Safe In The Harbor: IP Video at a Mediterranean Leisure Port

Originally built in 1974 to the southwest of Palma bay, Port Adriano on the Spanish island of Majorca was extended and its shopping area refurbished by the prestigious French designer Philippe Starck. A new video system was needed in order to protect all of the port and customer‘s assets.

Ocíbar, a company specializing in building and managing sailing-sports amenities, took over the management of Port Adriano in 1992. Since then it has made great efforts to transform the marina by implementing a modern extension project that included building an external dyke, parallel to the previous one. The management company for this marina, fully aware of its responsibilities, also proposed upgrading the physical security elements of the marina in order to protect facilities, personnel, client's vessels and their crews.

Aiming to turn the leisure port into one of the best equipped and distinctive on the Mediterranean, they decided to entrust the extension project to arguably the most famous designer in the world, Philippe Stark. Passionate about sailing and the Mediterranean, Stark embraced the challenge and sought to transfer all the elements of a boat to the marina. The new port puts daily life and visitors to the marina first, all in harmony with the island and its traditions.

The aesthetic and functional concept proposed by Starck translates into greater convenience for users: a no-traffic area between moorings and shops, hidden cabling freeing up space on the piers, terraces providing sun and shade, data services, Wi-Fi and fiber optics. In this , the analog video surveillance system has been replaced by an IP video system based on Axis network video products, including outdoor models with HD resolution and thermal cameras.

Thanks to this project, backed by investments of over 90 million euros, Port Adriano leads the way in Mediterranean leisure ports. It provides a service area for moorings of 25,000m², berths for yachts of up to 80/100 meters long and 800 parking spaces. The marina boasts a shopping area covering 4,000m² featuring prestigious world-class nautical, lifestyle and fashion brands and services, as well as select international cuisine. Services including a gym, diving school and a 10,000m² dry dock are also provided, incorporating high quality security aspects.

Fiber to the Fore

The Estel Ingeniería y Obras company, in partnership with Axis Communications, was awarded the contract to carry out specific installations for the project. Estel deployed a fiber optics infrastructure which, apart from serving as a network for marina services, extends to the moorings. This communications infrastructure is also available to marina clients, providing them with high-speed Internet, television and telephone connections on their vessels.

The new full IP video system at Port Adriano comprises thirty-eight P3344-VE and four PTZ Q6032-E network dome cameras and three Q1910-E thermal network cameras. All these devices are outdoor ready and IP66-rated, which guarantees optimal resistance in the demanding atmospheric and meteorological conditions faced in any port area. The P3344-VE, apart from being vandal protected, provides HD resolution images of all the main areas of the port, delivering significant improvements in terms of the quality of the images obtained in comparison with previous analog cameras.

Hot Nights

Port Adriano is one of the first ports on the Mediterranean to use thermal IP cameras to control the arrival and departure of boats. Strategic placement of these devices ensures that, even on the darkest nights, in dense fog or on stormy days, it is possible to detect any movement of vessels in the area of influence of the marina. Another of the innovative elements of the security system at Port Adriano is that access to the new underground car park uses a registration plate recognition system, controlling vehicles coming in and going out of the car park. This system automates tasks such as automatically opening the barrier for vehicles with a registration plate number already stored in the database because the owner is either a client of the marina or regular supplier of one of the shops there. This leisure port is now equipped with technology that complies with the highest security standards.