus adjustments for zoom lenses. Model 2807 fiber-optic modules transfer high-speed asynchronous NRZ digital data with EMI immunity via fiber optics at speeds from 50 mb/s to 1.1 gb/s with up to 10 db optical loss. According to manufacturer Force Inc., they are suited to SONET OC-1 to OC-12, fiber channel, computer interconnects and serial HIPPI and digitized video data streams.

The KTD-300 is a compact desktop keypad engineered for the combined control of video switching, multiplexer and receiver systems, according to manufacturer Kalatel. It pro-vides remote multiplexing view control and total control of the Kalatel Digiplex system. It is programmable and available in a 1.75-inch rack-mount version.

The DigiTek series of intrusion detectors detects changes in video by comparing a current scene in a user-defined detection zone to a reference scene held in memory. From Vicon Industries, the three models accept four, eight and sixteen video inputs and feature sequential switching. Each camera can be programmed for sensitivity levels, indoor or outdoor settings, object size and object dwell time. Maximum sensitivity is +/-4 IRE, relative to a video signal of 80 IRE. A motion detection mode compensates for environmental light changes. The SSC-C104 color CCD camera features a 1/3-inch HyperHAD interline transfer CCD and wide-range auto-tracking white balance (ATW) of 2,000 to 10,000 degrees K for excellent image quality, according to manufacturer Sony Electronics. It also features wide-range CCD iris function (1/69 to 1/100,000 second) with level control, back-light compensation and a selectable Turbo AGC feature for sensitivity of 1.0 lux at f1.2. The AG-6740, a S-VHS time-lapse recorder with high-density recording, records more fields per second, according to manufacturer Panasonic's Broadcast and Television Systems Co. It includes Panasonic's IQ transport mechanism, direct drive motors for each reel, a 16-bit digital servo mechanism, an impedance roller and an auto head cleaner. Recording modes range from two hours to 960 hours on a single T-120 cassette. Additional features include: alarm recording, emergency recording, blue-screen indicator, repeat time indicator, tape remaining warning and RS-232C compatibility for computer-controlled programming and operation.