CCTV Handbook 2022 YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO SECURITY SURVEILLANCE Published by Hi-Tech Security Solutions
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www.securitysa.com CCTV Handbook 2022 1 From the editor’s desk: The last CCTV Handbook..............2 Trends Surveillance round table 2022........................................................... 4 2022 trends in video surveillance...................................................12 The impact of AI-enhanced video analytics on control room personnel. ....................................................................15 To be or not to be, is that the objective?......................................20 Analytics & AI on the edge Leaning into the edge.........................................................................22 Optimising edge analytics.................................................................28 Camera Selection Guide. ...................................................30 Video Analytics Selection Guide.......................................38 Storage for Surveillance Selection Guide. .......................40 Smart home automation Home automation hangs on security............................................43 Supply chain Supply chain woes................................................................................47 Management platforms Video management and beyond....................................................48 Video Surveillance-as-a-Service The benefits of VSaaS..........................................................................50 Artificial Intelligence/Internet of Things So what is AIoT?.....................................................................................52 AI + IoT = AIoT........................................................................................53 System integration System integrators and surveillance..............................................54 Distributed by Forbatt SA, TVT’s mobile app puts useful information in the hands of users in an easy to understand and operate format. For more information contact Forbatt SA on [email protected] or +27 11 469 3598. CCTV Handbook 2022 YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO SECURITY SURVEILLANCE Published by Hi-Tech Security Solutions OUR COVER Thermal solutions Thermal monocular camera series.................................................56 Case studies Solar power keeps construction site safe.....................................57 Integrated technology ecosystem for safe hospitals...............58 Securing the diamond industry . ....................................................60 Directory of CCTV product, solution and service providers. .......................................................61 CCTV Handbook 2022 18 CONTENTS
Andrew CCTV HANDBOOK 2022 Published by LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the Editor should be addressed to Andrew Seldon at [email protected]. Sending material to this publication will be considered automatic permission to use in full or in part in our Letters column. Be sure to include your name, e-mail address, city and postal code. We reserve the right to edit all letters. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, adapted, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd, Reg No. 2005/034598/07 A division of Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd 1st Floor, Stabilitas, 265 Kent Avenue, Randburg Box 385, Pinegowrie 2123 Tel: +27 11 543 5800 ISSN 1562-952X Editor Andrew Seldon: [email protected] Contributors Craig Donald Gerhard Furter Advertising sales Tracy Wolter: [email protected] Heidi Hargreaves: [email protected] Subscription Services For address changes, orders, renewal status or missing issues, e-mail: [email protected] Subscribe online: www.technews.co.za Design and layout: Technews Production Department Disclaimer While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and its agents cannot be held responsible for any errors contained, or any loss incurred as a result. Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to alter or cut copy. Articles submitted are deemed to have been cleared for publication. Advertisements, inserts and company contact details are printed as provided by the advertiser. Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or veracity of supplied material. FROMTHE EDITOR’S DESK solutions www.securitysa.com Welcome to the CCTV Handbook 2022, I hope the headline caught your eye. This really is the last CCTV Handbook Hi-Tech Security Solutions will ever produce, but it is not the last handbook about surveillance we will be doing. After nearly two decades of following the surveillance market’s evolution, we have decided it is time to send the CCTV Handbook brand into retirement. As noted in the round table article on page 4, “If we had to highlight a single trend about surveillance … it would be all of the above. Today’s customers who want to do more than simply fill in a list of checkboxes to cover any compliance demands from executive management; they are looking at integrated solutions that integrate some or all of the above into a solution that delivers value.” That’s a bit of a mouthful, but it reflects what’s happening out there in the real world. It’s all about adding real, measurable value. This is one of the reasons for us deciding to change the branding of the handbook. It is a sad change as the CCTV Handbook has been part of my job since I became editor of Hi-Tech Security Solutions. Going over a few past issues, especially the first ones I was involved in, is a trip down memory lane. We had articles and round table discussions about the move from analogue to IP, questions about how effective video analytics really is (or was way back then) and other topics that would seem so out of place in today’s world. VSaaS wasn’t even a consideration back then, I don’t think it was even an acronym. And then there are the people. So many people have been quoted or have written articles for the handbook over time, some of whom are no longer with us. The last CCTV Handbook So, while this is goodbye, it is also hello and a new start to a new brand that will follow the surveillance market into its many and very integrated futures consisting of everything from left-over analogue installations to cybersecurity, to pure cloud solutions and the vast Wild West of IoT (or AIoT as we explain inside). I have purposely not mentioned the new name, it will be something along the lines of ‘Smart Surveillance’, much like our Smart Cybersecurity Handbook, but we will reveal more over the next few months. Truthfully, we are still debating (some would say arguing) about exactly what it should be and what it should look like . But that is all in the future, right now I hope you enjoy the latest and last CCTV Handbook. As always, please feel free to send your comments and criticisms to [email protected].
