Gangway Control System Standard Systems Manual

1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 2 1.2 System Overview ................................................................................... 4 PART I THE GANGWAY CONTROL SYSTEM................................................. 6 1.3 Getting Started....................................................................................... 6 1.3.1 Install Software ............................................................................... 6 1.3.2 Install Printer..................................................................................10
1.3.2.1 1.3.2.2 1.3.2.3 Install interface cable and power supply ............................................ 10 Install Ribbon..................................................................................... 11 Install Card ........................................................................................ 12

1.3.3 Install Barcode Scanner.................................................................13 1.3.4 Install WEB Camera ......................................................................14 1.4 WC Main Menu .....................................................................................15 1.4.1 System Menu (traffic light) .............................................................17 1.4.2 Set-up ............................................................................................18
1.4.2.1 1.4.2.2 1.4.2.3 1.4.2.4 1.4.2.5 1.4.2.6 1.4.2.7 General (figure 4) .............................................................................. 19 Date / Time........................................................................................ 21 User Administration ........................................................................... 23 Identification ...................................................................................... 24 Database ........................................................................................... 28 Person Type Set-up........................................................................... 29 Logging.............................................................................................. 31

1.4.3 1.4.4
1.4.4.1 1.4.4.2 1.4.4.3 1.4.4.4

Gangway Control ...........................................................................32 Reports ..........................................................................................40

Ship Status ........................................................................................ 40 Passenger Info .................................................................................. 42 Deactivated cards.............................................................................. 43 Person type Status ............................................................................ 44

1.4.5
1.4.5.1 1.4.5.2 1.4.5.3 1.4.5.4 1.4.5.5 1.4.5.6

Card Management .........................................................................45

Print Set-up ....................................................................................... 45 Add Person........................................................................................ 46 Print Card .......................................................................................... 51 Retake Picture ................................................................................... 52 Remove person ................................................................................. 53 Deactivate person.............................................................................. 54

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1.4.6 Person Messages ..........................................................................55 PART III TUTORIAL..................................................................................57 PART IV Troubleshooting Section ............................................................58

1.1 Introduction
Following the recent worldwide terrorist attacks, there is an increased need for security on board ships, for both passengers and crew. The new SOLAS regulations, valid since July 2004, require strengthened security at sea.

The Gangway Control System provides a security proof and flexible way of keeping track of passenger and crew data, including their on board / ashore status. All this whilst using and implementing the latest technology available. The hardware devices are common Windows and PC compatible devices, such as USB WEB camera, USB fingerprint reader and COM port scanners. For 30 years, VingCard Marine has been developing access control systems for use on board passenger vessels and today their access control systems are installed on board the majority of cruise ships. The guest keycard, usually a magnetic stripe card, has multiple functions on board, e.g. opening the cabin door, making purchases, and as a boarding ID card. Labelcraft AS is a software company focusing on developing barcode and labeling applications for the industry. The people behind the company have been working with software development for more than 25 years. Today, the LabelCraft label and card printing software are sold through distributors around the world. VingCard Marine and LabelCraft AS have been cooperating on developing the system since 2003. Their combination of experience from the cruise line and label industries has led to the innovative development of Gangway Control. Todays technology makes it much easier to design and implement a gangway control system compared to the technology available only a few years ago. The system has been developed using the latest well proven technology. Gangway Control is easy to operate and easy to maintain and uses an open, well known platform. Different methods can be used to identify passengers or crew members at the gangway:

1.2 System Overview

Suitcase All equipment used for gangway control comes in a suitcase that can be unpacked and used on the gangway. Only the printer to issue ID magnetic cards will come in a separate box. The Software The Gangway software is a complete system for handling a complete gangway system. The software must have a license key installed on either the USB or parallel port. The following features are: Picture taking using WEB camera Predefined card layout for crew, guest and visitor Color and monochrome card printing In and out monitoring on gangway Reports o Ship status o Event log o Crew status

