Background

In recent years, the incidents of attempted terror attacks on metro systems have increased at a global level. To assure the safety of the passengers, video surveillance systems for public transit setting seem to be the immediate solution. Being the country with world’s most complicated transit network and highest passenger volume, the metro operators in Japan has initiated a plan to install thousands of surveillance cameras in metro trains for security and safety purposes. To coordinate all the cameras, a rugged and reliable video surveillance gateway for metro system is needed to meet the requirements for integration of multiple IP cameras in order to perform mobile video monitoring with HD resolution.

Requirements

In the effort to reinforce public safety for the metro system, a Japanese system integrator worked with Lanner to come up with a railway-standard rugged NVR gateway to manage and control the surveillance cameras installed in trains and cars. The gateway had to be fully customized in order to be optimally applicable for the Japanese Metro and Municipal Subway. There are specific technical requirements:

  • Compact form factor
    Since there is only limited space available for the commuting trains, the NVR gateway must be compact to fit in.
  • I/O connectivity for multiple IP cameras
    IP cameras are perhaps one of the most critical elements for the safety of metro passengers; therefore, the NVR gateway shall connect around 4 IP cameras for each subway car.
  • M-12 Connectors
    Rolling stocks are travelling in harsh environments like underground tunnels and above the ground, where incredible amounts of dampness or rain may encounter. Thus, Lanner customized the NVR solutions with M-12 connectors to protect the IO ports of the gateway.
  • Removable storage
    All video footages will be saved in the storage and kept for around one week. For convenience, the NVR gateway is customized with removable SD card slots for easier viewing of the recorded files.
  • Display port
    The NVR gateway provides a VGA display port to connect with a monitor in the train dashboard.
  • LAN & Console
    The railway NVR gateway is connected to train control and management systems through LAN/console port.
  • Wi-Fi connectivity
    Wi-Fi connectivity is essential for metro maintenance, as staff can access the railway computers through a mobile tablet within the coverage.

Lanner’s Solutions

With the security and the safety of the passengers in mind, Lanner, with long-established experience in ODM design and service, customizes a high-standard, interoperable video surveillance gateway for NVR computing system, compliant with EN50155 rolling stock standard.

Regarding the design for this metro train surveillance gateway, Lanner adopts a wide range of x86 open-architecture processor options from Intel® Atom® to Intel® Core™ family, capable of processing HD-level intensive video graphic applications and H.264/H.265 encoding for surveillance tasks, while maintaining power efficiency. Deployed in rolling stock environment, the custom rugged NVR platform is compliant with EN50155 and MIL-STD-810G standards and its I/O ports are protected by M12 connectors from potential splashes.

Since surveillance is considered as the most essential requirement, the customized NVR provides configuration options of 4 – 16 PoE (Power-over Ethernet) ports for connections with up to 16 IP surveillance cameras. For storage of recorded video footages, it is designed with a removable SD card slot or swappable HDD/SSD drive bay for easier data retrieval and later viewing. All video footages will be saved into SDXC memory cards or swappable drive bay and kept up to several weeks for reference.