2025.01.22
City of Bonn: Protecting passengers, staff and assets across the city’s transport network
At a glance
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- Challenge
- The central and surrounding train stations needed upgrading to enhance travellers’ experience and boost safety
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- Solution
- More than 600 cameras, including XNV-C9083R and XNP-9300RW, have been installed across the train network
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- Result
- The new IP camera system provided SWBV with key insights to prevent crime, improve the passenger experience and safety
“Hanwha Vision’s solutions, with their market-leading AI capabilities and cybersecurity best practices, stood out to our team. Since installation, the system has provided our control room with invaluable insights to prevent crime, improve the passenger experience and safety, and inform our planning.”
Protecting passengers, staff and assets across the City of Bonn’s transport network.
The City of Bonn, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is home to over 300,000 people. It is an important tourist location, with the transport operator Stadtwerke Bonn Verkehrs-GmbH (SWBV) transporting around 92 million passengers annually across its bus routes, and train and tram lines. Keeping the public transport network running seamlessly, securing assets such as vehicles and equipment, and protecting passengers is paramount to the SWBV team.
Bolstering passenger safety with AI
The central and surrounding train stations needed upgrading to enhance travellers’ experience and boost safety. SPIE, the independent European leader in multi-technical services, was chosen as the implementation partner, while Hanwha Vision was selected as the technology supplier. SPIE is a certified partner of industry-leading manufacturers, meaning they are able to offer customers ideal solutions to their challenges.
IP cameras, XNV-C9083R and XNP-9300RW models, were chosen to support this initiative for their quality and reliability. In total more than 600 cameras have been installed across the train network, to protect tunnels, parking facilities, entrances/exits, busy walkways and escalators/elevators. The cameras provide real-time AI-powered alerts to a central control room, ensuring that operators can rapidly respond to genuine events and emergencies. Deep-learning AI algorithms accurately detect and classify objects, including people, vehicles, faces, and licence plates, from irrelevant motion such as wind, shadows and wildlife, to significantly reduce false alarms.
Elsewhere, people-counting analytics can be utilised to prevent bottlenecks and overcrowding risks, improving the passenger experience. Alerts can also include potential trespassing in rail tunnels or a person falling onto a train track, as well as loitering that could signal anti-social behaviour or a security issue. As a result, passenger safety, especially in underground stations and car parks, is vastly improved.
Comprehensive coverage
The XNV-C9083R is a 4K AI vandal dome camera, while the XNP-9300RW comes with 4K resolution, 30x zoom, a built-in wiper, and a powerful PTZ that provides operators with high-quality, evidence-grade footage and the ability to focus on scenes in detail. Adaptive infrared (IR) technology adjusts the angle of the camera’s IR LEDs to match the zoom level, providing clear images in low lighting. The XNP-9300RW is designed for large open areas, making it ideal for monitoring station concourses and other public areas.
AI-powered auto-tracking in the XNP-9300RW allows control room operators to efficiently monitor object movement. With just a click of a mouse, the camera can lock on and auto-track a person or vehicle.
Industry-leading cybersecurity
Hanwha Vision was chosen for its commitment to the secure and responsible use of video; it is compliant with the US National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as well as stringent UL CAP certifications. A dedicated response team, the Security Vulnerability Response Center (S-CERT), addresses potential vulnerabilities swiftly and works with customers to ensure the cyber resilience of their video system. These robust measures provide customers, and SWBV, with confidence that the solutions are highly cyber-secure, with all data collected safely stored.
A spokesperson at SWBV said, “Investing in an IP camera system that could provide us with key insights was a major focus in our rail upgrade. Hanwha Vision’s solutions, with their market-leading AI capabilities and cybersecurity best practices, stood out to our team. Since installation, the system has provided our control room with invaluable insights to prevent crime, improve the passenger experience and safety, and inform our planning.”
Above-ground expansion
With the cameras having been deployed for underground stations and tunnels, the video system will now be expanded to include above-ground stops.