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4 CCTV Handbook 2022 www.securitysa.com The surveillance industry has been through many changes over the years, moving from analog to IP and then from video analytics to AI-enhanced analytics, quite often done on the edge. In the midst of the COVID chaos, reading people’s temperatures became a sought-after feature in surveillance cameras (although it was more effective when added to access control systems). The way people measure or judge surveillance solutions has also changed over time. In the past it was a race to more megapixels which has since calmed down as the images we obtain today are more than sufficient, except in certain scenarios where 4K resolution (and higher) may be required. We have also seen the various manufacturers making strides in collecting colour images in the dark, while thermal and IR camera advances have also kept pace with advancing technology. Today, however, all the talk is about artificial intelligence (AI) and how that is improving video analytics. At the same time, the processing capabilities in cameras has drastically improved, allowing for complex AI analytics to be done on the camera before video is compressed and sent to a server for storage or other processing – assuming the footage is not also stored on the camera. And when talking about servers, we can’t ignore Tracking surveillance into the future the growing adoption of cloud services in the surveillance market. And although it has been a topic of interest for many years, the use of surveillance footage, or data, is also finding more interest from non-security areas of business as efficiency and process optimisation take centre stage in many organisations, from the retail to commercial to industrial sectors and more. And then there is the question of cybersecurity and compliance. If we had to highlight a single trend about surveillance from the above, it would be all of the above. Today’s customers who want to do more than simply fill in a list of checkboxes to cover any demands from executive management, are looking at integrated solutions that integrate some or all of the above into a solution that delivers value. While vendors, distributors, SIs and installers are still competing in a tough market, educated clients are demanding they also work together to deliver value, not simply a bunch of images in a control room. To find out what is happening out there in the ‘real’ world of surveillance, which in today’s security configurations incorporates different aspects of security and other areas of business, Hi-Tech Security Solutions asked a few people from different sectors of the industry to join us around our boardroom table (for the first time since March 2020) to discuss what they see happening in the market and how they see the industry moving forward. We started by asking our guests to introduce themselves and give their opinion on the state of the market at the moment. Hi-Tech Security Solutions asked six industry experts to join us around a table to discuss the state of the surveillance industry and where it is going. By Andrew Seldon. Front row: Dene Alkema, MJ Oosthuizen, Quintin Van Den Berg. Back row: Dean Sichelschmidt, Marcel Bruyns, Ralph Derrick Brown. Dean Sichelschmidt and Marcel Bruyns. Continued on page 6
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6 CCTV Handbook 2022 www.securitysa.com Dene Alkema, MD of Cathexis Africa. Alkema says the past two years of COVID has been “interesting”, but companies have had to adjust and move ahead. What has also changed is the type of discussions Cathexis is having with its customers. Customers are talking about the value they get from their purchases and getting the most out of their spending as possible. There are also more people involved in these conversations, making the lead time much longer, but on the positive side that means that the industry has to demonstrate its ability to deliver the value clients want and not just sell a good story. MJ Oosthuizen, technology director: ESS (Electronic Security Solutions) at G4S Secure Solutions (SA). Coming from the perspective of an SI, Oosthuizen says the shift he has seen over the past two years has seen SIs having to sell more holistic security solutions rather than a specific surveillance or access control solution. Discussions about brand or pixels are not the primary focus for the end user, rather the value the full solution adds. SIs also have to employ more knowledgeable people as users want their providers to already understand the full scope of the project without, for example, having to get another person in the room to talk about the network and bandwidth implications of solutions. SIs are today tasked with designing a complex platform for future business expansion, not pushing their favourite or most profitable brands. QuintinVanDenBerg, country business director at BoschBuildingTechnologies. VanDen Berg says that as the market comes out of its“COVIDhangover”, the end users have changed their approach to newprojects and nowwant to have a discussionwith themanufacturers, on an elevated level, to ensure they are gettingwhat they need. The strict channel hierarchy is no longer as exclusive as it was in the past and SIs areworkingwith their OEMs to deliver value to the customer (although the SIs are still the ones to deliver the solution). He adds that the focus is no longer the total cost of ownership (TCO), but the total cost of investment (TCI) as the longevity of their systems has expanded, for example, five-year warranties are no longer an exception to the rule and theway software is delivered has also changedwith centralised, edge and hybrid solutions available. He also adds that it ismore about the data andwhat can be gained from that data, i.e., the usable information surveillance can deliver to the company. Dean Sichelschmidt, country manager for Arteco South Africa. Sichelschmidt agrees with the previous comments, stating that the market has matured significantly over the past few years. The whole channel , especially the end user is asking smarter, more mature questions. Users are not asking what a vendor or SI can do for them, they are asking if they can do what the user requires and what more value they can add while they are about it. Again, he echoes that it’s not about cameras or access control or fire solutions, but holistic solutions that can deliver measurable value and