SEN, August 2018

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A MESSAGE FROM THE FUTURE

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AUGUST 2018 ISSUE 401

lS eadan Security Electronics & Sprint Acquired By MML l I SCS Appoints James Macrae As National Sales Manager l Vin Lopes Leaves Inner Range CSD Group l Alarm Panels: Best of the Best l New Products at Security 2018 l Cyber Attacks on CCTV Systems l Charlestown Shopping Centre l Alarm monitoring: The Ties That Bind l News Report: Facial Reconstruction l The Interview: Dominic Campagna, ECS l Product Review: Bosch MIC IP Fusion 9000i

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editorial S E CU RI TY E L ECTR O NI C S & NETWO R KS AU G U ST 201 8 ISSUE 4 01

By John Adams

STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES & THREATS HILE it can be hard to see it moment-by-moment, the electronic security industry does have considerable strengths.

To begin with, the security spend is no longer seen as a grudge buy – it’s a necessity for all businesses. Part of the reason for this is changing technology which allows users to see return on sales. Those of us with long memories recall the 1990s when most users had little interest in electronic security. The idea of smart cities or smart homes was inconceivable, notwithstanding the technological challenges of the time.

Another strength apparent today is that smart solutions tend to revolve around security, even if they include multiple sub-systems. Modern security technologies lend themselves to being managed using the latest communications technologies – you could say this applies to any technology, but it doesn’t really. Some systems are vital to have access to remotely security and safety systems are at the top of the list.

Governments and providers are currently investing in infrastructure.

Sure, the NBN is a bit of a mess but network bandwidth and reliability are strong in metro areas and getting better all the time. The reason for this infrastructure investment is, to a large extent, consumer-driven. It’s not that everyone has full HD CCTV solutions, but that today we all increasingly consume ‘TV’ shows and even old movies via Netflix, Stan, Youtube and other streaming services. Who would have thought 15 years ago that the primary driver of investment in broadband networks would be the first series of Game of Thrones?

Our industry has weaknesses and faces threats, too. Being bigger attracts interest from

W

Who would have thought 15 years ago that the primary driver of investment in broadband networks would be the first series of Game of Thrones? even bigger corporate fish. We’re also starting to reap the rewards of decades of under-investment in training.

Proper training isn’t easy, and the training business has long been bound up in red tape and over-governed by special interest groups. That education itself has become a for-profit business has not helped our cause. Consider that university students pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for degrees, yet their exam papers are marked by people paid less than the basic wage.

Clearly, the best option for our kids is someone who cares about something other than profit. Trouble is, Casy Van Engelen can’t educate the electronic security industry all by himself.

Another weakness is runaway price falls in hardware. Obviously, prices do fall. But there is a point past which growth cannot be ‘bought’ out of mature markets without erosion of product quality. We’ve seen with established manufacturers that the first victim of falling profit is less R&D, and that means less clever technologies. It’s a double-edged sword because the more affordable exotic technologies like thermal imaging and IVA become, the more likely they are to be installed by users whose budgets are stretched thin by investment in…other exotic technologies.

Fortunately, here lies opportunity.

Many of the electronic security industry’s best technologies can serve more than one master and in doing so, can re-frame their case for investment.

Fortunately, too, some technologies demand a basic level of data input quality which means price can never be the only consideration. If you speak with any serious security manager of a large site, you’ll be left in no doubt of this operational imperative.

Consider that video analytics,

including license plate recognition and face recognition, simply won’t work consistently if it’s fed data from low quality or poorly installed camera systems. And sensors in challenging applications that constantly false alarm are going to get bounced, along with their installer’s reputation. When you think of opportunity, think laterally because what’s interesting as an observer is how many security markets there are today. There’s the home security and kind-of home automation market (smoke sensors, smart switches, flood sensors, et al).

There’s the corner shop surveillance system market, which seems to employ camera sensors made by a manufacturer from 2003 who has never heard of WDR or low light.

There’s the quite serious market, which is governed by performance unless it costs too much. And finally, there’s the serious market.

The serious market is not only about those big users prepared to install integrated everything (prisons and high value mining companies) it includes clever users who deploy high quality solutions tactically, knowing that not only are they fit for purpose but that what seems expensive is what delivers required performance and saves money over time. Think about thermal perimeters, video verification, fire detection cameras, clever open VMS, any input CMS solutions and better-than-ever biometric readers.

Think about things like Avigilon’s Appearance Search, which frees up hours of time for security staff every single day. Think more about what your clients’ needs business-wide and less about what you want to sell them. You’ll find there are growing opportunities out there. n

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is the leading security alarm panel. What are the criteria? Do you seek size, lateral integration or a beautiful customer interface? That depends on what your customer requires…

22: NEW PRODUCTS AT SECURITY 2018

10: SEADAN SECURITY ELECTRONICS & SPRINT ACQUIRED BY MML SEADAN Security Electronics & Sprint has been acquired by MML for an undisclosed sum, with ownership having transitioned on August 1.

10: ISCS APPOINTS JAMES MACRAE AS NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Access Control and Security Solutions distribution company ISCS has announced the appointment of James Macrae as its new national sales manager for Australia.

10: VIN LOPES LEAVES INNER RANGE CSD GROUP Co-founder of Inner Range & CSD, Vin Lopes, has retired from the Group after its acquisition

by Anixter last month, with a farewell ceremony conducted at the company’s Melbourne office recently.

18: ALARM PANELS: BEST OF THE BEST In 2018 it’s harder than ever to establish which

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AUG 18

Security 2018 Exhibition wrapped up in Melbourne late last month. As usual the big annual show offered an opportunity to see the latest products and technologies and get a feel for market direction. And just as usual, it was tough to see everything – even over a full 3 days.

32: CYBER ATTACKS ON CCTV SYSTEMS With cyber attacks on CCTV systems making news headlines on a weekly basis of late, there is a good deal of concern and uncertainty about how at risk these systems are, as well as why they are being attacked. In this article, we take a closer look at some of these attacks; how they are carried out and the likely motivations behind them.

36: CHARLESTOWN SHOPPING CENTRE Integrators Australia has installed 300 Axis cameras, Genetec Security Center VMS and Inner Range Integriti at the Charlestown Shopping Centre in Newcastle. With the surveillance system 99 per cent completed, the CCTV and access control solutions are in line for integration later this year.

48: FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION Advancement of artificial intelligence (AI)

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36 62

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regulars

technology will bring about unprecedented opportunities, as well as new responsibilities, writes Jordan Cullis of Milestone Systems.

50: DOMINIC CAMPAGNA, ECS Dominic Campagna has joined integrator ECS in the role of director with the remit of growing the stature of the business locally and regionally. A consultative leader, Campagna rates the keys to success as being the ability to listen and ensure the business delivers the bespoke needs of others.

54: FUSION REACTION

PP 100001158

A MESSAGE FROM THE FUTURE

AUGUST 2018 ISSUE 401

l Seadan Security Electronics & Sprint Acquired By MML l ISCS Appoints James Macrae As National Sales Manager l Vin Lopes Leaves Inner Range CSD Group l Alarm Panels: Best of the Best l New Products at Security 2018 l Cyber Attacks on CCTV Systems l Charlestown Shopping Centre l Alarm monitoring: The Ties That Bind l News Report: Facial Reconstruction l The Interview: Dominic Campagna, ECS l Product Review: Bosch MIC IP Fusion 9000i

Latest business, product and technical news from Australia and around the world.

46: MONITORING Alarm monitoring makes a fascinating bellwether for the evolution of technology in the electronic security industry and never more so than now. If the industry has a technological bleeding edge, it’s in the place communications, management and sensing technologies meet.

62: EDITOR’S CHOICE

Bosch MIC IP Fusion 9000i is another spectacular camera from Bosch. It combines all the power of the MIC IP 7000i optical PTZ with an integrated thermal camera. But what makes it special is that the 9000i synthesizes these camera inputs using metadata, making the transition between thermal and optical viewing operationally seamless and supporting one technology with the other.

Publisher Bridge Publishing Aust. Pty Ltd ABN 11 083 704 858 PO Box 237 Darlinghurst NSW 1300 tel 61 2 9280 4425 fax 61 2 9280 4428 email info@bridge publishing.com.au

10: NEWS

What’s new from our manufacturers.

64: HELPDESK Our team of electronic security experts answers your tough technical questions.

Editor John Adams Contributors Jordan Cullis Simon Pollak Advertising Manager Monique Keatinge Customer Service Annette Mathews tel 61 2 9280 4425 annette@bridge publishing.com.au

Design Tania Simanowsky e: taniasdesign@ optusnet.com.au

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BGW Technologies Grows 50 Per Cent, Seeks More Staff p.12 Seadan To Distribute Bosch Security Intrusion Products In Australia p.14 Aviation Security Identity Cards (ASICs) Details Hacked p.16

NEWS IN BRIEF AUGUST 2018

COMPILED BY JOHN ADAMS

SEADAN SECURITY ELECTRONICS & SPRINT ACQUIRED

BY MML

ISCS APPOINTS JAMES MACRAE AS NATIONAL SALES MANAGER

n SEADAN Security Electronics & Sprint has been acquired by MML for an undisclosed sum, with ownership having transitioned on August 1.

According to Seadan Security Electronics & Sprint’s co-managing director, Trevor Harris, there will be no change to the business in the wake of the acquisition, with all branches, personnel, distribution and account arrangements remaining the same.

“Ian (Harris) and I have a contract to remain with the business for a further 2 years to assist with the transition – we certainly see opportunities in this acquisition for MML and for the Seadan Security Electronics & Sprint team.”

Metal Manufactures Limited was founded in New South Wales

n ACCESS Control and Security Solutions distribution company ISCS has announced the appointment of James Macrae as its new national sales manager for Australia.

Macrae is an accomplished business leader with more than 25 years’ experience in the electronic security industry.

Managing director at ARA Products for the ARA Group, Stuart Harmer, says Macrae will bring a wealth of experience from Vlado Damjanovski both a sales and strategy perspective.

“James has decades of experience spanning sales, marketing, operations, people management and business strategy in the security industry,” Harmer said. “He will be a

in 1916 and from small beginnings at Port Kembla has developed into a diversified business.

MML’s subsidiaries include MM Electrical Merchandising, a large trade wholesale distribution business in Australia, with 1600 staff, 250 outlets and a turnover over $A1.4 billion. The MMEM Group trades under the business names of MM Electrical, AWM Electrical, TLE Electrical, D&W Electrical and Haymans Electrical.

Harris said he had mixed feelings about the acquisition.

“I’m happy and I’m sad,” he said. “The business has been our baby for 31 years but now it’s time for Seadan Security Electronics & Sprint to go in another direction. We have great relationships

Trevor Harris

with suppliers, other distributors, customers and we have many happy memories.”

Meanwhile, co-MD Ian Harris said he was looking forward to the transition.

“The local MML team is a great bunch of people,” he said. “This acquisition will open up many opportunities for both businesses.”

VIN LOPES LEAVES INNER RANGE CSD GROUP n CO-FOUNDER of Inner Range and CSD, Vin Lopes has retired from the Group after its acquisition by Anixter last month, with a farewell ceremony conducted at the company’s Melbourne office recently.

Lopes and Doug Fraser set up Inner Range in 1988 and the Concept 2000 alarm and access control panel was released to Vin Lopes

market in 1989, quickly establishing itself as arguably the most popular controller of its type ever manufactured in Australia.

Production of the Concept 2000 continued for 21 years.

Over the 3 decades, Lopes and the Inner Range team released Concept 3000, Concept 4000, as well as software solutions and communications modules.

CSD was established as an exclusive distributor for Inner Range and other products in 2008 and Inner Range Integriti hit the market in 2012, Inception and Infinity Class 5 arrived in 2016 and there’s been much more besides.

Thanks to the success of the Inner Range product and clever management of CSD by the time of the acquisition, Inner Range

terrific asset to ISCS and the ARA Group.”

Prior to his appointment at ISCS, Macrae was the national sales manager at Optical Solutions Australia. He also worked for more than 20 years for Hills Limited, most recently as general manager – SMB (Australia).

James Macrae

AXIS P3717-PLE WINS BEST PRODUCT AWARD AT SECURITY 2018

CSD Group was the second largest distributor of electronic security solutions in Australia.

It’s difficult to encapsulate the achievements of an individual over decades.

Lopes brought to market a combination of personal integrity, business sense, people skill, technical know-how and a capacity for synthesis not seen before and unlikely to be

LOPES BROUGHT TO MARKET A COMBINATION OF PERSONAL INTEGRITY, BUSINESS SENSE, PEOPLE SKILL, TECHNICAL KNOWHOW AND A CAPACITY FOR SYNTHESIS NOT SEEN BEFORE AND UNLIKELY TO BE SEEN AGAIN.

n SECURITY 2018 Exhibition & Conference judges have nominated the AXIS P3717-PLE as best new product of the show, which finished last month at the MCEC in Melbourne.

The P3717-PLE is an 8-megapixel camera with 4 varifocal lenses, enabling a 360-degree angle of view to give details in multiple directions. The camera

has 360 degrees of IR illumination, Forensic WDR, as well as Lightfinder and Zipstream.

Avigilon took out second prize in the Best Product Category, while Perimeter Security was judged third.

Meanwhile, the best stand award over 36sqm was won by Dahua and the best shell scheme award went to Wholesale ID.

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NEWS AUGUST 2018

PRISON PRECINCT EXPANSION PROJECT – SECURITY SYSTEMS REQUIRED n VICTORIA’S Dept. of Justice & Regulation has embarked on a $A173 million expansion project, the core of which will be a new maximumsecurity prison at the Geelong Prison Precinct, which includes Barwon Prison and Marngoneet Correctional Centre.

Building within the existing Prison Precinct has been identified as a good option due to

HILLS APPOINTS ROGER EDGAR AS HEAD OF SECURITY, SURVEILLANCE, IT AND ATV BUSINESS

GAR BRINGS OVER YEARS OF SALES D MANAGEMENT PERIENCE TO THE LE, HAVING HELD NIOR POSITIONS THE WHOLESALE ECTRICAL STRIBUTION SECTOR AUSTRALIA, NEW ALAND AND USA.

n HILLS has announced the appointment of Roger Edgar as head of sales, security, surveillance, IT and ATV across Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).

Based in Sydney, Edgar will be responsible for leading Hills’ security, surveillance, IT, antenna and communication sales teams, and delivering on sales priorities across the region. He is also tasked with improving the customer experience across Hills’ network of branches, with a focus on end to end service delivery.

