navAero announced today the commercialization of tCam – the EFB camera surveillance system. Designed for integration and use with the navAero tBag C2-2 EFB system, tCam is the ideal complimentary retrofit surveillance technology for improved security through the display and capture of activities that take place beyond the cockpit door.
The tCam system is a compact, low-cost and highly efficient technology solution that brings full motion video from up to four installed cameras directly onto the navAero EFB display screen. This eliminates the need for a dedicated monitor… saving space in already tightly configured cockpits. Working in close collaboration with launch customer PrivatAir, navAero now has this compact video surveillance solution certified as an EASA minor change and is ready for immediate installation on all models of the B737. Certification on the B757 is currently in-progress with other aircraft types following soon thereafter.
The tCam surveillance system has been designed to meet demanding customer needs as a cost-effective, simple-to-install retrofit solution and is a must-have complement to navAero EFB systems to meet the pending EASA-wide regulation to have on-board video surveillance. Featuring up to four compact, high-resolution full-color cameras and EFB-hosted camera controller software, the system allows the pilots to monitor and navigate the camera system directly from the t?Bag EFB display screen. The software allows for add-on capabilities for image capture and full-motion recording as well as integration possibilities for air-to-ground image transfer.
Key features of the tCam EFB Surveillance System are:
– Automatic iris-control in cameras provides excellent resolution
– Low acquisition and installation cost
– Software controller can display up to four camera images at the same time
– Digital recording and single-image capture-and-store capability
– Easy integration of the controller software into any application manager
Lars Ericksson, navAero director, Customer Operations stated: “The commercialization of our tCam EFB Camera Surveillance System is a major accomplishment that addresses our customer’s need for enhanced on-board security monitoring. Our collaboration with PrivatAir has helped us achieve a compact and efficient surveillance tool that is highly affordable and easy to install as a retrofit solution. The navAero tCam system is the ideal add-on capability to realize even further benefit from our tBag EFB system. Again, navAero has shown our capability to bring to market what the market wants…affordable technology that meets the most demanding certification, operational, environmental and ROI standards.”
The tCam surveillance system architecture utilizes video and power-over-Ethernet (PoE) as the means for the connection of the cameras to the EFB system. The Ethernet from the cameras is gathered by “4 to 1” computer “tSwitch”. The switch then sends all four camera streams to one of the EFB CPU’s unused Ethernet ports through a single Ethernet cable which dramatically reduces the number of cables to route from the cameras to the EFB. The video information is fed to one EFB computer and shared to the other EFB computer through the crosslink Ethernet connection which is part of the tBag EFB system. Any computer connected to the EFB network can gather and display the same video information.