information. Big data is an IT term, but he is seeing the same concepts being applied in the security industry as more IoT devices appear on the edge and contribute to the masses of data being collected. He also echoes the previous statements that collaboration between the different parts of the traditional channel is more important in the drive to ensure the end user gets what they want. Marcel Bruyns, sales manager for Africa at Axis Communications. While Bruyns says Axis has not seen a dramatic reduction in business because it focuses primarily on enterprise-level businesses, he is seeing more activity in the market with people talking about new projects and blowing the dust off projects that were put on hold because of COVID uncertainties. Part of the discussions he is involved in are from various areas of customers’ businesses where people are looking at surveillance and other security information as a means to optimise business processes. As a consequence of this, he also notes that vendors are being called into these discussions along with SIs more often than before as customers want to maximise the capabilities of the technology they install. The value-add from third parties developing solutions that run on the Axis platform is also increasing, which means customers are in a position to get far more than before from their installations. Ralph Derrick Brown, product manager at MiRO Distribution. While Brown has seen an increase in activity in security business, he notes that there is more significant growth in its primary communications market. WISPs (wireless Internet service providers) are growing their businesses and instead of only offering connectivity, they are bundling smart home IoT packages which can include one or more cameras. In terms of IP surveillance, there has also been an increase in interest after the riots in 2021. Clients are looking for cost-effective cameras, but at the same time they want something they can rely on to send accurate alarm notifications to allow them to be more proactive in their security operations. Dene Alkema. Quintin Van Den Berg. Marcel Bruyns. MJ Oosthuizen. Dean Sichelschmidt. Ralph Derrick Brown. Continued from page 4 SURVEILLANCE ROUND TABLE 2022
www.securitysa.com CCTV Handbook 2022 7 Supply chain chaos Supply chain issues are ongoing, and all the participants are feeling the pinch of having to wait months for stock. This is obviously not good for customer relations as the end user can decide to opt for a different supplier if stock is not available. This has seen an increase in collaboration between companies that are competitors, through to increasing the level of stock holding whenever possible. The cost of bringing in more stock than normal pays off in the end when your company can deliver while others are struggling. Forecasting has also changed, both in terms of quantities ordered as well as communications with suppliers to try and gain insight into what to expect over the next few months. Manufacturers who are part of larger organisations had a slight advantage in that they could rely on other parts of their global companies to supply certain parts when their usual suppliers’ shelves were bare. Of course, this doesn’t apply to smaller concerns, and the continued shortages of specific components naturally affect them in the long run. It’s worth noting that the supply chain chaos was not only caused by chipset and other component shortages. The actual shipping of stock has also been impacted and it is not unusual to be told your stock will be shipped in a particular week only to find the ship or plane hasn’t moved a few weeks later for one reason or another, and often for no discernible reason at all. The software suppliers have not escaped unscathed either as their applications need to run on hardware. Especially when it comes to video analytics, graphics processing units (GPUs) are required (especially for AI analytics), and these have been in short supply. Of course, people buying GPUs to mine cryptocurrencies hasn’t helped either. Key for all the participants is collaboration and adapting with out-of-the-box thinking to get customer sites secured. Maintaining relationships and managing expectations throughout the channel (especially with the customer) has been key to overcoming the stock problems, as has expanding brand ranges beyond existing comfort zones. It’s no longer unusual to see manufacturers, distributors and SIs in the same meeting, working to fulfil the end user’s requirements. Another comment worth noting is that COVID has had a positive impact in that customers are looking to their service partners to assist them in creating innovative and holistic solutions. It’s not a matter of reducing guards or going for the cheapest product out there, today the customers want to stretch their budget to the maximum and are looking at ways to extract more value from their security systems than ever before. Adding value Adding value has always been important, but in today’s business environment it entails more than simply offering a camera or cameras that record video, or analytics that catch someone crossing a line. The key is how to make video more important in each customer’s environment. AI is one of the key areas in which vendors can make a difference, whether it’s on a local or hosted server or on the camera itself. All vendors have realised this and are working, on the one hand to develop AI that really delivers what clients want, and on the other to put the AI applications to work in a way that delivers the basic video surveillance functionality required plus more, so that management will be able to see the value of the system installed. Of course, all agree that selling AI because it is branded as AI is not the way to go and can even cause significant problems in the long term if it is not the right solution. And it’s not only selling a product and installing it. Implementation and maintenance are key elements to getting continued value from an installation as there will always be tweaks and updates to optimise performance and adapt to changes in the environment. Training clients on how to best extract value from their system is also a key value-add. To accomplish this, the ability to integrate various systems and ‘ingest’ data from almost any device for analysis and intelligence has become a must-have. What was a ‘security tool’ is now becoming more of a management tool as roles