Bombela, responsible for building and operating the R25,4-billion Gautrain rapid-rail link, will make use of Israeli-developed military-grade thermal-imaging equipment to protect its assets, as well as to monitor the tracks and tunnels around the Marlboro station.

The train, to start operating between Sandton and the OR Tambo International Airport in June, enters and exits a 15 km-long tunnel near the station.

“We started installation of the eight cameras in low-light, high-risk areas housing the cabling and information technology systems around the station at the end of December,” says C3 Shared Services business development director Brendon Cowley.

“We should be finished by the end of April. We hope to secure more work from Bombela.”

The contract is worth R1,8-million.

Cowley says this is indeed more expensive than other imaging technology, but that C3’s product, imported from, and endorsed by, the Israeli Defence Force, has proved its mettle against competing technologies during field trials here and abroad.

He says normal closed-circuit television cameras cannot compete with thermal imaging when it comes to keeping an eye on things in the dark.

Also, where normal thermal imaging – registering body heat – demands that a control room operator pays constant attention to a wall of monitors, the C3 system is proactive.

Cowley says the system will signal an audible warning when someone appears on the screen, also drawing a coloured frame around the intruder.

He says the system has been tested where intruders wore black at night, snow suits during snowfall, where they shone a light directly at the camera, and where an Israeli strike force leopard crawled at a speed of one metre every five minutes.

“The system scans every pixel in the image 25 times a second,” notes Cowley.

It works equally well during the day and at night, and it can 'see' up to a distance of 450 m.

The system also signals a warning when there is poor visibility, such as fog, or if anyone tampers with the camera.

However, says Cowley, it ignores inclement weather, small animals and insects. Dogs will register though, as they can be equal in size to children and some smaller people.

“We calibrate each camera to understand how big a person will be in that specific picture, whether up close or far away, programming it to only react to people,” says Cowley.

Some of C3‘s local system installations include: residential estates, national key points, Eskom facilities, gold mines and platinum refineries.