Edgar brings over 30 years of sales and management experience to the role, having held

Roger Edgar

senior positions in the wholesale electrical distribution sector in Australia, New Zealand and USA. He joins Hills after 3-and-a-half years as general manager for CNW Electrical NSW/VIC/ TAS and prior to that, his distribution expertise was developed through senior management roles with Rexel in New Zealand the USA and Australia.

CEO and managing director, David Lenz, said that Edgar’s appointment was key to Hills’ strategy to increase growth in its SMB business across ANZ. “Roger will be play a key role as we look to increase the accessibility

of Hills’ offering across the region and continue to accelerate our sales momentum with our key brands,” Lenz said.

“He brings extensive industry expertise and proven leadership abilities to Hills and will be invaluable as we build our sales team across ANZ.” Edgar said he was excited to join Hills as it continues its evolution.

“I want to build a team that can operate in an agile way and think ‘customer first’, because delivering ongoing benefits to the customer and seeing the differences you make is highly rewarding and motivating for everyone,” he said.

EDGAR BRINGS OVER 30 YEARS OF SALES AND MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE TO THE ROLE, HAVING HELD SENIOR POSITIONS IN THE WHOLESALE ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION SECTOR IN AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND USA.

existing infrastructure such as road and public transport links and the proximity to local courts.

With significant recent population growth, the Western Victoria region is a location capable of providing for a workforce to build and service the new prison facility.

The development will require a full range of building works, including electronic security

solutions, fences, gates and management solutions.

Project scope includes: • Accommodation for at least 700 prisoners • Capacity for expansion of the prison population • Creation of more than 650 ongoing jobs This tender has a long lead time – it closes on December 31, 2020.

BGW TECHNOLOGIES GROWS 50 PER CENT, SEEKS MORE STAFF

Rob Meachem

n ACCORDING to BGW Technologies Rob Meachem, the company has had another strong growth year underpinned by more than 50 per cent growth in customer activity over the past 12 months.

“The growth is evidenced in our adding 8 new roles over the past 12 months, which is a 40 per cent increase in BGWT people,” Meachem said. “Clearly, the team is doing something right as it continues to carve out market share in the higher end Tier 1 space. We are seeing terrific demand for our high-level technical people’s knowledge and Tier 1 brands such as Panasonic, Milestone, Pelco, DellEMC, DSC, S2 Security, Juniper and more.

“What’s even more exciting is we need still more quality people,” he said. “We are forecasting taking on another 6 team members in the year ahead and we

have current needs for 4 key staff immediately, to cover roles in technical sales engineering, business development and engineering services.

“I consider myself very lucky to have so many quality people in our team, and as a familyowned Aussie company, we value our people and the contribution they are making every day.”

According to Meachem, BGWT’s product road maps for all suppliers look bright.

“A prime example of this is in the Intrusion and Connected Home Division within our business,” he said. “We will soon release the Qolsys IQ 2 panel and the DSC IoTega solution was on display at Security 2018 last month. We really do expect quantum growth over the next 12 months and we think this product and customer segment has never been so exciting.”

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NEWS AUGUST 2018

SEADAN TO DISTRIBUTE BOSCH SECURITY INTRUSION PRODUCTS IN AUSTRALIA n BOSCH reports that as of 11 July 2018 Seadan Security Electronics and Sprint will be distributing the Bosch Security Intrusion portfolio, including the popular Solution Series panels, along with the G Series integrated security solution.

WE ARE EXTREMELY EXCITED ABOUT THIS NEW MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL PARTNERSHIP WITH ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST SUCCESSFUL AND HIGHLY REGARDED SUPPLIERS OF SECURITY SOLUTIONS.

This strategic alliance means Bosch Intrusion products will now be available to Seadan’s national network of integrators and contractors.

With offices located in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, and a focus on technical competence and service, Seadan is well-resourced to provide support for the complete Bosch Intrusion panel range. All Seadan staff will complete a comprehensive training program together with Bosch representatives, and Bosch intrusion panels featured on Seadan’s stand at Security 2018 in Melbourne recently.

“We are extremely excited

about this new mutually beneficial partnership with one of the world’s most successful and highly regarded suppliers of security solutions,” said Ian Harris of Seadan Security & Electronics. “This marks an entirely new chapter in our company’s quest of becoming one of Australia’s most successful total security solutions providers.”

“Bosch is well known for our commitment to excellent service and support and by entering into partnership with a strategic electronic security distributor like Seadan, we will continue to provide the quality products and services that people expect when they buy

Ian Harris

Bosch.

“This partnership is in line with our strategy to make our products available through more

channels, and our team is excited by the possibilities. We look forward to a prosperous long-term relationship.”

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NEWS AUGUST 2018

TASMANIAN DEPARTMENT OF PREMIER AND CABINET SEEKS SECURITY & CCTV SYSTEMS FOR 60 SITES n TASMANIA’S Department of Premier and Cabinet has gone to tender seeking security and CCTV systems. Provision of security services for the Department of Premier and Cabinet property holdings, comprising approximately 60 sites state-wide, including Service Tasmania retail shopfronts and

electorate offices.

Services sought include alarm monitoring and response, along with equipment supply, installation and maintenance.

Interested parties must also be capable of providing security auditing and reporting services, including maintaining records of installed equipment at

each site.

The Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPAC) is the central agency of the Tasmanian State Government. The Department provides a broad range of services to Cabinet, other members of Parliament, government agencies and the community. The tender closes on July 24.

AVIATION SECURITY IDENTITY CARDS (ASICS) DETAILS HACKED n AVIATION Security Identity Cards (ASICs) designed to manage authorisation for sterile zone access at Australian airports may have been the subject of a major security hack.

Aviation ID Australia, which services regional and rural airports, sent emails to hundreds of ASICS applicants recently advising them that their ASIC application information may have been compromised.

Darren Banks

“Aviation ID Australia… advise that a localised portion of our website has been intentionally accessed by an unauthorised entity,” Aviation ID Australia managing director Ian Barker said.

“Unfortunately, we cannot confirm exactly what information has been accessed, however, personal information that may have been breached includes name, street address, birth certificate

number, drivers licence number, Medicare card number and ASIC number.”

Meanwhile, the Australian Federal Police are investigating.

“The AFP can confirm it is investigating a potential breach of the Aviation ID Australia website,” an AFP spokeswoman told the ABC. “While the investigation remains ongoing, it is not appropriate to provide further details.”

A&S SECURITY 50 RANKINGS CONFIRM GROWING CHINESE MARKET SHARE

n A&S Security 50, which ranks companies according to sales revenues, shows Chinese companies have a growing presence in the electronic security market.

Hikvision was Number 1 with sales of $US4.6 billion, up 29.2 per cent from $3.6 billion the year before. Bosch was Number 2, Dahua was Number 3 with revenues of $US2 billion, with ASSA ABLOY, Axis Communications, FLIR Systems, Johnson Controls/Tyco Security Products, Hanwha Techwin, Allegion and Aiphone rounding out the top 10.

Avigilon was 12, Nedap was 14, Vivotek was 16, Milestone was 20, Optex was 21, Mobotix was 25, TVT, which is distributed

locally by CSM was 27 on the list. Fermax was 28, GeoVision was 32, Geutebruck was 35, IndigoVision was 38, EverFocus was 41.

According to A&S, the companies that registered double-digit growth for the period included Hikvision, Dahua, Avigilon, Suprema, Milestone Systems, VIVOTEK, Fermax and Axis Communications.

HIKVISION WA 1 WITH SALES BILLION, UP 2 CENT FROM $3 THE YEAR BEF BOSCH WAS N DAHUA WAS N WITH REVENU BILLION

HIKVISION WAS NUMBER 1 WITH SALES OF US$4.6 BILLION, UP 29.2 PER CENT FROM $3.6 BILLION THE YEAR BEFORE. BOSCH WAS NUMBER 2, DAHUA WAS NUMBER 3 WITH REVENUES OF $US2 BILLION...

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● Special report

Alarms

ALARM PANELS: BEST OF THE BEST In 2018 it’s harder than ever to establish which is the leading security alarm panel.

What are the criteria? Do you seek size, lateral integration or a beautiful customer interface? That depends on what your customer requires…

CCORDING to Stanley El Komala, senior product manager, intrusion at BGWT, the best alarm panel is the panel that’s best for a customer’s application.

“Depending on the customer’s needs we have various products for each category of customers, for instance, residential, retail and commercial,” El Komala explains. “Matching the products to the customer type is important based around how the product will be used.

“For example, in retail and commercial segments, interaction with a security system will be far less than in the residential segment and as such, end user features for residential like mobile apps, home automation control, end user interface and selfmonitoring options are important. Where in retail and commercial ease of use, scalability, and integration to other products are the important factors.

“In my opinion, DSC PowerSeries NEO is our top of the range alarm panel for the commercial segment and can accommodate the residential and retail segments brilliantly,” El Komala says. “Meanwhile, in the residential and retail segments, with the mobile apps, home automation, end user interface (touchscreen, mobile apps, etc) and self-monitoring, Qolsys IQ Panel 2 and DSC iotega are best suited to our customer’s requirements.

“Within the commercial segment; DSC Power Series NEO offers hybrid systems (hardwired and wireless), 128 zones with PowerG technology, PSTN, 3G, Ethernet, dual path communicators plus a cloud backend with Alarm.com for home automation. It also offers the integration with other products, from access control and video platforms with an SDK.” El Komala says that in the residential and retail segments the Qolsys IQ Panel 2 is really making waves.

“Qolsys IQ Panel 2 includes 7-inch touchscreen, 128 wireless zones, dual path connectivity, Bluetooth disarming, Z-Wave Plus, built-in glassbreak, picture snapshot for disarming, on-board video tutorials for

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end user, RF 433MHz (soon to be release with Power-G technology), plus cloud backend with Alarm.com for home automation. The DSC iotega includes a keypad (with optional wire-free arming keypad or Wi-Fi 7-inch touchscreen keypad), PowerG wireless technology, 128 wireless zones, dual path connectivity, Z-Wave Plus, and cloud backend with SecureNet and soon to be released with Alarm.com.”

El Komala says the capabilities that set BGWT’s offerings apart from the competition are significant.

“With the DSC PowerSeries NEO the undisputed capability that sets it apart from the competitors is the wireless PowerG technology,” he says. “This includes FHSS (Frequency Hoping Spread Spectrum), full 2-way synchronized TDMA (time division multiple access) communication that does short transmission that extends the battery life of PowerG devices to beyond 5 years, secured wireless communication with 128-bit AES (advanced encryption standard) encryption, and a line of sight communication range of 2KM. “Meanwhile, with the Qolsys IQ Panel 2 it is the integrated form factor and features such as 7-inch touchscreen, dual path connectivity, Bluetooth disarming, Z-Wave Plus, built-in glassbreak sensor, picture snapshot for disarming, on-board video tutorials for end user). With the DSC iotega it is similar to the Qolsys IQ Panel 2, with the added benefit of PowerG wireless technology for more complex wireless deployment.”

End users are not the only ones who value featurerich alarm systems. El Komala believes that for their

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BY J O H N A D A M S

installers the most important features of an alarm panel are those that make the job easier.

“Installers want a solution that’s easy to install and fast to programme, easy to explain to end users, they want scalability and value a hybrid system (either hardwired or wireless),” he says. “Increasingly, they want a large selection of optional extras - keypads, wireless devices, communicators, home automation devices, video verification, etc – so they can meet the changing needs of customers.”

When it comes to alarm monitoring, what are the primary paths, El Komala says that due to the introduction of NBN to Australia, the use of PSTN is being phased out in favour of 3G/4G or Ethernet migration paths. He argues that within 5 years 70 per cent of alarms will be communicating to monitoring centres using 4G as the primary path.

A core element of modern alarm panels is their ability to be managed using apps but it’s hard to know just how many users address their security solutions in this way.

According to Robert Meachem, most alarm panels BGWT sells today are sold with mobile apps – he puts the figure at around 90 per cent.

“Their most important functionality is the ability to be able to do everything with a single mobile app,” Meachem explains. “Our experience tells us that end users want the capability to control armed away, armed stay, disarming, zones status, alarm push notifications, view and interact with video doorbell, view the picture snapshot from visual image verification, view video, control lights, control garage

DSC POWERSERIES NEO IS OUR TOP OF THE RANGE ALARM PANEL FOR THE COMMERCIAL SEGMENT AND CAN ACCOMMODATE THE RESIDENTIAL AND RETAIL SEGMENTS BRILLIANTLY.

doors, control thermostats, control digital door locks, control water irrigation/sprinklers.”

How important is video verification?

“We think that the end users will expect their alarm panel to have the ability to do video verification,” Meachem says. “Whether this is by alarm monitoring stations or direct to their mobile app, we think end user demands for video verification will be significant in the years ahead. Customers are hungry for more information and expect more from their alarm systems.”

What is the future of the traditional alarm system – is it fair to say that in the future all alarm systems will be more or less home automation systems with cloud back-ends and mobile app management?

“We believe that the traditional alarm and basic home automation systems are set to merge into a connected and interactive device,” Meachem explains. “The value of bringing these products together into one platform is what end users would expect, and because these features give the end user more control, the value proposition of this one platform will generate far more demand than the traditional alarm system only. That’s why we are so excited about our Qolsys IQ Panel 2 and DSC iotega platforms.”

For LSC’s David Lorimer, the top of the range alarm panel X864 from Italian manufacturer, AMC is the benchmark.

“The AMC X864 is a flexible solution offering a hybrid alarm panel (wired and wireless) that can be configured for 8–64 wired or wireless zones (using the AMC EXPR900 wireless expander modules), has 5 outputs onboard (expandable to 17 using expanders and keypads), can have 8 keypads connected, 8 Areas, 4 Groups, stores 1000 event logs and is compatible with the AMC Manager App that is available for iOS and Android platforms,” he says.

“LSC Security Supplies prides itself on bringing products to Australian shores that meet the unique needs of installer and end-user. The flexibility of AMC’s entire range was one of the reasons we decided to partner with the company as their exclusive distributor for Australian and New Zealand regions.

The AMC X864 is a perfect example of this. An alarm system must be able to expand and the X864 has the capacity for 64 wired or wireless zones, meaning multiple connection possibilities.”

When it comes to the percentage of alarm panels LSC sells that include app management, Lorimer says it’s a lot.

“The majority of our AMC alarm panels are supplied with either an IP module or 3G module to allow connection to the AMC cloud to provide full app functionality,” he explains. “The smartphone is, and will continue to be, a big part of everyone’s day to day activities. It follows that end users not only want, but expect the ability to control and view their alarm system through an app.

