Israel's NICE Systems has won a contract to provide video security camera and computerized surveillance alert systems for the metro system in China's northern city of Tianjin, company officials recently told Xinhua.
"Asia has the biggest population in the world, and we see in most, if not all of the countries, an increasing demand for security," Eran Hadar, vice-president of Security for NICE's Asia-Pacific operations said.
"We provide the video recording solution; in some cases - it depends on the project - and sometimes the storage, and of course, the video analytics," which are the brains behind the system, Hadar added, speaking from the firm's Hong Kong office.
The firm, based in central Israel's Ra'anana, said its NiceVision's IP video security system will be installed at 23 stations of Tianjin's metro line of over 23 kilometers. The surveillance cameras will cover the network's tracks, stations and passengers.
"China represents one of our biggest opportunities in Asia Pacific," said Hadar, "simply because of the size of the country, and the requirements of the customers to have advanced solutions."
NICE systems are already installed in eight other Chinese cities, said Hadar.
"Nearly two dozen major cities have received approval from the Minister of Railways in China in late 2009,'' said Raghav Sahgal, NICE Asia-Pacific president.
"Tianjin is among these cities. Accordingly, we are seeing a rise in demand in China for advanced video surveillance that can effectively protect passengers."
The system will monitor more than 2,600 cameras, according to the client's parameters, Hadar said.
"Part of the analytic solution we have is baggage detection," Hadar explained, "that can detect in real time suspicious movement; the customer calibrates and defines the system ... After how many seconds he would like to get an alert" at the command and control center.
Hadar said NICE uses off-the-shelf video cameras and related gear.
