An Olympian challenge

Ensuring safety and security for participants and spectators at any major event is, in these troubled times, a difficult and complex challenge. Ensuring safety and security at an event the size of the Olympic Games is a gargantuan undertaking, but that’s exactly what was asked of Siemens for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

The scope of the requirements was enormous. In addition to covering all of the sporting venues, the safety and security systems were also required to monitor nearby harbours along with many aspects of daily life – including traffic flow – in the city of Athens and the surrounding areas. All systems were required to be usable after the games had finished. The sports facilities provided for the Olympics will be used for many years, and the need for safety and security is ongoing.

Different security technologies

The technologies involved in delivering this comprehensive security solution needed to address this challenge. They included CCTV surveillance networks, airborne video surveillance, vehicle tracking, CCTV for traffic monitoring, acoustic monitoring and the implementation of a secure Tetra radio network to provide dependable communications between security personnel. Also necessary was a secure Wide Area Network (WAN) to handle video images.

Every part of the installation had to be designed to meet the needs of the multiple Government agencies involved with the games, including the Police Force, the Fire Brigade, the Ministry of Public Order, the Ambulance Service, the Coastguard and the Olympic Organising Committee itself.

The approach adopted by Siemens was to work closely with all of the interested parties in analysing the threats involved and then devise a response.

Largest system in the world

The results of this work led to the development of the C4I (Command, Control, Communication, Computer and Intelligence) system, which is, at the present time, the world’s largest and most sophisticated system for civil safety and security applications. It not only provides real-time situational awareness data, but also affords decision-making support complemented by powerful command and control facilities.

A few statistics give some idea of the scale of the Athens 2004 installation. Connected to the Athens C4I system were over 60,000 separate units of equipment. The installation included 68 Command and Control Centres and a Tetra wireless communications network with 30,000 subscribers. It has 1,660 CCTV cameras, and its perimeter intrusion detection installation covers some 35 km. Also included were 4,200 GPS and AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) units on land vehicles and marine vessels. The Olympic Village and major venues alone had 1,024 dome cameras installed with more than 100 km of cabling.

To simplify the overall design and implementation of the security systems, standardised architecture was used wherever possible. For example, the CCTV installation at each of the major venues was designed around a series of pole-mounted dome cameras. Cameras close to the venue Command and Control Centre are directly connected to a video multiplexer, while those in more distant locations are connected via fibre optic links.

The multiplexer directly feeds time-lapse video recorders, which provide a readily accessible archive of the images. The images from the multiplexer were also made available, in real-time, to a video matrix, which can be used to switch them to various monitors and CCTV workstations as well as to full frame rate DVRs.

A local CCTV server receives images from the video matrix and direct from the multiplexer, making them available – via the project’s secure WAN – for use at remote locations such as the eight regional and six main Command and Control Centres. A similarly standardised approach was used for the traffic management installations. Throughout the Attica region in which the main sports venues are located, a series of 12 metre roadside poles were installed, each equipped with a PTZ camera, a microphone and a loudspeaker. Adjacent to each of these poles is a weatherproof enclosure which houses a video/audio encoder, an intelligent traffic system, a sound recognition device, a network switch/router and a UPS.

Data from equipment mounted on the poles is made available to the traffic management Command and Control Centre and, if necessary, to other Command and Control Centres via the secure WAN installation.

A gunshot or an explosion?

The sound recognition systems used in conjunction with the pole-mounted microphones were developed on a bespoke basis by Siemens. When triggered by a sudden noise, they perform a fast transform on the signal from the microphone which yields a frequency spectrum for the noise. By comparing this spectrum with known spectra, the system can determine whether the noise was produced by, for example, a gunshot or the detonation of explosives. The system is sufficiently sophisticated to indicate (in most cases) the type of weapon or explosive involved.

Should a gunshot or explosion be detected, the information is passed to the remote command centre through the IP network, but can also be signalled locally by means of a dry-contact output from the sound recognition unit. This feature provides a valuable fallback should the communications system be disrupted between the local and remote area.

The basic security installations for the port area adjacent to the Olympic Village mirrored those of the major venues but the dome CCTV cameras were, however, complemented by fixed cameras (and by infrared cameras which enable surveillance after dark in unlit areas). Other major additions in this area were the port security perimeter intrusion detection systems, which make extensive use of strain cables in the perimeter fencing.

Access control for vehicles to the port area uses an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system which compares the registration numbers of vehicles with a database held at the Command Centre. Automatic barriers physically prevent unauthorised vehicles from entering or leaving the area. Access for personnel is controlled by smart cards used in conjunction with data entry keypads.

Underpinning the whole of the security system is the secure WAN which guards against unauthorised access and incorporates strong encryption, firewalls and intrusion detection. Extensive redundancy is employed in the event of individual sections failing.

Though the scale of the Siemens security installation for the Athens Olympics is, without exaggeration, immense, the speed with which it was implemented is equally impressive. Design work started at the beginning of June 2003, and all major systems were in place, commissioned and tested by the end of May 2004. Over the project period, the Siemens team co-ordinated the work of more than 500 people.

In addition to supplying and installing the systems, Siemens also provided support services such as training for end users to help them eke the best from the installation.

Here, the company adopted a train-the-trainer approach, with key personnel receiving in-depth tuition at a simulated Command and Control Centre built in Siemens’ own facilities. Extensive customised training materials – including quick reference manuals – were also produced.

Siemens’ involvement, though, didn’t finish with the handover of the systems and the training of the staff. During the three-month period which included the run-up to the Games and the Games themselves, Siemens provided 24/7 support including on-site user support and supplementary training, Help Desk services and technical teams on standby in critical areas.

Subsequent to the Games, Siemens was contracted to provide continued 24/7 support for a further ten years. The focus is, however, slightly modified, and the support now includes Help Desk services, preventative and corrective maintenance, the supply of spares, operation of the Tetra and data communication networks and centralised technical document management.

Arrangements were ‘flawless’

It is now a matter of record that the Athens Olympics happily passed without any significant security incidents. Dr Jacques Rogge – President of the International Olympics Committee – has been reported as praising the security arrangements for the games, even describing them as “flawless”.

While much of the credit for this achievement must, of course, go to the 70,000 police and military personnel involved in security duties throughout the Games, there’s no doubt that the comprehensive and sophisticated security systems developed and implemented by Siemens also played a vital role. It is a blueprint that London 2012’s organisers would do well to study.