expand. The days of trying to be the sole vendor or supplier are over. Software and hardware companies need to take the approach that value may come from competitive products, and they need to be able to integrate these products, whether old or new, into their solutions with the aim, again, of delivering the value the client wants. Importantly, part of the value that the industry adds is in helping customers define and refine what their problems are and then offer a solution that addresses the exact issue, plus a bit more. In some cases that value may also be walking away from a deal (which is extremely hard for sales-oriented people) because you know that your solution won’t provide what they need, or even because the client doesn’t actually know what they want and just selling them a solution for the sake of revenue will cause more problems for all parties down the line. Customers are spoiled for choice and messing up a deal can have long-term implications. As one participant noted, people don’t talk about the projects you did successfully, only your failures. The value of AI Perception is often confusing. When talk of AI-enhanced systems first appeared, many people had (and still have) ideas that are more at home in science fiction movies than reality. For example, AI never fails and always does what you require. The first ‘AI-enhanced’ analytics were little more than existing analytics with a new name. However, newer technologies have improved and AI does add value today, but it should not be sold as the solution for everything. Adding value would include telling a customer that an ‘old’ line crossing analytic is all they actually need, not the latest AI system on promotion. Additionally, AI must integrate into the holistic solution made up of old and new technologies, even from competitors, to contribute to the value added by the whole system. The old adage of never using version one but being patient until version two comes out Dene Alkema and MJ Oosthuizen. SURVEILLANCE ROUND TABLE 2022 Continued on page 8
8 CCTV Handbook 2022 www.securitysa.com is valid in the surveillance market. The latest AI app making all the promises of perfection is likely to disappoint you if you insist your SI installs it. An example given was of watching a rerun of CSI and expecting your camera to perform facial recognition from a reflection in someone’s sunglasses. Rather wait until it has proved itself in the real world before putting money on new ‘bleeding-edge’ technologies or insist on a proof-of-concept project before committing. It’s been around for a long time, but the task of giving each camera a job description should be standard procedure so that decisions can be made to ensure the client gets the solution that does what is required. This related back to helping the customer understand what they need and why. Once again, the discussion returns to adding value by educating the customer in terms of what cameras and analytics can really do in specific scenarios. What works on a quiet street that has minimal traffic may not deliver when placed next to a highway where constant headlight reflections will disrupt the image and analytics at night. This becomes more critical when procurement departments authorise purchases (mainly on price) and don’t understand why certain systems were chosen according to the service they can deliver. Looking ahead When considering the future, the industry of “old white men” is about to undergo changes as the old school gets to retirement age and the younger generation, a generation that is comfortable with technology and don’t have their favourite suppliers who take them on regular trips to Sun City, assume senior positions with decision making and buying power. This generation knows what technology can and should do and will change the buying behaviour of companies. Looking at expectations for the future, Alkema says Cathexis has been pushed to consider the outcome of the technology it delivers. The past years have made the company’s technology team look closely at what matters to the user and what value the company provides. He is already seeing different expectations from users on pricing models on hardware and software. The challenge is how the company will adapt to customers ‘consumption models’ and decisions as to cloud requirements etc. Flexibility is key as each client will have their own demands, some will move fast, others will move slower, but any vendor needs to be open to the new opportunities and flexible enough to capitalise on them. The industry’s biggest risk factor is that there is no regulation in terms of installations standards except in very few areas, states Oosthuizen. He sees compliance as a key driver for customers going forward. The ability to understand the data collected and what is being done with it is key to the future. Customers collecting data and using it for security or whatever other purposes they have in mind is the first step, but ultimately they will need to strictly control where the data is, who has access to it, and, of course, adhere to data security and privacy regulations. This is already happening in multiple industries and the regulations, and the need to comply will only increase (for legal reasons, but also, perhaps primarily, to keep customers from moving on). There needs to be serious education on the topic of risk. Security and data risks were previously separate entities, but more people will see them as one and the same at a rapid rate. Alkema agrees, noting that Cathexis has seen an increase in questions about what the company is doing to secure data its system processes and what is it doing to protect customer data from all the cyber risks out there. Given the nature of the cybersecurity industry, this is a constantly evolving goal. Cybersecurity is a topic that all the participants around the table mentioned as a critical component that will become even more critical in future. Oosthuizen again brings up the ‘why’ question. Customers need to ask why they are using a certain SI, a certain brand of camera, a certain VMS etc., and the answer will no longer be because they are the cheapest or the reps hand out nice Christmas presents; the answer will be directly related to how they enhance the end user’s security and risk postures in terms of risk mitigation and adding value. Van Den Berg builds on this, noting that vendors are going to have to “add more horsepower” to their