“The AMC Manager App (available for iOS and Android) gives users a quick and easy overview

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Alarms

of their alarm system on a single screen. The app features a map function that can be used to see a visual representation of the alarm system using supplied floor plan templates or by uploading your own custom layout – I think the app is the thing that sets this solution apart – it’s fantastic.”

While Lorimer agrees video verification is important, he argues it’s not the most important feature of current alarm panels.

“Video verification is one of those nice to have features, but it is unlikely to be a deal breaker for the majority of end users,” he explains. “Immediate notification of an intruder is generally a higher priority for most end users. AMC is one step ahead of the rest of the game when it comes to real-time monitoring and notification. Not only does the AMC Manager App provide real-time notifications of an event, but the map function means an end-user can quickly identify the location of any devices that have detected motion.”

Lorimer is clear on what he thinks the most important features of an alarm panel are for installers.

“Programming of the panel would have to be at the top of the list,” he says. “Installers don’t want to be burdened with complicated programming menus.

AMC offers easy to navigate text-based menus on a variety of different displays. This means that alarm installers who are new to AMC can work their way through easy to understand menu options and deploy and commission a system easily and cost effectively.

Comprehensive technical support for all AMC products is available through LSC Security Supplies.

Flexibility of the system would also be on the list. The alarm system must be easily added to, whether it is using wired or wireless devices and peripherals. All AMC panels offer the flexibility of adding 64 wireless devices.”

What is the future of the traditional alarm system, according to Lorimer?

“I think there will always be a place in the market for the traditional alarm system, that is, a system designed only to reliably and affordably detect and report intrusion,” he explains. “What enhancements are developed and added to these traditional platforms will predominantly be driven by the market’s wants and needs.

“If the future is alarm, home automation, video etc, all within the one system, the challenge will

be bringing these new enhancements together with the traditional alarm system to create a seamless user experience. In that case, AMC’s cloud and app foundation means that if the market dictates more user enhancements, AMC will be able to bring these into its existing user interface to enhance the user experience even more.”

Over at Ness, Peter Mohan says the Ness M1 Controller holds the position as the company’s most capable platform and is constantly evolving to incorporate emerging technologies.

“M1 is well known for its key features of expandability, flexibility in operation either in a single small installation, or in to 200-zone enterprise projects,” Mohan says. “Ness M1 is unique in its wide-ranging interconnectivity abilities from serial interfacing, to ventures with industry leaders such as C-BUS to IP integration with full internet capabilities.

“On that topic, a recent integration now gives M1 native Z-WAVE control with the addition to the range of the M1 Z-WAVE GATEWAY. Also upcoming is the gamechanging new M1 AUTOMATION BRIDGE which allows your M1 and Z-WAVE devices to be voice controlled via the Amazon Echo or Google Home voice assistants.

All I can say is “Beam me up Scotty, the future is here, indeed!”

What percentage of alarm panels do you sell that include app management?

“Everybody expects an app these days, so most Ness panel products have app management, including M1 of course, as well as D8x D16x and our Smartliving solution,” he says.

In Mohan’s opinion, the primary alarm communication paths have definitely changed.

“Since PSTN has fallen by the wayside, cellular transmission is dominating panels sales at all levels,” he says. “We see this shift to cellular as having been necessitated by NBN’s lack of analogue ports, and especially the absence of battery backup in the client terminal. What this means is that should premises’ power fail, a customer can be left without a working phone or a path back to base. That’s why cellularenabled solutions are our strongest growing product group.”

Mohan agrees with the others that ease of installation is number one for techs.

“One of the biggest expenses for installation companies is the cost of labour,” he says. “Nobody wants to pay for a technician to fumble around setting up and programming a system with a clumsy or hard to understand GUI. Which is why the familiar Ness programming philosophy is popular with users. It’s designed by Aussies for Aussie users and has worked well for the last 46 years.”

What about the future – will all alarm systems be more or less home automation systems with cloud back-ends with mobile app management?

“Since Ness Mezzo fits the description exactly of a ‘security and home automation system with cloud back-end and mobile app management’, at Ness we tend to agree that’s where we’re heading!” Mohan laughs. n

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Security 2018

A MESSAGE FROM THE FUTURE Security 2018 Exhibition wrapped up in Melbourne late last month. As usual Australia’s big annual show gave security professionals the opportunity to see the latest products and technologies, and to get something of a feel for market direction.

And just as usual, it was tough to see everything – even over a full 3 days.

CAME away from Security 2018 Exhibition with a number of distinct impressions – my primary feeling was that much of the development currently going on in the electronic security market is directed squarely at layers of the user interface. Every solution seemed slicker this year somehow, with more technical clunkiness tucked away under a highly polished hood. We’ve been moving in this direction for a while and we’ve taken a distinct jump towards intuitiveness over the last 12 months. It remains true that inside many control panels there’s plenty in the way of circuit boards, but you expect that with distributed architecture systems - not every piece of functionality can or should be appointed to firmware.

While manufacturers are prying additional functions out of controllers and presenting them

I

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BY J O H N A D A M S

EVERY SOLUTION SEEMED SLICKER THIS YEAR SOMEHOW, WITH MORE TECHNICAL CLUNKINESS TUCKED AWAY UNDER A HIGHLY POLISHED HOOD.

in thoughtful and useful ways, there was more to the sense of change than spit and polish. Much of the technology on display at Security 2018 was utterly solutions-based and the talk around the stands had the same pointed focus. Manufacturers and distributors in the electronic security industry have a pretty good understanding of client needs and they really put that out there in 2018. Whether you’re talking about icon-based vector mapping, smart automated PA solutions, face recognition glasses, business management solutions for retail, multifarious apps, clever video management systems, complex integration capabilities, cameras designed not by form factor but for clear operational tasks – all this clusters around the user.

Something else that was very noticeable at the show was the networked nature of pretty much everything. There was plenty of support gear for infrastructure on the stands, but it went deeper

still. The big show attracts exhibitors across what electronic security people think of as physical security - locks, turnstiles, gates, rising barriers. In almost every case these stands had some sort of Wi-Fi hub and cloud backend. Powered fencing solutions were addressed via software – not basic management solutions, either, but excellent ones with vibrant mapping. We saw powerful and networkable IP intercoms, as well as app-based management applied to stand alone solutions that have been managed manually since keyways were first invented. On the Lock-It stand in one corner of the hall was an app-based key management solution – locally built and very well done, offering easy tracking of keys associated with keyholders verified by authentication. Shooting from the hip, I felt quite early that Security 2018’s CCTV trend was multi-head cameras – the reason they’re popular apparently, is that you get 4 camera views for the installation cost of one camera.

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MANUFACTURERS IN A MATURE AND COMPETITIVE MARKET CAN’T JUST MAKE WHAT THEY LIKE AND TELL THE CUSTOMER TO LUMP IT.

There was a sub-group of companies – technology specialists like FLIR – and they, too, had plenty to offer. Products ranged from the most serious defence surveillance systems to a compact dome called Saros in the case of FLIR, which is a combination thermal/optical camera with a ton of functionality. When I first saw pictures of Saros and read the thermal spec, I could not help thinking it was a low-cost build. I should have known better.

It was FLIR through and through, with a cast alloy housing and the company’s ingrained ruggedness.

Something else that was evident at the show – from big makers and small – was what seems like lock-step competition. A couple of manufacturers even admitted as I toured their stands that this product here competed directly with that product from the opposition just over there (pointing) and this product here competed with that one over there. There’s really nothing unexpected about this, of course. You just can’t imagine such competition to unfold in the months between annual trade shows.

There were more new things at Security 2018 than in previous years, in my opinion, and it’s hard to not to see this diversity of form as having a Darwinian undertone. Manufacturers in a mature

Like Noah’s Ark, there were some big stands at the show with all the gear aboard. Going through my product images at 3am one morning I started getting tendonitis in my forearm clicking on products from the likes of Inner Range CSD Group, Uniview, Axis, Hikvision and especially Dahua. The depth of the product spread with some manufacturers is mindblowing. Their technology is so diverse it makes me wonder how the sales teams can keep up with so much change from year to year. Yet on all these stands, the tech was decidedly solutions-focused and perhaps in some ways, that’s the answer to my question. When you’re big enough to be globally market-facing, you can make special solutions for just about everyone.

The biggest manufacturers now have everything, from thermal to explosion-proof cameras, long range cameras, 180-degree cameras, 360-degree cameras, mobile cameras and NVRs, big NVRs, drones, people counters, parking management systems, face recognition solutions, servers, wireless comms, access control panels and readers, intercoms – it just goes on and on and on, and the engineering effort behind all this is astonishing. And they don’t only have LPR and FR software, they’ve got dedicated cameras for these challenging applications. It’s impossible not to acknowledge that some of these companies have only just gotten started on segments of the market which are likely to look different when they are through.

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THE DEPTH OF THE PRODUCT SPREAD WITH SOME MANUFACTURERS IS MINDBLOWING. THEIR TECHNOLOGY IS SO DIVERSE IT MAKES ME WONDER HOW THE SALES TEAMS CAN KEEP UP WITH SO MUCH CHANGE FROM YEAR TO YEAR. and competitive market can’t just make what they like and tell the customer to lump it. They must make something that delivers the customer an unparalleled solution with a range of features so hyperbolic it can’t be ignored. That observation sounds a little trite, but it’s not meant to be. For a product to survive in today’s electronic security market it must be so affordable for a given performance that purchasing it is a no-brainer, or it must be simply brilliant. To my mind there was more of the latter than the former at Security 2018.

Security 2018 Exhibition & Conference judges nominated the AXIS P3717-PLE as best new product of the show. The P3717-PLE is an

8-megapixel camera with 4 varifocal lenses, enabling a 360-degree angle of view to give details in multiple directions. The camera has 360 degrees of IR illumination, Forensic WDR, as well as Lightfinder and Zipstream. Meanwhile, Avigilon took out second prize in the Best Product Category for Appearance Search, a deep learning artificial intelligence (AI) search engine for video. It sorts through hours of video with ease, to quickly locate a specific person or vehicle of interest across an entire site.

Perimeter Security took out third place with its Intrepid Model 336-POE, a volumetric IPbased perimeter detection sensor for fence lines, open areas, gates, entryways, walls and rooftop applications. Combining Southwest Microwave’s field-proven detection performance with advanced embedded digital signal processing to discriminate between intrusion attempts and environmental disturbances, Model 336-POE mitigates risk of site compromise while preventing nuisance alarms.

PRODUCTS WE LIKED AT SECURITY 2018 Before we start, these observations only apply to what I felt I saw long enough to make sensible judgements of but there are other biases at work here, judging from the number of circuit board images I took at the show. Some of the stuff I’m going to mention here is beta and some was on stands but is still a bit hush-hush so if something seems opaque, it’s deliberate.

Gallagher showed the H-Bus controller, as well as lockers managed by smart phone authentication – this is a growing market segment. The kiwi access control manufacturer also unveiled a beta version of the vector mapping it’s working on for Gallagher

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Command Centre management software. It’s unfinished but the fundamentals look good – simple yet incorporating all the core elements of the system – and in my quick demo it ran well with no latency and easy icon-based drill-down into large sites. Something else I had not seen from Gallagher was the Z20 disturbance sensor.

Across the way was NoahFace, which someone whose opinion I respected told me to get a look at – I listened in to some one else’s demo but the tech – which is app-based - sounds good and it’s local, too.

Like all good things, NoahFace began with coffee – in this case the creation of a system that would allow a café owner to address regulars by name while highlighting their orders. The beta version worked so well that the developers launched Noah Facial Recognition. The team was showing the app on an iPad – it can handle time and attendance, but the big thing is the ability to open doors without access cards and from what I could see, the system was working well at managing one of the toughest gigs in access control and doing it using self-carried smart devices.

On the ISCS stand I saw Bluevision, an active Bluetooth-based IoT solution bought by HID in 2016. It was a good buy. Bluevision is a clever ecosystem that offers little bits of functional monitoring and analysis you suddenly realise you really need, like prox-based location and condition monitoring, all supported by cloud. The way to think with Bluevision is that it’s about making your business more efficient, safer, more secure, less vulnerable, more resilient and doing it in a lateral way on any supporting hardware with profoundly detailed analytics. Picking over the spec you suddenly realise that IoT really is a thing after all – a bloody good thing. I also took a squizz at the ICT

ProtegeGX with integrated video and mapping. It’s a nice front end, simple and refined. ISCS was also showing Nedap, I took a look at the MACE MM QR, MACE SMART and uPASS readers – the first is QR and NFC, the second NFC and the third is 900MHz. Axis Communications was showing off a swag of gear I’ve not seen before. Being a networking company, Axis has always had a tendency to veer towards networked solutions – think access control, intercoms, readers, keypads. I saw audio speakers, horn speakers, IR arrays, the 2N by Axis range of intercoms, which on its own is serious stuff. I liked the 2N Touch and 2N Talk, as well as Verso. It’s impossible not to warm to 2N’s robust metal external intercoms. Along with all this gear, Axis was also showing loads of great cameras in

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many form factors. Some are familiar, others not so much.

Axis won product of the year for the P3717 360-degree unit – I did not get a demo of this camera system at the show but given the company pioneered multi-head 360-degree camera systems, it’s likely to be solid. Something I did like the look of was the bi-spectral Q8742 optical and thermal camera. I especially liked the stainless corner camera, the Q8414-LVS. While I was admiring the lovely build quality I noticed the nicely-balanced 105-degree view delivered by its 720p camera. Good depth of field from the camera, and solid specs – IP66 and IK+, NEMA 4X and an invisible integrated 940nm IR array.

FLIR was showing Quasar 4X2K Panoramic with a 5th imager for good measure, Saros, which

has a pair of thermal imagers and a 1080p or 4K camera, along with analytics, Ranger R3 for longer range applications, the FC Series of bullets and the PT Series HD. I enjoyed a demo of the Turing Video Nimbo, being shown by ACES. It’s a Segway platform that can carry a security officer at nearly 20kmph, or roll around on its own, charging itself between patrols and issuing warnings to miscreants and recording video.

Nimbo is no ED-209 but perhaps that’s the point.

It’s unlikely an enforcement droid the size of the 209 could be anything but nuclear powered, anyway.

Something I enjoyed was a demo of the propylene glycol-based Bandit security fog

SECURITY 2018 EXHIBITION & CONFERENCE JUDGES NOMINATED THE AXIS P3717PLE AS BEST NEW PRODUCT OF THE SHOW...

