Axxonsoft Securing Hagia Sophia in Istanbul
Hagia Sophia is one of the world’s most visited heritage landmarks and an active mosque. The site required a modern, minimally intrusive public safety cmeras system to protect visitors and preserve historic architecture across prayer halls, upper galleries, museum sections, and exterior approaches. Axxon One VMS became the core platform; deployment and supply were provided by HAN Elektronik as part of a comprehensive public safety solution.
Legacy recorders and standalone cameras could not provide complete situational awareness or reliable longterm archiving. The site needed early detection of approaches to restricted areas without adding physical barriers, centralized monitoring for dispersed indoor/outdoor zones, and faster poste required early detection of approaches to restricted areas without the need for physical barriers, centralized monitoring for dispersed indoor/outdoor zones, and faster post-event long-termation. All of this had to be delivered without disrupting visitor circulation or worship.
In practice, the team also had to contend with very uneven visitor flows: quiet periods around prayer times followed by surges from tour groups. Several historical surfaces could not be physically cordoned, which made conventional motion detection noisy and ineffective. Blind spots in stairwells and galleries complicated oversight, and the previous multi-NVR layout made it slow to retrieve evidence across different areas. Access had to be separated for security, museum, and facilities staff, with full auditability of actions in the system – essential for a robust public safety solution.
Public Safety Solution for Complex Visitor and Worshipper Flows
The project was executed in two stages. First, engineers established a fiberoptic backbone and RAID-based storage sized for continuous recording. Next, Axxon One VMS was deployed as a single monitoring and management platform for all public safety cameras and users.
Centralized monitoring
Operators supervise the entire complex from one console with interactive layouts, alarm panels, instant playback, and rolebased access. Camera trees and bookmarks speed navigation during live incidents and reviews. Floorplan maps reflect the ground level and upper galleries; doubleclicking on a camera tile or map icon pivots the operator to the relevant live view and the most recent video fragment for context.
AI-driven protection of heritage areas
Virtual lines and zones are configured along historical surfaces and in closed sections. Human/perimeter detection triggers alarms the moment someone approaches a protected boundary, automatically calling up live and recent footage so staff can intervene before contact occurs. Soft escalations were adopted to avoid disturbing worship: alarms are visual and inconsole rather than audible on site, and operators notify floor staff by radio when intervention is required.
Visitor flow insight
People-counting systems provide quantitative data for entrances, stairways leading to galleries, and transitional spaces. Reports help venue management plan staffing, adjust lanes, and coordinate worshipper and visitor flows. Occupancy thresholds at sensitive points trigger alerts that prompt staff to open additional lanes or redirect groups before congestion builds, keeping the public safety cameras effective in preventing congestion.
Open architecture
The installation uses multivendor IP cameras, with Milesight units where embedded analytics are beneficial. Axxon One integrates these into a unified system via open standards and remains hardware-agnostic for future expansion. Existing cameras that met performance requirements were retained to optimize costs; new devices were added to close coverage gaps.
Implementation
Three enterprise servers with RAID-enabled‑ storage were installed to support highthro high-throughput ording‑ and responsive multicamera playback. 265 IP cameras were positioned at entrances/exits, the main prayer hall under the dome, upper galleries, courtyards, and perimeter approaches. Event rules and escalation paths were defined jointly with site security and facility teams to match daily operations and ‑peakhour‑ patterns.
Commissioning began with a detailed survey and a short pilot in one gallery to validate analytics thresholds and the placement of virtual boundaries. The team then migrated cameras area by area to minimize downtime. Dynamic Privacy masking was configured for zones not intended for monitoring, and operator roles were created for security, museum, and management users with audit logging enabled. Handover included operator training on live monitoring, investigation workflow, and evidence export, followed by a period of joint monitoring during a peak visitor week to finetune alarm sensitivities.
Results
The new system delivers proactive protection of restricted areas and more efficient crowd supervision. Operators receive fewer nuisance alarms and can focus on events that matter. Response time has decreased thanks to event-driven views and instant access to recent context. Incidents near protected surfaces have declined, while long retention archives and smart search significantly reduce the time required to investigate and export evidentiary video. The public safety solution remains unobtrusive for visitors and supports the conservation mission.
In daily operations, supervisors rely on weekly visitor flow summaries to schedule staff and plan gallery openings. During holiday periods, advisory events for high occupancy help prevent queues from spilling into prayer areas. When an incident is reported, operators locate the time window using instant playback, tag the clip with a standard naming convention, and export it with integrity checks for internal review. Health monitoring alerts staff to camera or network issues so they can be addressed before coverage is affected.
Project in figures
- 1 heritage landmark, multizone (interior + exterior)
- 265 IP cameras
- 3 servers with RAIDprotected storage
- 24/7 centralized monitoring on a single VMS
System components
Software
Axxon One VMS — event driven monitoring, advanced search and export, rolebased access.
Hardware & integrations
265 Milesight and multivendor IP cameras (indoor/outdoor); 3 enterprise servers with ‑RAID‑based storage; site‑wide fiber‑optic network; operator workstations in the central control room.
Partner
HAN Elektronik supplied hardware and supported deployment, working with the authority’s security and facility teams to align coverage, analytics, and retention with preservation requirements. Postinstallation, HAN provides periodic health checks and assists with firmware and software updates in coordination with the site’s maintenance windows.
