A New Surveillance System at PHL

Arora Engineers (Arora) was featured by AviationPros.com in an article entitled, “A New Surveillance System at PHL.” The article discusses how Arora upgraded the Philadelphia International Airport’s (PHL) surveillance system in customs and boarder protection [CBP] areas in Terminals A – West and A – East with upgrading remaining terminals including remote areas. The goal of this program was to upgrade the existing system to 100% IP while significantly increasing CCTV viewing coverage.

In the article, Kalpesh Trivedi, CCM, Vice President, PM/CM at Arora, discusses how the program was planned in multiple phases to deploy new Video Management System throughout PHL. The phased approach was important not only to guarantee the necessary funding, but to ensure that the existing security system and coverage were not interrupted with the installation of the new system.

To ensure the airport met all federal and internal security coverage demands, the implementation of the new system was performed in parallel with PHL’s existing system, which proved challenging as there was only so much space available in the existing IDF/MDF rooms which housed the existing system. The design and construction teams carefully planned the phased implementation approach to ensure all necessary milestones were achieved, such as 30 days of recordings within the new system, before moving on to ensure there were no gaps in coverage.

“It is challenging, installing a new system in the similar geographical areas and in the IDF, MDFs, where the space is limited and is being utilized by the old system. However, we’re installing the new in the same areas so, that is being planned and designed carefully and executed carefully,” Trivedi said.

The article also discusses how the capabilities of the new system, and its high-quality level of detail, will help improve the efficacy of new and existing security protocols. The new system will also help the airport and other key agencies address and investigate accidents or incidents not only within the terminal, but on the taxiways and roadways as well.

From a sustainability standpoint, Trivedi says that a great feature of the new cameras is that they consume less energy to operate. With the new IP based cameras, there’s no power requirement. Trivedi says, “All of the power is over ethernet. So, these are cameras that are driven from network switch. So very low on energy. And not only at the camera level, as you go through the network equipment, and the storage equipment, and the servers for Video Management System, all of that over the years have become very energy friendly and sustainable, which uses overall less power.”

Trivedi goes on to say if you are looking to deploy a major program, it is best to understand what type of infrastructure you already have in place. “A lot of times, if that’s not surveyed and studied properly, you may run into these additional needs that you did not plan for budget wise. So, having a good understanding of what the infrastructure is at the airport and can it handle what you’re about to implement.” To learn more about our scope of work on this project, click here.

To read the full article, click here.