What Are the Optimal Applications for the Elara-DX Series?

Power plants, enterprise data centers and airports are all critical infrastructure sites that demand a heightened level of protection. Defending these entities from external threats and intruders is paramount to successful operations aimed at delivering power, data storage, and transportation services to millions of customers each day. However, designing a perimeter system for these locations requires a different kind of sensor—ones that compensate for outdoor elements, poor lighting, extreme weather, and vast perimeters. For security personnel looking for a high-performing camera for threat assessment in these environments, the Teledyne FLIR Elara™ DX-Series is the go-to option.

Tracking Moving Targets

Security operators at mission-critical sites need to be able to detect threats as well as follow suspects and moving targets. In the event that an intruder breaches the perimeter and moves out of the line of sight of analytic cameras along the fence line, the fixed cameras can hand off the target to a pan-tilt-zoom camera to follow the suspect. By installing the Elara DX-Series in a perimeter system, a security officer can keep eyes on a moving target at all times for superior tracking.

Another common integration today for perimeter applications is pairing PTZ cameras with a commercial ground-based radar. For example, integrating the Elara DX-Series with the Teledyne FLIR Elara R-Series gives security operators wide area protection and situational awareness beyond the fence line. These Elara R-Series radars are designed for reliable detection in all weather and lighting conditions. Their auto-tracking feature helps to direct pan-tilt-zoom cameras like the Elara DX-Series in the right direction; the radars also help expand coverage area and significantly minimize false alarms. In addition, the Elara R-series can provide security personnel with precise, real-time data, 24/7. In the field, the Elara R-series simultaneously tracks targets with geolocation capability, activates alarms, and guides the Elara DX-Series camera for visual verification to maximize security coverage and increase the amount of time available to react to a threat.

Superior Imaging

The Elara DX-Series specifically addresses the need for assessment in challenging imaging conditions. What distinguishes the Elara DX-Series from other PTZ options is it brings together both a thermal sensor and a 4K visible imager to deliver greater scene detail and situational awareness. Because the thermal sensor generates imagery based on heat signatures rather than light, it reliably yields images despite rain, snow, smoke, light fog, or total darkness. It also clearly sees any intruders attempting to camouflage themselves under foliage—a difficult task for a standard visible-only PTZ camera. While the thermal sensor enables accurate detection, the visible sensor, enhanced by infrared illumination for low-light scenarios, ensures operators can identify individuals on camera and determine whether the person is an employee who forgot their badge or an unauthorized intruder. Together, the dynamic duo of the thermal and optical sensors make the Elara DX-Series the superior choice for a 24/7 perimeter monitoring and multi-spectral video surveillance solution.

Relevant Applications

When should you consider the Elara DX-Series for your perimeter intrusion detection system? When your application is outdoors, where threat assessment is essential, and you face both favorable and adverse lighting and weather conditions. Here are three installation examples where the Elara DX-Series makes a difference:   

• Power Utility Substations – For everything from small substations that are deemed high value sites to large, multi-acre substations, the Elara DX-Series not only meets, but actually exceeds the standards outlined in NERC regulations for physical and electronic security technologies. Moreover, the Elara DX-Series enables security personnel to remotely look around the area and perimeter to investigate alarms at rural substations where security staff is off-site and must rely on intelligent alerts from the security system.
• Enterprise Data Centers – Often located in remote areas, enterprise data centers are arranged in clusters of two to five units located within a single perimeter. Large data center clusters can span up to 3,000 yards long by 1,000 yards wide. Security personnel can achieve superior coverage and threat tracking by integrating the Elara DX-Series with radar, which can detect targets well beyond the fence line for early warning. And thanks to the integrated thermal and visible imagers, the Elara DX-Series provides the best "eyes" on the fence line, ensuring no threat goes unnoticed.
• Airports – As busy transportation centers that operate 24/7, airports have thousands of people approach their perimeter each day. By installing the Elara DX-Series, security personnel can surveil large areas, from the parking lot to the tarmac. The multi-sensor solution provides total visibility of vehicle traffic by the outer fence line, taxying aircraft, cargo loaders, delivery trucks, and service vehicles within the perimeter.