May 2025 saw the SMART Security Solutions team heading off to Durban for our annual Estate Security Conference, once again hosted at the Mount Edgecombe Country Club. The conference focused on managing estate security efficiently, centrally, and by making the best use of data collected from various tools and applications.
The platinum sponsor for the day was Fidelity Services Group, along with silver sponsors Excellerate Services, Arteco and OneSpace Technologies.
Excellerate livened up the day when one of its response helicopters paid a surprise visit to the club. At the end of the day, a few delegates were given backpacks, one of which contained ‘narcotics’ (not the real stuff), and one of Excellerate’s canine employees was tasked with discovering the hidden stash. The delegate with the backpack containing the ‘drugs’ won a trip around the Durban area in Excellerate’s helicopter.
Safer spaces for all
The keynote presentation was by former Springbok rugby star, James Dalton, who founded an initiative called My Safe Space. The goal of the initiative is to promote safer schools and the right of all children to a secure and safe education without worries about crime, bullying, harassment and other problems that have become commonplace in our society.
Dalton’s advocacy for safer schools and children’s right to secure education is not just a personal mission, but a large-scale effort years in the making. As the founder of My Safe Space, he aims to improve the educational experience for learners at all schools in South Africa. One statistic he provided to highlight the extent of the problem is that 160 000 high-school learners bunk school each day in South Africa to avoid being bullied.
Dalton has gathered a range of partner companies to support him in his initiative, which includes installing cameras in critical locations, such as entrances to schools and covering the roads where parents drop off and pick up their kids. These cameras are continually monitored, and suspicious vehicles are flagged in the VumaCam control room (one of the partners).
The security technology is a step in preventing bullying, but also preventing the growing number of ‘express’ kidnappings occurring in South Africa. Most of the victims are children, and these incidents can often happen outside school locations. It also assists in detering hijacking attempts, another daily occurrence in South Africa’s crime-ridden environment.
Integration and control
Barry East, the CEO of OneSpace, was up next, speaking about data. Estates generate an enormous amount of data from the various technologies they use for security and operations, as well as the information retained about owners and other residents on the site. East discussed the benefits of centralising all this data and analysing it effectively to improve the security and operational functions of an estate. Community management becomes much easier when all the relevant data is available (to authorised people) when they need it.
East started out talking about data, or big data as he refers to large collections of data from multiple sources, with a quote from Dan Ariely: “Big data & AI are like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it …”
OneSpace is in the business of using cloud services to actually do it (analysing big data to optimise security and operations) and improving the productivity of estate staff and operations, making sense of the ‘organised chaos’ that every estate deals with on a daily basis. East said about 26% of an employee’s day is wasted on “avoidable administrative chores, unnecessary tasks, and outdated ways of working”. While over 40% of their time is wasted on “manual digital administrative processes that could be automated”.
Effective data management, with the appropriate security protection and adherence to compliance regulations, reduces this waste and benefits all parties involved in estate security and operations, as well as streamlining residents’ queries and complaints. Naturally, AI was also mentioned due to its ability to sift through data and provide context and correlations to assist in the task of streamlining operations.
East also mentioned that community management and the value of data extends beyond a single estate and can also make an impact on the security and efficiency of community environments, such as managing multiple estates and their surrounds.
Platinum sponsor presentation
Ian Loubser, general manager for Fidelity’s Estates Division, delivered the platinum sponsor presentation. Loubser highlighted the importance and benefits of using a single service provider for an estate’s security requirements. Fidelity offers a number of integrated services to estates aimed at ensuring the safety and security of residents, including traditional guarding and detection, along with technology supply and maintenance, monitoring of the security systems, and more.
Among the additional services on offer are drone technology integrated with site detection and control room/surveys, cleaning, facilities management, civil unrest strategy and first-tier response, integration into area CCTV networks with proactive alerts, medical and fire response, as well as compliance enforcement.
The company can install an onsite manager to oversee the multitude of services from a single point of contact, who takes accountability for all the people and systems being delivered and the various KPIs agreed to with estate management.
Intelligent perimeter security
Brendon Cowley, business development director at C3 Shared Services, took the stage next to discuss current and future trends in perimeter security. He noted that perimeter security is the first line of defence, making it critical for all types of properties, where the system should not only deter intruders, but also provide timely alerts to security personnel.
The solution he recommends would integrate various technologies to provide security operations with a centralised, holistic overview of the estate’s perimeter. An important aspect of perimeter security is thermal cameras, and Cowley touched on some specifics that make thermals deliver efficient and useful images for the long term. He also supports the use of analytics technology to supplement onsite staff, noting that in general, sites using AI-enhanced analytics report a 60% reduction in false alarms.
Cowley also touched on centralised management through the use of physical security information management (PSIM) platforms that can integrate all security products as well as IoT systems. PSIMs correlate data from multiple streams in real time and feed the results to centralised command and control centres, where automated workflows can be initiated to deal with events. Audit trails and reports can also be pulled at regular intervals or when required.
Finally, Cowley introduced distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) security systems to the audience. These systems run over fibre cables attached to a fence or placed underground. The fibre picks up ‘backscatter’, or the sounds made when there is some activity near the cable. Intelligent software interprets the signals and can determine whether the backscatter is one or more humans, vehicles, or even someone digging near the fence.
The importance of independence and technical knowledge?
