Taipei was chosen by the International Organization of Horticultural Producers to hold the 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition. The Flora Expo covers 91.8 hectares, divided into four major areas and features 14 themed pavilions. The organizers expect roughly 8 million visitors, averaging 40,000 visitors per day.

There will be more than 30 million flowers and plants on display, as well as more than 6,000 performances.

While previous events took place at a single venue, the 2010 Flora Expo takes place in multiple urban parks and waterfronts, making it more difficult to secure entrances and exits. Furthermore, since its theme revolves around environmental protection and greener lifestyles, many venues were designed to be semi-open — adding more variables into the mix.

The 2010 Flora Expo exhibits the largest collection of orchids in the world, as well as many other precious plants that are more than a hundred years old — some even a thousand years old — which are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. To protect these valuable items, organizers sought a large-scale integrated video surveillance system. They also wanted a monitoring solution which could analyze pedestrian flow and monitor critical entrances.

Each night, botanical suppliers inspect or replace flowers after 10 p.m., when the pavilions are closed to the public. This demanded surveillance cameras that could perform well even in low-light conditions.

To ensure the safety of visitors leaving late in the evening, the organizers also wanted emergency response equipment installed in less-populated areas.[NextPage]

Site Features
To effectively cover the vast area, the first step was to deploy enough surveillance cameras. While cameras were already installed in pavilions by the building contractors, the public areas were left untouched.

Secom installed 173 cameras in open areas. For optimum low-light performance, most cameras were day/night WDR analog cameras which could operate at 0.01 lux illumination.

Critical entrances were covered by 29 megapixel cameras, as well as several speed domes. These cameras sent footage to the Taipei traffic control center to help smooth traffic congestion in the surrounding areas.

Video was transmitted to a distributed storage solution from analog and network cameras. Since the organizers wanted to archive all six months of footage, each server has 8 terabytes of storage.

Emergency Response
To complement the surveillance system, 17 panic buttons were placed in various areas for visitors to push in the event of emergencies. When pressed, sirens and flashing lights are triggered. The central control room and security center are notified of the event and nearby cameras automatically pan to the location to provide security personnel with real-time footage.

The panic buttons are located on noticeable emergency response poles, which include LEDs so they are easy to spot even in the dark. Some of these poles also have cameras mounted on them, which helped lower the overall installation cost.

Due to the vast size and semi-open design of the areas, infrared motion sensors were also installed to eliminate possible blind spots of the surveillance system.

Central Control
All 431 cameras at the expo site were linked to the control center using fiber-optic cables. In addition to video, the system also integrates alarm, emergency response and perimeter defense systems. Using an electronic map, the location and status of the cameras and panic buttons are displayed on the map, providing visual cues if events occur.

The control room will not be staffed by technicians, Secom said. An intuitive Chinese graphical interface shortens the time required for training. The interface can also be adjusted for different user authorization levels, allowing a customized view of video and other content.

The expo's security makes use of Secom's Minibond, a location-aware device worn by children and senior citizens for tracking. These devices are provided for free at service counters and require wearers to be photographed upon borrowing them.

The Minibond has a built-in GPS chip that uses satellite positioning and cell tower triangulation for quick and reliable tracking. The location and photo of the wearer can be sent to the cell phones of security personnel when needed.

[NextPage]Challenges
Several challenges came up during the deployment of the system. Many of the pavilions were greenfield projects. With such a vast area to cover and no supporting infrastructure in place, power supply and wiring were difficult to install. Since some of the pavilions will be torn down once the Flora Expo ends, the equipment used needed to strike a balance between being weatherproof and durable, while being affordable for a temporary installation.

While wireless transmission was considered, the urban areas were surrounded by broadcast towers and antennas that could cause interference. The final solution used fiber-optic cables, which provide superior reliability and longer transmission distances.

Collaboration
During construction, each of the building contractors for the 14 pavilions had different installers set up surveillance systems. Since there was no collaboration between the builders or installers at the time, Secom ran into inconsistencies during cabling and often needed to relocate cameras.

Secom consulted with the builders and suppliers about camera locations, to integrate them all into the central management system. On some occasions, the cameras' fields of view were no longer adequate, requiring the installers to adjust them.

The expo organizer required all video to be integrated into the same management system. Managing 400 video feeds was no easy feat. It required time and partnership to find a suitable VMS capable of integrating cameras from several vendors.

Highlights
The presence of security personnel was necessary, so the organizers could respond quickly to security events and false alarms. Secom uses technology to manage its security guards, allowing efficient coverage of the entire area. Only about 100 security guards are needed at any given time to secure the four major areas, manage entrances and exits, patrol the premises and handle situations.

This project showcased how system integrators (SI) go above and beyond. In addition to meeting the security needs outlined, the SI also threw in benefits such as the location-based services. An SI should be able to not only cater to the needs of clients, but also take a site's characteristics into consideration.