PRESS RELEASE

Secure Real-Time Monitoring Solution ENHANCES Crowcon Gas Detection Across the Docklands Light Railway network

Marketing

17 July 2026

4 min read

July 17, 2026

A new secure remote monitoring solution has been successfully deployed across the DLR train network for KeolisAmey Docklands, providing real-time visibility of Crowcon Xgard Bright and Xgard Type 1 gas monitors used to detect methane and hydrogen sulphide from water drainage systems. The system was designed and installed by DBR Monitoring.

Previously, the gas monitoring units were connected to SCADA systems that only reported when alarm thresholds were breached, offering no visibility of live gas levels. Obtaining current readings required engineers to visit often remote and restricted-access locations to manually record data from each device, resulting in increased costs and operational inefficiencies.

The newly implemented solution delivers continuous real-time data directly from the Crowcon Gasmaster control units, capturing gas concentration levels, alarm status, and system health information. This data is securely transmitted to cloud-based servers where it is analysed to identify trends, variations, and potential risks before safety limits are exceeded.

A web-based platform provides authorised users with live gas readings, historical trend graphs, and a digital replica of the Crowcon Gasmaster display, accessible on any web-enabled device. Secure username and password authentication ensures controlled access to sensitive operational data.

Cyber security was a critical design requirement. To protect the integrity of the gas monitoring equipment, data is transferred via a tightly controlled one-way communication channel, preventing any external access or interference with the Crowcon units.

The solution enables proactive maintenance, significantly reduces the need for manual site visits, minimises service disruption, and enhances safety by reducing personnel exposure to hazardous gases.

“This deployment represents a major step forward in how critical gas monitoring infrastructure can be safely and securely managed in real time. It allows operators to act earlier, reduce costs, and improve safety without compromising cyber security.”

Martin Coppen,
Engineering and Projects Director at KeolisAmey Docklands

“This project gave us the opportunity to deploy our Olympus data collection modules, and when combined with our BusButy data transmission technology, delivers real-time, secure asset visibility,” said Thomas Saul, Project Lead for DBR.

What This Means for Crowcon Users

Crowcon’s fixed gas detection systems already do the critical job. Xgard detectors monitor gas levels at the point of risk, while Gasmaster receives those readings and triggers alarms or interfaces with wider alarm and control systems. DBR closes the gap between detection and what happens next by making that data more accessible, visible and actionable. For gas detection managers and EHS teams, that gap can have real operational costs.

See live gas readings, not just alarm events. Standard SCADA integration typically only reports when an alarm threshold is breached. dbr’s platform provides the full live picture, actual gas concentration, trend direction, and system health, from the Gasmaster control unit itself, so a slow drift toward an alarm threshold is visible long before it trips one.

Reduce personnel time spent in hazardous or confined areas. Every manual check avoided is one less exposure to the environment the detector was installed to monitor in the first place.

Build an evidence trail for safety and compliance reporting. Continuous, timestamped historical data from your Crowcon detectors gives EHS and compliance teams a defensible record, rather than a log of periodic manual readings.

A dashboard that looks like the equipment your team already trusts. The web platform includes a digital replica of the Gasmaster display, so operators see the same interface they’re used to, accessible securely, on any device, from off-site.

No compromise to the integrity of your gas detection system. This was a non-negotiable requirement for the DLR project, and the same principle applies to any Crowcon installation. DBR’s connection to Gasmaster is one way only. Nothing can be written back to the unit, so the certified safety system continues to operate exactly as installed, with monitoring added alongside it rather than integrated into the control path.

Fast to trial, nothing to re-engineer. Because the connection sits alongside the existing Crowcon hardware rather than replacing or modifying it, a single-detector pilot can typically be live on the dashboard within 48 hours, with no changes to your certified equipment and no new cabling to existing Xgard or Gasmaster units.

How the Connection to Your Crowcon Equipment Works

DBR’s platform reads data out of Crowcon Gasmaster control units without ever opening a path back in.

Two components make this possible:

BusByte connects to the Gasmaster unit and extracts gas concentration, alarm status, and system health data using a strict read-only method, it is physically and logically incapable of sending write or configuration commands to the detector. Data then passes to the next stage over a transmit-only serial link, a hardware-enforced one-way path with no receive channel at all.

Olympus module receives that data, encrypts it, and transmits it to dbr’s cloud infrastructure over an authenticated HTTPS connection, where it’s processed into the live readings, trend graphs, and a replica of the Gasmaster display available on the dashboard.

The read-only constraint and one-way transmission are built into the hardware rather than configured in software. This means there is no firewall rule, credential or setting, on DBR’s side or elsewhere, that could allow a command, configuration change or malicious payload to reach the Gasmaster unit. Even in a worst-case scenario where dbr’s cloud infrastructure was compromised, the gas detection equipment itself remains fully isolated. That guarantee is what allowed this architecture to be deployed on live, safety-critical Crowcon equipment across the DLR network and it applies in the same way to any Crowcon installation dbr connects to.