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TRAFFIC FLOW IN ATHENS - Not an Olympian Task

Upgrading a major city's surveillance network is always

where travel by car, motorbike or bus is essential over such a

going to be a massive undertaking. But how does an

large area. However, each year the city's population is doubled,

established capital city upgrade its network and prepare

swollen by a huge influx of tourists who add extra congestion to

itself for an influx of more than double its usual

the extensive road network and increase security and surveillance

population, whilst ensuring security at a time of

concerns for the city authorities.

international alert and continue with 'business as usual' for

its residents? This was the dilemma facing Athens in the

Visitors flock to Athens and Greece for a number of reasons, but

run up to the 2004 Olympic Games. As part of its Olympic

the country's historical sites and heritage as one of the cradles of

preparations, Athens upgraded the city's road surveillance

civilisation certainly play a part. Greece was also the birthplace of

network to ensure good traffic management during the

the ancient Olympic Games and, when the modern Olympic

Games and for the long term benefit of residents. To give

movement was founded, Athens hosted the first Games in 1896.

the city the surveillance network it would need to keep the

The Olympic Games returned to their origins when Athens was

Games moving, they turned to AMG Systems.

chosen to host the XXVIII Olympiad. So began a race against

time to ready the city to greet its largest ever influx of people.

The City of Athens is one of the largest in Europe. Although it

only has a population of 3 million, it spreads out further than most

In 2003, with Olympic sporting, accommodation and media

other cities on the continent. In fact, its urban sprawl is more on

facilities in the final stages of build, the Athens city authorities

a par with modern Los Angeles than an ancient cradle of

embarked on a major programme of improvements to unite the

civilisation. Car ownership has increased rapidly in recent years

infrastructure. A crucial part of the plan was the upgrade of the

and there has been a concerted effort to increase the quality of

inner ring road, which connects some of the city's most important

the country's highways. This is especially noticeable in Athens,

trunk and main roads.

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TRAFFIC FLOW IN ATHENS

5 Rings Depend on 2
AMG and Gentec CSW, their Greek partner and systems
integrator, had just three months to install 210 cameras and
transmission equipment along the 65km Attiki Odos Highway.
They also had to lay down all the fibre to connect each of the
cameras with 2 control rooms, one for the Police and another for
the Transport Ministry. The twin control rooms would give the
system an additional layer of flexibility and resilience as a key part
of the brief was to build in network resilience.
From the start, we were under enormous time pressure to
succeed, says Alan Hayes, Managing Director of AMG Systems.
Nevertheless, the goal of a resilient, responsive CCTV system

View of the sprawling city of Athens

that would be useful to the citizens and city authorities after the
Olympics departed had to be met.
Also, we were always conscious of the backdrop of a high level
of threat, due to the giant global profile of the Games. Therefore,
we chose a dual redundant configuration routed through each of
the 2 control rooms to 'harden' the entire installation.

Flexible and Resilient

The final design was built around a dual fibre ring, capable of
transmitting live, full bandwidth video images from any of the 210
cameras to either of the control rooms. AMG's Guardian-Lite 2700
transmission equipment drives this core circuitry with Vision 2900
series units used for some of the individual cameras. Vitally, if one of
the fibres is accidentally damaged, the Guardian-Lite equipment
automatically routes video and data signals around the other fibre ring
to maintain surveillance capability until a repair can be affected.
Up to 64 video signals can be carried simultaneously on each
fibre using the Guardian-Lite 2700. Although configured as a
dual fibre ring in the Athens project, it can also be used in a spur
to collect signals from a 'daisy chain' of cameras. An additional
benefit from this technology is the significant saving that was
made on the fibre optic infrastructure when compared with
traditional methods of video collection.
Despite intense time pressure, this sophisticated design was put
into place ready for the start of the Games, says George Kitsios,
Managing Director, Gentec CSW. We handed over a surveillance
network second to none and it played a major part in helping to
ensure that the massive influx of Olympic traffic stayed mobile.
The ability of control room staff to make decisions based on real,
live data and to monitor the effectiveness of those decisions
should not be underestimated. It is the key to flexible traffic
management in urban environments.

Despite intense time

pressure, this sophisticated
design was put into place
ready for the start
of the Games

Figure 3 - Description

Conclusion

The uncompressed video allows staff in the control rooms to

Winning the Olympic Games provided the impetus for Athens to

monitor traffic anywhere on the ring road in real time. As the

invest in its future. Housing, hotels, air links, sporting venues and

network design eliminates latency, they can also pan, tilt and

communications all underwent something of a transformation in

zoom individual cameras and see the effect immediately.

the run up to 2004 and are expected to continue to give the

Real Time Monitoring and Control

This is very important in an incident or emergency situation where

residents and future tourists alike a big return on the investment.

high quality images of the scene and the surroundings may be

The Ring Road project was no different - cutting edge technology

critical in managing the response.

deployed in record time, making resilient, real time video a reality.

The Guardian-Lite 2700 series backbone is especially suitable for

the planned expansion. Images are transmitted in a real time, full
bandwidth, digital format and this ensures high quality transmission
regardless of distance. As the need to compress the video signal is
eliminated, unlike IP or SDH networks, quality is not compromised
and latency is to all intents non-existent. These qualities are perfect
in a traffic management scenario and permit rapid evaluations of the
state of the roads to be made, says George Kitsios.
Put in place in only 90 days, just in time for the start of the 2004
Figure 3 - Description

Olympic Games, the CCTV system has continued to prove its

worth since. The volume of traffic and its concentration in

We handed over a surveillance

network second to none and it
played a major part in helping to
ensure that the massive influx of
Olympic traffic stayed mobile

certain, key areas, may have gone down since the Games but
normal commuting and freight operations continue unabated,
comments George Kitsios. Already we have increased the camera
count, from 210 to 300, and we are now planning to expand the
network with more cameras covering an even greater area.

The Olympic Stadium

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TRAFFIC FLOW IN ATHENS

Highlights
Each of the 210 cameras is linked to both control rooms
Total highway covered is 65km
Either control room can access in real time any camera
along the ring road
2 fibre optic rings were laid to provide resilient
redundancy in case of fibre breakage. If a fibre or cable
is unavailable, the system automatically switches video
signals to the other direction and a fault reporting
system advises the maintenance engineer of the problem

Guardian-Lite 2700 offers easy integration links to

other networks
The video signal is not compressed. This ensures that
video quality is not compromised and latency is
eliminated
System has already been extended to 300 cameras
and retains capacity for further expansion
First phase completed in 90 days

View of the sprawling the city of Athens

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AMG Systems Ltd, 3 The Omega Centre, Stratton Business Park, Biggleswade, Beds, UK, SG18 8QB
Phone +44 (0) 1767 600 777 Fax +44 (0) 1767 600 077 Email sales@amgsystems.com

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