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Security 2018

generator. These solutions have been around in one form or another for some time, but this was my first demo and it was instructive. Within about 10 seconds of deployment, Bandit had filled a 6m x 4m space with a vapour so thick no one could see their hand in front of their face. My Nikon was set to continuous low and the shutter slapped away about 5 times before the uniformity of the scene saw it lose the ability to autofocus. There are applications in which a solution like Bandit would be just the thing, though you’d need careful procedures around using it because it really works.

The Davantis Daview Mini impressed at Security 2018. It’s a video analytics system for small applications that allows them to push day/ night camera alarm events to a CMS for remote monitoring. For most residential or SMEs remote video verification is a bit proprietary, the Daview Mini is a nice job. I liked the build of the appliance, too.

Meanwhile, Spectur combines video, LED light and a speaker, allowing security operators to push out of control rooms to monitor events or high security installations.

Smiths Detection was showing the HazMatID Elite,

which is a handheld FT-IR chemical identifier that’s mobile, with embedded RF comms and MIL-STD810G and IP67 specifications. It features an integrated pressure device for analysis of solid materials, as well as direct touch-to-sample capability. There’s automated analysis of mixtures with priority alerting for explosives, CWA, TIC and narcotics.

Something I’ve not mentioned yet is the fact that there were a number of really neat little solutions that offer play and play secure networks. One of these was on the SensaTek stand – it was the Clavister e10, which has a 1Gbps firewall throughput, a 100Mbps VPN thoughput, 10 VPN tunnels, 16 simultaneous connections, 4 RJ45 ports, an RJ45 console port and an external power supply. n Part 2 next issue!

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â—? Special report

Cyber Security

Camouflage your surveillance systems...

CYBER ATTACKS ON CCTV SYSTEMS WITH cyber attacks on CCTV systems making news headlines on a weekly basis, there is a good deal of concern and uncertainty about how at risk these systems are, as well as why they are being attacked. In this article, we take a closer look at some of these attacks; how they are carried out, the likely motivations behind them.

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BY S I M O N P O L L A K

THE ATTACKERS DEVELOPED SOFTWARE THAT SCOURED THE INTERNET SEARCHING FOR VULNERABLE DEVICES, WHICH THEY THEN TOOK CONTROL USING THEIR OWN MALICIOUS SOFTWARE.

N May, 2018, over 60 Canon cameras in Japan were hacked with “I’m Hacked. bye2” appearing in the camera display text. How did the attack take place? Simple. IP cameras were connected to the internet and were left on default credentials. It appears that the hackers logged into the cameras and changed the on-screen display. What was the impact? Other the defacement of the camera displays and some reputational damage, there doesn’t seem to have been much impact from these attacks.

What was the attacker’s motivation? The most likely explanation was they did it for the LOLZ, a hacker term implying the attack was done for laughs, however, there’s no guarantee that this wasn’t cover for a more sinister attack. How

I

bad could it have been? While this sort of attack is relatively innocuous, having a hacker gain control of a network device could have a catastrophic impact.

Once a hacker has gained control of a device, they could use the camera for hostile reconnaissance, they could inject their own video stream in a Mission Impossible style attack, or they could use the device to pivot into other devices on the same network, all of which would make for a really bad day.

In October 2016, 600,000 internet-connected cameras, DVR’s, routers and other IoT devices were compromised and used as a massive Bot Net to launch what was the largest Denial Of Service (DOS) attack the internet had experienced to date. How did the attack take place? Yet again, devices were left connected to the internet and were left on default credentials. In this case, the attackers developed software that scoured the internet searching for vulnerable devices, which they then took control of using their own malicious software.

What was the impact? The Mirai attacks significantly compromised the internet, resulting in Dyn, one of the largest service providers going offline and taking many web sites offline including Twitter, Amazon, and Netflix. What was the attacker’s motivation? The perpetrators of Miriai were charged with conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in the US courts in Anchorage. It turns out that they were a group of college students who ran a Minecraft server and they had built the Bot Net to degrade the performance of competing servers to gain more users for their service. They have been sentenced to between 5-10 years in prison and fined up to $US500,000.

How bad could it have been? Once the Mirai source code was released into the wild, there were many variants developed including Bricker Bot that similarly scoured the internet then bricked devices so that they had to be factory reset to regain control and functionality. A more determined attacker could have done far more damage to the devices or launched more damaging attacks using the same techniques.

In 2014, a US ally observed a malicious actor attacking US State Department computer systems.

In response the NSA traced the attacker’s source and infiltrated their computer systems gaining access to their CCTV cameras from where they were able to observe the hackers’ comings and goings. How did the attack take place? Not surprisingly, details of the hack back have been withheld from media coverage.

Given this was carried out by professionals, we can

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Cyber Security keeping defenders distracted combatting the more visible attack. How bad could it have been? While functionality was restored, we may never know just how much important footage was lost or what other systems could have been compromised.

WHAT LESSONS CAN WE LEARN FROM THESE ATTACKS?

assume that the attack was both sophisticated and stealthy.

What was the impact? For the Russian hackers who were identified, this will have put a damper on any travel plans they may have, as they are likely to be arrested if they holiday in a country with an extradition arrangement with the US. What was the attacker’s motivation? In this instance, the hackers are the good guys, so they carried out the attack in order to defend their systems. How bad could it have been? If the attackers hadn’t been on the right side of the law, and their target had been a bank, a celebrity, or any place that privacy is important, the attack could have caused a lot of harm.

In the lead up to the 2017 US Presidential inauguration, 65 per cent of the recording servers for the city of Washington CCTV system were infected with ransomware. How did the attack take place? While unknown, it most likely occurred by the same means as other common PC hacks such as infected USB keys, malicious web sites, or phishing attacks. What was the impact? The system administrators had to wipe the infected systems and reinstall the video management system, so it’s entirely possible a good deal of footage was lost, and the system was rendered inoperable for a time.

What was the attacker’s motivation? As with any ransomware attack, the attackers’ motivation is to hold the compromised system to ransom and only restore control once the ransom has been paid. It is important to note that ransomware can be used to conceal more malicious or targeted attacks by

Don’t connect your devices directly to the Internet.

If you need to have a camera or CCTV system remotely accessible, port forwarding all inbound traffic to your system is just asking to be attacked.

Use a VPN, use non-standard network ports, enable 2-factor authentication, or use a remote access service. While these measures won’t guarantee your security, they will certainly make you less of a target for attackers scouring the internet for vulnerable systems.

Change default passwords. It’s like the Australian road safety advertisements from the 1990’s which asserted “If you drink and drive, you’re a bloody idiot”. Same goes for credentials: “If you don’t change passwords, you’re a bloody idiot” Don’t forget that it’s a computer. Just because it connects to a bunch of cameras, doesn’t mean your NVR isn’t a computer. All the cyber security advice that is applicable to traditional IT is just as applicable when said computer is used as part of a CCTV system. While we aren’t seeing the flood of attacks that have been predicted in CCTV systems, they are a ripe target. If a determined attacker starts attacking these systems, there will not be the time to remediate many of these systems before the damage spreads.

*The views expressed in this article are those of the author only and do not represent those of any organisation, or necessarily reflect the position or policies or any organisation or entity.

Simon Pollak is a security professional with more than 25 years’ experience in physical and cyber security, smart buildings and automation systems. A licensed security consultant and CISSP, he holds a Masters of Cyber Security and a Masters of Business Administration (Technology). Simon contributes to SEN discussing all things cyber and converged security. You can follow him at https://twitter.com/SimonPollak or https://au.linkedin.com/in/simonpollak

References Hackers Deface Canon Security Cameras in Japan https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-deface-canon-security-cameras-in-japan/ OMG!: Mutating Malware Mirai Turns IoT Devices Into Proxy Servers https://sputniknews.com/science/201803011062116679-mutating-malware-mirai-proxy-servers/ How a Dorm Room Minecraft Scam Brought Down the Internet https://www-wired-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.wired.com/story/mirai-botnet-minecraft-scam-brought-down-the-internet/amp New details emerge about 2014 Russian hack of the State Department: It was ‘hand to hand combat’ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/new-details-emerge-about-2014-russian-hack-of-the-state-department-it-was-hand-to-handcombat/2017/04/03/d89168e0-124c-11e7-833c-503e1f6394c9_story.html Two Arrested in London for Infecting Washington’s CCTV Network with Ransomware https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/two-arrested-in-london-for-infecting-washingtons-cctv-network-with-ransomware/

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â—? Case study

Charlestown shopping centre Scott Myles drives a well-designed workstation.

CHARLESTOWN SHOPPING CENTRE Integrators Australia has installed 300 Axis cameras, Genetec Security Center VMS and Inner Range Integriti at the Charlestown Shopping Centre in Newcastle. With the surveillance system 99 per cent completed, the CCTV and access control solutions are in line for integration later this year.

RINDING up the F3 from Sydney through what seem like endless roadworks gets me to Charlestown Shopping Centre 30 minutes late. Doing a stressedout lap of the place trying to find the closest entrance to the security office is instructive. After driving a kilometre, I surrender to the tyranny of distance and dive into the nearest driveway. My guestimate turns out badly.

As I walk all the way back through the long retail precinct of the centre, certain fundamentals of this application become obvious. Charlestown Shopping Centre is large and very busy. The

G

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BY J O H N A D A M S

THE SYSTEM IS CONSTANTLY USED TO MANAGE INTERCOM AT CARPARK ENTRIES AND EXITS, AND IS ALSO VITAL FOR SLIPS AND TRIPS, AS WELL AS TRACKING PERSONS OF INTEREST.

centre contains 240 stores – including big retailers and speciality shops, and around about 15 million customers come through the site annually – about 30,000 per day. These numbers make Charlestown the largest shopping centre in the Central Coast, Newcastle and lower Hunter regions.

It’s also an historical shopping centre, the first stage of which was built in 1973 by Lend Lease for always-owner GPT. A key thing about older sites is that they expand in layers of rebuilds.

At Charlestown, there have been 5 major rebuilds since 1973, the most recent and most comprehensive took place in 2010 and increased the overall size of the centre by about 65 per cent.

According to GPT Group operations manager, Andrew Hungerford, it was during the big 2010 upgrade that a hybrid surveillance solution comprising analogue cameras and DVRs was installed. Hungerford says at the time this offered the best balance of performance and price. But

there came a time when an upgrade was not only scheduled but required to retain the surveillance system’s operational functionality. An upgrade was also needed to open the system to future expansions and enhancements as the pace of technological development increased.

There is always a catalyst for an electronic security upgrade – new cameras with higher resolution and better low light and WDR performance, more diverse camera form factors, greater functionalities on the management side, improved compression – but in this case there was more to it than performance.

“After 8 years, we needed to upgrade our surveillance system not only to take advantage of the improvements in performance the latest devices and networks offer but to ensure we avoided future failures of old equipment,” Hungerford explains.

“Another issue for us was moving away from a proprietary solution to a system that was more open and that gave us more options to control our own destiny,” he says. “We had also decided to install Inner Range Integriti access control, so we wanted something that would integrate with that, and we knew data analytics was somewhere in the pipeline and wanted a solution that would deliver those enhancement as well. After considering our options, we decided we would move to a more open system architecture that offered wider options for installation and support. We elected to go with Genetec Security Center and Axis IP cameras on the surveillance side.”

Same as most shopping centres, the operational imperatives of Charlestown Shopping Centre’s surveillance system are diverse. The system is constantly used to manage intercom at carpark entries and exits, and is also vital for slips and trips, as well as tracking persons of interest.

“The surveillance solution gives us a record of any person of interest who has been involved in shop lifting or might be of interest to police,” Hungerford explains. “And the system is interfaced with the carpark intercom system so staff can see who they are speaking to. We also have rooftop coverage and

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Charlestown shopping centre

we view carparks, entry ways, loading docks and have an overview of surrounding areas that are relevant to our security.

“The system is certainly much more capable of ID than the previous one and it’s certain to assist us with insurance claims as well. When it comes to carparks when we have incidents like tailgating or confrontation, we can now see entire events clearly.

When it comes to faces, security officers can see who is speaking and almost lip-read, so when managing intercoms at entry points they are better informed so more efficient.

“Importantly, we don’t have a 24-hour monitored security room,” Hungerford explains. “Our security staff are often on the floor and will come into the security office to use the cameras if they need to.

However, the capability of the new system sees it more fully at the centre of our security operations.

“For instance, if there’s a fire alarm activation on site we can jump very easily into the system and see what’s happening using icon-based mapping.

This gives a quick overview and ensures from a management perspective we are not flying blind – if there’s a real issue, then security staff on the floor can be contacted via radio to respond.”

Open-ness is another major advantage of the upgrade.

“Something the new solution does give us is the ability to expand in completely new directions with things like analytics – we’re just starting to work this into our pipeline – LPR and face recognition,” Hungerford says. “Something we are also piloting is a Wi-Fi integration between an in-store surveillance system and the centre system using metadata.”

The ability of the system to federate video inputs from multiple sources has allowed the security team unexpected flexibilities.

“We have been trialling 5 Edesix body-worn cameras for 4 weeks – video from these cameras is streamed to remote nodes via the shopping centre Wi-Fi,” Hungerford says. “Operationally, we can

Genetec mapping

OUR SECURITY STAFF ARE OFTEN ON THE FLOOR AND WILL COME INTO THE SECURITY OFFICE TO USE THE CAMERAS IF THEY NEED TO.

Control room

watch a live view from a body worn camera as the security officer walks around, or they can hit a panic button/distress button that will alert officers in the control centre to an issue they can then follow on the body worn camera on the video wall.

“There are other shopping centre security departments using body worn cameras and while this is a trial, there have been such positive results we’re now working on selecting an appropriate vest, so we can add them to our application. Instead of exacerbating issues as officers thought they might, the body worn cameras seem to end arguments and issues. Offenders look at the cameras and just walk away – it’s acting as a real deterrent.”

From an operational perspective how easy was it for the security team to learn Genetec Security Center?

“I was surprised at how quickly the team picked up the new system,” Hungerford says. “I certainly find it more intuitive than the old system and the team got straight into it. The security officers responsible for managing the carpark picked it up fastest as they are on it all the time. The functionality is comprehensive, use of the timeline makes investigating incidents easy. The ability to click, zoom in and track is great – we have external PTZs – in the forecourt and on roofs.

“The new cameras are a major step forward. In the past I’d often hear – ‘I can’t make out that face’, or ‘I can’t see that numberplate’ – but I’ve not heard any comments like that since the upgrade. The ability to handle difficult light is important, too, as the site has its challenges – bright lights, low light, backlight. Night time in the carpark when light is very low is especially difficult for the cameras – any car coming through can be just a halo of headlights.”

While Genetec Security Center is a powerful video management solution, Hungerford points out that it’s also the way information is delivered that makes a difference.