solutions. Seeing an image on a screen is no longer the aim of surveillance. Yes, control rooms will continue to exist, however, that is standard practice at the moment and the end user is looking for more. They want to see a single dashboard in front of them that tells them everything they need to know instantaneously – irrelevant of what technology is behind the dashboard. The surveillance industry is selling information and the ability to get the information that is valuable to the client in front of them immediately, not a cameras or VMS. In the same manner, the cloud or hybrid or onsite debate will be as superfluous as the hardware or software since the client is buying a solution that produces information that is valuable for his/her business. Of course, this is looking ahead and Sichelschmidt says it will take time for the cloud arguments to subside and end users to get more comfortable with cloud, hybrid or onsite options. It will also take further infrastructure improvements, such as having electricity and reliable connectivity to give decision makers peace of mind. Echoing Van Den Berg, however, Sichelschmidt says the provision of metadata (or actionable information taken from a variety of sources, including surveillance video) is becoming a key driver for the future. The user doesn’t care what camera or analytics delivers that metadata, they only care that it appears when needed and is accurate, and therefore actionable. Continued on page 10 Continued from page 7 SURVEILLANCE ROUND TABLE 2022
10 CCTV Handbook 2022 www.securitysa.com Again, the tech-aware youth who will be leaders of the future already don’t care what happens in the background, they want to see the value. Someone else can worry about which technology did what and integrated with what to deliver the results. Bruyns says Axis is focused on expanding its offerings to market. Axis was the initial driver for the move from analog to IP surveillance technology, and it plans to continue its process of making it easier to get information to the right people at the right time, such as with its AI-enhanced analytics and opening its platform to thirdparty developers that may have specific applications they want to load onto cameras. Its openness and partnerships throughout its value chain will continue and advance further to ensure the whole ecosystem Axis is part of develops and evolves. In addition, the company is putting a strong focus on cybersecurity. Bruyns says it is not being spoken about enough and there is a lot of education that is needed throughout the channel. At the same time, sustainability is a key factor in everything Axis is doing, from the components and materials it uses through to reducing power consumption. Brown believes that ease of use is also becoming a key factor for security products, firstly for the residential market, but increasingly in the corporate sector as well. Nobody wants to struggle to set up their systems, they are only interested in getting the results. In addition, as noted by the others, he sees a growth in the need for usable information from analytics and AI to take away unnecessary work from humans, leaving them to focus on things that are important. Unsurprisingly, MiRO has seen a need to pair surveillance and security systems with power solutions so that users can keep their security systems running independently of Eskom’s failures. Interestingly, the failures in governance in South Africa has many companies seeing much better growth in the rest of Africa while local growth treads water or stagnates. South Africa may be the hub for stock supplies into Africa right now (when stock is available), but the money is being spent north of the country and there are other countries in line to increase their import revenues by improving their infrastructure and governance processes. Readers who read the editorial column for this issue already know that this is the last surveillance focused handbook we will be publishing under the ‘CCTV Handbook’ brand. If one considers what we were discussing in round tables ten or even five years ago, it is interesting to see how the market has changed and how the industry has and is adapting to new demands and opportunities. It’s fair to say that the surveillance market has firmly left the technology age where megapixels were the selling point and entered the information age where metadata – the information extracted from the video (and other) data– is the critical factor. While different environments still need different cameras, what counts today is how the video data can be analysed and actioned in real time to deliver value to the end user. Hi-Tech Security Solutions would like to thank everyone who joined us around the table for their time and insights. Although this is a long article, to include all the comments and insights shared across the table is impossible. For more information contact the participating companies: • Arteco, +27 81 443 8583, [email protected], www.arteco-global.com • Axis Communications, +27 11 548 6780, [email protected], www.axis.com • Bosch Building Technologies +27 11 651 9600, [email protected], www.boschsecurity.com • Cathexis Africa, +27 31 240 0800, [email protected], www.cathexisvideo.com • G4S Secure Solutions SA, +27 10 001 4500, [email protected], www.g4s.co.za • MiRO Distribution, 086 123 MIRO, [email protected], www.miro.co.za Continued from page 8 SURVEILLANCE ROUND TABLE 2022
12 CCTV Handbook 2022 www.securitysa.com 2022 trends in video surveillance Source: Eagle Eye Networks Eagle Eye Networks predicts what will impact the video surveillance industry in the coming year and how to seize opportunities and forge a path to success, even amid ongoing uncertainties. As we forge ahead through 2022, a new collective of energy and possibility is emerging in the video surveillance industry. One that acknowledges the global pandemic and wave of economic change it brought, including disruptions in the labour market, supply chain bottlenecks, and economic uncertainty; but also brings forth innovative solutions that empower businesses to adapt and thrive in the face of this change. In its latest eBook, Eagle Eye’s experts predict what will impact the video surveillance industry in the coming year, and explain how you, as a business leader, can seize opportunities and forge a path to success even amid ongoing uncertainties. Flexibility to customise Businesses want the flexibility to add