JVC WIRELESS IP NETWORK SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM
USED BY JACKSONVILLE SEAPORT

The Jacksonville Seaport, under the guidance of the Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT), has been a very big and busy commercial enterprise port for more than 100 years. In late 2003/early 2004, they added a new cruise port handling cruise ships operated by the Carnival Cruise Lines and Celebrity Cruises out of a single facility. On the cargo side of the house are three port terminals, of which two are big, busy and active terminals, while the third is fairly new and still growing its business.

“These four facilities comprise the public facilities of Jacksonville’s seaport, of which JAXPORT is the landlord,” explained Robert Peek, Director of Communications for the Jacksonville Port Authority. “We lease the space to commercial enterprises and are not a day-to-day presence.”

On a busy day at JAXPORT’s biggest facility, 800 acres in size, there could be several thousand people working: ships and tugboats docking, cranes unloading boats and forklifts taking cargo off and moving it into warehouses, etc. Every year, more than 1,600 ships and barges combine to carry more than 7.5 million tons of goods through JAXPORT facilities.

The growing business and increased federal security requirements fueled JAXPORT’s desire to ratchet up security in a significant way. The seaports already have a variety of systems in place: security fences, gates, security guards and patrols. JAXPORT sought to add a high-end video monitoring system to complement their existing systems and increase their security and surveillance capabilities.

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

In April 2003, JAXPORT awarded, Han-Padron Associates (HPA), a full-service engineering company, a five-year on-call contract for marine engineering services. One of the first projects for HPA’s Jacksonville-based office was to design an advanced security monitoring solution for the seaports. HPA brought in engineers from Ross & Baruzzini, security experts in the transportation arena, and together the team fleshed out the design specifications for a wireless IP-base network surveillance system with high-resolution, full-motion video.

Quality Communications, Security and Fire, based in Fort Lauderdale, FL, was awarded the JAXPORT project through a lengthy bid solicitation. A leading systems integrator, its solution incorporated multiple leading-edge technologies to create the first-ever wireless IP-network monitoring and surveillance solution.

“We took a risk and tried to do something that no one else had done before,” explained Terry Delmonaco, Project Engineer for Quality Communications. “Our idea was to get rid of the existing analog technologies and go totally digital and totally wireless.”

ObjectVideo was selected as the motion tracking software system to run on the wireless network, Trango Broadband Wireless point-to-multipoint microwave systems to deliver secure high-speed Internet and Ethernet transmissions, all running on Cisco hubs/routers. But the digital video recorders originally speced for the system were analog, posing a problem for this all-digital solution.

Delmonaco turned to JVC, “I knew of this JVC solution, a fully digital recorder with no BNC connectors, no analog camera inputs – strictly a network machine. This (the VR-N100U) was the only machine that I could find that would give us the enormous amount of storage needed and run up to 16 cameras at 30 frames per second (fps), which is what the spec called for.”

Scott Watson, Vice President of the Video Imaging Systems Division for JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS COMPANY quickly agreed to work with Quality Communications on the JAXPORT solution, “We recognized this as an opportunity to be part of a team that would execute the most advanced IP monitoring and security system in the country. Our IP-based VR-N100U digital recording system was designed for next-generation security solutions just like this.”

HOW IT WORKS – BIG PICTURE

Security cameras are strategically placed around the JAXPORT properties. Rather than security personnel in a monitoring station, the system’s servers monitor the ports and make decisions as to when and whether there is a security incident.

This intelligent system can distinguish between a car, a person, a raccoon, a dog, a boat, etc. It can tell the difference whether the object is coming toward you or away from you, and its direction and rate of travel. Rules are defined as to what constitutes a security breach, and this information is programmed into the system. A camera may be programmed to monitor a roadway and send an alert if any car goes over 45 mph, or monitor ports for incoming vehicles/boats after a designated hour, and so on.

For example, if an intruder trips an alarm, the system will instantly identify that a rule has been broken and immediately send this information to the assigned port-security vehicle(s). As Delmonaco explained, “What we’ve done is cut out the middleman – there’s no dispatch or dispatcher required, the information is sent directly to a responding officer.”

The responding officer patrolling the area hears an audible alert from the laptop. Looking at the screen, in one window is a JPEG image of the intruder climbing the fence. A second window below the JPEG identifies the rule that was broken, the trespasser’s direction of travel, and pinpoints the intruder by putting a square around the image.

A third window automatically begins streaming live video. The responding officer can take control of the live video by double-clicking on the screen, and pan/tilt/zoom to wherever he positions the camera. The fourth window on the screen is an industry-standard pre-alarm, which can play back the last 10-15 seconds prior to the event. Now the responding officer can see bad guy get out of the boat, walk across the pier and trip the alarm.

Viewing this enormous amount of information on one screen is a capability that will enable the security personnel to do their jobs more effectively.

