High-Tech Security at Port of Long Beach

Mike McMullen, the security operations manager at the Port of Long Beach, talks to Activu approximately the new joint command and manage center that changed into applied in January 2009. Mr. McMullen changed into recruited to help define and expand the new middle. The 28,000 rectangular foot facility, which homes 10 million bucks really worth of excessive-tech device device, is chartered with keeping the Port of Long Beach cozy.

Could you begin by means of imparting an overview about the Joint Command and Control Center on the Port of Long Beach?

The improvement of the brand new Joint Command and Control Center on the Port of Long Beach turned into a improvement venture that spanned over five years. We formally broke floor in 2007 and the new constructing become grew to become over to us in Oct 2008. The protection division moved in quickly after that in January 2009. So we have not been right here pretty a year yet. Our facility is a thirty million dollar structure complete of high-tech safety structures which maintains close watch on the Port. The building price twenty million dollars and we've invested approximately ten million inside the systems that reside in the building, that does not include all of the sensors which might be in and around the Port. The twenty-8 thousand rectangular foot structure is three testimonies excessive with a heliport on top. All of our business operations are living at the 0.33 floor with more than one businesses residing inside the building consisting of the Coast Guard, Customs and Boarder Protection, Harbor Patrol, L.A. And Long Beach police departments and Marine Exchange. Our Harbor Department performs all the digicam renovation within the subject, whilst it is required. We additionally have a totally state-of-the-art business dive group with our very own fifty foot boat and six complete time divers on personnel. These guys are diving in and around the Port each day. So from a daily operational perspective, it's miles a dynamic constructing with loads of shifting parts.

Can you without problems combine new software packages into the visualization solution?

Of path, we haven't any problem integrating new software packages into the existing device. When we at first set up the visualization answer, anybody thought it become just going to be for the wall in the command middle. From our viewpoint, that changed into never the goal. We intended to proportion information within the overall scope of this constructing. There are 11 areas on this building wherein we've the capability to view and share content on a reveal, on an LCD display screen, a video wall or an overhead projector. When we designed the device, we made certain that any virtual signal, whether or not it be radar, sonar, video, amber alerts / port statistics signs and symptoms, or TV stations, had the potential to be digitized and shared everywhere within the constructing. So whilst we came up with the answer that turned into the scope of labor. As we've advanced and commenced to add extra assets, integration into our current visualization and collaboration answer has continually been a line object to ensure that we are able to placed that on the brand new machine, at the grid as nicely.

Are your cameras IP video cameras?

They grow to be IP cameras. We encode and decode at the rims. So we are an NR answer. We currently placed our cameras over a 650Mb private wi-fi community and we're inside the technique of laying thirty-five miles of fiber. As we get to the digicam places, we are placing those cameras on our fiber so we've a redundant video feed. But currently, we take an analog camera, positioned an encoder at the stop and digitize it. On the alternative side, it sends it down the wi-fi community and whilst it comes into our manipulate center we send it through an encoder to make it analog again and then pipe it into our servers.

Is the visualization device streaming the motion pictures?

The manner we've got deployed the gadget is that Verint is integrated into the general visualization answer. We have middleware software so operators don't must learn to characteristic the Verint system. It's crucial to realize that we've nine structures currently strolling, we have bought fourteen, and there are any other four on the drawing board. So we have eighteen center systems coming in right here. We failed to need to need to train all of the officials a way to use all eighteen structures so we sold a middleware package to address all of the camera device. With our visualization and collaboration software program, we mirror all the systems of their native form to the grid in order that we will bypass all of the specific GUI's from an administrative point of view. If executives want to peer some of cameras, they could simply carry digital camera feed up at the video wall, permit it populate, and I can share it in any of the twelve locations throughout the building. So the visualization answer is the portal that allows us to try this. It's an academic tool.

I believe a variety of what is on the wall is video feed?

No, we've a number of special content material that we are posting to the wall further to our digital camera feed. For instance, we're pulling and pushing content to the wall from an access manipulate machine that handles our badge and our alarm tracking. We actually have a navy software package that tracks vessels at some stage in the port. We have VTS which is the legit vessel monitoring system for the port which comes from the Marine Exchange. We have three high-give up video surveillance structures, a web portal in which we proportion our video feeds with our tenants and that they share their cameras with us, and we also produce other things that cross on the wall like our port information signs at the highway, an A.M. Radio with a GUI to peer what is being broadcast. There's a large number of packages and we combine they all into the visualization solution so it does not depend if you're within the executive convention room, within the department operations center or in a spoil room on the second one ground. If you have got a need to peer any of that data, you may.

