Security & Government Expo is always an interesting study. Exhibitors are profoundly connected to meeting the operational requirements of government and this makes the event a finely-tailored opportunity for ACT-based security professionals to get across the latest and sharpest gear.
In 2021, exhibitors are bringing solutions they have enhanced or released during the 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The nature of those solutions bears examination, as it gives subtle clues about security’s future.
Importantly, SAGE’s operational focus extends across multiple technologies, including locking, barriers, optical and thermal surveillance, drone detection, security networking and network infrastructure, perimeter security, PSIM and VMS management solutions, emergency management solutions, access control and SCEC-compliant alarms, video analytics and plenty more. Not only are there products and technologies on show – some exhibitors specialise in their application, too.
While attendees will see the latest electronic security devices and management solutions, the depth and capability of the physical security on show highlights how vital it remains is to many applications – it also points towards expectations of a future in which vehicle and pedestrian traffic levels return to pre-pandemic levels – we can hardly wait for that.
A particular quality of security solutions during the pandemic – particularly electronic security solutions – has been the breakneck pace of development. COVID-19 has been a catalyst for new solutions and new functions, as well as an acceleration in the development of overarching management solutions and the networks that support them. Some of these features relate to contact tracing, but things like face recognition in access control applications to reduce touch points also come into play.
Overarching trends include a leaning into cloud, increases in cyber security capability, polishing of user interfaces and enhancements of integration. In the future we are going to see systems that are more melded and more capable of being melded. Developments like this underline the importance of technology partnerships between suppliers, integrators and end users, partnerships that cover entire verticals, partnerships that reach across verticals to cover off mutual operational needs.
Something interesting is that as connectivity sprawls outwards from workplaces driven by work-from-home business models and development of the underlying comms networks that support them, we are seeing security solutions pushing operational security procedures out onto mobile networks. This applies not only in terms of remote notifications, reports, monitoring and more, but with mobile devices becoming an accepted credential and an accepted interface for man-down applications, staff safety and managing teams post-incident. This operational capability extends as far as telephony extends – globally. And solutions are increasingly secure, intuitive to use and easy to integrate with high-end CCTV and access control systems.
Taking whole-of-business digital transformation to the next level are solutions like OpenEye, which allows multi-site CCTV recorders to be viewed, managed and maintained centrally via cloud, with no local server architecture. We’re used to hearing about ‘single panes of glass’ to handle single site integrations, but wrangling an enterprise CCTV system this way is another matter altogether. While we’ve not seen the system yet, the AI-based instant reporting and the video verification of events highlight another broader shift – a hands-off management approach in which automated software does the hard work, informing stakeholders only when programmed thresholds are breached. Key, this doesn’t just apply in security applications but in process control applications, too.
You can see this layering in VMS offerings that are increasingly able to distinguish between areas on a site and match areas and assets on a site – it’s almost like access control ‘areas’ in which multiple organisations share one main controller and individual door controllers, only in this case, the CCTV system ‘knows’ whose assets are whose and monitors them across complex environments, based on a vectors like LPR or face recognition. Only people or assets which are out of place generate events.
Face recognition technology forms part of the overall electronic security picture in a connected world. Something the pandemic showed was that government is happy to deploy face recognition in life safety applications and the public is happy to use it, so long as the biometric resides on their own devices. When it comes to low cost and ease of management, device-carried face recognition is hard to beat. The latest systems are working hard to ensure they offer the highest security, the best performance and zero bias – they are the future of converged site/network access, in our opinion.
It’s a mistake to think that the future is all about networking clever software solutions. The performance of any security solution is predicated on the quality of the data gathered by its sensors – these may be optical or thermal cameras, they may be drone detection systems, high end security sensors of all kinds. And as automation creeps across applications, a secure site’s ability to resist intrusion while remote operators and responders are informed of unfolding events becomes increasingly important.
SAGE, to be held in partnership with ASIS ACT seminars at the Realm Hotel in Canberra (pre-register here), will be the only face-to-face security event in Australia in 2021 – it’s been a bloody long time coming – we’re very much looking forward to seeing the latest security solutions – and all of you – on November 25.
Exhibitors at SAGE 2021 include Selectlock, AISM Neuro, Allegion, Avigilon, ASIS ACT, Axis Communications, Bosch, BM Doors, CIC Technology, CriticalArc, Deploy, EVVA, Ezi Security Systems, Gallagher, Geutebruck, Gunnebo, Lox Locking, Honeywell, Jack Fuse, Openeye, Pelco, A Motorola Solutions Company, Milestone, Sektor, SRA Solutions, Sensing Products, Quest, Traka and Warrgambi.
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