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Connecting the ecosystem

Another company that held a roadshow in South Africa this year was Axis Communications. The Connect by Axis function was aimed at discussing the latest solutions, technologies, and strategies shaping the surveillance industry’s future with customers and partners.

AXIS Q1656-DLE.

The event consisted of a series of short presentations, as well as displays by a number of partners, including Milestone, Genetec, FF Group, Pentagon, Scylla, Secure Logiq and more, covering management platforms, storage, building management and AI.

Ettiene van der Watt, Regional Director for Middle East and Africa was on hand to host everyone at the event, and the presentations kicked off with Steve Kenny, Architect and Engineering Programme Manager for EMEA talking about cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity is a key issue in physical security. As organisations adopt digital transformation initiatives, cybersecurity must be a central part of all they do, including ensuring their physical security systems are secured from attack, which assists in securing the whole digital ecosystem. However, its not enough to secure the devices when installed.

Axis is focused on securing the full supply chain, from manufacturing through the channel to the end users. This includes implementing standards such as ISO 27001 and a Secure-by-Design approach, starting in the design phase. Technology used in this effort includes signed firmware, secure boot and its Trusted Platform Module (TPM).

Kenny advised users to do due diligence on their suppliers, including their cybersecurity processes and procedures. In reality, cost should be the last question asked as it is far more expensive to recover from a breach or regulatory fine than to haggle about the cost of the initial product.

Partner presentations

Jan Hazlbauer, BDM for the FF Group was up next talking about the company’s edge solutions for IP cameras that assist in traffic monitoring, parking management and vehicle access products (Duxbury distributes FF in SA). The company has partnered with Axis for seven years and offers its own algorithms for LPR systems and vehicle recognition that can differentiate vehicle make and model with over 90% accuracy.

Milestone’s Llewellyn Davies was up next to talk about surveillance cameras becoming part of the whole IoT ecosystem of devices that provide data which can be analysed to deliver both security and operational efficiencies to end users. The challenges the company is focusing on include cybersecurity, interoperability, data management and privacy.

AXIS P1468-XLE.

New products

Rudie Opperman, Manager for Engineering and Training for Middle East & Africa at Axis was up next with some insights into what Axis is doing. Transparency is key to Axis, including its software lifecycle in order to provide users with insights into the support timeframes for its software and the reliability of its design. He mentioned the ability to sign video to ensure its origin and that it hasn’t been tampered with. Axis Device Manager has, and is being enhanced, and permits users to perform tasks such as multi-site firmware upgrades and device configuration and more.

Opperman also spoke on three of the newest devices Axis launched in 2023, from the AXIS P1468-XLE, its explosion-protected camera designed for Zone/Division 2 hazardous locations, featuring its ARTPEC 8 processor with the latest cybersecurity updates. (See more at https://www.securitysa.com/19255r.)

The AXIS Q1656-DLE Radar-Video Fusion Camera combines two technologies in one device, video and radar. This allows users to keep an eye on activities over a broad area, calculate the distance, speed and positioning of an object in the scene through radar, and then focus the camera on an object of interest. (See more at https://www.securitysa.com/19342r.)

The AXIS Q6318-LE PTZ Network Camera offers 4K resolution with 31X optical zoom and laser focus, which allows users to focus on an object or specific scene in less than a second. It also uses less power than previous cameras and some models include image stabilisation.

Apart from those three models, Opperman also mentioned other series that are popular today, including Axis’ latest body-worn camera, which will be updated later in the year with additional functionality.

The rest of the event included talks on smart cities, critical infrastructure, failover as well as sustainability. Naturally there was also time to view the partner exhibits to find out what they had to offer and how they integrated Axis technology into their solutions.

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