In a groundbreaking move to create a ‘smart’ shipping port at the the Vladivostok Commercial Sea Port the FESCO Transport Group and BINOM, its IT partner, and NtechLab, a world leader in video analytics, have signed a major agreement.

The Agreement of Intent, within the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), was signed by Dmitry Surovets, Vice President for Information Technologies at FESCO, Andrei Telenkov, CEO of NtechLab, and Ivan Podoprigora, Director General of BINOM.

NtechLab is providing a unified video analytics system to monitor labor and transport safety, based on a common biometric database created by the sea port. The technology delivers remote systems access and the ability to monitor the port’s operational processes in real time. The FESCO Transport Group is the largest intermodal freight transport operator in Russia and BINOM, responsible for the modernization of IT and engineering infrastructure, will implement the NtechLab platform.

Andrei Telenkov, CEO, NtechLab, said: “One aspect of NtechLab’s systems is the ability to manage the access control to the enterprises with far greater efficiency by using biometrics. Our platform will also be able to identify vehicles, and to read container numbers during loading and unloading to compare and confirm the accuracy of shipping and cargo information. Vehicles are monitored, in real time, from control rooms.”

The Vladivostok Commercial Sea Port, a part of the FESCO Group, is the largest in the Russian Far East. Its annual cargo turnover exceeds 11.5 million tons. Vladivostok railway station, located at the port, receives and dispatches up to ten trains with container and general cargo each day. It is also the center of economic ties between Asia and Europe thanks to its through rail and sea routes

The ‘smart’ port adopts a range of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, Internet of Things and blockchain to automate operations. This improves the port’s productivity and increases environmental sustainability. Computer systems constantly monitor, collect and analyze data in order to make optimal decisions either independently or by providing operators with accurate information to make informed decisions.

FESCO is one of the leading public transportation and logistics companies in Russia with operations in ports, rail, integrated logistics and the shipping business. FESCO provides door-to-door logistics solutions and controls almost all the steps in the intermodal transportation value chain. The majority of FESCO’s operations are located in the Russian Far East. Due to growing trade volumes between Russia and Asian countries FESCO is the leader of container transportation through the Russian Far East via international sea container lines to and from Asian countries, domestic sea container lines and by rail. FESCO is the leading port container operator in the Far East region and its importance and infuence is to set to grow even more significantly growing trade volumes between Russia and Asian countries.

NtechLab is one of the world leaders in video analytics, including for speed and accuracy of facial recognition, silhouettes and actions on video. The company’s products are in demand in public and corporate security, retail trade, financial sector, entertainment and hospitality industries. NtechLab algorithms have repeatedly proven their technical superiority in representative international competitions. In 2021, NtechLab development was recognized by the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) of the United States Department of Commerce, and also took first place based on competition results of the American Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity Agency in the categories “most accurate” and “fastest” algorithm. In 2018, NtechLab was among the three winners at the WIDER Pedestrian Challenge competition to detect pedestrians based on their silhouettes, in 2019, it took second place at the ActEV-PC international competition for recognition of actions on video.