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Dahua AIoT Summit 2023

Earlier this year, Dahua Technology held its AIoT Summit in Johannesburg, where partners and customers were able to hear the latest news from the company, see various products from Dahua as well as displays from local partners.

Dahua South Africa’s GM, Bob Li kicked off the proceedings with an overview of the company’s performance and its operations throughout Africa. The company’s last financial year (at the time) saw it bringing in sales revenue of $5 billion globally, and retain the second spot for surveillance suppliers worldwide. Li said 10% of the company’s income is spent on R&D.

Dahua made almost R500 million in Africa in the same timeframe, and he thanked the company’s six distribution partners for their role in achieving this. The distributors are IDS, LunarX, Reditron, Security Warehouse, Stafix and Top CCTV. It also sports a three-level partner programme made up of installation and integration companies in a number of verticals.

Following the introduction, various speakers spoke throughout the day on a number of topics, and awards were handed out to various partners in recognition of their efforts over the past year.

Access and surveillance solutions

Cyril Nakene, Product Manager for Intelligent Buildings spoke about the Dahua FACT series of facial recognition terminals, which boast a recognition speed of less than 0,3 seconds per person, and a 99,5% accuracy rate. FACT stands for Fast, Accurate, Convenient and Trusted.

There are various models in the FACT range, also including fingerprint recognition, card and password access control, the combination depend on the model. Some also include PoE and/or Wi-Fi connectivity. Mask detection, as well as recognising faces while wearing a mask is included and the AS13223A, for example, and it includes video calling functionality. The Web Access Controller, a single interface access control solution, was also mentioned and on display in the exhibition area.

Nakene also spoke about the software platforms Dahua integrates its products into, such as the DMSS mobile app, and the various versions of the DSS management platform. DSS Express is free for 64 cameras and supports access control systems from the company; the licenced version can scale to 256 video channels and 64 doors. DSS 8.0 is Dahua’s latest VMS, which can scale to enterprise installations (for example, 20 000 channels and 4 PB of storage).

Training Manager, Quintin Struppmann, then introduced the Full-Color Cube concept. These cameras include Full-Color, Smart Dual Light and AI technologies to offer 24-hours of colour images, plus clearer images. The series includes pan-tilt cameras as well as the DUO, where two lenses are combined seamlessly into one 180-degree panoramic image. It is capable of producing 4K video resolution at 25 fps, although different models in the range naturally offer different resolutions.

The camera includes a range of analytics functions, such as tripwires, heatmaps, people counting, differentiating between humans and vehicles etc. Moreover, the EPTZ functionality allows operators to digitally zoom in on a scene or person without any actual camera movement.

Struppmann also introduced the AcuPick search functionality, which allows for faster and more accurate searching of video footage on Dahua systems.

Vertical focus

Two of the verticals that gained attention on the day were security services and mining.

Garrick Cabral, Vertical Director, spoke about the solutions Dahua has for companies providing security services. These include triggers to alert control rooms of potential issues the AI recognises; and he said the AI has advanced to the level where less than 1% of the alerts it sends are false alarms. In addition, costs for the providers are reduced by reliable black screen monitoring as well as enhanced bitrate management to limit the amount of bandwidth required without losing focus or clarity.

He also mentioned Dahua’s TiOC (Three-in-One-Cameras) which are available in 2, 5 or 8 MP resolutions, as well as the company’s Smart Motion Detection (SMD) 4.0. He also announced the arrival of EAS (electronic article surveillance) solutions for the retail space.

Willem van Deventer was on hand to discuss Dahua’s solutions for the mining sector. The company offers a range of security solutions for mining, from access control to surveillance, but Van Deventer noted that it was also focused on assisting with operational safety and efficiency through its surveillance (and other) systems. He said the company looks at the mining sector as an ecosystem, not simply as an environment to secure.

Some of the operational functions Dahua can offer through its AI solutions, which can run without human intervention (until a problem arises), is PPE detection, conveyor belt monitoring, and of course, thermal cameras for security and equipment monitoring operations.

The presentation hall was packed with visitors, who also had ample opportunity to wander around the products on display and talk to the relevant product experts, both from Dahua and its partners.

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