HOW IT WORKS – BEHIND THE SCENES

More than 65 fixed or pan/tilt/zoom cameras are mounted on poles or various structures about the seaports, known as points. Some points may have multiple cameras, each connected to a VR-N100U recorder; and every point has a Trango Broadband Access5830 subscriber unit (SU), a tiny microwave that can shoot up to two miles away. Each point shoots to an aggregate point (AP), a 90-foot pole that is in direct line of sight of each point and positioned in the midst of a circle of points. The AP collects information from the points and transmits it to the head-end server rack where multiple VR-N100U digital video recorders sit attached to a master VR-N100U managing unit. Data is transmitted over an 18-GB, 155-Mhz hop — equal to 100 T1 circuits, which ties the various APs together. Beneath one designated AP is a “drain,” connected to the server rack via a Cisco router/hub, which constantly gathers and distributes data up and down the VR-N100U network pipeline.

The ObjectVideo System is fed from the VR-N100U on a continual basis. The ObjectVideo servers process the video and identify any rules that have been broken, immediately triggering an alarm, which is sent back to the VR-N100U. ObjectVideo is unlike conventional detection software that uses pixelization to comprise the screen image; triggering an alarm when X-amount of pixels change. Rather, ObjectVideo has tremendous intelligence to let system designers create an unlimited number and variety of rules for detecting, classifying and tracking security threats. Tripwires and alarm triggers can be defined, such as imaginary lines akin to the football 10-yard line; if an object crosses that line an alarm is activated.

“Object Video works beautifully for JAXPORT because of the way our terminals are situated, the levels of access people have, the types of cargo stored, physical layout and more,” said Peek. “The tripwire feature has really excited our staff as well as the multi-screen video capabilities.”

Every camera in the seaport is assigned an IP address and is wirelessly connected to a VR-N100U, which sends video to ObjectVideo at 10 frames per second (fps), 320x240 resolution. When ObjectVideo detects a rule violation and triggers an alarm, the video is sent back to the VR-N100U, which sends the image to the security officer’s laptop in 680 x 480, VGA resolution at 30 fps. The VR-N100U conserves network bandwidth under normal operations; but when an alarm is triggered, the responding officers will rely on a more immediate and accurate image display to identify, track and catch the intruder, hence the greater resolution and faster frame rate.

“There is virtually no latency between the camera, the network, and the VR-N100U,” explained Watson. “So you have real time video all the time for every point in the port that’s within the wireless network.”

HEEDING THE CALL FOR INNOVATION

From a lab-engineering standpoint, the JAXPORT project began in December 2003. “We created it from the ground up, there were no templates to follow, no sureties that this would be successful. And the lab environment is much different from deploying it in the field. Until we flipped that switch, it was anyone’s guess. We knew we could go from hero to zero in no time,” explained Delmonaco.

In March 2004, Quality Communications and its team began the on-site work, and the new engineering technology took two approximately months. Han-Pandron engineers were on hand to verify that the field implementation was consistent with the design specifications; and with engineers from Ross & Baruzzini, ensured that the port’s security networking needs were met.

There were some issues with the ObjectVideo software that needed to be overcome. Watson explained, “Since Object Video was already the software for motion tracking, we needed to interface ObjectVideo with the VR-N100U recording system. Our development team of programmers, Paul Zsebedics and Mahesh Kondwilkar, managed to write the interface within a week. Once that happened things started falling into place.”

While the initial installation for Blount Island was a month and a half and the system was completely installed on July 16, 2004, the next two ports were implemented considerably faster and went live on August 17, 2004.

“Everything we learned from the Phase 1/Blount Island implementation enabled us to get the second phase up that much quicker,” said Steve Haney, Regional Construction Manager of Quality Communications. Delmonaco agreed, “We built a head end on both Tallyrand and Dames Point in a day and a half. A day and a half – unheard of. It took longer to open the boxes and take all the cardboard to a dumpster.”

The all-digital, all-wireless surveillance and monitoring solution enabled JAXPORT to eliminate 400 coaxial jumpers, and more than 800 BNC connectors. Said Delmonaco, “What we have now are a couple of CAT5 connection on the Cisco hub. When you open up the cabinets in the equipment rack, there’s practically nothing there – and that was the goal.”

WHAT’S NEXT

Currently, each Jacksonville seaport is operating as its own entity, though the plans call for all three ports to eventually be synchronized to run on the same system. Quality Communications is looking to run the system over T1 lines or possibly using an 18 GHz microwave and providing a bridge for repeater sites.

The future is bright for the first, most advanced and completely digital IP monitoring and security system in the country. Additional Florida seaports as well as a US military base have already approached Quality Communications and talks are underway to install similar if not the exact systems.

As Haney boasted, “The JAXPORT project has turned out to be a little bit of a showboat. It’s considerably more state of the art than what they had, with current and a little bit of futuristic technology employed. Clearly what we have done here — the wireless applications and CCTV surveillance and alert system — has not been done before. So when we get a phone call from someone asking, ‘Can we come see it?’ it makes us pretty proud.”

As for JAXPORT, they have a system that is sure to be the envy of other seaports across the country and even across the globe. But will they keep their security system cards close to their chest? Hardly.

“When it comes to security, we’re all in the same boat,” Peek explained. “If another port wanted to see the system, we would be happy to show it to them.”