9 minute read
Discussing detection
INTERVIEW
Discussing external detection
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This month we talk about external detection and the importance of choosing the right product for the job with Mike Burgess of Takex
It is fair to say that external detection systems haven’t always had a fair reputation in the market. With wildlife affecting the performance of the early systems on the market in terms of unwanted triggering it is no surprise that in recent times some have opted for external CCTV rather than detectors. However those days are gone and systems on the market today reliably offer early warning detection and alerts for external security purposes and can supplement and improve upon installations that rely solely on CCTV for protection.
We caught up with Mike Burgess, EMEA Sales Manager at Takex Europe, to find out more about the use of external detection and how combining it with CCTV is an option that installers should be considering.
How has business been over the last few years? Since we founded the business over 20 years ago we have grown year on year, but in 2020 when Covid came along, that was a massive kick in the teeth. We saw maybe 50% of our business reduce over that period, however we have been able to claw some of that back and last year, in 2021, we put ourselves back on the route we were on before all of this started.
Why do you think there was that downturn? Initially when the pandemic first started, I thought that there were going to be lots of buildings left empty, which would all need securing because they no longer have the footfall and the businesses would be in a state of dormancy that would need protecting. However to protect those buildings, you need the people on the ground to actually install the systems and you need the distributors open to be able to buy the product – and due to the lockdown the whole infrastructure stalled. When we first went into lockdown, we all looked at it and thought it will be over in two to three months, but when it dragged over the year and over the Christmas period people were finding other ways of dealing with the situation, but most businesses suffered. I think that we along with everybody else, suffered but not as much as some of the other industries and we're still here. We are now seeing projects come back online that we were talking about 18 months ago.
When it comes to security, CCTV is often the first port of call. Do you have any concerns about that? Fifteen years ago, I was told that my job would be redundant within five years because video analytics were going to take over the world! I was told that my product, which is very much what I would consider the bread and butter of the security industry, would be obsolete yet only last week, I had a meeting with a company that specialises in rapid deployment CCTV coming to me looking for triggers. Even though they are at the top of their game, they realise and recognise the need for my type of product to actually fill in the gaps where their products are being used. What we have seen in the market is a huge influx of home CCTV and if you walk down the average road you see that about 20% of houses have got cameras. CCTV is an everyday sight now - if you went back ten years and had “Fifteen years ago, I was told that my job would be redundant within five years because video analytics were going to take over the world!”
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cameras on your house, people would question why it was needed, but we know that even having a cheap camera on your house is a deterrent.
I've always said that my detection solution does not solve a problem; what it does is it stops it being your problem.
External perimeter detection used to get a bit of a bad rep because people saw it was triggered by foxes and moving bushes. So how have you overcome all of those issues?
It has been purely by education. I've written a guide, which explains how a passive infrared detector works. In the guide I've equated it to a menu in that you could go and spend less than a bag of chips on a PIR all the way up to a bottle of wine costing 1500 euros on a single device. There has to be a reason for that but also there is huge difference between internal and external detection. Internally you can spend the cost of your bag of chips on a PIR and it will work because you're
in a controlled environment and maybe if you step up to the cost of a Big Mac you can buy one that is pet immune if required. As soon as you go outside, even your Big Mac level detector is going to have a problem, so now you need to go up to Pizza Express levels!
So product choice is key? Absolutely and a case in point involves my biggest market of South Africa where if somebody breaks into your house and you are in at the time, there is a more than evens chance that you're going to die. So when we put protection outside, people need to know it works because if it keeps going off, either they're going to keep thinking that somebody is coming on to the property, or the armed response team is going to get fed up coming out and will withdraw the service. So we have a solution that I introduced in 2005 and now have over 3 million products fitted and trusted.
One of the biggest issues they have is with wildlife. They have these huge birds called Hadedas that come round in packs looking for the food left outside for guard dogs. These huge birds will set off most PIRs, but they won't set ours off if it's set up correctly. That is why I say it is all about education and understanding that you cannot just take a basic indoor product, put it outside and expect it to work. Companies like ours who can design products specifically for certain environments come in to our own in such situations and we can be sure the technology will do exactly what it needs to.
Do you think there's a need for educating people that detection should start outside the premises? Actually that is a common tactic of mine when talking to people about security. So often the installation consists of PIRs, door/window contacts and CCTV in the property, but for all of
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that to activate, the intruder has to be in your house. I do believe that pushing the protection outside is actually more important than having it inside. Also if you only have internal security and you are in the house as well then you essentially have no detection running at the time. External detection is an early warning and a deterrent.
What are the latest developments in detection? Is battery-powered technology improving? Yes, the battery side of things has come on quite a lot in the last few years. We've been working on battery powered beams for a long time, but because of the technology we use, it's quite a power hungry system. We have now found a way to use our technology without compromising on quality, which involves the electronics and the way in which the signal is used. If you compromise on the quality of the beam, or the system that is being used, you are likely to encounter issues with sunlight, however the latest set of beams that we've produced, take that into account. Now we have the same technology that we have in our hardwired beams, but in a battery powered version. Furthermore, we've made them universal, so you have the battery capacity to run anybody's wireless door contact or wireless transmitter. We find this particularly advantageous because we don't want to tie installers down to having to use a particular panel or a system. In addition, people are recognising the fact that they might only want something temporary or not have to lay a power cable.
What will the technology trends be going forward? I think we can separate the security industry out into two very clearly defined markets, domestic and commercial. The domestic market is going more and more towards home automation and in five years, I would suggest that 70% of people will have security technology accessible through their smartphone apps. It’s the same with intelligent access control as it can now be controlled from your phone or laptop so we no longer have everything going to a monitoring room and dedicated to a security specialist in the building.
As far as the commercial/industrial side of the market is concerned, I think every school, council-run area, car park etc will end up with CCTV if it isn't already - and that's where you will find the need for proper verification. No monitoring employee can sit and look at 300 screens, it's impossible, so if the analytics becomes better and somebody breaks a detector beam, there is an instant alarm to react to.
When it comes to CCTV I would say this will be used more as a verification tool than an alarm tool. Everywhere our products are used, particularly when it comes to the more expensive products, it's to trigger CCTV. The industry isn't at a stage where you can solely rely on CCTV, unless the customer is paying a huge amount of money like £30K-£40K for a camera, with the right analytics to give them what would be perceived as faultless detection. When you consider that you could put a set of beams that will cover 200 metres for £300 and it is guaranteed do the job, that's when it puts it into perspective the role of CCTV. That is where I think detection technology will become the absolute norm in the next five years. “We've been working on battery powered beams for a long time, but because of the technology we use, it's quite a power hungry system. We have now found a way to use our technology without compromising on quality, which involves the electronics and the way in which the signal is used”
