London City Airport (LCA) is located on a former docklands site and is the only London airport which is actually based inside the city. Officially opened in 1987 by Queen Elizabeth II, LCA has now become the UK’s leading business airport serving over 40 destinations across the UK, Europe and the USA, with connections to the rest of the world through the major European hubs.
LCA are constantly working on projects to improve their service offer and make their customer experience as smooth and hassle free as possible. They recently embarked upon a marketing analysis scheme, devised by a company called Crowd Vision. Winston Robinson, IT Project Manager for LCA, provides some background, “We first started working with IDS during our Internet of Things project. They were recommended as a distributor of GeoVision cameras by one of the SME’s within the project.”
“Our main objective for this project was to enable the airport to accurately measure the time it takes passengers to travel through the airport. One of our unique selling points is ‘speed’ and we wanted to ensure that we had accurate control measures across the airport to consistently review our processes, ensuring that we are delivering the best possible service to our passengers.”
Working with Crowd Vision
Crowd Vision is a company that provides live crowd analytics. The Crowd Vision software analyses the motion of crowds from live camera feeds. Deeph Chana, Technical Leader for Crowd Vision describes, “Our software detects heads, there is no facial recognition and no footage is viewed or stored. It supplies rich data, in real time on how the crowd behaves, its movements, routes, density and more importantly for this project the time it takes to get from one location to another. We can then present the data to clients plotted on the schematics of the location.”
The partnership was formed when Crowd Vision required an intelligent camera to integrate with their market analysis software. A Fisheye 360 degree camera was suggested as their ideal solution. Deeph states, “We detailed a spec for City airport to work with noting that GeoVision cameras are highly recommended for this type of project. The aim is to have the minimal number of cameras covering the maximum amount of space – Fisheyes are unique in that they cover a complete 360 degree view providing as much footage as possible.”
Project
What Was Installed
Fisheye cameras
LCA decided to install a total of 230 IP Fisheye Cameras across the whole airport. This project came in three phases, an initial install of 80 cameras, another 80 cameras for phase two and the final 70 for phase three. The cameras are spread around the airport and are used to create zones by adding several camera views together. The chosen fisheye was 2MP providing a 1080p resolution for exceptional clarity.
“We were very happy with the results from the camera, the clarity of the images enhanced our software productivity. The analysis for our client was of very high quality. The project was certainly a success. Now that we have a reliable product and supplier in IDS we feel confident to roll this out to other airports,” says Deeph.
Winston adds, “IDS were instrumental in us achieving our tight deadlines, by going the extra mile to get the vast number of GeoVision cameras delivered. With the functionality of the fisheye camera we could cover the whole airport using just over two hundred cameras, which was great! Throughout the project working with IDS was always effortless and efficient.”
“This model has now been rolled out and trialled at a number of different airports that we are currently working with, for example Edinburgh Airport has also been rolled out and we are also looking to take this international. With IDS’ reliability and efficiency we will certainly be working with them again,” concludes Deeph.
“It was great to have worked with Crowd Vision on this project. It is an honour to have supplied our products to such a prestigious airport like London City. This really couldn’t have been better! It is a proud moment for the IDS team and we look forward to working on many project with Crowd Vision in the future.” Says Tas Kyriacou Sales Director at IDS.