Winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding are now at the height of the season. Both skiers and snowboarders, and operators of ski resorts need to pay the most attention to preventing accidents. One ski resort in Korea has utilized HD-PLC technology for accident prevention, which is important in allowing skiers and snowboarders to enjoy themselves safely, and in continuing to attract customers by improving on the reputation of the ski resort. The resort is ‘Hansol Oak Valley Ski Resort in Wonju-city, Gangwon Province, Korea.
Gangwon Province, located in the north of Korea, is well known for an area with a high concentration of winter resorts such as Chuncheon city, which appeared in ‘Winter Sonata,’ the TV drama that also gained popularity in Japan, and Pyeongchang-County, which was the candidate city for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Korea. Oak Valley Resort, opened at Wonju City, Gangwon Province at the end of 2007, is a large scale ski resort with 10 ski slopes.
One area where accidents occur most at a ski resort is the ski lift area. For inexperienced skiers, it is hard to get on or off a continuously moving lift while wearing or lugging long skis. Quite a few number of skiers topple over as they get on and off. On occasion, the resort staff has to stop the lift to help them when they cannot get up on their own.
Low-Budget Security System using Existing Power Lines
For the opening for the ski resort, they installed a live camera at each lifting/unload area and set up a central monitoring system to manage the images. They came up with a system where the management office decides by watching the images sent from the live cameras, whether they should stop the lift or not when they find skiers who have fallen over.
However, laying down a dedicated network lines and coaxial cables just for sending images from live cameras requires a large investment, since a big ski resort covers a large area. This is why Oak Valley Ski Resort placed their eyes on HD-PLC which can transmit images through the power lines that are already installed at each ski lift area. As a result, they managed to get away with a minimum amount of investment in transmitting images from the live cameras.
At Hansol Oak Valley Ski Resort, live cameras were installed at a total of 7 ski lift areas. The images are sent to the management office via PLC adaptors and power lines. They say that they now can stop the lift from the management office and take quick actions when they find dangerous situations such as skiers falling, by checking on the conditions of each ski lift area through the monitors.
Now that there is a real example of ensuring safety through live cameras done with ease and at a low-budget, the application of PLC technology will increase not only at ski resorts, but also in places where it is very expensive to install new lines and in places where it is physically difficult to wire.
* High speed PLC is limited to indoor usage by Electrical Communication Laws in Japan. (As of November, 2008).