What is the scale of your wall within the fundamental command center?

We have twelve fifty inch Mitsubishi cubes deployed in the command center. So it is a big wall.

What other agencies occupy the gap within your building?

We have "stakeholders" which might be tenants and companions in the building. Our companions encompass regulatory corporations like the Coast Guard, Customs and Boarder Protection, Marine Exchange, Port of Los Angelas Police, Long Beach Police, and Intelligence Officers. We additionally have tenants. They're the people that do business in the port, the SSA Marines, the entire terminals via BP, they have land right here. We are a landlord port so most of our massive tenants are Coast Guard regulated; they have their personal protection plan, their very own safety pressure. The Port and Harbor Patrol, with all of the sensor systems, affords a safety net, an umbrella, to assist the overall port.

Can you supply me an example of how you've got stepped forward verbal exchange, collaboration, and situational attention with the brand new visualization answer?

On the 1/3 ground, we have a beautiful government conference room that sits approximately twenty-5 humans. In that room, we've video conferencing abilties through the visualization gadget. The video conferencing abilties hyperlinks to our department operations center that is on the second ground and may be used externally or inside the building. What that lets in us to do is to provide the coverage selection makers a room where they don't impact the people which might be working the operation. It lets in us to separate them out after which it additionally allows the incident commander to stroll into the command center room and use the tools there to create his emergency movement plan for the occasion. So here you've got pastime taking place in three separate rooms. But thru the visual answer, now we're capable of hyperlink all of that hobby right into a image so they all have the same data. And that is a completely powerful device due to the fact all 3 of these activities have their very own priorities and their own desires. In the beyond, you'd have to positioned them in a room together and you then'd must combat over whose priority became number one. But now, they are able to all work on their very own priorities simultaneously and they're just sharing that statistics and no longer stepping into every other's way. That in itself is a effective device. It has streamlined the manner our teams work together.

You stated that whilst you had been evaluating structures, it was vital that you invest in an IP-based answer. Why changed into that so vital on your employer?

We knew that we had been going to be a dynamic building and we'd usually be evolving. Most of the visualization solutions obtainable are based on tough-wire cable. So, whenever you desired to add some thing to the grid, you'll need to usher in a huge crew and you'd have to pull wires, put in routers, and control bins. It's a large expense which entails system and extensive exertions expenses to make adjustments. The factor that we adore about our visualization solution is that whilst you want to add something, as it's an IP-based totally solution, you may without difficulty combine new hardware with the aid of the use of software program. You just put it at the subnet LAN and you're done. That in itself saves a person like me or other assignment managers numerous grief because now we can do some thing in a pair days which may have taken more than one weeks to get resolved if turned into not an IP-primarily based solution.

So you may dynamically scale your gadget?

Yes. And for a person who's growing a gadget, I suppose it brings price. We paid a little bit greater for licensing to make sure us that flexibility. But it has via some distance paid for itself because the system has grown. It has eliminated the value we might have had to pay in exertions and gadget charges to make all of the modifications that we've made. If you had a device that could never develop, there is probably a extra compelling tale to stay with a non-IP primarily based machine. But I can not consider an company that doesn't plan to develop a device like this. So I think it is essential that you put in an IP-primarily based machine that offers you that flexibility. When you're making changes you don't ought to spend money on heavy infrastructure. One of the new technology that you have is facial recognition software program.

What different technology like that have you ever integrated into the system?

Probably one which we are still mastering about however may be very mind-blowing and unique is the SSR radar machine. Some people consider radars as one that is going out and finds ships. But in a security environment and a port environment, most industrial ships have AIS monitoring. It's an identifier on the deliver that tells you the name of the ship, who owns the deliver, and how huge the deliver it's far. But leisure vessels and sightseeing vessels don't have this capability. Since we're a tried land agree with port, our waterways are somewhat open to the public. Tracking the commercial vessels is simple however when you have a sail boat or motor boat, you don't know who they're. What SSR permits us to do is to temporarily assign them an ID so that they can be tracked whilst they're inside the port.