The card printer The printer is used to print crew, guest and visitor card in color or monochrome. Predefined layout is available. More layouts can be requested by contacting VingCard Marine www.vingcardmarine.com Color ribbon Each system comes with a 200 card color ribbon for printing crew, guest and visitor cards. Magnetic Card Each System comes with 200 magnetic cards that can be used for printing crew, guest and visitor cards The Barcode System The unique identification code of each person on board is encoded in a barcode, as opposed to the magnetic stripe. The magnetic stripe will still be included on the card and used for key purposes, but the barcode will shorten and simplify the passage on the gangway since this system is quicker and the barcodes are less likely to be damaged. Photo Additionally for the barcode method, the Gangway Control can also incorporate a picture of the passenger / crew for enhanced security identification.

PART I THE GANGWAY CONTROL SYSTEM

1.3 Getting Started
The system comes in a suitcase with all components you need to get started, except for the printer that comes in a separate box. If the PC is delivered by VingCard, the software and drivers are pre-installed. However, if you use your own PC or need to re-install any software, please follow the instructions below. There is also some short help description about how to operate the Evolis printer. 1.3.1 Install Software 1. Insert CD into the computer 2. Run GangwayStandard_v3.39 from CD (or the version on your CD)

Click next to proceed

Select your destination folder and click next

Select Program Manager Group

Click next to proceed installation

IMPORTANT! This will show on the screen in case of an upgrade. Select No if you want to keep person and setup info from the previous version. Select Yes if you want to erase all information from previous version.

Click Finish to complete installation

1.3.2 Install Printer

1.3.2.1 Install interface cable and power supply The printer driver and setup is done when you installed the Gangway Control Software. Please follow the procedure below to install your Parallel interface cable and power supply. You can also refer to the Evolis printer manual that came with the printer.

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1.3.2.2 Install Ribbon

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1.3.2.3 Install Card

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1.3.3 Install Barcode Scanner

A complete manual for the barcode scanner can be found on the CD. The scanner is preconfigured from VingCard factory. Only in special cases you need to configure the scanner your selves.

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1.3.4 Install WEB Camera

Due to the rapid change in WEB camera models, please refer to the installation guide that comes with the camera. Also note that we recommend to instal the camera driver only. Do not install the MSN messenger, skype or video drivers.

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1.4 WC Main Menu

To get into the system use: Login Name: admin Password: admin You should remove this user and your own. Please refer to User Administrator

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Figure 1: Gangway Control main menu

This is the main menu window in Gangway Control for an administrative user. A normal user will not be allowed access set-up.

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1.4.1 System Menu (traffic light)

A click on the traffic light in the upper left corner will make the system menu appear, where the following options are available (in administrative user mode): Select Language Used to select language used by the program. Login new user Enables you to switch user without exiting the program. Back-up Is used to copy the entire database into an Access database in a given location. The given location will in most cases be on the SD memory card that came with your system. Restore Databases Is used to restore any database that has been backed up.

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1.4.2 Set-up
The Set-up is the core of the GWC program. Only the Administrator has access to this menu option. Within Set-up one can modify to a great extent how the rest of the program will be used, for example which logos that will be used, how the screen for the Gangway control will appear, the making of the identity cards etc. Below is a presentation of the different tabs within the Setup and the options they represent. Note that each time settings are modified within each Tag: the OK button of the final set-up window needs to be pushed for the changes to go into effect. The Cancel button will always switch the settings to the Default settings.

Figure 2: The Setup Window, in the General Tag.

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Below you will find a presentation of the different tags within Set-up and the options they represent. 1.4.2.1 General (figure 4) In the Ship name text box you may enter the name of the ship, represented here by M/S VingCard Marine. This name will appear in the Gangway Control and Verify Persons main screens as well as in the title bar of the GWC main window. Note that the name here does not have anything to do with the ship name in the data files. In the Ship Information you may include any miscellaneous information you want. This will be visible for all the Administrators of the program but it will not be used for anything throughout the program. The Sound Setup deals with the sounds associated with the gangway identification of people. The program uses 4 different sounds: one for people boarding the ship, one for people going ashore, one if a person has a message and one for indicating an error condition. The latter is used, for example, if the gangway personnel are trying to check in a person that is already on board. You can also choose to use no sounds at all, choosing the none option. This can be useful for example when testing the system. The default sound option uses some pre-set standard sounds. The user defined enables you to choose the 4 sounds of your preference. To do this you first click within the user defined circle, then on the Specify Sound Files button. The following screen will appear:

