SMART Security Solutions hosted its annual SMART Surveillance Conference in Johannesburg in July, welcoming several guests, sponsors, and speakers for an informative and enjoyable day examining the evolution of the surveillance market.
Three sponsors supported the event:
• Arteco Global
• Axis Communications
• neaMetrics
Despite the last-minute withdrawal of one of the speakers, the presentations were of high quality and the extra few minutes were consumed by the presenters and the question-and-answer sessions held after each presentation. Where permitted, we have included the speakers and sponsors contact details at the end of the article.
Trends and technology shaping the VMS market
The day began with Milestone Systems’ George Psoulis discussing the evolution of open management systems and their necessity in the surveillance industry, as the industry expands and integrates with other IoT and non-security solutions. He began the presentation by examining the current trends impacting the industry and what we can expect to see in the near future.
Psoulis noted that there are over 1,2 billion video cameras in operation around the world currently, producing an enormous amount of data that presents incredible opportunities for those able to analyse it. Unfortunately, 99% of that video is deleted before it is even seen. In other words, only 1% is actually seen by a person, and only 1% of that is viewed live.
However, things are changing, and we are in the midst of a technology convergence which will create new business models and solve customer needs in new and innovative ways. Specifically, he said that 50% of organisations in EMEA are already using video technologies to deliver ‘beyond security’ use cases. This involves seeing the scope of surveillance expand to incorporate and be influenced by more non-security areas, ranging from operations to finance, IT, and HR.
Some trends this is enabling include:
• Surveillance cameras as hyper-sensors, capable of collecting more than video footage when combined with IoT, data integration and AI. Examples range from temperature to motion detection, air quality measurements, traffic management and more.
• Self-learning surveillance systems that will continuously learn from their environment, adapting to new patterns, recognising unusual behaviours without human input, and even autonomously refining their capabilities.
• This will be supported by surveillance systems running autonomously and making decisions without human input.
• Integration with biometrics, specifically facial recognition.
• Cartoonisation, where people are viewed as cartoon characters in live footage to preserve privacy, while enabling behavioural analytics.
• VMS applications are also heading towards holographic monitoring and 3D interfaces to manage 3D videos in real time, offering an immersive experience for operators.
• As deep fakes become more realistic and can convince people they are real, trust in video data is decreasing and will even more. Detection technologies and countermeasures are advancing to deal with this, but it is a continual competition.
• AI-driven ethics and privacy guardians will be built into the VMS to safeguard privacy and anonymise individuals unless an incident requires identification, thereby balancing security and civil liberties.
• And, of course, cybersecurity will be built into the VMS as AI, IoT and (eventually) quantum computing open new attack surfaces.
Industry-specific analytics
Walter Rautenbach, MD of neaMetrics, followed with more surveillance software insights, this time focusing on analytics honed for specific industries/vertical markets. While the presentations are generally not product specific, neaMetrics has recently launched a new product line in South Africa, although the brand has been operational internationally for many years. The brand is Trassir, and it creates security and automation solutions. The company’s goal is to “to improve the security of society, sustainability, and profitability of businesses using machine perception and event prediction technologies”.
Trassir offers hardware and software, including cameras, but is an open system that can provide its services to almost any IP camera. Cloud services are also available. The set-up is quick and Trassir has done most of the hard work in developing analytics specifically for various verticals.
Naturally, the scope of the solutions offered would consume too much time in one presentation, so Rautenbach focused on a few specifics. Access control and perimeter security applies to many markets, and Trassir offer various analytical options for this, from detecting intrusion by people or vehicles, such as automatic access via number-plate recognition (ANPR). Human access via integration with various biometric systems is catered for with facial recognition, for example, as well as two-factor verification for sensitive areas.
The retail market is another area of focus, with solutions for POS monitoring and analysis, identifying black-listed people via facial recognition and more. Employee time and attendance is also available, as is monitoring staff across multiple locations or during customer interactions. Customer demographics can also be detected and analysed, and heatmaps and queue lengths etc., can be displayed.
Rautenbach also touched briefly on the applicability of Trassir solutions for manufacturing, transport, and logistics and warehousing operations, as well as FMCG operations. It is not only security operations that benefit, with solutions also optimising health & safety, workwear detection, automated supervisory functions that free up supervisors for more important tasks, and even human behaviour and fire detection.
He ended by noting that integrated solutions offer more to customers as they deliver increased overall facility security and operational efficiency.
Cybersecurity needs AI
Chris Norton, GM of Kaspersky Africa presented on the need for cybersecurity, even in the physical security world, since everything is connected and presents an attack surface for bad actors. Kaspersky has broad operations throughout Africa, where it protects people, organisations, and governments from the endless onslaught of cybercrime.
One of the areas Norton focused on was AI. With the Generative AI market expected to reach $1,3 trillion by 2032, everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and hoping to be the next billionaire. Cyber criminals are also embracing AI, hoping for billions in illicit gains at the expense of everyone else.
