Infrared cameras protect huge platform

Two infrared cameras fromHGH Infrared Systems (Igny, France) have been selected to provide surveillance against threats on Royal Dutch Shell's Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas Platform, the largest floating structure ever built.

Because of its location -- it will be moored 200 km off of the Coast of Australia for 25 years -- security of the platform is of utmost importance.

Although security personnel will use small patrol boats equipped with short range radars to detect intruders, the area at risk requires a much broader solution that gives personnel in the control room a view of the platform perimeter at all times.

A large number of pan–tilt–zoom (PTZ) cameras were first considered for wide area surveillance but it became clear that the number of cameras needed to cover the full area would make the project complex and costly.

Detection requirements insisted their range had to be 5000m, with a 360° horizontal field of view, which would have required installing dozens of traditional PTZ cameras and a high installation and maintenance cost.

HGH Infrared System’s Spynel panoramic security system was chosen because it offers a wide area surveillance capability even in total darkness and adverse environmental conditions. The Spynel C3000 system itself uses a continuously rotating line scan sensor to produce a 360° 12 Mpixel image and detects and tracks an unlimited number of intruders in real time.

On the platform, two of the Spynel cameras will be mounted to stationary towers located on both sides of the platform. Each of the camera’s long wave infrared sensors are capable of detecting any kind of water craft, day or night, at distances over 5 km.

In areas obstructed by the platform infrastructure, short range thermal and visible PTZ cameras built for explosive atmospheres (ATEX certified) will be installed to insure the security of the perimeter under 800 meters.

The SeaOwl VizIR platform, designed by SCROME, will integrate feeds from all sensors, prioritize alarms and bring up the Spynel image whenever a confirmed threat is detected.

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-- Dave Wilson, Vision Systems Design