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Figure 3: Pushing the Specify Sound files button in the Setup General tag

The Main Logo File refers to the logo that is displayed in the main command window. You can specify your own logo here. The logos already provided by GWC will be found in the folder bitmaps under the GWC folder. GWC will accept most graphic file formats.

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1.4.2.2 Date / Time

Figure 4: Date/ Time tag in the Setup

The first thing to note in this tag is the Date / time symbols frame. Within this frame the explanations for the different abbreviations are given. All format specifications in this window must use one of these abbreviations.

Display Date/Time format As the name implies, changes in this set-up will affect how dates and times are displayed in the program. Date (and eventually time) for embarkation and disembarkation are, for example, shown in the GWC window or the Verify Person window, next to Start Date and End Date.
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Date Entry Format The format you enter here will specify the format that must be used when entering a date in the Start Date and Stop Date fields under Add Person or Update Person Data in the Passenger Info screen (Person Data/Reports Passenger Info).

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1.4.2.3 User Administration

Figure 5: Setup User Administration tag

In the Users box all the users of the GWC program are listed. Hence an administrator of the GWC program has the possibility of looking at existing users, checking what kind of rights they have (based on their corresponding user type) and changing their passwords. To underline what was said in the introduction to the Setup chapter: only an Administrator has access to the Set-up of the program, thus, only an Administrator can create and remove users from the program. To define a new user, click on the New User button. Type the User name, the password twice and select the User Type. The User Type will determine which
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rights that user will have. Click OK and the newly defined user will appear in the Users box. There are 3 User types: Administrator, Normal and Super User. The Administrator has access to all buttons in the GWC program. A Normal User will be prevented from entering Set-up, and the Person Messaged button in the main window. A Super User has the same rights as the Normal User plus access to the Person Messages button. To change the password or the rights of a user, you must first select the appropriate user from the Users box, then click the Change Password button. The same applies when attempting to delete a user; you must first select he/she from the box. Note again that for any changes to take effect, the OK button must be clicked. 1.4.2.4 Identification The method of storing a persons identification code on is through a printed barcode. The identification code is used at the gangway to verify the identity of a person. It can be used in combination with taking the persons picture for enhanced security. Barcode Method Choosing the barcode method, the unique identity code of a person is encoded on a barcode which is printed on the cards. A barcode reader must be available at the gangway. The person ID is used as a key to get the person information, including picture and fingerprint, from the main Gangway Database. The Use entire field is checked by default but if the coding in the bar contains additional information besides the ID code that you want to scan, you have the possibility to read a specified length of the barcode. You must then enter the start position of the read-out. It will then read the entire field from the start point but if the length is fixed, you may enter this as well. Alternatively, one can use the Maximum bar length, 0 disables, which allows you to limit the length of the field when reading the bar by inserting a maximum length. By default this feature is disabled (by having a 0 in the field). Sometimes a barcode contains a series of zeros in front of the number of interest. The Skip leading zeros will remove these from the code. The Standard in the Barcode Reader field refers to how barcodes are read into the system. The field is merely included for future purposes.
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In the Scanner Ports field you specify which port on your computer the scanner is connected to (COM, TCP/IP). If you are not sure which one you are using you can easily check it after you have connected the scanner. This is done in the Windows Control panel.

Figure 6: Setup Identification and choosing Bar-code identification method

Picture Taking A persons picture is used at the Gangway to verify every person. A picture will be taken the first time a person is boarding or when the card is printed. This photo will be stored in the database together with the person data. The Acquire picture button enables one to test how the picture taking process is working. Check picture source is to choose the appropriate camera if you have more
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than one installed in your system. If you want the name of the person to be added at the bottom of the image, you check the Copy name to picture. Here you can also choose the font size of the written name. Enable picture printing should be checked if the picture should be printed on the identity card.

