Multifocal Sensor Technology for Railway Stations in Denmark

The scope of its responsibilities also includes the international intercity line between Sweden and Germany and Copenhagen’s high speed urban rail network. In matters of security, for the last 20 years Danish State Railways has placed its confidence in the German manufacturer Dallmeier for centrally-managed video security and the video technology at almost 180 railway stations, and the Danish company Scanview A/S for support and on-site installation.

Wherever large numbers of people gather, unpleasant things happen too. Not only thefts and physical altercations but also vandalism of parked trains or drug offences are numbered among the daily incidents in railway stations and sidings. Danish State Railways relies on a video security solution from Dallmeier to be able to take prompt and efficient action in such cases. The solution allows the video images from all locations to be accessed individually by an unlimited number of operators at the DSB main operations center in Copenhagen. Comprehensive display and incident case management functions ensure that an incident can be tracked, counteracted, and investigated. The next expansion stage was put into operation recently – with Dallmeier Hemisphere software components in the Azure cloud and more than 2,500 cameras, DSB guarantees its passengers and employees the highest possible level of security.

Flexibility Through the Cloud
From the DSB main operations center in Copenhagen, the security operatives tasked with these activities can always keep a watchful eye on everything that happens at the railway stations using the Hemisphere SeMSy video management solution. And the most important software components run in the Microsoft Azure cloud, which is operated by the DSB as its IT backbone. This enables all processes, such as systems management, rights, and user administration and the allocation of computing power to be executed flexibly and from one central location.

Since the components are made available centrally, the operators can also access every one of the 2,500 single sensor cameras as well as all Panomera multifocal sensor systems from there rapidly and with an optimum overview. Each workstation and all user views can be configured individually, so that only the widgets needed for the specific activities are visible. This enables employees to concentrate on their specific tasks without distraction.

Maps and Digital Incident Management
Besides classic video management, the modules of the Hemisphere platform enable all pertinent case information such as photos, videos, or witness statements to be collected and recorded quickly and conveniently, and then compiled into a digital incident file. Hemisphere also integrates accurate site plans of the individual locations. Operators and security managers can use the map function to easily select the camera they need to respond to observed incidents. The operators manage the systems via Dallmeier workstations and a monitor wall consisting of 22 Hemisphere SeMSy vario decoders. Simple, lossless switching to each individual railway station is guaranteed by Dallmeier PRemote HD, a routine that uses transcoding to conserve bandwidth and enables access to high-resolution video material even when the internet connection is less than ideal.

“Hemisphere SeMSy replaces or supplements many of the systems previously used by DSB, so it improves the efficiency and quality of our workflow. By combining camera technology, cloud deployment and the management components, we are now in possession of an extremely powerful system that offers far more than standard video management,” declares Søren H. Nielsen, technical director at DSB.

Long distances and large areas are no problem thanks to the Panomera multifocal sensor technology. Most of the railway stations in Denmark spread over large spaces: parking lots, shopping facilities and platforms all constitute areas that must be monitored. The difficulties lay in the need to ensure that the high minimum resolution quality to enable recordings to be used in court (described in DIN standard DIN EN 62676-4) was satisfied over the entire expanse. In the patented Panomera technology implemented by DSB, up to eight sensors with different focal lengths are combined in one optical unit. The result is a total image in consistently high resolution, in which an unlimited number of detail zooms can also be called up, both in the live feed and in the recording. In this way, Panomera captures enormous distances and expanses in real time with a resolution pattern that is consistent over the entire object space – with very few camera systems. This in turn not only ensures that recordings are always usable in court, but it also allows a big chunk of the infrastructure costs compared with conventional solutions to be eliminated.

Real Enterprise Capability
Danish State Railways employs over 7,000 personnel. Of these, over 1,000 jobs are in administration. Figures of this magnitude entail complex user and rights management challenges in the video surveillance of 180 railway stations. Moreover, it is not only the employees but also public authorities, such as the police, who are authorised and even required to access the video information system. In this context, it is imperative to be able to maintain an overview of rights assignment for reasons of data protection and data security. Hemisphere can therefore be integrated seamlessly into the DSB’s user administration active directory.

System updates are another challenge in large-scale environments. In complex projects running for many years, it is imperative to implement a system that allows for incremental updating – it is usually most important for newly implemented systems to be downwardly compatible. Hemisphere offers the capability to integrate existing systems into a new environment, regardless of the original provider, thereby enabling the customer to migrate incrementally. Comprehensive test phases, such as the Dallmeier factory acceptance test, complete this integration and guarantee not only full security but also the optimal performance of the system upon commissioning.

“We updated the video management system used by Danish State Railways with the Dallmeier SeMSy III VMS system back in 2016. With the migration to the Hemisphere platform and its new generation of the SeMSy VMS and other modules in 2020, we were able to implement a kind of modular principle consisting of video management, data management and frontend applications. This enabled us, together with DSB, to ‘compile’ exactly the total solution that met the requirements at that time in a cost-optimized manner. At the same time, the many other functions and modules provided mean that we are ideally set up to deal with the requirements of the future,” says Torsten Ussing, MD at Scanview A/S.

Not Only Products Count
DSB has relied on products from the German manufacturer Dallmeier and the operational and technical services of its exclusive Scandinavian partner Scanview since the digital wavelet recorders of the early 2000’s. Ensuring that such a long cooperation continues to flourish entails a high degree of flexibility. Rapid responsiveness, customer-specific stocking of spare parts and short delivery times are the essential prerequisites for such a relationship. But guaranteed data protection and cybersecurity are also essential issues, particularly in the context of video surveillance in public areas and in the age of the GDPR. Dallmeier products are developed and manufactured entirely in Germany and in conformance with the GDPR guidelines of ‘Security by Design’ and ‘Privacy by Design’. In this way, both the Danish State Railways and its passengers benefit from the highest standards of data protection and data security.