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From the editor's desk: Just gooi a cable

Andrew Seldon, Editor

Welcome to the 2024 edition of the SMART Estate Security Handbook. We focus on a host of topics, and this year’s issue also has a larger-than-normal Product Showcase section. Perhaps the vendors are keen to tell you about their new stuff, although someone told me that in a bad economy, you should be selling products and not services (I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but that’s the bit I overheard).

This issue may also be an education for SMART Security Solutions. We often get so caught up in the bombardment of talk shops about cybersecurity, convergence, and AI that we can easily forget the basics that make security work.

That lightbulb moment came from a discussion I had with someone about networking. Your communications infrastructure is a basic security requirement, whether you have an estate with fibre installed around the perimeter or a single home with a VHF or cellular for alarm notifications. Yet, who thinks about making sure the products you use for your network are quality products?

SMART Security Solutions has a long history of advising against buying based on price and focusing on getting quality solutions for your requirements. Traditionally, we think about cameras and access control readers when considering quality, but there is so much more. Frazer Matchett’s presentation at the SMART Estate Security conference in KZN (reviewed in this issue) focuses on this topic. It explains what we should look for when selecting solutions and solution providers.

But do we give the same attention to the network? The discussion I had would answer no. It’s too simple to throw down a cable and attach it to switches that seem to work fine. It’s only when unexpected things happen, like someone digging through the cable, that we find out that we have the wrong switches or setup that won’t automatically reroute traffic – like we automatically expect it to. Or we add a few more cameras only to find out the network hardware needs an upgrade to handle the additions.

Of course, it’s easy to say someone must check every aspect of your security installation. However, when working from a budget and to strict deadlines, one is inclined to accept that a network is a network, or a switch is a switch, and to focus on what everyone considers the critical stuff – like cameras and access readers. In an estate, one wants to focus on what residents see or interact with to avoid complaints.

In this issue, we review one of the two estate security conferences we held this year. The magazine includes a review of the Durban conference, and the Cape Town event will be posted online. And there is one more to come. In October this year, we will be back at the Indaba in Fourways, Johannesburg, for the last conference of the year. Once the speakers are finalised, we will refresh www.resc.co.za with all the details.

In the meantime, I hope the handbook is useful to all our readers. Feel free to send any comments or criticisms to [email protected]

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