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Advanced Set-up

Figure 7: Pushing the Advanced Setup button in the setup identification screen

Minimum time between equal barcode scans: by default this is set to 4 seconds. This is to avoid a card being mistakenly read twice when kept in front of the reader too long. Automatic In/Out Status Toggle: if this option is checked the gangway control window automatically chooses to check in or check out a person based on his/her previous status. I.e. if somebody who has a status of checked out walks through the gangway, GWC will automatically check this person in.
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Hide Change Port name Button: in the GWC window there is a change port button which can be hidden. Prevent normal users to quit: a user with normal user rights cannot exit the GWC program. This can be useful, for example, at the gangways, where the GWC should be up and running at all times. Display cabin in search screens: removes the cabin number field from the search lists when you choose the manual selection of a person, i.e. if the person does not have their identification card.

1.4.2.5 Database GWC standard is using Microsoft Access database. The database is preconfigured and will be used as it is. All fields are predefined as you will see them when you add passenger, crew or visitor.

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1.4.2.6 Person Type Set-up There are 3 predefined person types: Passenger, Crew and visitor. Each person type can select a card design as described below. There are 7 predefined card designs. Crew1.lbl, Crew2.lbl, CrewBW.lbl, Passenger1.lbl, PassengerBW.lbl, Visitor1.lbl, VisitorBW.lbl, horizontal crew color design vertical crew color design verical crew monochrome design horizontal passenger color design horizontal passenger monochrome design horizontal visitor color design horizontal visitor monochrome design

Below is shown Passenger using Passenger1.lbl design

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Figure 8: Setup Person Type Setup Tag

Every person in the gangway control system can be assigned a person type. Person types are used for various purposes, i.e. card design, delete options, etc. The person type options are:

The Card option specifying the card layout used.

The Deactivate Picture Identification option, disabling the taking of pictures . The Delete option specifies what happens when different person types are leaving the ship. The card combo box is used to specify which card design to use.

The options displayed in the combo box shown above are available.

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1.4.2.7 Logging

Figur 9: Setup Logging screen

"Enable logging" must be checked when you want to keep a log of everything which has happened in the system. Furthermore, you can then specify in which directory to save the log and the name of your log file.

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1.4.3 Gangway Control

Gangway Control is the window in the GWC program that will be used, perhaps, to the greatest extent. This is the main screen that will be visible and used on the gangways: for the check-in and check-out/disembarkment of passengers and crew.

Automatic Procedure Case. Person passing the gangway with a functional card. The person must already be registered in the database. When the person passing the gangway has a functional card the whole checkin/check-out procedure is completely automatic. When the ID card is scanned, the ID code is matched with the corresponding code in the database and the person information linked to that particular code appears in the screen while a specific sound is played. The gangway control screen has 3 different modes: Checking In mode, Checking Out mode with the possibility of choosing disembarking and Automatic In/Out mode.

Checking In Mode This mode is characterized by the green button on the bottom right saying Checking In. GWC suggest this mode to be used when all the persons are checking in, for example if there is one lane dedicated only to persons boarding the ship or, for example on the embarkation day.

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Figure 10: Gangway control screen, Checking In mode

Checking Out Mode The bottom button here is blue. You also have the option to check for disembark. This being checked implies that all persons leaving the ship will have their status changed to disembarked instead of ashore.

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Figure 11: Gangway Control screen, checking out mode

Automatic Control Mode (default) The Automatic Control Mode is switched on in Set-up Identification and Advanced Set-up. In this mode, persons passing the gangway and registering their card will change status. That is, if a person has the status checked in before passing, it will transfer to checked out after passing and vice versa.

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Figure 12: Gangway control screen, automatic mode

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Manual Procedure Case. Person does not have the card with him/her or the card is damaged and cannot be read properly. The crew at the gangway can manually check in or check out a person. This is easily done by pushing Manual Selection and typing in the name of the person in order to search and find the right person in the person list. Once the person is selected from the list you can choose check in or check out.