customised analytics to their video surveillance systems. We’ve grown extremely accustomed to personalisation, and that expectation is seeping into all aspects of our personal and professional lives. Customers looking for video surveillance don’t just want a generic monitoring system anymore. They want a system customised to their business, industry, location, and unique needs. This can be accomplished with artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics embedded into the design of a modern cloud-based video management system (VMS). Everything is flexible and customers only pay for what they use on a day-to-day basis. Customers can add cameras to their system and upgrade or downgrade camera resolution and retention, and add or delete analytics, such as counting, line crossing, loitering, and camera tampering – all on a camera-by-camera basis. The data gleaned from these analytics can be used to improve business efficiencies and customer experiences. For example, retail operators can “Body cams tied to video management systems can protect the lone worker, de-escalate aggressive behaviours, and alert monitoring centres if assistance is needed.” analyse customer behaviours and traffic patterns, informing store layout and staffing requirements. Multifamily residential managers can use analytics to ensure only trusted people enter secured buildings. And, using licence plate recognition, they can allow or deny access to vehicles in their private parking garage. In addition, they can uncover any illegal use of their trash dumpsters and receive instant alarms, all making for safer, more liveable environments AI can also supplement manual work. In the healthcare industry, for example, nursing home operators needn’t have staff members roaming halls and rooms. Instead, they can use analytics to get instant notification if an elderly resident falls, then immediately dispatch the necessary personnel. Smart city managers can use AI for crowd detection and erratic behaviour identification. The verticalisation and customisation of AI is limitless. And, when a VMS is true cloud, all this functionality is available to users in a generic way. There’s no need for onsite devices to run the software, meaning fewer hassles on-premises. AI makes it very easy to find the right footage, detect activity in video, and ensure it’s only alarmed for relevant activity, taking security cameras to the next level. TRENDS
“When a VMS is built on an open platform, it interfaces with the cameras, records the video, and securely transmits it to the cloud, where it’s stored and made available to use in other applications. The use cases are endless.” Do more with less COVID-19 has caused workers to rethink their conditions, and consequently, has dramatically impacted the labour pool, forcing short-staffed businesses to turn away customers and/or scale back hours and operations. This is hitting the retail, restaurant and hospitality sectors particularly hard, as these service industries rely on staff onsite, versus remote workers. Consequently, they’re searching for new ways to serve customers with smaller staff and less supervision, while still ensuring a high level of service and security. This is where video surveillance can help. By using existing infrastructure or installing a new system, management can get a first-hand account of the pace and quality of service, which can later be used for training, particularly useful in highturnover industries. Additionally, they can use their system to ensure compliance with policies, service guidelines, and safety. For example, are policies being followed? Are customers being greeted in a timely manner? Are employees wearing proper safety gear? All of this can be monitored remotely, alerts can be immediately activated, corrective action can be taken, and service levels elevated. The good news is most businesses are recovering, and coming back stronger than ever. Video surveillance in the cloud will enable these organisations to more easily scale and grow with the pent-up consumer demand, as well as train new employees, ensure returnto-work guidelines are being followed, and look for emerging post-pandemic trends to optimise their business. The business intelligence value of video surveillance. Video surveillance is still used primarily for security. However, businesses are starting to realise its power to provide business intelligence that can improve operational efficiencies and customer service. Construction industry leaders are using video analytics to determine if safety protocols are (or aren’t) being met. Smart cities are using analytics to detect anomalies in crowds and erratic behaviours in real time, expediting emergency response. Healthcare professionals rely on line crossing analytics to ensure pharmaceuticals, equipment, and sensitive patient data is protected in restricted areas. And many organisations, across multiple industries, are now taking advantage of intelligent analytics and advanced image processing capabilities to initiate their returnto-work strategies. By monitoring face mask usage and social distancing adherence, as well as occupancy monitoring, they’re taking steps to ensure their facilities are compliant with local COVID requirements. Lastly, with cloud-based video surveillance, it’s possible to access and share video anytime, Contiued on page 14 TRENDS
14 CCTV Handbook 2022 www.securitysa.com Eagle Eye Networks has released the second annual Cloud Video Surveillance Camera Worldwide Statistics report, delivering data and insight into security camera usage and trends globally and regionally. The report analyses aggregate data from a sample set of 200 000 cameras and includes more than 150 camera manufacturers. It covers a wide range of industries including corporate enterprises, retail, restaurant, warehouse, industrial, education, healthcare, hospitality and multifamily dwellings. “Organisations moving to cloud-based video surveillance make key deployment decisions across several factors,” said Dean Drako, founder and CEO of Eagle Eye Networks. “We are sharing the most common implementation configurations and trends with a goal to help everyone moving to cloud security camera systems make better decisions.” Key data includes: • Increased adoption of higher resolution cameras, audio-enabled cameras, and regional differences in usage across the Americas, EMEA and APAC. • Relative level of use of the four most