Johan Kruger, CEO of Association Management Solutions, offered a brief glimpse into the community estate market in South Africa, where there are currently over 6000 gated communities and over R11 billion collected in annual revenue. While estate operations usually involve dealing with people, pets and parking (which somehow often manages to find its way into the security job description), Kruger prefers the description ‘Children, Residents, Animals and Parking’.
Kruger addresses the question of how much technical knowledge HOA or body corporate members need to manage the environment’s technical decisions and installations. Additionally, he touched on the need (or not) to hire independent consultants to advise on security installations and maintenance.
Put simply, he advises that consultants should be independent of vendor or service provider influence and not be the estate manager or a board member’s cousin. They must be professionals, registered with PSIRA and other associations and institutes in their field. Of course, they must be specialists in their field with a verifiable track record. Avoiding conflicts of interest and the resulting capacity to provide unbiased risk assessments is, naturally, essential.
When it comes to managing technology, estate staff and trustees do not need to be experts, but decisions must be made by those with a solid understanding of security technology and solutions. This empowers them to make well-informed decisions and to ensure the right equipment for the estate’s requirements is bought and installed correctly. The key is that any service providers, technology and consultants must be ‘fit for purpose’ for the estate’s needs, ensuring ‘other people’s money’ is well spent.
Future-proofing your control room operations
Control rooms are the security nerve centres for estates, and increasingly they are the centralised location for a variety of estate operations. Johan van Wyk, sales and marketing director at Astrosec, spoke on how estates can ensure their control rooms are up to the task for current and future requirements. He stressed that there is no easy solution, as the weakest link in your security chain can render even the best technology or people ineffective.
Starting out, you need reliable connectivity as everything depends on being able to communicate, whether it is video or intrusion detection feeds or your security staff. Fibre and wireless connections must be thoroughly tested, and failover solutions are essential (although some estates may be in areas where the options are limited). Compliance is also critical. The respective privacy and security regulations must be applied from day one if the data collected and observed is to stand up in court.
There is also no single control room system or setup that works for everyone. Bespoke solutions are required, tailored to each estate’s requirements. This can include integration with legacy systems, specific reporting tools, and so forth.
As important as the physical setup, the processes associated with the control room and its operations are critical. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) must be defined and reviewed regularly, with the relevant accountability built in. One of the SOPs to remember is that regular risk assessments are required to ensure the security operations remain relevant to changing circumstances.
Van Wyk also touched on the question of whether onsite or offsite control rooms are the better option for estates. While the ultimate decision is up to the estate and its members, offsite operations can be more cost-effective, with skilled operators on board around the clock. Offsite systems also make more use of the latest AI analytics to raise alarms and avoid false alarms. Redundancy is also the responsibility of the offsite provider, whether it is operators, power or technology; estate security does not need to cater for the realities of life in South Africa.
Making control rooms work
Rob Gillespie, director at WatchManager, was up next, continuing the focus on control rooms, but looking at what is required to make your control room function optimally. There are many people offering advice on control rooms, but Gillespie notes that whatever systems and solutions are chosen, they need to deal with access control systems, camera monitoring systems, fence management systems, communication systems, alarm monitoring and management systems, and, of course, the human factor.
The physical setup and usability of a control room are important for good human operation, as the layout can have a significant impact on performance. Reliable communications technologies are also important, from internet connectivity through to VHF or UHF radio, and cellular connections.
Of critical importance is the management platform used, which receives all the data coming in and makes sense of it for the operators. The platform is a complex piece of software that must be able to integrate almost any technology and integrate it into the estate’s workflow processes (which are a complex set of functions on their own and must be easy to use and understand within the platform) in real time. It must also be able to process and store large amounts of data, and make it available when required, either immediately in the case of an emergency, or at a later stage to assist in investigations.
Although AI is widely used in control rooms and integrated into various management platforms, we are still in the early stages of the AI era. As its capabilities evolve, it will play a broader role in control rooms, but the idea of replacing all human operators is not something we can expect in the near future.
The benefits of integrated services
Discussing the benefits of integrated services, Gary Tintinger, strategic development director at Excellerate Services, showed the audience how more companies are outsourcing their non-core facility management roles (which include security). When looking at security in particular, estates often ask potential service providers questions about how close to the estate their offices are, which certifications their staff possess, uniforms and equipment standards and, of course, their security capabilities (or ‘show us your army’, as Tintinger put it).
However, he notes that proximity is not presence, certifications do not mean certainty, and having assets and people does not imply availability when they are required. Tintinger says the ‘trust triangle’ is a better approach to evaluating service providers. The triangle is the foundation for long-term partnerships and consists of:
• Trust: Can the provider deliver on its promise?
• Integrity: Does it do the right thing consistently?
• Empathy: Does it genuinely understand its customers and its requirements?
To determine the service provider’s commitment to the triangle, estates can look at their staff turnover rates, the sentiment of other clients, their commitment to proactive reporting, and the availability and engagement of leadership in the estate.
While all the other things are important, the key to a successful partnership with a service provider, according to Tintinger, is to prioritise trust and alignment; the rest will follow.
SMART Security Solutions congratulates the delegates who won prizes on the day, and we thank the sponsors for their support. Most importantly, we thank the delegates for attending the 2025 conference and for the positive reviews we received. The KZN conference will be back in town in mid-2026.
For more information, contact:
• Fidelity Services Group, charnelh@fidelity-services.com, www.fidelity-services.com
• OneSpace,
• Arteco Global,
• Excellerate Security Services,
• C3 Shared Services,
• Astrosec,
• Association Management Solutions,
• WatchManager,
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