Why cameras are essential to an efficient security plan in South Africa

Is crime predictable? Not always but we can have crime prevention in place to detect crimes as they happen.

Video is a core essential in a quality security plan providing real time visibility of crimes as they take place to ensure more prepared responses and crime prevention accountability, data collection and predictive analytics.

Today’s cutting-edge video technology is intelligent and essential to monitoring and recording criminal activity in homes, businesses, and public spaces according to pre-determined preferences of the user.

“Video monitoring integrates with physical security and it is also possible to converge it with drone surveillance for a 360 degree view to detect objects, track movement, analyse vehicles, and protect privacy and cyber infrastructures and are useful in predicting future crime spots too,” says Jamie of Premier Security. “All sites are backed up by the benefit of having a reliable, trusted and efficient armed response to incidences as they are occurring.”

What’s the difference between surveillance cameras and security cameras?

Security cameras also known as CCTV cameras, are used to convey signals from one particular place to a definitive monitor situated at a remote control room, whereas surveillance cameras such as an automatic number plate recognition system, normally work on IP networks which link the camera from the remote area to the control room.

Advances in video technology gives businesses the ability to scan license plates on cars, use facial recognition to search or identify people, monitor suspicious activities in communities or retail facilities and detect breeches in access protocols within large corporate or banking facilities. including motion detection, facial recognition, crowd and vehicle counting, heatmap and dwell time in shopping aisles, and traffic and queue detection. Often, just the presence of video surveillance prevents more serious criminal activity from occurring.

FEATURES OF INTELLIGENT VIDEO SYSTEMS INCLUDE:

  • Digital video technology which integrates with analytical software
  • Video analytics software can run on a networked device, such as a sophisticated IP camera, in an embedded system or on a computer
  • Automatically analyse live, streaming video from CCTV, surveillance and embedded cameras to provide actionable alerts for security events, eliminating false alarms and reducing the need for manual monitoring.
  • A system of one or more video cameras on a network that transmits the captured video and audio information to a remote control room. The images are live monitored or transmitted to a central location for recording and storage.
  • Detection of suspicious activity aligned to a pre-set list of protocols
  • Remote launching of video recording, alarms, alerts or other actions
  • High tech audio and visual surveillance
  • The ability to track moving targets
  • Alert activations signalling surveillance operators or security personnel
  • The ability to count people entering and leaving
  • Camera tampering detection
  • Vehicle license plate recognition

Advances are seen in video and night vision surveillance technologies where camera features where processing occurs within the cameras themselves, making the process faster and cheaper and reducing the need for using significant bandwidth since only relevant information needs to be transmitted.

Securing Healthcare

Under the Covid-19 pandemic we know that the 24/7/365 nature of hospitals requires extra vigilance when it comes to appropriate security measures and are required to monitor and protect public entryways of the hospitals and primary care clinics, exterior perimeters, main hallways, nurses’ stations, maternity wards, emergency departments, entrances and exits of parking ramps and the hospital pharmacies.

Video capabilities stretch beyond simple video surveillance into video analytics, access control, visitor management, emergency management and even improving patient care according to strict standards, codes, rules and regulations required by healthcare. It’s here especially that these new technologies can mitigate the cost of manned security and show benefit in increased security with a return on investment.

When putting video surveillance systems in these types of public facilities we advise additional security measures be included such as running security checks on staff and installing a good medicine inventory control system.

Video Surveillance Best Practices

Make sure your security surveillance technology is up-to-date. When a security breech occurs and you look to your video surveillance for further investigation and detection you don’t want to find blurred images, window reflections or sun flares preventing identification of the perpetrators.

With South Africa’s load shedding schedules and unscheduled power blackouts you will need to check that your equipment works correctly so that when incidents do occur you can rely on the information that has been captured and that it is being stored safely for future reporting.

Keep alert regarding changes to security-sensitive areas around your business or home for example, a rainy season may have caused foliage to flourish, preventing visibility or ensuring you are covering multiple entrances to a shopping centre where mass strike action can occur

Consider high-traffic areas and personnel who may be at risk such as information kiosks and petrol station night staff who may be confronted with intimidation or threatening behaviour which requires the added back up of security surveillance.

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