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Protecting the perimeter with IP cameras

Jason McGregor, sales manager, Axis Communications.

Whether on a small, basic scale in a residential setting, or for a critical infrastructure facility, perimeter protection is important for the safety of residents and staff and to safeguard against trespassing, theft and vandalism.

Traditionally, perimeter protection measures relied on technologies such as short distance radar, lasers, ground sensors, motion sensors or motion-sensitive fence wires.

While these technologies all perform well, they have obvious and significant limitations: they do not let the operator distinguish between real and false alarms and they provide limited detail. For every alert triggered, a person has to inspect the area in question to confirm if there is an actual breach of the perimeter and a threat that needs to be dealt with. This is not only time consuming, but frequent false alarms, for instance, set off by a passing animal, can eventually lead to more lax security checks.

Recognising how important it is to address this and to understand the nature of potential threats in real time, organisations are increasingly turning to network cameras to improve perimeter protection. Using live thermal video cameras as detection sensors and high definition video cameras to provide detail and verification, these solutions add important visual information about who or what has triggered the alarm, and about what kind of activity is going on.

In combination with traditional technologies, network cameras can be built into a more intelligent and reliable, IP-based surveillance system. With a vast range of cameras available on the market, they can be set up to be as versatile and high performing as the setting requires. Even in difficult light or weather conditions, clear and crisp images on live and recorded video footage facilitate the detection and identification of objects, people and incidents. Automated solutions and video analytics software can further reduce the need for human intervention and monitoring staff.

Challenges and solutions

The main objective of any perimeter protection system is to detect a real threat or intrusion at the earliest possible stage – and to do this 24/7. However, the areas that need to be monitored can be vast – rail yards, bus depots, car parks, harbours or the area around an industrial site – and their sheer size can pose significant challenges. Lighting conditions can be a problem, especially at night time if there is little or no electric light available.

The combination of thermal cameras with intelligent video applications and pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) dome cameras has proven very effective in handling the protection of these sites in diverse environments.

Thermal network cameras do not need any light at all to operate and are an obvious solution to night monitoring. Even in broad daylight, they are useful in detecting people or objects that are obscured by complex backgrounds or deep shadows. The cameras available on the market today are so sensitive and accurate that they provide a perfect first line of defence. When equipped with intelligent video analytics, a thermal camera can be configured so that when it ‘sees’ a suspicious event, it automatically directs a second PTZ camera to point and zoom in to the right place and provide live HDTV video of the situation.

Working in parallel, the two camera types form an extremely secure and accurate protection mechanism. To ensure uninterrupted recording and as much functionality as possible, each camera is independent and is able to provide information as long as it is connected to the IP infrastructure. In case of communication failure, the cameras can record onto an embedded SD card for future analysis.

Fast and appropriate action

An effective perimeter protection solution needs to provide both deterrence, and immediate visual verification. The real-time information delivered by network cameras allows security staff to take quick and appropriate action, as well as minimise false alarms. In case of an incident, communication is key: evidence can be collected and transferred to the relevant stakeholders by email, or as an alert on a mobile phone.

Security managers can use their mobile phones to view live video from all their network cameras, or log on to the control room server to search recorded footage. The cameras can be set up to automatically trigger a response, such as floodlight or sirens, or network horn speakers can be used to issue verbal warnings.

The beauty of IP-based technologies is that they can be integrated with each other, and with existing security systems. Future-proof, flexible and fully scalable, network cameras in combination with other sensor systems and technologies such as fence or buried cable detection can cater to the most complex of setups, such as critical infrastructure protection, where the security solution has to be able to effectively manage multiple alarms at once.

With integrated analytic software and other clever applications, a video surveillance system can be largely automated and very cost effective. Capable of processing video information at the edge, inside the camera itself, modern units require less bandwidth and reduce the need for expensive storage. Even small and basic systems provide the high image quality required.

The versatility of network cameras in combination with the many available video analytics applications makes these systems flexible, scalable and cost efficient. Cutting the effort, stress and problems caused by misinterpreted and false alarms will also pay dividends – if nothing else, in the form of greater peace of mind.

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