Billund airport monitors its parking lot with Panomera cameras

Dallmeier's four cameras installed, on a mast oriented in different directions, provide detailed, sharp images of a surface that can accommodate 7.000 squares that are managed remotely from the Apcoa control centre, located in one of the parking buildings.

Billund Airport (Denmark) the odds of travelers suffering some kind of eventuality in the cars they have in the parking lot is practically zero. The main reason is the surveillance system that has been established. "Before we take care of the operation of the parking areas in 1997, there were more than 500 complaints a year. Today there are only a few. In fact, In 2014 there was not a single report of theft in parked cars", Thomas Holm reports, technical director of Apcoa Parkering, operator of airport parking areas.

The company, formerly known as Europark, increased the level of fence safety, specialized staff, barrier systems and systematic video surveillance. A project that has been carried out in cooperation with Dallmeier and his Danish partner Scanview A/S of Fredericia, with whom Apcoa Parkering has been working since 2002.

"Due to the expansion and modification of parking areas, we wanted to establish a surveillance of the P6 zones, P7, P8 and P9. After receiving Scanview's advice, we opted for Dallmeier's Panomera system", explains Thomas Holm.

Panomera cameras enable super-sharp surveillance of very large areas. Each team has several objectives (the models employed in Billund have 14), each of which covers a section of the area of interest. These 'image quadrilaterals' have no cracks and can be visualized in a large image that the watchman in the control room can easily cover with the view.

The system provides detailed images of the entire scene, caught with a rate of 25 Fps. Until 175 meters approximately, sharpness is so optimal that it is possible to read a license plate without problems. This means, that a Panomera multifocal sensor system can replace several conventional HD cameras.

In the case of Billund Airport a mast was installed with four Panomera cameras facing in different directions to cover a vast area with almost 7.000 parking spaces. "According to our calculations, with a conventional solution we would have needed a total of seven masts and some 30 Cameras. This means that we have achieved significant cost reductions in digging and sealing work, cable laying, maintenance of cameras etc.", continues Thomas Holm.

This innovation also represents a major improvement for the watchman who is sitting in the Apcoa control room in one of the parking buildings and from here he fully tracks what is happening in the area.

"We can follow a vehicle or a person, without having to switch from camera to camera, and zoom in on an incident without losing an overview of the events that are happening elsewhere. With conventional controllable cameras there was a risk that we would concentrate on one place and not have images when something happened elsewhere. Now, we always have images of the entire area, which is a big advantage. This makes us much less vulnerable", underlines the technical director.

Moreover, new cameras can be combined with existing Dallmeier products. "We're still employing many of our previous cameras, the oldest in 2002. Have, among others, cameras at barrier facilities in case someone 'forgets' to pay, as well as in automatic boxes in case someone needs help. In addition, we have more than 1.200 parking spaces in the parking buildings that must also be monitored", comments Thomas Holm.

Another novelty is that Apcoa has installed a Panomera camera so as not to lose sight of the front of the entire parking complex in front of the terminal building. "We should have installed four cameras in different places to do the same work that this single Panomera camera does. We just have to keep an eye on an image that, In addition, it's of a much better quality".

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