With the last go-live of departures SmartGate in Adelaide last month, the nationwide rollout of Automated Border Control at the eight main airports in Australia is now completed. The initiative pursued by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection has successfully reached its final stage, making universal streamlined border control processes and enhanced border protection a reality. Vision-Box, as the leading provider of automated border management solutions, played a fundamental role in delivering this complex and robust large-scale deployment to all major Departure Terminals of the country.
Sydney, August 25th, 2016 – Since the first bank became operational in Sydney last year, 10 million passengers have been successfully processed by the installed Automated Border Control eGates in Australia, with passengers of all ages and all nationalities being able to leave the country, using the Automated Border Clearance solution, by simply presenting their passport and looking at a camera to clear the Border.
It took only 12 months to set up an unparalleled Automated Border Control infrastructure in Departures Halls at 8 major airports around Australia. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Cairns and Darwin: all 8 major Australian Airports are now equipped with the latest self-service biometric technology for Border Control, offering departing passengers a unique passenger-centric experience at the 83 SmartGates installed.
On the announcement of the national completion of the departures SmartGate roll-out, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton highlighted that “This milestone delivers on the Australian Government’s commitment towards streamlined border control processes and enhanced border protection capability at our international airports”.
Mr. Dutton defined the introduction of this technology as “critical to improving our ability to accurately confirm the identity of travellers”. In fact, the commitment to the latest generation of Automated Border Control eGates in 2014 was a determined step to strengthen Australian borders.
The use of self-service biometric touchpoints offers a quick, reliable authentication of each passenger’s travel documents and guarantees that the passenger holding it is the rightful owner, by matching the passport chip’s photo with a live photo. While legitimate travellers cross the border in a smooth, self-service way, Australian Border Force officers can focus on actual risks at the border.
Side by side with security, the standardization and streamlining of processes are having a huge impact on the way passengers perceive the airport experience. SmartGate has widespread passenger adoption, by embracing what has become the universal language for personal identification. Gradually, self-service passenger processes have become standard at international airports in Australia. The advancements in technology have allowed the passenger experience to be amazingly convenient – cameras automatically adjust to the passenger’s height (especially needed when any age is accepted) and innovative patented document feeder technology promotes the highest reading success rate, by automatically positioning the passport precisely on the reader at all times and by only returning the document to the passenger when reading was fully completed, eliminating any delays due to document misplacement or inadequacy of time for reading.
A happy combination of attractive and ergonomic common-use hardware, an expertly designed workflow and intuitive interfaces based on the best human–to-machine interaction practices allow passengers to use the technology very easily and clear immigration in just a few seconds.
At busy periods, up to 150 passengers are being processed per hour at each gate.
The efficiency and accuracy in the process of identifying passengers through the use of advanced biometric recognition, together with seamless integration with the Border Force platform, were also pivotal in ensuring a unique performance of the system and the quickest processing times.
The powerful software suite put in place by Vision-Box integrates passenger identification (biometric verification, passport checks, passenger assessment and profiling) with real-time monitoring of SmartGate operations, offering Border Force Officers solid control of the entire end-to-end security infrastructure via a holistic integrated border management platform allowing to promptly react to any exceptional situation or threat.
Miguel Leitmann, CEO of Vision-Box states that “This project is simply the most remarkable SmartGate rollout ever at a global scale, with state-of-the-art biometric technology intensifying border security at all major exit points of the country. We are very proud to have worked cooperatively with the Australian Border Protection authorities in implementing this project of reference and providing the best tools for major international airports to boost their capacity and manage increasing traveller volumes. 10 million passengers have been reliably identified. And that’s how this solution is working at the service of international security, efficiency and the convenience of people who travel.”
