Nice Systems takes part in Russian ‘Safe City’ project

NICE Systems is implementing its surveillance portfolio in the city of Sochi, Russia as part of the latter’s ‘Safe City’ initiative focused on mitigating security, safety and operational risks.

Having been chosen to host the Winter Olympics and the first Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix in 2014 and being one of the candidate cities to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Russian resort town of Sochi foresees a significant influx of visitors and accelerated growth in the coming years.

Using NICE’s Safe City solutions, Sochi will be able to more efficiently manage city operations, optimise its law enforcement resources and enhance public safety for its citizens and visitors alike.

The city of Sochi is deploying the complete NICE Systems surveillance portfolio. This includes NICE Situator, an holistic situation management solution and NiceVision Net 2.5 IP Video Surveillance, which will span over 1,400 channels.

Also involved are NICE Inform – designed to enable multimedia incident debriefing and simulation investigation – and NICE video analytics and audio recording.

In addition, the NiceVision Web application is set to be used by field agents and police for accessing live and playback video feed for enhanced security operations.

Rapid population and economic growth

“We are extremely excited to be hosting these world famous sporting events in Sochi, and we’re fully committed to ensuring that the city is safe and secure,” said Sergey Cherepov, director of The Situation Monitoring Centre of Sochi.

“The coming years will witness rapid population and economic growth in Sochi,” he continued, “broadening the safety and security challenges as well as increasing the requirements and complexity of everyday city operations. We’re confident that NICE, together with its partner Asteros, will provide the comprehensive solutions to meet our extensive requirements and scaling needs.”

To enhance the management of its daily operations, the city of Sochi has set up an integrated Command and Control Centre that includes 40 NICE Situator workstations. With implementation well underway, the city’s law enforcement authorities are using NICE Situator to build a common operating picture for all stakeholders as well as create an automated response plan with adaptive workflows.

All of Sochi’s surveillance cameras have already been hooked up to NiceVision in order to provide visual documentation of all incidents city-wide.

Effective monitoring of urban operations

The implementation of this sophisticated technology by NICE, in collaboration with Asteros, will enable the city of Sochi to monitor its urban operations and so address security, safety and operational risks.

Specifically, Sochi law enforcement authorities will be able to automatically detect overcrowding, unattended baggage and perimeter intrusions. Consequently, the city will be able to provide advanced protection to critical infrastructure and public buildings as well as monitor, detect and manage traffic congestion and illegal parking.

It will also be possible to prevent loitering and overcrowding situations in public buildings and commercial areas.

Asteros Group is a leader in providing complex solutions encompassing IT infrastructures, engineering systems and security systems for large offices, buildings, civil objects and cities in Russia. The Asteros Group also has expertise in business applications development and implementation, IT consulting and outsourcing.

It has operated since 1998, employs around 2,000 professionals and generates annual revenue in excess of $500 million.

24-hour monitoring: the ultimate goal

“We’re proud to be the city of Sochi’s comprehensive solution of choice for securing its citizens and visitors,” said Yaron Tchwella, security president and EVP of business operations at NICE.

“NICE’s participation in the ‘Safe City’ project is a testament to our expertise in large-scale critical deployments, and recognises the ability of our pre-integrated solution to support safety and security while also promoting improved operations.”

Tigran Pogosian, deputy general director of Strategy Projects at MegaFon OJSC (the main contractor on the project) explained: “The unique surveillance system, based on the MegaFon network, will provide 24-hour monitoring of the city’s main roads, buildings and popular resort locations. In turn, this will enable high responsiveness among law enforcement bodies, emergency services, the Federal Security Service and the Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) to any unfolding incidents. Also, this will enhance the quality of life of local citizens and resort guests.”

MegaFon is a Russian universal telecommunication service provider. Established in May 2002, the company became the first operator with a network covering all regions of Russia. The company and its subsidiaries have licenses to operate in all of the Russian regions and in the Republics of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Tajikistan.

With over 63 million active subscribers, MegaFon manages the most sophisticated and technologically advanced digital and fixed line network in the country. MegaFon was the first in Russia to launch 3G for commercial operations and is currently the number one provider of mobile Internet and the number two telecom company in Russia (according to the number of active subscribers).

In 2012, MegaFon became one of the first operators to launch a 4G network in the LTE standard in Russia.

Additional advantages for policing and law enforcement

“Sochi’s ‘Safe ?ity’ project is a significant implementation of an emergency control centre and video surveillance platform. It will provide additional advantages to the police force, law enforcement authorities and emergency and city operation services to help them reduce the number of offences and ensure public safety,” said Andrey Cheremnykh, president of the Asteros Group.

The NICE security offering addresses the needs of Governments and enterprises with intent-based solutions for fighting crime and terror by anticipating, managing and mitigating safety, security and operational risks.

The solution enables the capture, analysis and correlation of data from multiple sensors and systems, including audio, video, radio, geo-location and web, providing a framework for fusing data silos into a single, holistic operational view.