Figure 13: Manual Check-in screen

Photo Option If use pictures is chosen in Set-up and photo has not been taken before, the camera window will appear automatically the first time a person is passing the gangway. The stored photo will be linked to that persons ID and will from then on be shown each time the person swipes or scans the card.
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Displayed Information In the upper right corner the persons name appears when a card is scanned. In addition you can choose other information to be displayed below the name in Set-up. Person Info All the fields will show the person info from the database that is linked to the identity code of the person passing the gangway. Start date and end date signify the validation period of the card (for a passenger this is normally the start date and end date of the cruise). Room number refers to cabin number. Status A person can have 4 status types: Ashore, On Board, Never Boarded and Disembarked. The status is updated each time a person passes the Gangway if the card is not rejected. Default in the setup is Ashore and On Board. Go to Setup->identification->Advanced setup to add and remove statuses. Event Info The event information will appear in the bottom left white field. All the recent persons passing will be listed; with the time of the event, the event itself and their new status. The different events are: Went ashore, Boarded, Boarded first time, Disembarked and Rejected. Ship Status The ship status refers to the boxes with information on the right. These contain a tally of the persons in the database, how many are on board, ashore and never boarded. The information is not only given for all persons but is also shown in terms of the different person types defined within Set-up. Change port name: the port can be changed but ports can also be deleted here. This button can be hidden if the appropriate box is selected in Advanced Set-up. Person Information: to activate this button one must select a person from the event info. A click will then show you all the person information in the computer system recorded for this person, as well as all the recorded actions (events) of this person. In this window you are also able to change the status of a person. Reports: a click on this button will take you to the same screen as that when selecting Person Data / Reports from the main window.

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Manual Selection was mentioned above but within this window there are several options:

Figure 14: Manual Selection screen

Search: will search for persons that have the name/letters in their name that you have written. Show all: will always display all persons in the database in the display field, regardless of what is written in the search field. The cabin number can also be displayed in the person list if this option is enabled in set-up. Print card: print a new card. Retake picture: takes a new picture. Update Person Data: change the person data. Deactivate person: when a person is disabled, he/she will not be counted in the ship status calculations. This can be useful, for example, for a crew member that goes on vacation.
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Sounds The sounds played when a person is passing through the gangway are all set in the Set-up menu. There are 4 different sounds: one when a person is boarding the ship, one when someone is leaving the ship, one error sound and the last sound is reserved if someone has a personal message which then pops up on the screen as the person is passing. Rejection - some common reasons In some cases the card will be rejected and a rejection sound will be played together with the displayed red rejection message. The most common reasons for this are: The card has expired. When a card is read, the dates are always checked for validity. If manually checked in, some of the compulsory fields may not have been entered correctly. The person attempting to check in/check out already has checked in/ checked out in the system. This can happen if a person has gone in/out without showing the card/being registered. The error sound will then be played when the old status is equal to the new status.

(Note that if you are using the Automatic toggle between checking in and checking out mode, the card will never be rejected because of status issues). It is therefore important for the crew at the gangway to always ensure that the status type of the persons passing is correct. If it is not correct, the card must be scanned once more.

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1.4.4 Reports

Figure 15: The Report window

Under Reports the user has 4 options: Ship status, Passenger info, Person type status and Deactivated cards. 1.4.4.1 Ship Status This section reports the number of passengers with status Ashore and On Board (Never Boarded and Deactivated as option). The section also shows the number of passengers with all status and summarizes the different status. By clicking on the status, i.e. On Board, the names and information about the persons with this status are displayed. See illustration below.

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Figur 16: Ship Status

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1.4.4.2 Passenger Info This section is the registry of all passengers: guests, crew and visitors. Here the user can search for passengers by name, add persons, update person data, delete persons or disable persons. By selecting a passenger, the persons picture is displayed, as well as all information that is known about the passenger and the passengers action log. For an example, see the illustration below.

Figure 17: Passenger info.

