The Background
Istanbul Grand Airport (iGA) is the new main international airport serving Istanbul, Turkey. In 2021, it served more than 37 million passengers, which makes it the busiest airport in Europe. When all phase finished it will have the capacity to handle 200 million passengers.
The Challenge: Live video streaming and audio calls for engineering maintenance teams within a busy international airport environment
A reliable and efficient communications system to coordinate activities and alert the airport authorities to any problems is essential. iGA’s Operation and Maintenance Team was using a Digital Trunking PMR system. This hampered their ability to cope efficiently with complex maintenance scenarios, as it was difficult to describe problems to supervisors and colleagues just using voice communications.
Another challenge facing the airport was how to better assess health and safety. It was hard for the OHSAS (Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems) team to make properly informed risk assessments without knowing beforehand what the operational conditions and potential hazards might be for any maintenance task. This made it more difficult for the maintenance team to obtain work permissions from the OHSAS, leading to potential delays.
Another area the airport wanted to address was new staff training and evaluation. Engineering staff have to become familiar with the processes involved and develop their ability to repair and maintain the equipment, so trainers wanted to find new ways to enhance the training process.
The Solution
The oblivious solution was to add video communications. Live streaming video enables the maintenance teams to show problems in the field and get advice from supervisors in real time. Video can help the OHSAS team better evaluate the risks involved in any job and speed up the permissions process. Video can capture best practice for training purposes and be used to evaluate trainees’ performance.
Hytera supplied its VM780 body worn camera (BWC) solution based on push-to-talk over cellular (PoC) technology. The VM780 is a lightweight BWC designed to capture, store and share video, audio and image evidence. It integrates a body camera with a remote speaker microphone, so it also doubles up as a PoC device.
The VM780 supports 1080p high definition live video streaming and images, and users can make one-to-one or one-to-many video and voice calls over 3G/4G/Wi-Fi by just pressing the PTT button. They can also initiate an emergency alarm in the event of an incident. The BWC has a 216° rotatable camera, so users can easily position the lens to focus on the detail of the equipment they are working on or to capture critical events.
The Benefits
A Cost Efficient Solution
The VM780 BWC operates over existing 3G/4G broadband or Wi-Fi networks, so no investment in radio infrastructure is required. As the VM780 is also a PoC device supporting PTT voice services, users do not need to carry a second device. This provides the airport with a cost-efficient communications solution to support the technical maintenance workers in a complicated job.
Enhanced Situational Awareness
The BWC can directly connect the workers to both the AOCC and the OHSAS via video and audio live streaming technology. This enables supervisors to monitor the quality of the work and ensure the workers are operating safely. Live video streaming gives supervisors and health and safety officers a much better view of what is happening in the field, enabling them to make more informed decisions and to dispatch advice or help more quickly.
Remote Technical Guidance and Support
iGA Istanbul has hundreds of frontline maintenance workers, who need qualified supervision and continuous support to ensure they do their job accurately and efficiently. Live video streaming enables workers to share issues or highlight problems to supervisors and experts in the control center in real time. Experts can then provide immediate support and guidance to ensure crucial work and repairs are carried out correctly.
Training and Process Improvement
The VM780 can record every aspect of the maintenance operations, which can then be stored and used for training purposes. The material can capture best practice and be used to create training videos. The work of trainees can be recorded and played back by managers to evaluate their performance. Overall, the BWCs have a positive impact on the cost of training new or existing employees.
Health and Safety Evaluation and Permissions
Airport equipment maintenance has to be carried out to a very high standard to minimize risk to airport staff and passengers. The Hytera VM780 can be used to record all the preparatory work required for maintenance tasks. The video can then be uploaded to the command center. This makes it much easier for the OHSAS to evaluate the risks and provide faster permissions to start the job.
Customer Voice
Thanks to the 4G LTE body camera solution, all our audit, work and equipment controls are carried out accurately and with full efficiency. Remote and uninterrupted communications have shortened the intervention times and increased productivity. OHS and engineering team leaders can perform PPE audit of personnel and related equipment controls remotely and instantly. The recorded video and images are available for investigation in case of possible occupational incidents. - Bilal Yildiz, Electronic Systems Manager at iGA.