Keeping Rail
Lines Secure
By Maile Bucher
I
N KEEPING RAIL LINES
secure, utilization of technology,
as well as staffi ng security,
can drastically decrease the
amount of accidents — and
make determining the fault in
an event more eff ective.
“Historically, video surveillance
was not that common in the
right-of-way area of a rail system.
Th ere are a number of contributing
factors as to why. One reason is
the infrastructure; there is a certain
amount of surveillance that you
need for connectivity to the camera.
We’re talking about that area
had always been a challenge. Also,
lighting conditions, image quality
and radio
surveillance
cameras 10
years back were
not what they are
today,” Anthony
Incorvati, business development
manager of critical infrastructure
& transportation for Axis Communications
32 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | JUNE 2017
explained. “If you
fast-forward to today, one thing
that I like to say about IT cameras
is that they are really a computer
with a lens. Th e processing power
in these cameras is increasing just
like everything else in this world,
and that processing power is enabling
a lot of interesting things.”
Incorvati said that one of the
areas is that cameras are able to
preform better in conditions such
as poor-lighting, low-lighting or
blinding-light. Incorvati added that
it is that it is allowing for more intelligence
to be pushed to the camera.
“What I mean by that is, if you
think of that, if you use a smartphone
as an example, that is really
a computer. People use it as a
phone, but it is really a computer
and there are a lot of applications
that reside on that computer, that
smartphone device. With Axis,
we’ve created this open platform
we call Axis Camera Application
Platform ACAP. What this allows
is for third-party developers
to create applications that would
reside on that camera,” said Incorvati.
“It is more on the lines
of analytics. Some of the benefi ts
are more intelligence to the edge
and on the camera. It allows for
more of the processing of the information
at the camera level and
getting away from server intensive
level. You’re really processing on
the camera and sending back the
important information to the information
control center.”
Incorvati said that through use
of the camera intelligence, agencies
can cut infrastructure costs.
Th is method off ers a reduction in
bandwidth.
“Th ere is another thing that is
happening and it falls in line with
what is happening at the camera
level and it is that there is a technology
called Zip Stream. What it
does is, it’s artifi cial intelligence
that sits at the camera level and
it helps drive down the bit rate,
which helps with the infrastructure
cost as well,” explained Incorvati.
“Driving down the bit rate,
you don’t have to worry about
bandwidth intensive infrastructure.
If there is no activity, the
camera automatically drives down
the bit rate, which really supports
the bandwidth. When something
does happen, it’ll show that image
in a high resolution, it shows that
image in a high resolution.”
MTS UTILIZES
a partnership
with local
police forces,
contracted
security
guards and its
own security
officials to keep
passengers safe
during transit
and on or around
rail tunnels and
Q6155-E CAMERA.
Axis
Keeping rail lines secure is an essential factor stations.
in ensuring that transit systems can operate
safely and eff ectively. Issues that cause
concern are trespassers, items on the tracks
and monitoring stations.
MTS