“A neat piece of functionality of the Genetec Security Center Solution is an app, which in operational terms makes a mobile device almost as functional as a head end – it’s way more functional than I thought it would be,” he says. “The app means the security team can take a mobile device to show a retailer or emergency services footage of an event but it also changes the way management can drive the entire security function.

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Charlestown shopping centre

“In the first week of operation we had an incident in which a troubled person self-harmed at the shopping centre and we had a camera viewing the scene that provided clear footage of the incident to police investigators. Local police were very happy with the quality and I was happy, too. As chief warden I was able to sit in the office and watch the entire event and to manage the closure of multiple entries fully informed, not making decisions on the fly. This functionality was very beneficial and to experience its capability in the first week – I was impressed.”

Hungerford says the VMS has another trick up its sleeve.

“One is Genetec Visual Tracking,” he explains.

“We regularly do practise runs where we track highrisk persons of interest through the centre – the person might be a shop lifter or a potential threat to customers. Visual Track is so helpful operationally.

You follow simple prompts on the screen to keep the person of interest in sight – the team have found it very useful.”

A core aspect of the upgrade was that the surveillance system be capable of integrating with the new Inner Range Integriti access control system.

“The main reason for this CCTV and access control integration is back of house access,” Hungerford explains. “Charlestown Shopping Centre is a big asset and we don’t have 50 security officers walking around opening and closing hundreds of doors. Using an integrated solution, we will be able to handle door access securely, remotely and efficiently. Something else we’re looking to ensure with the integration is that when an event happens – say a door is accessed to the roof – we can put eyes on it and respond immediately, it’s not something we become aware of 24 hours later.

“The integration is about being proactive rather than reactive but it’s as much about safety as security.

HAVING THE OLD ANALOGUE SYSTEM AND THE NEW IP CCTV SYSTEMS RUNNING SIDE BY SIDE IN ONE CONTROL ROOM WAS THE HARDEST ASPECT OF THE PROCESS...

We want to know when a tech accesses a switch room and to be able to keep an eye on them. We want to know if someone is working on the roof – we want to be able to put eyes onto workers at risk, as well as onto members of the security team and customers who might need assistance. Using the integration, events that can be ignored during the day might generate alerts after hours. Finally, an access control system integrated with CCTV is so much more powerful and valuable than a masterkey system, no matter how well managed the physical keying system is.”

THE PROCESS OF UPGRADE To bring any application to fruition on a site this size always involves a lengthy timeline and a complex process of planning, and Hungerford says Charlestown Shopping Centre was no exception to this rule.

“Typically, an upgrade like this has a lead time of around 2 years from start to finish,” he explains. “We did all the briefing and tendering in 2016 and began delivering in 2017 and we’re just finishing the project now. As the old system began to fail at the end of its life we found ourselves adding new DVRs with encoders.

These failures were motivational – we knew we needed to get the new system operational as quickly as possible.”

The heart of the upgrade involved the installation of a serious network. Bob Firth from ACAD Services acted as consultant and project manager for this project.

“This network connects multiple services across the site including CCTV, access control, BMS and digital signage,” Firth explains. “With plans to add other services to this network, it needs to be very robust and have capacity for plenty of future expansion. Every switch is backed up by UPS and monitored off-site to ensure that we maximise the uptime.”

“The first step in the process of upgrading the surveillance system was upgrading our servers and our network,” Hungerford says. “The network backbone is fibre with a redundant loop around the entire centre and we have good coverage in terms of nodes so most places in the centre are no further from a node than 100 metres – that includes the carparks.

The centre also has free Wi-Fi. There’s now lots of data being captured and transmitted, management and storage is centralised. Integrators Australia monitors this system for us and gives us reports of system health.”

Another core aspect of any electronic security upgrade is that at some point the old system and the new system end up running alongside each other and that coloured the upgrade process at Charlestown.

“Having the old analogue system and the new IP CCTV systems running side by side in one control room was the hardest aspect of the process - it got difficult for the security officers to know what was working and what wasn’t working, and they were

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constantly jumping from one system to the other,” Hungerford says.

“You can imagine that the physical process of installation and commissioning generates constant faults and system events that become white noise.

In a live control room there are also difficulties for security officers following a person of interest across 3 cameras on the old system who then switch across to a new system they know will offer better coverage or much better resolution,” he explains.

“We positioned most the new cameras near the old ones, which went some way to reducing the need to view cameras across systems but there were inevitable crossovers that caused a confused user experience. It would have been better to install the new system while using the old system and then one night to simply cut the entire control room across to the new system with no crossover at all, but it was hard to avoid doing so in our situation.”

WALKING THE SITE We start in the network room – it’s well organised and nicely installed – the racks also give a clear idea of the nature of the installation. There’s fibre at the top for the multiple VLANs that comprise the security network, there are storage servers to handle recording, management servers to handle the video wall and a rack-mounted UPS. The system is designed to give full resolution, full frame rate recording for 30 days and appears solidly provisioned in terms of hardware.

Next, we take a walk through the centre.

Something that stands out immediately is the range of camera form factors that Integrators Australia has installed at Charlestown. The first that catches my eye is an Axis 360-degree but there are also plenty of domes, as well as some full body cameras. As well as varying form factors there are varying resolutions, from 720p installed internally in locations where a longer lens gives least pixel spread and best rendition of faces at secondary access points, to 4K in areas where larger angles of view need to be combined with serious depth of field. In one external location, there’s an Axis 360-degree camera (4 x 720p fixed cameras) incorporating a 1080p PTZ camera mounted underneath. Most entry points have full body cameras – there are about 8-10 across the site.

The camera layout design put together by ACAD Services provides coverage that is thoughtful and extensive across retail areas, as well as around stairs and escalators. I notice variable lighting conditions throughout the application, but the redevelopment has delivered a considerable amount of natural light, which helps CCTV performance. Something else I notice is that like most mature shopping centres which have evolved over time there remains some sense of structural demarcation at Charlestown, which limits sight lines. This plays out most fully in the carparking areas but the nature of the site, with

long retail chambers and multi-level foyers with floor to ceiling voids, shapes camera selection and positioning.

In addition to monitoring front of house areas, the CCTV system also provides monitoring of back of house areas such as loading docks and critical plant.

There are also PTZs installed across the rooftop for monitoring contractors work activities.

Something else that’s evident while on the hoof is a factor that came into play when I was trying to find the closest entrance to the security office upon arrival. Geographically, this is a very large and very complex site.

According to Brad Johnston of Integrators Australia, the integration posed challenges, one being that it was impossible to work on the public side of the system during opening hours.

“The majority of the work was night work,” he explains. “Getting access to tenancies was another hurdle we had to overcome. The hardest part was general access for running cables – there were issues with ceiling spaces, getting access to certain areas, it was intensive. The food court was another challenge, thanks to very high ceilings and the fact many speakers and light fittings had to be moved.

“Because of the age of the site, there’s not a complete wiring schematic, so that was a factor as well and the installation process was also quite long.

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Charlestown shopping centre

We started out in August last year, but the first job required was to install the very large fibre network and that was a lot to get through before we began work on the other parts of the system.”

Even at the tail end of the commissioning process, that early challenge of cabling looms large in Johnston’s mind.

“There was a lot of cabling, a lot of fibre runs – it’s a huge and complicated site and the topology of the network reflects this complexity,” he explains. “Most the camera cabling goes back to the node rooms within a radius of 100 metres of the camera point – for instance, in this area there’s a node room just behind into which all the local cables feed.

“A lot of the new camera points are in existing locations because the security team was happy with the coverage that those angles of view had provided them over many years. But there are some situations that need ongoing consideration – for instance, there are live plants in the centre and over a very short time these have grown so much that foliage has begun to obscure the views of some cameras.”

According to Johnston, there was an average of 4-5 installers working on the site during the night and towards the end when the commissioning team began working in conjunction with the techs, there would be a team of 6.

“The IT department was not involved in this application at all – Integrators Australia built a dedicated CCTV network and installed the entire fibre backbone to each network node with a pair of 24-core fibres coming in and coming out to give redundancy, 6 cores at each node with a total of 25 node rooms,” he says. “The way the network is built is that if one node goes down it doesn’t impact on any other node in the centre – it’s not daisy-chained, it’s very smart – a lot of fibre and a lot of thought, planning and work went into this solution.”

Johnston has plenty of praise for the management solution.

“I’ve used many different VMS platforms on large applications during my career, but I’ve found that once you get your head around Genetec Security Center, it’s quite easy,” he says. “There have been a few little things related to the camera side that required careful optimisation of settings and are now resolved. More complicated things like setting maps up in Genetec Security Center – that’s a very simple process. When it comes to mapping, you import the map then drag and drop the icons onto it – it’s in depth and you can add things like angle of view.

“Visual Tracking setup is also simple – it’s a feature of Genetec Security Center that you configure same as mapping – you put a coloured block on all sides of the camera view and programme the system so the video wall moves seamlessly to the next camera view as you track a POI by clicking the block in the direction of travel – it means you don’t have to go out to a camera directory, then come back in. It’s quite handy.”

According to Johnston, the Integrators Australia team put in a lot of work behind the scenes to streamline the installation process.

“A lot of the cameras were pre-configured in Melbourne – the centre wanted to minimise downtime between cameras so the less work that needed to be done during the commissioning process, the faster everything could transition,” he explains. “As you’d expect, we did end up running the surveillance systems side by side and that was a bit cumbersome, but it allowed us to fill all the coverage holes in the new system while retaining coverage in the old system. The difficulty with 2 systems in one control room was tracking events – inevitably, officers would use whichever system they thought offered best performance or best coverage of an event.

“The way the installation went, we started out by adding all the new cameras, so we had 2 complete systems and then bit by bit, we started turning the old cameras off. A lot of thought went into the way the transition should happen, everything was fully documented and the team in Melbourne did a great job of setting out the necessary processes.

Their planning including IP addresses and detailed drawings, as well as photos of where each camera would go. This meant the installation team knew exactly what needed to happen every step of the way. There were a few little mix-ups relating to exact camera positions but nothing you would not expect on a site with around 300 cameras. But it all came together nicely in the end.”

According to Johnston, the overall challenges of the site were more about the network installation and the process than elements like lighting conditions.

“Light across the site is not too bad but it does vary – some of the old cameras were installed right beside light fittings – we have been able to minimise a lot of that with the latest Axis cameras but there are a couple of locations where having light falling on the scene is beneficial – I’m thinking of challenging locations like carpark entries,” he explains.

“Having said that, the Axis cameras in the carparks have IR so they will switch across in very low light, though given the combination of natural light and internal lighting, the cameras mostly stay in colour.

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Charlestown shopping centre

Frankly, I like the contrast of black and white for number plates but to get the best from colour it’s a matter of putting in the time on camera settings during commissioning and to continue working to get the best performance from cameras installed in challenging situations.”

Johnston says he thoroughly enjoyed the process of the upgrade.

“I’m very finicky and meticulous – I spent a lot of time on planning and it’s great to be able to plan a solution then come to the site, see the system working and to hear that’s how all GPT sites will now be – it makes me feel good,” he says. “The security officers working in the control room love the new system, too. They can bring up a map, bring up an icon, see a camera, follow an event, hop to another floor. This process is quick and efficient – operators are not left wondering what angle of view a camera has in a busy moment – they just move through the map icons, bang, bang, bang.

“In fact, Andrew likes the mapping so much as a management tool he wants it on the mobile device as well – that’s how intuitive it makes viewing cameras on a large complex site like this. The Integriti integration with Genetec Security Center is something else the security team here is really looking forward to. I’ve always been a fan of Concept and I love integration, so I’m looking forward to that as well.”

CONCLUSIONS At the end of our tour of the shopping centre we head back to the control room to take a look at the video wall and the mapping functionality. Is the new system better than the old one? I ask the operators.

Yes, they reply, hard at work juggling intercoms and

Andrew Hungerford GPT, top and Brad Johnston

camera views. I can see immediately how capable the vector mapping is – operators open the map and drill down, with the mapping getting more granular as they go.

The site is huge, and there are layers, so being able to find views using icons makes the entire process way easier for operators. In the control room we also look at Visual Track, which allows you to go around the site and click to the next camera in a person of interest’s direction of travel by hitting a coloured panel depending on which direction you need to go.

Viewing this on screen shows how simple a process it is.

The new surveillance system at Charlestown Shopping Centre is an impressive solution and Hungerford has good advice for other end users interested in upgrades of this magnitude.

“The first recommendation I would make to other end users planning a serious upgrade is having an inbetween technical adviser who can project manage and consult throughout the design and the deliver stage of the process,” he says. “It certainly assisted us having consultant Bob Firth from ACAD on board as a technical project manager – his knowledge was vital.

“From the point of view of an end user of complex technology you often don’t know what you don’t know. Bob was able to litmus test the integrators, to be our interpreter in relation to what was working and what wasn’t working for us in real time. We will apply the same model to the access upgrade.

“I would also recommend doing as we did and making sure you get the new network completed first and don’t try to do it on the fly. That’s a big thing – you never want to assume your network has the capacity to handle an upgrade then find it’s not able to cope during the commissioning process. You want to find and fill all your network gaps in advance.”

Having a quality integrator committed to the cause is also vital.

“Integrators Australia supports us across other parts of the GPT portfolio - having an integrator which knows you and knows your systems is a real benefit and with a liquidated damages agreement there was a mutual interest in making the system work as well as possible. Finally, if there’s a way to deliver the system in a way that offers a clean cutover, then I would be implementing that if possible - though when there’s an old analogue system and a new IP system running in the same control room imposing that restriction is easier said than done.”

What does Hungerford wish the new system could do?

“I think a combination of facial recognition and the ability for the system to search through footage and track the movements of an individual – a shop lifter or a lost child,” he says. “That would save us huge amounts of time. Obviously, cost is a factor but if we can include that sort of functionality in the future it would be a major enhancement to an impressive surveillance solution.” n

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1300 130 515

www.bensecurity.com.au

The Ties That Bind Alarm monitoring makes a fascinating bellwether for the evolution of technology in the electronic security industry and never more so than now. If the industry has a technological bleeding edge, it’s here - in the place communications, management and sensing technologies meet.

LARM monitoring is also at the bleeding edge when it comes to industry acquisition and collaboration, as we saw recently when Vivant Smart Home announced it was working with Google to make every new Vivant smart home voice-enabled using Google Assistant. Interesting, too, is the way this is being managed. It’s not really a choice. Every Vivant customer gets a pair of Google Home Mini Devices free, while Nest Thermostat E and Google Wi-Fi are now listed as options in the Vivant product and services suite.

