Mar 28, 2016

Once just a niche technology that was not widely deployed, video surveillance systems are now ubiquitous in public transportation across the world, according to one relatively new study.

In 2015, the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) spearheaded an effort to learn more about how video surveillance was being used on buses, trains and subway cars around the world. They polled people from 74 organizations located in 30 different countries, talking to public transport authorities, operators, station owners and infrastructure managers.

No matter where in the world a public transport agency is, one thing is likely certain: It has a video surveillance system in place today. According to the report, over 97 percent of all respondents said they have video installed in some capacity. Of that group, 81 percent said they had cameras at various stations, while over 70 percent noted that cameras had been installed at rail yards or depots.

While survey respondents had multiple reasons for opting for a video surveillance solution in the first place, safety and security concerns were the primary driver for these deployments. Among those polled, more than 81 percent of them said video surveillance was supposed to make staff safer, and close to 78.5 percent of them thought it deterred criminals. Assisting police, thwarting terrorists and catching people trying to hitch free rides were also commonly cited rationales for video surveillance.

"In terms of practical use, today video surveillance is considered most useful in increasing the perception of security among passengers and staff, as well as improving actual security levels by minimizing, deterring and managing criminality such as theft, graffiti, vandalism, aggression, violence and so on," the UITP report noted.

Tech used in public transport video surveillance

The UITP found that while most agencies polled have a few thousands cameras, one organization had as many as 22,000 in place. Of those, an increasing amount of them are networked IP cameras. The report showed that while only around 14 percent of respondents exclusively used IP equipment, approximately 53 percent had a mixture of both networked and analog cameras in place.

However, the number of IP cameras installed in public transport settings will likely spike soon. Close to three-fourths of those surveyed plan on investing in new cameras in the next year or so, and over 85 percent of them will be considering IP/network equipment. Having more IP endpoints in place will be especially helpful for those that record and store video footage from stations (72.6 percent said they did this), onboard vehicles (71.6 percent) and at depots (56.7 percent).

Even as the recording and storing of video surveillance remains a major priority in the space, real-time camera footage is also quite popular. Among those surveyed, close to 61 percent said they use real-time camera footage to monitor rail yards. In addition, 71.6 percent of them have such strategies in place at stations. Plus, over 26 percent of respondents indicated that they would be turning to real-time video surveillance footage more frequently in the near future.

It makes sense that many public transit agencies leverage both recordings and real-time footage. For one, laws in many places require one or the other. In particular, having a variety of video technologies in place makes it easier to both spot issues as they occur and to have evidence to look back on during an investigation. While an analog and a networked setup can provide recording, the UITP reported that IP cameras are right now the ideal option for real-live footage.

"Public transport systems clearly intend to invest further in these technologies in the coming years, and the technology has huge potential to assist public transport organizations in real-time," Andrea Soehnchen, UITP's business development manager, wrote in Mass Transit magazine in March 2016. "Video surveillance will firmly remain a cornerstone technology in public transportation."

Case study: Seoul, South Korea

The Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation, the public transit organization servicing the area in and around the South Korean capital, is one of many such agencies utilizing a real-time video surveillance system. It uses approximately 350 cameras to keep trains safe and to ensure passengers remain out of harm's way.

Getting such a real-time video surveillance system in place was no easy feat. For one, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway is one of the biggest such systems in the world. It covers close to 180 miles, with over 290 stations, railway-technology.com reported.

In addition to its size, there were other factors at play here that made implementing a video surveillance solution problematic. For one, railway-technology.com noted that approximately 70 percent of the system exists underground. All that earth and concrete, plus the many reflective metal surfaces, can impede signals. The presence of high voltages and loud noises further complicates matters, as does the need to see real-time footage from and on trains that go as fast as 50 miles per hour.

To overcome these obstacles, the Seoul Metro used Firetide technology. The agency has 1,000 Firetide HotPort nodes in place, creating a wireless mesh network. This infrastructure can deliver real-time video at 20 megabits per second, ensuring that train operators and other personnel can view footage at all times no matter where they are or how fast they're going.

"Firetide was selected because no other vendor's wireless mesh equipment could provide the high-speed performance required to deliver streaming video from the station to moving rail cars and operate in one of harshest of environments for RF networks," said Jung Yeong-Hyun, project manager of Global Telecom, which was one of the organizations involved in this project. "We were also tremendously impressed with Firetide's sophisticated regional support organization that understood the difficulties posed by the subway system."

As the UITP report showed, the Seoul Metro is far from the only public transit agency using video surveillance today. No matter what kinds of cameras are in place or how the system is used, video surveillance networks are so ubiquitous because they make buses and trains much safer and more secure. However, in order for video surveillance solutions in these settings to be successful, especially as IP cameras proliferate, they must be underpinned by a quality solution. Be sure to contact Firetidetoday to learn more about your available video surveillance networking options.