We only install IP,” keynote Domenic Flores, senior project manager for Royal Caribbean Cruise LTD, Miami, bluntly said while discussing the cruise lines’ security philosophy at the Axis A&E Technology Summit 2011. Flores’ presentation illustrated one simple message from Axis Communications Inc., Chelmsford, Mass., and its technology partners during the summit — IP adoption continues to move full steam ahead with stronger business value and a rapidly falling price tag that matches the added features and functionality IP-based systems offer.
Flores has participated in 18 newbuild, seven retrofit, and 45 drydocks, and managed a fleetwide CCTV upgrade project of 14,000 cameras across 32 ships. Any analog cameras on Royal Caribbean’s ships (there are still about 6,000 to 7,000) are from original builds. The CCTV systems on the ships are not for active surveillance, rather they are “post event driven, designed to protect guests and employees from false accusations of wrong doing,” Flores describes.