While the move is advantageous to Google, it’s good for Vivant as well. The collaboration pushes forward Vivant’s Google Assistant integration, which already allowed users to manage lights, locks, thermostats, garage doors, gates, cameras, alarm sensors and more using voice commands. Having Google WiFi onboard allows the Vivant to deliver customers networked wireless doorbells, as well as internal and external cameras, and in time, perhaps, more besides.

A

Happily, for Vivant, Google Wi-Fi is a bit special. It’s not only being described as offering the easiest Wi-Fi network setup experience ever, with one of the best self-management capabilities, it’s a mesh network, so the bigger it gets, the better it gets. Google Wi-Fi is built around wee cylinders which support IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, AC1200 2x2 Wave 2 WiFi (expandable mesh; dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz, Bluetooth and more. You buy 1 or 3-packs and any can be router, and the others offer wired or wireless internet.

You address your Google Wi-Fi with an app that leads you through the process of router bonding with Wi-Fi points.

The app monitors the network and all points and devices connected to it and

alerts you to issues. It measures network connection point health, repairs itself if a network point goes down and allows bandwidth and smart home devices (like Vivant’s) to be managed. Performance is plenty enough to stream 4K – that’s strong – and when combined with the reportedly outstanding house-wide coverage, Google Wi-Fi is making waves in home and SMB networking markets.

What does all this mean? If these 2 companies were old-school security outfits hanging onto the tail of the galloping security and automation market, it might mean nothing at all. But the privately-owned Vivant has 11,000 employees and was valued at $US2 billion back in 2012. And Google has 85,000

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Proudly brought to you by

Your Monitoring Specialists

1300 130 515

www.bensecurity.com.au

HAPPILY, FOR VIVANT, GOOGLE WI-FI IS A BIT SPECIAL. IT’S NOT ONLY BEING DESCRIBED AS OFFERING THE EASIEST WI-FI NETWORK SETUP EXPERIENCE EVER, WITH ONE OF THE BEST SELF-MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES, IT’S A MESH NETWORK, SO THE BIGGER IT GETS, THE BETTER IT GETS.

Google brings something else, too.

That thundering Wi-Fi coverage, moving forward on a broad front, allows support for better CCTV cameras at the fringes of a home where ordinary people generally choose to put them. Trying to get sufficient coverage to make a proper fist of CCTV coverage in home automation has long been a trial in medium-sized homes, especially if they are multi-storey or have more than a handful of cameras.

According to research outfit, IHS Markit, while 92 per cent of alarm systems are managed with keypad or keyfob, the company was expecting that number to fall to 82 per cent over the next 4 years. But the research company also pointed out that because devices like Google Home listen constantly to hear a wake-up call and then record conversations, there’s

work to be done convincing consumers that voice assistants don’t hear too much and are utterly secure.

Perhaps most interesting of all, IHS Markit found in a recent alarm monitoring report that in 2017 around 21 per cent of professionally monitored home alarm systems had additional connectivity and functionality unrelated to alarm signals associated with them. This addon to the alarm monitoring market is projected to grow at 17 per cent over the next 4 years and will represent 35 per cent of all systems by 2022. If the past is any guide, Google is unlikely to dominate the alarm monitoring market, no matter which companies it partners with. But in an increasingly consumer-driven market segment, where the bleeding edge goes, the rest will follow. n

employees and turned over $US110 billion last year. Sheer scale means that whatever passes between them, and whichever technologies they provision, are worth consideration.

What stands out is the idea of voice control as an intuitive interface. It’s hard to argue against the case that, for humans, language is the most intuitive interface of all. Being able to instruct your home automation solution to turn on lights, lower or raise the temperature, arm or disarm all or parts of the security system – these are significant developments. For a security company to come up with a voice control interface would be expensive and time consuming. Google brings this interface to the table for Vivant customers.

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● News report

Technology

BY J O R D A N C U L L I S *

FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION Advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology will bring about unprecedented opportunities, as well as new responsibilities, writes Jordan Cullis of Milestone Systems.

GLOBAL Accenture survey released recently suggested that 82 per cent of Australian executives believe that within the next 2 years, AI will work next to humans in their organisations. Accenture also predicts that by 2022, firms that adopt AI can boost revenues by up to 38 per cent. Cutting-edge technologies that rely on AI, such as facial recognition (FR), are now making their way into some of the world’s more advanced nations, but there are layers of resistance that hold many organisations and government agencies back.

In Australia and New Zealand, adoption is behind some of our neighbours in the region, which seems odd, since we tend to be ahead in cloud and big data adoption, as well as AI in general. FR technology has been identified by Singapore as a key pillar of the country’s plans to become the world’s first smart nation, and a bill to set up the federal government’s biometric identity system is going through Parliament in Australia.

FR works by examining physical features of a person’s face such as distance between the eyes, width of the nose and depth of the eye sockets. Cameras and computers combine to detect faces and then analyse a database of faces which have already been captured to find a match.

Persons of interest can be identified from among literally thousands of citizens, making police work faster and more efficient, and ultimately increasing public safety. Despite the many benefits of FR technology, few organisations are using it yet. So why aren’t people embracing the potential benefits of FR and what are their concerns?

A

RELIABILITY OF THE TECHNOLOGY The inclusion of facial recognition as a security feature in the latest generation of smartphones has brought awareness of how far the technology has come into the mainstream. Facial recognition technology has become much more powerful with the latest generation of processors and GPU offloading. Coupled with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, commercial-grade FR can demonstrate 99.9 per cent facial recognition accuracy, compared to the previous generation of systems which had a rate of 95 per cent.

Such percentage points make a whole lot of difference when it comes to minimising security breaches. To go a step further, security validation can be strengthened by combining FR with other forms of biometric security, such as fingerprinting. Such reliability means FR will eventually be deployed as the de facto security measure for governments and businesses.

LACK OF EDUCATION Lack of education is often cited as a reason behind slow AI adoption, with many organisations unaware of the ‘value-add’ potential of the technology. Most often, video is still only seen as a necessary business cost, rather than a tool which can help businesses drive growth in areas such as automatic payments, heatmapping in retail settings and demographic profiling.

It is imperative for video technology solution providers to work with governments and business groups to increase awareness of video technology’s various benefits. As this recognition continues to develop in APAC, businesses can consider FR as a means of driving organisational change, while the general population can expect better services, more convenience and higher safety. n

PRIVACY CONCERNS Privacy is a major concern, with Australia’s Human Rights Law Centre recently declaring that Australia’s law was far from ready to handle FR responsibly. In China, a recent survey found that 3 out of 4 people are worried about the threat that artificial intelligence (AI) poses to their privacy, challenging the popular notion that the Chinese care little about giving up personal data. Concerns focus on how FR data is stored and used, and who can have access to it.

The onus is on those companies who want to benefit from FR to demonstrate effective and secure video storage and management against fraudulent and irresponsible activities. .

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4/19/18 3:38 PM 2/8/18 11:07 am

● Regulars

The Interview

Dominic Campagna, ECS

Dominic Campagna has joined integrator ECS in the role of director with the remit of growing the stature of the business locally and regionally. A consultative leader, Campagna rates the keys to success as being the ability to listen and ensure the business delivers the bespoke needs of others.

Q: Tell us about your new role at ECS, Dominic?

A: I have recently been asked to join ECS as a director, after more than 12 years’ success with a very large multinational. My responsibility and focus will be the growth of ECS in Australia and the APAC region.

ECS has been in business now for 20 years.

Twenty years! Many don’t realise how long ECS has been in business, Our MD and the founder of ECS, Raj Masson, has built his business on foundations such as hard work, tenacity, passion, technical know-how and service delivery, which is the core of the business. Raj’s decision to bring me into the business is about getting someone onboard

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D O M I N I C C A M PA G N A W I T H J O H N A D A M S

who has the knowledge, the network and the management capabilities to levitate the business to the level where it will be an alternative to the largest integrators in the regional market.

Q: ECS has completed some serious regional integrations – is the plan to grow that part of the business solely, or are we talking about ANZ, too?

A: Our headquarters is in Sydney, we now have an office in Canberra, Melbourne, and Cairns with a plan to expand in the very near future into Brisbane and other capital cities. New Zealand is certainly on our radar, as is South East Asia, supported by our offices in Indonesia and India.

Q: There’s quite a lot of scope for a business with ECS’ experience – your integrations include things like City of Sydney, the recently opened Australian embassy in Jakarta and plenty more besides – ECS brings serious major integration experience to the table, doesn’t it?

A: We do have a lot of experience, skill and more importantly, capable employees. The company is nimble and adapts quickly and efficiently to project and business needs and contract requirements. It’s all about finding solutions for the task at hand.

Q: Is growing the business your only remit?

A: I’m also tasked with adding further value to the existing culture which Raj has developed over many years.

A culture of teamwork, pride in one’s work and to make ECS an employer and a supplier of choice. It’s so hard to get great staff – to get good technicians, to get good project managers. All integrators are fishing from the same pond, so how do you attract the best people and stop great staff from being poached? To achieve this, we want to be a company that supports its staff to be the best they can be for themselves, as well as to be part of a culture and business that is focused on growing and taking its expertise to a wider market with more diverse and challenging applications, in turn creating a rewarding and exciting future for them.

From my own point of view, I just want to assist with the company’s business plan and to help everyone within the business to be successful and achieve their own goals.

Q: Does this process involve the creation of a new business plan for ECS? A: No, not from scratch, because the business plan has always been sound – to offer customers the best possible standard of service and the best possible solutions. This plan has grown the business from Raj working alone in his van to what ECS is today. So, the idea is to complement that original business model and take ECS to another level where those same qualities can be applied to a much wider market, positioning ECS as a credible alternative to the Tier 1 integrators.

Q: Just on that notion of Tier 1 integrators, do you see the integration market retaining the same layers it has had? Or in the future, do you see specialisation – the rise of boutique integrators offering different sorts of solutions, different brands and more competitiveness when it comes to price?

A: Yes, that’s quite possible – there’s been so much change - almost a quantum shift. Where you did have the top 3 very large electronic security integrators in Australia, there are now many more options available to customers.

Again, this is where our business plan shines by ensuring ECS can be more important to many more customers.

ECS is not just a skilled team, rather it has a team of skills. This is evident with the broad security offerings by ECS, from hardware installations to bespoke software development to meet certain requirements.

Q: Tell us a bit about your background in the security industry, Dominic – how did you get started?

A: I joined the security industry in 1982 and worked for all the majors – MSS, Wormald/Chubb which later became SMC, then Group 4 Securitas. My career spans 36 years and really began straight from school. I wasn’t old enough to be a police officer, so I started out as a security officer following the paymaster around in the days when cash wages were handed to staff directly in those little yellow envelopes.

Q: It’s interesting how many of us of a certain age all started out in the electronic security industry as security officers and then moved into alarm monitoring…

YOU NEED TO REALLY EMBRACE WHAT A CUSTOMER’S ISSUES ARE AND COME BACK NOT WITH ONE BUT MULTIPLE DIFFERENT SOLUTIONS...

A: I think that prevalence is in part because the electronic security side of the business was relatively new in the 1970s and 1980s and it took time for it to fully evolve. In those days, security was about the supply of manpower more than about technology and it took time for prices to fall, for clients to become more educated, for installation and integration companies to develop the skillsets, the sales skills to really grow the electronic security industry. Security patrols used to drive around clients and push cards under their front door multiple times a night just to prove they had been there. That seems archaic now, however, it served the needs of the time.

Q: When did you make the transition to electronics?

A: In the 1990s when working for Group 4 Securitas I moved into the monitoring side of the business and that role evolved to include wider electronic security solutions, which I continued since.

Q: Given your near 4 decades in the security industry is there any single operational focus of a business that assures success?

A: The key thing is listening to and understanding the needs of the customer.

A lot of suppliers talk at their clients instead of listening to their clients. You need to really embrace what a customer’s issues are and come back not with one but multiple different solutions.

This offers choices to the client, whose decision is normally driven by budgets, technological preference or the nature of a customer’s business. Other keys to success include having strong personal brand equity together with partnerships to assist customers achieve goals in the face of their own challenges. That means making yourself an intricate part of their businesses so that they can concentrate on what they need to focus on. Customers rely on our expertise when it comes to technology and we must be reliable, embrace change, evolve and challenge the norm. In business, as in life, if you

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● Regulars

The Interview had the time to go out and tell people what the business is capable of and what the business has been delivering. We install and maintain some of the biggest integrated security solutions in Australia – people simply don’t know what we do. Of course, as we grow our ability to support clients in challenging locations will grow, too.

Q: You know far better than I do that it’s easier to talk about growing than it is to grow – what’s the process of growing ECS going to be?

A: Growth needs to be staged and it needs to be managed on the basis of a very good understanding of the business plan worked on a daily basis. A lot of companies try and fail to grow because they bite off more than they can chew.

Q: Is there a procedures list you’ll be working towards?

do what you have always done you can only expect what you have always achieved. Most importantly, you need to surround yourself with similar-minded and passionate people. If you add value to what companies and individuals are trying to achieve, then success will come.

Q: Suppliers must be worthy of trust?

A: It is all about trust. Whether it be a client or a colleague, they must trust you and you must be worthy of their trust.

Most clients only give you one chance to deliver on what has been promised. Trust is one of the biggest binding elements of a business partnership. Operationally, this means you must be able to deliver on what is being promised. You can know everything about cameras, networks, access control, management solutions and all the rest but unless you can deliver on the solution, the service and clients’ expectations you will not be successful. People buy from people they like and trust – there are many suppliers and integrators in the industry selling.

Likeability - that’s another differentiator - the human element remains very important.

Q: From the point of view of day to day ECS customers, what will change?

A: Existing customers won’t see a material change. For new customers, the change will be that they know about the industry’s best kept secret, because until now ECS management has not

A: Yes, we have a plan and key milestone dates we need to hit. It’s not about micromanagement but about placing objectives of a size and shape that are manageable as you move through the process. Growing a business and running a business are not the same thing – it takes a lot of time, money, and effort to grow a business. We will be empowering, training, supporting and encouraging our current and future employees to come on this journey, which I think will be exciting and rewarding. This process is more about leadership than management.

Q: Are there plans to expand the offerings of the business – obviously ECS is a security and AV integrator – but could there be additional services offered in the future as you grow?

A: We’re focusing on the core of the business, however, in the future, there may be additional services through which we can assist clients. That said, the word ‘security’ has many new facets, including but not limited to, cyber security, and ECS is offering security products and services very relevant for the security needs, challenges and risks of our time.

Q: The industry is going through a period of acquisition-based growth – this is a different way of expansion, isn’t it?

