Photos: Inside San Francisco airport's secure operating centre

From the observation room inside the secure operating centre (SOC) at San Francisco International airport, staff are able to check out every alert as they are raised by the technology analysing real-time CCTV footage.

This is less labour intensive than previous systems and more reliable as staff only check out events which raise alerts, rather than watching an innocuous event unfold on one screen while a threat goes unnoticed on another.

The reduction in head-count required means security guards can actually be deployed more effectively out on the airport concourse, according to Guy Morgante, VP of services at Vidient, whose technology is being used under a federally funded grant programme.

Photo Credit: Will Sturgeon