The impact of AI on cybercrime and cyber defence is already significant, but he notes we are still in the era of Narrow AI, where systems are designed to perform a specific task. General AI is the next step, where AI will be able to perform any intellectual task a human can do. This type of AI will have the ability to understand, learn, and apply intelligence across different domains without being pre-programmed for specific jobs.
We have already seen an example where AI was used to produce deepfake videos and scam a company out of $25 million, but the threats will only become more sophisticated (and much worse) as AI evolves. Some AI-assisted problems organisations face today include:
• AI-assisted social engineering
• AI-automated scam and fraud operations
• AI-generated malware
• LLM exploitation
The only way to defend against AI-enhanced cybercrime is to use AI in cybersecurity. Kaspersky and other cybersecurity companies are already doing this, using AI to automatically filter false positives and enhancing analyst productivity, resulting in reduced “mean time to prioritisation, detection, and response”.
This translates into quicker attack detection, automated threat resolution that eliminates the need for human intervention – a developing area – and alert prioritisation that enables analysts to concentrate on the most critical alerts. Kaspersky’s identified 467 000 malicious files last year, with AI identifying over 99% of them.
In case anyone thought Africa was safe from cyberattacks, Norton said that in 2024, the company identified 214 million local threats, over 200 000 ransomware attacks, 1,4 million ‘stealers’, and over 8 million exploits.
Regulations are more complex than we think
Dr Paul Mullon, MD of COR Concepts, spoke about what we all want to ignore, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). When it comes to regulatory compliance and privacy, as well as standards-based best practices, many people believe that posting a sign indicating that CCTV surveillance is in operation is sufficient to ensure legality. In the age of cloud services and storage, AI’s rapid development, and the ability to recognise faces from CCTV footage, a sign will not protect you from the repercussions of POPIA compliance complaints.
Mullon discussed the key principles of POPIA and privacy, including how information must be captured and the eight conditions of lawful processing of that information according to POPIA. When it comes to processing, organisations cannot make their own decision on what the word means. Mullon defines ‘processing’ as: “any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction”.
He also noted that Special Personal Information (SPI) is a category on its own and requires specific processing. In the security industry, SPI includes biometric data in whatever format it is captured and stored. Moreover, processing personal data can only be carried out with consent of the data subjects, and a sign on the gate or door may not be viewed legally as consent.
Facial recognition is another minefield which, again, requires consent and must be legally collected, stored and deleted. Ethics and privacy are significant factors at play when facial recognition is utilised, and its implementation should be preceded by a privacy impact assessment.
When contemplating facial recognition, Mullon advises organisations to:
• Obtain written, explicit, informed consent before collecting biometric data.
• Clearly disclose where and when facial recognition is used.
• Specify data usage, retention, deletion, and opt-out mechanisms.
• Ensure transparent policies on technology use.
The Residential Communities Code of Conduct has passed the stage where it requested public comment, and this will impact on the residential and commercial estate sector when finalised. (Mullon will briefly touch on some points from the Code of Conduct at the SMART Estate Security Conference in October 2025. Find out more at www.resc.co.za.)
Logistics undermined by a complete lack of enforcement
Massimo Carelle is one of the founders of The Risk Management Forum, as well as the head of risk management operations at one of South Africa’s largest logistics and warehousing companies. SMART Security Solutions asked Carelle to speak on the current challenges logistics operations face and how they can/should mitigate the risks.
As it was a conference about surveillance, we were all expecting a presentation on security challenges (which all in South Africa already know about). Instead, he took the audience on a journey, surprising everyone with a critical flaw in the country’s enforcement of the law. Not only are the police part of the problem, but large, ‘respectable’ organisations are also cashing in.
Carelle started by mentioning the ‘usual suspects’:
• Crime
• Political instability
• Competitors
• Poor infrastructure, such as Eskom and the failing water infrastructure
• Economic uncertainty and instability
• Insider threats (these threats are a far large risk than most imagine)
Of course, going into the current majority party in South Africa’s love affair with corruption would not have been a surprise, and Carelle briefly mentioned the issues before moving on. Logistics operations are also faced with challenges that are probably not the fault of government (depending on who you ask), these include:
• Companies are competing for an increasingly smaller piece of the pie.
• Industrial espionage is rife, and a competitive advantage is soon lost if corporate leaders are not paranoid.
• Costs are increasing, while margins are being squeezed.
He then moved onto the ‘juicy’ stuff, which turned out to be very disturbing. Mobile phones play a significant role in our daily lives, including those of criminals who use them for their activities. While law-abiding citizens face numerous challenges to register their SIM cards, making it easier for authorities to track them down, criminals often evade similar scrutiny. Carelle explained that criminals seem to be free to make use of multiple, unregistered SIM cards at will.
He provided an example of one case where a single phone (identifiable by the IMEI number) was used in the commission of a crime over the course of a few days, with dozens of different SIM cards swapped in and out of the phone. Another example showed how the same SIM card was used over a few days in multiple phones. Neither the police nor the cellular company involved could identify who owned the SIM cards, or explain why these SIMs operated openly on their network.
The idea of tracking someone via their cellphone only seems to be a reality for law-abiding citizens and in the movies. Apparently, criminals have limitless access without registration.