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1.4.4.3 Deactivated cards

Here you will see crew, passenger and visitor cards that are deactivated. Deactivated is normally used for visitor cards and crew that are on leave. The main reason for setting cards to deactivated is to not calculate them into ship status ashore or onboard.

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1.4.4.4 Person type Status This section shows a report of all person types (crew, guest and visitors) and the number of persons with different status (Never boarded, On board, Ashore and Disembarked), as well as the total number of persons and status. See illustration.

Figure 18: View of the Person type Status window

Select Print in the bottom right hand corner to print or Copy to export the report to other programs and applications, such as Microsoft Word or Excel.

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1.4.5 Card Management

It is started from the Card Management screen in the Gangway Control main screen. Currently, with this method, only single cards can be printed at a time.

1.4.5.1 Print Set-up The system is preconfigured to use Evolis Pebble printer. The printer is connected through Centronix printer interface.

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1.4.5.2 Add Person Fill out the fields to add a person into the gangway system. You can add a crew, passenger and visitor. Below is a layout for adding a crew and print the card CREW CARD

The next step is to Save and Print that will print the ID card.

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PASSENGER CARD Below is an example for adding a passenger. Fill out data as shown below. * is required fields In this example we select Save&Print

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Option Save&Print will take picture before card is printed

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VISITOR CARD There are 25 pre defined visitor cards in the system. Their status is deactivated. You should print as many as you think you will need for your ship to handle visitors such as guest, labour or port authority.

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1.4.5.3 Print Card

Select a person or visitor to print a card.

A prieview of the card is shown before printing.

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1.4.5.4 Retake Picture Use this option to retake a picture of a person

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1.4.5.5 Remove person Select this option to remove a person.

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1.4.5.6 Deactivate person Use this option to deactivate a person. This is normally done on visitor cards and crew on leave. When a person is deactivated it will not show up in ship status report.

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1.4.6 Person Messages

In this section the user can add, change or delete a message to a person. The message will appear when the person scans his/her card, i.e. leaving or entering the ship. When entering the Person Messages page, the user can choose between searching for a person by entering the name (or part of the name) and clicking Search or selecting Show all, which will display the entire person database. It is possible to filter the search by selecting person type to search for: all, crew, guest or visitor.

Figure 19: Person messages

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By clicking on a person in the list, the person is selected. If there is a message already assigned to this person, it will be shown in the person display field below the picture of the person. To assign a message to this person, select New Message under the message display field. Type in the message and click on Save Message. To change or remove an existing message, select Edit Message or Clear Message.

Figure 20: Person messages NB: INSERT SCREEN SHOT WHEN CHECKING IN AND THE MESSAGE APPEARS

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2 PART III TUTORIAL

There are 7 video tutorials on the Gangway Control CD. Just click on the preferred video and enjoy the tutorial. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Create a new user in the system newuser.avi Create and print a crew card newcrew.avi Create and print a passenger card newpassenger.avi Print a pre-stored visitor card newvisitor.avi Use the system on the gangway gangway.avi Run ship status report shipreport.avi Run person status report personreport.avi

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3 PART IV Troubleshooting Section

Symptom Pictures are printed with cross

Solution Make sure the gangway dongle is connected to the computer and the driver is correctly installed. See installation for further details. Not able to take picture 1. Check if camera is connected. 2. Make sure the camera driver is installed and the camera is working (use camera documentation). 3. Check if person type is set to Disable picture identification = NO. 4. Check if enable picture is set in Setup>Identification. 5. Make sure the data column Picture is selected from Set-up>Database>Person table set-up. Pictures do not print at all See section Add picture face to picture to design. Picture appears too dark See section Add picture face to picture to design. Labels do not print 1. Check printer status (see printer documentation). 2. Test print from design module. 3. Check printer port for current card design (see section Setting up the printer). Number of persons on board in Ship status report is filtered on each cruise. ship status does not match Gangway status onboard is the number of persons number of persons on board in onboard at any time, regardless of what cruise. gangway screen Make sure the gangway dongle is connected to the When checking people out or in, it always gives unlisted computer and the driver is correctly installed. See message and name is shown installation for further details. as DEMOxxxxxx

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