Do they notify you as they're coming in?

No. That's the lovely aspect approximately the radar. When they input the port into a place of interest we've got the potential to track them or not. The software IDs the vessel, assigns them a brief ID so we can watch them, after which it starts tracking them via the port. So at whenever, the operators can then just click on on them and circulate a camera to observe them and reveal their hobby. So proper now, this software program offers us the capability of starting that process while not having to make the economic investment. It is a quite neat piece of software. Also, we're going to be the primary commercial port to put in a totally sturdy underwater sonar detection device. We are placing a industrial head within the water with navy software to give us extra functionality. We'll be the primary industrial port to have a strong machine like that.

You noted you have a dive crew. Are the routinely diving?

Yes. We have divers within the water 5 days per week, running on a fifty foot boat. Those divers have the functionality to ship video, from underwater, to their boat, and back to the command center and it can be displayed by way of Activu at the wall. We also can send it to a internet site so managers can watch them underwater from their laptop and examine content material this is being despatched. We have a totally strong machine with a number of underwater, un-manned cars (ROVs) which have video and sonar capabilities. So we will put these submarine devices down and have them discover matters that might positioned a diver at chance. So it's precise that we will put a machine down and not ought to hazard a diver.

Can you inform me a little bit about the pilot program, Transportation Worker Identification Program (TWIC), that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) selected you to take part in?

It's a country wide software and we are one of 5 pilot web sites. The TSA implemented a trendy government ID badge this is required these days for all and sundry who wishes non-escorted privileges right into a regulated facility. When we speak approximately regulated Coast Guard centers we are really speakme approximately our huge tenants that technique plenty of goods. Container terminals are regulated. All of our bulk processing web sites deliver whatever from salt to coal, are regulated. All of our petroleum users are regulated. So if you want to work on that website or go to that website online, you want have to have a TWIC credential. But it is handiest right if you may validate that the badge belongs to the man or woman sporting it. What the Federal Government has stated is that you need to have  methods to authenticate that manner. A picture on a badge would not mean it is in reality you. So what they have got achieved is taken a fingerprint template and positioned that at the badge as well. The pilot check is asking at readers with the intention to will let you use your badge as a proxy badge, validate you are who you're presupposed to be and you're authorized to enter a selected facility. The port, under the pilot application, has placed up thousands and thousands of bucks for 5 of our tenants to installation it throughout their web site and check it for TSA. The pilot test is presently taking place proper now. The port of Long Beach itself makes up sixty-five percentage of the countrywide take a look at.

You are one the largest ports in the country. Correct?

We are the second one biggest port with our neighbor, the Port of Los Angeles, being number one. They have a bit greater quantity then we do. But we take into account the complete complex, the Port of LA, the Port of Long Beach, the Port of San Pedro Bay. And it is with the aid of some distance, the biggest port complex inside the United States. It's a very dynamic port. To placed it in angle, while we were at our height approximately 3 years in the past, the port had a thousand million greenbacks of trade coming via the port each day. In our cutting-edge economy, we have about six hundred and fifty million bucks a day. So it's a very crucial asset to the country due to the fact almost all of the goods that come to us from Asia come via both the Port of Long Beach or the Port of L.A., put on rail and shipped across the usa.

What are a few key accomplishments that you may proportion with me on account that deploying the new joint command and manage middle?

Our biggest accomplishment is that we've extensively more advantageous our dating with the Port's stakeholders. If you reflect onconsideration on it, earlier than we had our joint command center and all of the systems in it, we did not have a venue that would make our tenants and regulatory partners at ease beneath one roof. So having this constructing, having this visualization answer that lets in us to percentage what we do with all those parties has in reality solidified our courting with the stakeholders. It might not sound crucial, but by bringing us all together bodily and from a technical perspective, there may be extra believe. Now the regulatory corporations proportion more records, the tenants are not afraid to engage us in initiatives or with facts as nicely. So it has simply made for a tighter "community watch" for the port that was no longer there earlier than. That is our largest accomplishment. The technology permits you to convey all events together and that has truely been the icing at the cake for us.