A: One of the most disappointing things about my long time in the security industry is that the majority of large Australian security companies are not

owned by Australians – they are all controlled by overseas investors. All the large companies are now this way. It’s a big shame because it means visible local ownership of the biggest brands can no longer inspire younger generations of Australians in the way it used to.

Q: I agree with you but tend to think nobody works a business like their own – that means smaller local companies might be able to outcompete bigger multinationals?

A: It’s true in some cases but as the ownership of major companies capable of supporting key things like training and bringing young people through a business keeps shifting away from Australia, it reduces opportunities for youngsters coming through. That’s my experience.

Q: Is Raj excited about the plans to grow the business? What will Raj’s role now be?

A: Yes, absolutely – Raj is very excited about growing ECS. He loves what he does, and I think that’s been part of the formula for ECS’s success. You really need to live and breathe it on a daily basis. There is no doubt that his attitude to business is contagious – it’s important for our line managers to have the same passion that Raj has, to be infused by it, so that the passion passes down to our technicians, to our clients.

As far as his role, Raj will always be the CEO and his focus will be all about growing his legacy and leaving ECS as an example of what a business can become through hard work. He’ll always be part of the fabric of ECS. Raj does a lot of handson work that many people don’t see, and he will continue to do so. He’s self-made and he has great vision – that’s still very much the heart and soul of what ECS is about.

Q: What’s the end game for you – what do you want ECS to become?

A: I want the market to understand what ECS can deliver for them and I want the business to become the go-to brand for electronic security integration. Will we be the largest integrator? Probably not. But we want to be in the forefront of client’s minds when they are looking at fulfilling their electronic security needs. When they think about electronic security I want them to think: “Let’s give ECS a call”. n

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â—? Product review

Bosch

FUSION REACTION Bosch MIC IP Fusion 9000i is another spectacular camera from Bosch. It combines all the power of the MIC IP 7000i optical PTZ with an integrated thermal camera. But what makes it special is that the 9000i synthesizes these camera inputs using metadata, making the transition between thermal and optical viewing operationally seamless by supporting one technology with the other.

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BY J O H N A D A M S

HEN I first tested the Bosch MIC 7000, my reaction was that I wanted one of my own. We test a lot of cameras at SEN but only a handful really grab you. The MIC 7000 was at the forefront of that select group – great sensor, great lens, robust yet compact form factor. Since our first review, the 7000 has been upgraded to the 7000i, and the optical camera system of the 7000i has been integrated alongside a thermal imaging system into the new flagship of the MIC range, the MIC IP Fusion 9000i.

The first question I ask myself when looking at the 9000i on the balcony outside the Bosch Experience Centre at Baulkham Hills in Sydney’s is what’s different? Certainly, the appearance of the MIC 9000i is bulkier than the 7000i mounted beside it. The 9000i is taller and has wider shoulders to cater for optical and thermal camera systems. But it’s when you start mining the 9000i specifications list that the power and depth of this solution become apparent. The functionalities are deep and wide.

Starting with the optical side, Bosch has access to Sony’s latest ½.8-inch Exmor R CMOS sensor with a frame rate of 60ips and a display resolution of 1920 x 1080p. The motorised lens has auto focus and auto iris with manual override, while the 30x zoom has a focal range of 4.3-129mm and apertures of F1.6 at the short end and F4.7 at the long. The angle of view ranges from 63.7 to 6.3 degrees. There’s another 12x digital zoom on top for pixel peepers.

Day/night performance numbers are strong, with a minimum scene illumination of 0.0077 lux in colour and 0.0008 lux in monochrome. There’s fixed and auto gain control, 1/10,000 to 1 second electronic shutter, >55dB signal to noise ratio, auto IR cut filter, white balance range, from 2000-10,000 Kelvin with ATW, AWB Hold, Extended ATW, Manual, Sodium Lamp Auto and Sodium Lamp options, intelligent de-fog and a dynamic range of 120dB. Next comes thermal – a focal plane array uncooled vanadium oxide microbolometer with 640 x 480 pixels, a pixel pitch of 17 microns, a frame rate of <9 Hz, a lens focal length of 50mm at a fixed fast aperture of F1.2, giving an angle of view of 12.4 degrees wide x 9.3 degrees high. Spectral response is 8-14 microns, thermal sensitivity is <72mK at room temperature with noise reduction.

The 50mm thermal camera lens is factory-set to infinity with a focus distance of 84 metres suggesting a hyperfocal distance of around 40m.

There’s contrast enhancement, adjustable gain level, brightness level (cd/m), noise reduction and 12 selectable colour modes.

The 9000i has intelligent video analytics and can be set to global VCA or one of 16 profiles.

Compression and streaming options are H.265, H.264 (ISO/IEC 14496), MJPEG and JPEG at a range

W

Optical zoom – boom gate 150m from lens

Great reach, isn’t it.

of resolution settings. The data rate at H.265 1080p ranges from 61 kb/s to 2.8 Mb/s, while with H.264 the range is 9.6 kb/s to 6 Mb/s. There’s support for all expected network protocols, including some less common ones, as well as TLS 1.0, SSL, DES, 3DES, AES encryption and typical Bosch, the camera latency is in the spec – it’s 120ms at 30ips and 67ms at 60ips – both these numbers are very good.

There’s support for ONVIF Profile S, ONVIF Profile G, Auto-MDIX, Quality of Service (QoS), setup via Internet Explorer 7.0 or later, Bosch Configuration Manager, Bosch Video Management System (BVMS), Bosch Video Security Client (VSC), or support for third-party software, support for cloud-based services, time-based or alarm-based JPEG posting to 4 different accounts, which can be FTP servers, cloud-

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● Product review

Bosch IF AN EVENT IS DETECTED BUT IS NOT VISIBLE IN THE VIDEO STREAM BEING WATCHED, AN ALARM IS TRIGGERED AUTOMATICALLY...

Here’s the 50mm Thermal

Nice depth of field

Great depth of field

based storage facilities, email or SMS. Firmware updates can be handled over network using built-in web browser or the Bosch Configuration Manager and control interfaces include RS-485, simplex, half and full duplex, user-selectable baud rate or autobaud.

At this point the pressure is mounting to start cherry-picking specs for brevity but doing so is not easy. There’s Ethernet High PoE (95 W), RJ45 10/100Base-Tx, male connector, duplex audio with G.711 compression, AAC, and L16 (live and recording), audio signal-to-noise ratio of 47dB in and 50dB out.

The PT drive is brushless, pan range is 360-degrees of continuous rotation, there’s a tilt angle of 292 degrees, a tilt range of -56 to +90 degrees, a pan speed of 0.2 to 120 degrees per second, a tilt speed from 0.2 to 90 degrees per second, tracking speeds between 4-120 degrees, pre-set maximum speed of 120 degrees per second.

On the electrical side, the camera consumes 4A VAC or 1.5A High PoE at 72W with heater, defroster and fan operating. There’s built-in surge protection for power, data, and network interfaces. When it comes to alarm control you have rules-based logic that supports basic and complex predefined userspecified commands, monitoring of integrated sensors and monitoring of operational status such as internal temperature, humidity level, incoming voltage level, vibration, and shock events.

Video authentication options include watermark/MD5/SHA-1/SHA-256, 802.1x Network Authentication with EAP/TLS and support for TLS 1.2 with updated cipher suites including AES 256-bit encryption. There’s stamping of name, time, preposition title, sector title, compass/telemetry, lens zoom factor, alarm message, custom logo bitmap, 16GB of internal camera memory, 3-level password protection, HTTPS security with authenticated secure uploads, PKI support, SSL support, AES 128 support, 32 zones of privacy masking, 256 presets, 2x 30 minute programmable guard tours and 1 preset tour of up to 256 scenes consecutively, and 1 customized with up to 256 user-defined scenes.

The physical specifications are impressive, too. The cast aluminium unit has a chromatebased surface that’s powder-coated and sanded, a housing window of optical-grade borosilicate glass, a germanium thermal sensor, an integrated silicone wiper, an integrated fan and heater, and a defroster embedded in optical and thermal windows with deicing capability. Dimensions are 421 high x 298 wide x 181 mm deep and weight is 9kg – while the 9000i is larger than the 7000i, it’s still a very compact

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camera compared to its competitors.

The body offers IP68/Type 6P (dust and immersion) when installed on a MIC-DCA or on a MIC wall-mount, IP67 (moisture and dust) rating on connectors in the base of the camera when using the IP67 connector kit (MIC-9KIP67-5PK), which is also required when using non-Bosch mounts and IP66 (directed spray) when installed on a MIC-DCA or on a MIC wall-mount. There’s vandal resistance to IK10 (excluding windows) an operating temperature of -40 to 65C – good numbers, those. Wind loading is 160kmph sustained and 241kmph in gusts. The camera is vibration tested to IEC 60068-2-6, Test Fc: Vibration (sinusoidal), 10 m/s² (1g) and shock tested to IEC 60068-2-27.

TEST DRIVING THE BOSCH MIC FUSION 9000I It goes without saying that when it comes to perimeter detection there’s nothing like thermal - to have the ability to reach deep into a scene across hundreds, even thousands of metres of open space, and to nail intrusion is a quality no ground-based perimeter solution can match at such a low price.

Just trenching for the cabling would consume a comparable budget. And that’s the mindset you need to bring to the MIC Fusion 9000i. This is a compact perimeter detection and monitoring solution in a PTZ form factor with relentless optical performance supported by an always-on thermal alarm sensor.

The heart of the 9000i is the fusion of metadata from both optical and thermal systems. What is metadata fusion? Operationally, we are talking about video analytics that fuse data from the optical camera and thermal imager. The way Bosch’s Will Hasna explains it is that operationally, metadata fusion helps users notice things in a scene that need

Timelapse image of lake for comparison and iPhone shot of carpark.

attention. If an event is detected but is not visible in the video stream being watched, an alarm is triggered automatically, a coloured on-screen arrow points in the direction of the event for real time viewing, while users can click an alarm overlay box to watch the video recordings of an alarm event.

To unpick the notion of metadata fusion, consider that metadata is a set of data that describes other data, while fusion involves the melding of different elements of data into a whole. Typically, metadata fusion achieves this by identifying time-based metadata points that correlate between the camera systems, fusing them in software, then making them available for intuitive display via the management system. It’s cutting edge stuff from Bosch that allows the 9000i to enhance the performance of security operations by adding a proactive element – an everalert thermal sensor driving event activation which can be examined in detail using a powerful optical camera.

On top of metadata fusion, the 9000i includes

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● Product review

Optical zoom at 150m

Around 200m

More than 300m

Wide optical of close boom

Bosch intelligent video analytics which have been engineered to resist the usual false alarm triggers in tough environments – things like moving trees, reflections off water, snow and rain. But it also adds video analytics while the PTZ is moving to the optical side of the unit’s performance. An operator is alerted, and/or the camera’s intelligent tracking feature is triggered, when an object or person moves while the 9000i camera is panning, tilting or zooming.

According to Hasna, the MIC’s heritage is marine applications and over time its functionality has been enhanced to support industrial applications without ever comprising that original ruggedness.

If anything, the toughness has been enhanced.

“This camera is IP68-rated, vibration tested - it’s not belt-driven as many PT cameras are – so this camera does not miss a beat, even in wind gusts of 240kmph,” Hasna explains. “That’s the thing about the whole MIC series - robustness – not only the robustness of the housing but the mechanisms inside. The testing for vibration, the ASTM B117 salt spray test, the shaking test and all the rest – these tests are intense and the MIC just powers through them all.

“The other amazing thing about it is the detection range – you don’t want to think about thermal imaging as being an optical camera but as an intrusion detector. Application-wise you are thinking perimeter protection with a thermal camera - using it as a sensor alongside an optical camera is the great strength of the 9000i. The optics are great, the picture quality is excellent – bring in thermal, bring in fusion analytics and then the form factor and you have an extremely powerful surveillance tool at your disposal. We have people lined up wanting to test it – the Fusion 9000i is the type of camera that you need to test on your site.”

We’re conducting this test at the Bosch Experience Centre in Sydney and it’s a perfect application for a camera like this, with big and diverse scenes through 180-degrees. There’s a lake with pedestrians front and centre and on the left-hand side, while to the right there’s a busy hospital carpark with a perimeter road. There are multiple office towers and retail centres and in the far distance, there are major roads visible between buildings, behind them the layers of construction of the new rail line.

Through the test process we follow pedestrians, joggers, cyclists, a group exercising in the park, diners in restaurants, and visitors on foot and in cars moving around the adjacent hospital. There’s plenty of activity in the afternoon and into the night. It’s hard to be certain of the depth of field - it’s at least 300 metres to the far end of the lake but the overall scene is much deeper – in places the built horizon is pushing out to at least 1000m. During the day the image is first rate – we reach effortlessly into scenes, gathering face recognition, plates and situational awareness wherever we look.

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Something else worth pointing out is that this big scene with multiple selectable targets pushes us to examine multiple locations in depth – many of which ask for different settings and for different settings over time. The upshot is that viewing this camera at the Bosch Experience Centre with Hasna tweaking settings and the video analytics undertaking auto calibrations highlights the simplicity of its field operation. I see plenty of ability to duck and weave, which is instructive. A surveillance camera like this has enormous reserves of flexibility, making it ideal for applications with challenges that vary in real time.

“In this application I have a pre-set around a

Wide angle and wide open.

THIS CAMERA IS IP68-RATED, VIBRATION TESTED - IT’S NOT BELT-DRIVEN AS MANY PT CAMERAS ARE – SO THIS CAMERA DOES NOT MISS A BEAT, EVEN IN WIND GUSTS OF 240KMPH.

boom gate, so we can see the way thermal and optical work together,” Hasna explains, working away at the browser. “While the 50mm lens on the thermal camera is relatively wide, what happens is that metadata generated by an event shows on the other camera even if you’re not viewing thermal. What’s interesting about thermal is that although the angle of view is quite wide and the objects in the scene are small, the analytics are still capable of excellent performance – you get excellent detection over a very wide angle of view supported by a powerful optical PTZ camera. It’s a perfect combination for big, complex sites. The PTZ positioning never misses a beat.”

According to Hasna, he’s left settings at default on purpose because the complexity of the scene and our day-into-night time frame means dialling anything into settings is likely to help in one scene and detract in another. Regardless, performance is strong. I notice immediately that the PTZ is very fast to re-focus after pan and tilt movements, which is typical of Bosch cameras. We’re not using a joystick and twist control – that interface would make things much slicker than the mouse and qwerty controls Hasna is working with here.

