A Safe Olympic Games in Beijing

To match the advances in Beijing's subway system, management has invested in next-generation advanced real-time digital video surveillance solutions to be deployed across the metro systems.

Much of the publicity for the forthcoming Olympic Games has focused on Beijing’s environmental conditions and its attempts to reduce the smog levels across the city by the start of the Games in August. These attempts have included trial car reduction schemes and lower priced tickets for travel on its metro rail network to ease road congestion, decrease pollution, and encourage uptake of the rapidly expanding mass transit network.

To cope with the increased demands on public transport (and the expected influx of people visiting the city for the Games), the Beijing municipal government has invested heavily in this network in the run up to the Game program that is set to continue until 2015. In October 2007, the Beijing Subway Line 5, the first of three new metro rail lines, was opened, boasting state-of-the-art carriages that will enable commuters to watch the Games on LCD screens and use mobile phones whilst traveling underground.

With the increase in daily commuters (more than one million use the Beijing metro rail network each day) and the increased threats associated with staging such large-scale global events, further pressure is heaped on mass transit systems to provide a safe and secure environment.

Over 70 metro stations will eventually be connected to this new security system, incorporating 1,400 cameras in phase one and a further 2,200 cameras in subsequent phases. Line 10, which includes the Olympic sub-route and the Airport Express Line 4, are both scheduled to open later this year and well in advance of the Games. They will be monitored from the station monitoring rooms and from the central command and control centre, giving security personnel the power to identify risk, make optimal decisions, and take action that improves security.

Using an advanced real-time distributed digital video security and surveillance solution from NICE Systems, awareness of the metro’s surveillance teams to issues that may present a potential threat to commuter safety and/or inhibit the smooth running of the metro will be enhanced. The many benefits of the system include the ability to identify suspicious/unattended packages on a crowded subway platform and to automatically detect unauthorized entry into secured areas.

If, an hour before the Games begin (at peak traveling time), an unattended package is spotted by the surveillance team on one of the subway platform’s cameras, with the new surveillance system in place the operator will be able to act quickly and replay the video in picture to immediately playback and review how the package arrived on the platform, whilst simultaneously keeping check on the ongoing situation. Perhaps it is simply a man behaving irresponsibly and wandering from his bag whilst making a call on his mobile, or maybe signs indicate something more suspicious.
With the right information available at the right time, the operator is able to make the right judgments calls regarding incidents he spots himself or those that are automatically detected and flagged up to him, in order to help keep commuters safe and the transport system moving throughout the duration of the Games and beyond.