When Royal Caribbean International’s newest cruise ship, Allure of the Seas, began its inaugural season on December 5, 2010, more than 6,300 passengers, 16 decks and nearly 2,100 crew members from 65 countries were guarded by an advanced surveillance system expressly designed by Oncam Global Inc.

Protecting the safety of those on board the ship, which departed from its homeport, Port Everglades cruise terminal in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was a high priority. Royal Caribbean has deployed extensive security networks for both public areas and even some not-so-public regions of its fleet of cruise ships, including Allure of the Seas and its sister-ship, Oasis of the Seas.

“A well-designed video surveillance system is an important tool for the safety and protection of everyone,” said James Ionson, chief executive officer, Oncam Global. “It provides invaluable assistance to security personnel in resolving incidents, such as helping to identify a noise in the engine room, responding to passenger medical emergencies and determining liability issues, for just a few examples. With the right information, they can appropriately react.”

Among the security cameras in the robust Allure of the Seas surveillance network, there are more than 300 Oncam IP 360° 5-megapixel cameras, many situated in public areas of the ship with multiple entrances, enabling simultaneous monitoring of all those entrances.

“By making Oncam IP 360° cameras the foundation of the liner’s security system,” Ionson said, “RCI has achieved comprehensive video surveillance without an excessive number of camera installations. With just a single Oncam IP 360° camera in the ceiling of a hallway with elevators on opposite sides, all traffic is captured in the hallway, in and out of both elevators and to and from the adjacent stairway. This installation replaced four traditional CCTV cameras.”

Unlike narrow-field-of-view fixed cameras, these panoramic-view cameras deliver total situational awareness over a wide area with a retrospective analysis capability, which during playback allows security personnel to pan, tilt and zoom around a 360-degree field-of-view with as much control over the scene as during live viewing.

In addition to incorporating the IP 360° cameras into Allure of the Seas’ and Oasis of the Seas’ security systems during their construction in Finland, RCI has been retrofitting these advanced cameras into the surveillance systems of its other cruise vessels since 2006.

“The cameras’ retrospective feature has enabled surveillance teams to investigate and document questionable shipboard incidents from multiple angles,” Ionson said. “With the Oncam 360° cameras, in the event of an incident, security personnel can more reliably “get to the bottom of it,” he added, noting that the cameras also serve to provide the cruise line with liability protection.