Drones, automation, and services
Michael Lever from 24/7 Drone Force was on hand to update the delegates on the latest development in drones and their usage in South Africa. The technology in drones has advanced significantly over the past few years, and there are intriguing opportunities in this market. South Africa has a set of strict regulations governing drone operations, which proved a challenge to adoption in the past, but once past the red tape (which is necessary), drones are becoming a standard tool in security and operations across multiple verticals.
Automated drone docking and recharge station
Drones make all the difference in security. When an alarm is raised in a control room, for example via surveillance cameras on a perimeter, the time taken for personnel to respond is a key factor in crime prevention and giving criminals the time and opportunity to escape. The officers are often also sent in ‘blind’, not knowing what threats they will face. While human response is still required, a drone can be on the scene in minutes, providing valuable information to personnel before they arrive.
A reality today is that ‘beyond line of sight’ (BLOS) operations are possible with the correct certifications and compliance efforts. This means drone patrols are possible day and night (thanks to thermal and low-light cameras), and tracking intruders becomes much easier. Patrols can also cover a much larger area than people on foot or in cars. Importantly, automated patrols are also a reality, meaning the drones are not guided by a registered pilot at all times.
Lever also touched on some compliance requirements for drone operators, which are expensive, as are the drones, which makes using drones as a service an optimal option for many. Lever also provided a few case studies and examples of how drones can be used in various vertical markets, including retail, mining, logistics, and residential and commercial estates.
Analysing the data drones provide with the latest AI systems also makes proactive security a reality. This is naturally supported by integration with other security and operational tools (management platforms and camera surveillance footage, for example). Which led Lever to the conclusion that, with drones, “the future is predictive, secure, and integrated”.
AI agents for efficiency and profit
What would surveillance be today without AI? To keep up to date with the latest developments in AI and remote monitoring, Natalie Doran, CEO of Lytehouse, took the stage to speak about the latest in remote analytics, as well as Lytehouse’s AI agent, Scout.
Doran has spoken before on the remote AI analytical capabilities of Lytehouse, but the company has taken a step beyond with Scout, to offer a proactive operator that can predict and alert, potentially even before something bad happens. As an example, she played a video of the start of an armed robbery along with Scout’s comments, which raised the alarm and detected a firearm almost immediately.
Not only does this capability add value to control room operators and security operations in general, but it can also support customers in their health & safety and other operational areas. For the security industry in particular, it adds value in raising the amount of work a control room can do without requiring new workstations or cameras, or new operators. (Although, as Dr Craig Donald mentions earlier in this issue, better AI also requires better operator training to maximise its efficiency).
Despite the uncontrolled crime situation in South Africa, security companies offering remote monitoring are under margin pressure as there are many competitors offering similar services. With an AI agent on board that assists in proactive monitoring of multiple screens, these companies have an edge they can offer clients and keep them ahead of the game by standing out and differentiating themselves.
Multi-sensors on the edge
Completing the event on the topic of the edge, Marcel Bruyns, sales manager for Africa at Axis Communications, spoke about the company’s cameras and the benefits of edge processing. Cameras are no longer devices that simply capture video and send it to a server, today they are becoming multi-sensor devices with many additional capabilities.
One of the obvious advantages is that, with the appropriate processing power in the camera, such as the Axis ARPTEC chipset, analytics, including AI analytics, can be done at the edge. Only real events will be sent to the control room, which helps save bandwidth. Meanwhile, the cameras can continue to record everything, possibly transmitting all video at a lower resolution to central servers during quieter times.
The ability to add AI ‘apps’ to a camera is worthwhile when bandwidth is an issue, but also to relieve control rooms of the burden of constantly monitoring video feeds, or upgrading their technology (or services) to handle the AI workload. Naturally, this will also require end users to ensure that their cameras are secure and will not allow unauthorised access to the camera’s firmware or software.
Bruyns emphasised that investing in edge AI solutions requires ensuring your camera is robust and adaptable to manage the extra demands, along with purchasing durable, high-quality equipment expected to last a minimum of five years.
Other sensors we are seeing can be hardware-based and added to the camera itself, such as radar or air quality scanning, or they can be software-based, such as voice analysis to detect emergencies (if the camera has a microphone). There are many more, with the potential to see even more IoT sensors and services attached to cameras in the future and supporting multiple security and operational functions.
The day ended with a panel discussion with the sponsors, Arteco, Axis and neaMetrics, where the companies were able to discuss their value-add to the market and answer questions from the attendees.
SMART Security Solutions would like to thank all the attendees, speakers, and sponsors for making the conference an enjoyable event for all. Stay tuned for our final conference of the year, the SMART Estate Security Conference in Johannesburg in October 2025. See www.resc.co.za for more information.
For more information, contact:
• 24/7 Drone Force,
• Arteco Global,
• Axis Communications,
• COR Concepts, Dr Paul Mullon,
• Kaspersky SA,
• Lytehouse, [email protected], https://lytehouse.io/
• Milestone Systems, George Psoulis,
• neaMetrics,
• The Risk Management Forum, [email protected], https://trmf.org.za/
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