common video analytics. • Flexibility of true cloud systems to support hundreds of camera types and manufacturers around the world. • Growth in number of camera manufacturers. • Preferred video recording location and recording retention duration. • Regulated industries’ usage of cloud video surveillance. Download the report at www.securitysa.com/*een6 from anywhere, and receive real-time alerts the second a motion or event is detected. Using AI-based alerting, it’s also possible to only receive alerts when a specific object appears, greatly reducing false alarms – an expensive ongoing issue in video surveillance. Work from home and deliveries One thing COVID-19 has demonstrated is work that previously took place in an office setting can be done – and indeed has been done – remotely. However, in a knowledge economy, organisations are still reliant on face-to-face interactions and in-person collaboration. What this all means is, we will return to the office at some point, but not everyone, and not every day, resulting in a much smaller worker density and a direct hit to the commercial real estate market. During the second quarter of 2021, there was 13.6 million square feet (41.45 million square metres) of unoccupied office space, according to global commercial real estate services firm Colliers International. In addition, global leasing volumes are down about 30%. Many are rethinking how they use their real estate, looking to turn core workspaces into multi-tenant facilities and/or giving employees the option of flex time. New, unfamiliar faces are now coming and going, and employees are no longer locked into the traditional 9-to-5 workday. A positive shift in many ways, it also changes the security landscape at workplaces and heightens the need to protect people and property. Access control integrated with video surveillance will become more prevalent, as will licence plate recognition tools for parking management. From the security personnel side, remote monitoring will no longer be a nice-to-have, but a need-to-have. And the ability to remotely manage a video surveillance system will continue to grow in value. Finally, due to the swell in home and delivery services, body-worn camera usage is on the rise. With too few people working and customers wanting more delivered more often, frustrations and even hostility toward service workers are on the rise. Body cameras tied to video management systems can protect the lone worker, de-escalate aggressive behaviours, alert monitoring centres if assistance is needed, and even help companies ensure their deliveries are compliant with policy. Interoperability is key Many on-premises systems don’t have the ability to connect quickly or to securely exchange data among systems. When the video management system is cloud based with a free, open application programming interface (API), users get the single sign-on; quick authentication; and ability to access, interact with, and share data they want. For example: • Parking management: Licence plate data can be shared with the access control system to allow or deny entry. Users of a tenant management system can see parking availability and decide whether or not to drive to the office. • Building management: Occupancy data can be shared with the building management system to automatically raise or lower HVAC and electricity, saving power and money. • Retail: Shelf inventory can be shared with the supply chain system to determine product delivery and restocking needs. • Logistics: Cameras can be integrated into logistics software to track packages through the supply chain process. • Quick service restaurants: Video integrated with point-of-sale systems can identify and authenticate suspicious transactions all in one place, detecting fraud and mitigating loss. • Construction: Video and analytics safety- detecting helmet usage can be pushed to the compliance system to determine if employees are following safety protocols. Download the full report at www.securitysa.com/*een5 CameraWorldwide Statistics report Contiued from page 13 TRENDS
www.securitysa.com CCTV Handbook 2022 15 The impact of AI-enhanced video analytics on control roompersonnel By Dr Craig Donald What impact do AI-capable detection systems have on control room staff, and do they mean a change in the demands on operators and the type of people you have in the control room? “I have always found with technology that the best systems are those that cover a sophisticated backend with an interface that is easy to use and can make the best use of features.” AI-capable detection systems are becoming increasingly common in control rooms and, in time, are almost automatically going to be incorporated into control room systems and equipment. So, what impact do they have on control room staff, and do they mean a change in the demands on operators and the type of people you have in the control room? To understand the answers to this, we need to look at the type and extent of AI-enabled equipment and systems. A camera enabled with motion detection is not likely to have any real impact within the control room, but a VMS system upgrade with widespread configurable options and AI learning capabilities which need to be taught by staff could have a major implication. I have seen a security control room for a major company with upgraded systems and interfaces make all but one of the existing control room staff effectively redundant because they were unable to operate the new systems. Before you upgrade to any AI-based technology, you need to ask how relevant it is to you, how often are you likely to use it, will it solve your problems, howmany false alarms get produced that will pull people off core functions, howmuch AI teaching does it need to operate effectively, and how easy is it to use. I have always found with technology that the best systems are those that cover a sophisticated backend with an interface that is easy to use and can make the best use of features. Something old and new AI is supposed to be a quantum leap forward for CCTV and control rooms, often with sales claims about how AI can remove the need for people. Yet some of these ‘new’ capabilities have been around for a while. I still have a video in a diamond mine using simple motion detection based on specific areas on the camera view from 1989. Capabilities to distinguish between people and animals have been built into many passive infrared detectors in people’s households for years. Zone alarms on video management systems have been configurable for many years as well, and even analytics like missing object detection have been around for 20 years or more. However, more recent ‘AI’ capabilities, along with improved software, have created a ‘sea change’ in the way we can do security by pushing things further than they were and making detection capabilities much easier to use and configure, automating actions, and using information more extensively. These capabilities are happening along with vastly improved access to information including ‘big data’ systems. These changes have allowed us to augment our control rooms with more information that is easier to access and can be used to enhance and complement operator decision making. Improved and more sophisticated access to data has meant we can use intelligence to identify and react to potential threats, evaluate conditions, monitor more effectively, respond and resolve to issues, and investigate the people and circumstances of such issues. What are the benefits of AI? • AI is good at doing a lot of routine things consistently that free up operators – things like movement detection can take care of extensive perimeter protection while operators can be engaged in other tasks. • Coverage of areas that may only occasionally be an issue can be facilitated by using AI recognition. • Anticipating threat detection using irregular movement or direction, for example towards a fence rather than along it, can highlight conditions that may turn into an incident for an operator to monitor. Contiued on page 16
16 CCTV Handbook 2022 www.securitysa.com • AI can be good at representing information and presenting it to operators to assist in decision making – although this presentation to the user aspect is probably an underdeveloped aspect of most AI systems. • We can use information on one source to complement other sources – using linked datasets we can quickly find out more about a person or vehicle and evaluate the actions we see in a different context. • AI search capabilities on big data sets allow you to go through lots of information when wanting information on incident conditions, for example face or number plate matching, clothing descriptions, movement of vehicles or people in certain areas. AI and the operator in the control room Ultimately, however, the AI recognition still needs to be reviewed by people in the control room. There has been a consistent trend across technology enhancements over the past 100 years similar to the one we are experiencing in control rooms, where the changes demand an increase in the skill and capacity of the people who must use and deal with the technology. If the people are not right, the systems are going to be crippled, leaving the user exposed to accusations of non-performance, or pulling people away from core functions that are key to service delivery. We are not eliminating the need for people. We are typically increasing the responsibility and skills requirements of fewer, more highly paid people. AI is going to impact on control room operator tasks in the following way: • There is more information and information sources than ever before that need to be handled in the control room, and that need to be managed on computer interfaces. • Information comes in more quickly and needs to be tested for integrity, collated and rapidly integrated for effective decision making. • Operators need an understanding of how the AI is identifying the criteria that it targets, so things like causes of false alarms can be tracked and be more understandable. • The operator needs to master a number of systems that are often not integrated and may even operate in parallel, requiring extensive division of attention in handling multiple demands. • A number of skills requirements go up – computer system skills, conceptualisation of a broader framework, ability to deal with multiple input sources, etc. • The display screens are often ill suited to managing the presentation of complex information. • Operators need to be able to look at a scene or scenario presented by AI and make a decisive and accurate judgement about the behaviour or situation they see and the associated risk. This is essential to avoid getting bogged down and to ensure a timeous response, and to cleanly handle false alarms. • If they are responsible for teaching and giving feedback to AI systems as part of its learning mode, operators need to understand the broader context of what they see in order to teach the AI what is appropriate and what is not. No matter what AI or video analytics system is being used in security, it is likely to need human overview and authorisation. I wrote an article in 2020 on why people are important (see https://www.securitysa.com/11567r) in working with AI technology. Use of human specialists is partly to allay concerns over legal obligations and being sued. However, not just anyone can necessarily do it. With face recognition technology, there are almost universal procedures that a human operator has to confirm the facial identity. Yet we know that some humans are terrible at recognising faces, or even facial matching. Can you really expect somebody like that to confirm the AI interpretation? That is why people like super recognisers can be so effective in not only confirming what facial recognition systems pick up but extending it and filling in the limitations. The importance of the human overview was also highlighted after an active shooter in Buffalo in the US was streaming himself opening fire on people in a supermarket on the Twitch platform, and the company pulled the video less than two minutes after the shooter opened fire. The response was seen as exceptionally quick, especially compared to other major platforms. Nathan Grayson for Reuters reported the Twitch executives stating, “We combine proactive detection and a robust user reporting system with urgent escalation flows led by skilled human specialists to address incidents swiftly and accurately”, and “While we use technology, like any other service, to help tell us proactively what’s going on in our service, we always keep a human in the loop of all our decisions.” Types of AI analytics The kinds of AI facilities in security surveillance technology range from tried and trusted to what one may call speculative. Contiued from page 15 TRENDS
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