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● Product review

Bosch

Will Hasna

EVEN AT THE END OF OUR TEST IN FULL DARK, WE’RE CLINGING TO GENERAL IDENTIFICATION AND SITUATIONAL AWARENESS AT HUNDREDS OF METRES. “The key thing with the Fusion 9000i is the metadata,” Hasna explains as he steers the 9000i across the lake and over towards the hospital carpark. “If you’re an operator you probably won’t have the thermal up all the time, you’ll be viewing optical image streams but there will always be metadata generated by the 2 cameras.

If you’re zoomed in optically and thermal picks up movement in its wider angle of view, then via metadata it will indicate that movement with the appearance of an arrow on the screen pointing in the direction of movement. This works even if no alarm rules are set but if they are set, then the movement indicating arrow will go red, highlighting an alarm event and its direction.”

So basically, the thermal side allows the camera to distil off-screen events for the operator?

“It gives them full situational awareness across the entire angle of view of the thermal camera, no matter what the focal length of the 30x optical camera is – no matter what the operator might be examining elsewhere,” Hasna explains.

Daytime performance stays very strong as light starts to fall, which is just as I expected. The scene really allows an operator to make the most of all the digital zoom, to take advantage of compression.

PTZ performance is rock solid and the autofocus charges along behind with virtually no latency at all. Such a rare, such a valuable quality. When it’s my turn to drive the 9000i in this big, darkening scene I go too deep with the optical zoom and get utterly lost – when we back out I find I was chasing

starlight - we can see it pulsing through the moving layers of Earth’s atmosphere.

Night performance as we go day into night is surprisingly good, given the enormity of the scene.

The transition is managed very nicely by the 9000i, with no sudden cross-over, no great loss of detail, colour, or the introduction of noise. Even at the end of our test in full dark, we’re clinging to general identification and situational awareness at hundreds of metres. Being out here on the balcony for more than an hour leading up to the point of darkness should have inured me to the 9000i’s performance but it hasn’t, and I keep finding myself re-impressed.

Something I notice at full zoom in full dark is that we don’t get moving plates on the dark-ish road past the hospital carpark and there’s some amplification noise as the aperture closes but there’s still huge detail, although the range is over 150m. Hasna says it’s possible to reduce amplification noise in settings but I’m ok with amplifcation noise if it gets the details I need by contriving to display tonal variations. It was Sony’s SNC VB770 that changed my mind about noise – yes, there’s noise but there’s a face. Give me more noise!

Regardless, it’s worth pointing out most cameras can’t do as well at 12m as the 9000i can at full zoom. At a range of around 125m at night we go for the plate of a car at the boom gate and as we watch a second car drives up behind the first and the powerful reflection from the headlights, combined with the dark background, causes overexposure that denies us our plate. At the same time, I can see a tiny 94.5FM sticker on the first car’s bumper.

When the second car gets to the boom gate, we get the plate, easily. Then we try with oncoming traffic and get a Kia number plate coming into the carpark with its headlights on.

Every environment poses challenges that no camera can overcome – thick shrubs and trees that thermal cannot penetrate - but combining thermal and optical in a powerful form factor like this one

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Managing the 9000i is easy to do

Synthesis of images

Caprpark wide

Carpark mid tele

is a winner. Anything warm the thermal camera is pointed at we can see. The size of the scene and its dark holes have us conjecturing over passive light sources like white painted half-walls and planter pots, even white painted patches on pavement that would serve to reflect some of the existing ambient one-directional floodlight back up at faces that are darkened by backlighting and unlit thanks to the dark expanse of the lake.

We spend plenty of time looking at thermal performance – you swap from thermal to optical with a mouse-click selection. The 50mm lens is surprisingly wide in a scene this deep and with a mounting point so high you get surprising levels of detail. Something else that’s sweet is the way the pan and tilt works with the fixed 50mm lens – the hyperfocal distance is not an issue with a thermal camera. Everything we view seems in focus from front to back all the time and you move this relatively wide angle of view around the big scene always in focus. It’s possible to tell details like clothing, gender, gait in the hospital carpark at around 100m using thermal.

During SecTech Camera Shootout we saw much the same performance from the 9000i.

The thermal component acted as a front-to-back sensor, missing nothing through a depth of field of 250m, from one side of the long street to the other.

Combined with metadata fusion, this capability means the camera can alert an operator to any movement it sees in a scene that might be missed, no matter how slight. An intruder moving from one bush to another, a jogger who falls, the arm of a hidden smoker poking out from behind a cement pillar. Viewing the hospital carpark, it’s also interesting to see the heat retention in cars that have been parked recently or that have been sitting all day. Of course, another benefit of thermal is no-light ability and the fact it can penetrate smoke, dust and fog.

According to Hasna, typical applications for MIC 9000 vary but they tend to be large.

“Ports, airports, mines, corrections, defence, solar farms are very big – they incorporate long distances and require perimeter protection – the camera as a detector – those are the sorts of sites that will get real value for money from the Mic Fusion 9000i,” he says. “Any manned control room can be certain that this camera will ensure operators never miss an intrusion visible to the thermal imager in its field of view, whether or not they are looking at the monitor, or have selected that same angle of view for optical monitoring.”

Bosch’s MIC IP Fusion 9000i PTZ is a special surveillance solution that isn’t just designed to deliver operators the best optical camera and the best thermal imaging performance possible in a given application. It goes further, leveraging cutting edge analytics that turn the 9000i into a proactive partner for operators working serious security applications in the toughest environments. n

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● Regulars

Products

Editor’s choice INNER RANGE ANNOUNCES DEEPER INTEGRATION TO MOBOTIX l INNER Range reports that the integration plugin for the

Mobotix range of cameras has had significant improvements, as part of the company’s quest to provide customers deeper and more intuitive integrations.

The features now incorporated into Inner Range’s Mobotix integration including bi-directional audio streaming alongside the video stream, which allows the audio to be listened to through the Integriti software and audio can be sent to the speakers of other Mobotix cameras, directly from the Integriti client allowing an operator to interact with people in proximity of the camera.

There’s relay control commands allowing the output state of the relays on a supported Mobotix camera to be activated through Integriti Software, and there’s camera event monitoring has been added to give the end user the capability to search and review camera events based on event type, for instance, a motion event or a line-crossing event.

What’s new in the industry.

2GIG DUAL-SOURCE WATER LEAK DETECTOR l 2GIG, locally distributed by QSS, has unveiled a dual source water leak detector designed to be located under a water source that sends notifications to a homeowner’s smartphone or security panel if water is detected. Transmitting wirelessly at 345MHz and compatible with 2GIG and Honeywell systems, the simple installation requires no tools. The Water Leak Detector is part of the new 2GIG Notification Sensors line, which adds multiple touch points to the 2GIG system and allows dealers to personalize security system features, improving customer satisfaction and retention.

The 2GIG sensor line includes the Stove & Grill Guard, the first stove and grill sensor that sends a customizable notification to a homeowner’s smartphone or control panel when a grill or stove knob is turned from the off position.

Distributor: QSS Contact: +61 3 9646 9016

Distributor: Central Security Distribution Contact: 1300 319 499

ISONAS INTEGRATES WITH GENETEC FOR ACCESS CONTROL SOLUTION

HIKVISION ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAMERAS

l ISONAS reports it has partnered with Genetec for a technology integration that it claims will drive the access control market to the next level. Users will be able to pair the simplicity of the ISONAS Pure IP hardware with the enterprise functionality of the Genetec Security Center unified security platform, according to the company.

The open architecture of Security Center unifies IP-based video surveillance, access control and automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) allowing customers to manage their platform all from a single interface. By collaborating with Genetec, ISONAS says customers will be able to utilize the RC-04 family of hardware, which features Bluetooth(R) Low Energy(BLE) capability and allows for the use of a smartphone as a user’s credential.

“The Security Center Synergis access control system gives customers great flexibility to choose the hardware that best meets the unique physical security needs of their organization,” says François Brouillet, access control product manager at Genetec.

l HIKVISION’S new 7-line Series harnesses the power of Hikvision’s Deep Learning AI solution, and in conjunction with Hikvision’s Deep in Mind network video recorder, offers facial capture, human body detection, ANPR, heat mapping and queue management in real-time. This series incorporates Darkfighter technology with WDR capabilities of 140dB! In this range we find specialized cameras for behavioral analysis, Face Recognition, People Counting, 360 Target Capture and tracking with full body, dome, anti-corrosion and bullet form factors. Supporting H.265 and H.265+ compression, these new cameras decrease the load on networking infrastructure and reduce storage requirements. Hikvision says it is leading the market in AI and these cameras are the next step in providing actionable video content and analysis for all market verticals.

Distributor: Central Security Distribution Contact: 1300 319 499

Distributor: Hills Contact: 1800 685 487

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CSM DISTRIBUTING CROW RUNNER CONTROL KITS l CSM is offering customers Crow Runner Control kits including up to 16 sensors, 8 control functions, optional smartphone upgrade and a 5-year Alarm Return to Base Warranty.

There’s a stylish 5-inch touch keypad available in white or black and 2 PIRs and accessories complete the user-friendly kit.

Starting as an effective, basic security system for residential or commercial installations, Runner Control is expandable to cater to the highest level of security demands.

Distributor: Consolidated Security Merchants Contact: 1300 663 904

VIVOTEK MS9390-HV MULTI-SENSOR CAMERA l VIVOTEK launches a brand new and even more efficient multi-sensor camera. The MS9390-HV, with its dual 4MP wide-angle lens design, is unlike most traditional multi-sensor panoramic cameras which rely on 4 sensors. Featuring video alignment, providing users both a detailed and yet seamless 180-degree panoramic view and a higher vertical field of view.

This newly-released multi-sensor dome camera is also equipped with SNV (Supreme Night Visibility), WDR Pro technology, 180-degree IR illuminators effective up to 20 metres, making it the ideal camera to provide excellent panoramic image quality for both day and night surveillance.

Distributor: SensaTek Contact: 1300 560 026

CSD RELEASES MANAGED PORTAL FOR HID’S MOBILE ACCESS l CSD has now released its own HID mobile credential portal, allowing mobile access credentials to be ordered in quantities as small as 10. According to CSD, this removes all restrictions smaller sites previously encountered and HID mobile access is now reachable and affordable for all applications.

HID mobile credentials are installed on to the user’s mobile phone allowing for easy on-the-go access, where you no longer require a physical card for user access you simply utilise the patented, HID, gesture technology that allows for door and gate access with a twist of the mobile handset. HID Mobile Access is compatible with iCLASS SE or multiCLASS SE mobileenabled readers.

Distributor: Central Security Distribution Contact: 1300 319 499

HANWHA TECHWIN LAUNCHES 2MP, 4MP FLATEYE IR CAMERAS l GLOBAL electronic security manufacturer Hanwha Techwin, distributed locally by EOS Australia, has released 2 types of 2MP and 4MP (QNE-6080RV, QNE-7080RV) Flateye IR cameras.

The newly-released Flateye camera uses a flat lens that doesn’t need a dome cap. The best feature of this new camera is that it reduces IR diffused reflection, which scatters light, and solves the moisture problem caused by temperature differences.

As there is no dome cap, it eliminates the problem of the view being obscured by external contamination or scratching. Faster installation is also possible since there is no need to remove and mount a dome cap.

The new product is equipped with a 3.1x (3.2 – 10mm) motorized variable focus lens, which allows wide-angle monitoring. Its IR function ensures object recognition up to 30m at night. It ensures clear video in adverse air conditions such as mist and smog by implementing defocus detection, lens distortion correction (LDC), and WDR 120dB for clear and detailed video monitoring and fog correction. Hallway view allows monitoring of narrow and long spaces.

Distributor: EOS Australia Pty Ltd Contact: +61 2 9749 5888

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● Regulars

Help desk ■ Below are the approximate recommendations for rest times (complete rest, that is) between sets according to your goal, per the National Streng th and Conditioning Association (NSCA). *Note that since fat loss depends primarily on diet, there is no official rest-period prescription for it, although we feel that both short and long rests work, depending on the program.

Q: We’re interested in installing a multi-head camera which gives us 360-degree surveillance but we want faces out to 20 metres, hopefully more. Could you advise if this sort of camera is better than multiple cameras in terms of raw performance – resolution?

The models we are looking at are relatively expensive in hardware cost, even though it evens out when you take the reduction in installation costs into account.

What do you think?

A: These observations are general and should not be considered as pertinent to every multi-head camera. Bear in mind that a 360-degree camera will comprise 4 camera heads. Typically, each of the system’s 1/3rd-inch camera sensors will have a resolution of 1080p and be fitted with a short focal length lens delivering 90-degree angles of view replete with barrel distortion and pixel spread.

The issue here is not so much performance as expectation. A third-inch 1080p sensor fronted by a lens focal length of 2.8mm will give 90-degree coverage that’s 50 metres wide and 23 metres high when depth of field is 25 metres, delivering 38 pixels per metre. If you have a depth of field of 50 metres, your view width might increase to more than 100 metres, but your pixel spread will blow out to 19 pixels per metre.

For identification of a face in good

Our panel of experts answers your questions.

light the face alone needs to be 20 pixels across and if you want court admissible evidence, you’re going to be wanting the face to be around 40 pixels wide. Given a typical face is only 0.13m wide, you’re going to need more than 200 pixels per metre to get the required resolution if the subject is around 4 metres from a 2.8mm lens on a one-third inch 1080p camera. At 20 metres, you’ll get useful details but not faces.

Multi-head cameras are designed for situational awareness – they allow you to track events across a very large area, but they must be supported by higher resolution cameras – or cameras with longer focal lengths that limit pixel spread at choke points if you need faces. That’s 6-8mm focal lengths at 10-12m at a resolution of 1080p, perhaps a little longer if you need faces at 20m.

Something else to be aware of is that some 360-degree units have 720p camera heads combined with 2.8mm lenses. This combination is useful, and it certainly poses the lowest possible network load to the single PoE port supporting the overall camera system, but you have to install it sympathetically. Depth of field will be an issue and don’t expect ‘crystal clear’ images on digital zoom because you won’t get them.

The best option is to have a supplier install a 360-degree camera on your client’s site and let the security team work with it for a week or 2. Security officers in the control room of a busy and complex site will gauge the effectiveness of combo solutions like

this very quickly. I’d be listening to those opinions if face recognition at 20 metres through 360 degrees is more important to your client than saving money.

Q: I’m an integrator who has purchased several all-in-one solar powered camera poles only to find it is impossible to expand the generation and storage capabilities of these devices to support an additional camera without installing yet another pole in series with the first. The solution can support a single camera in ideal conditions but if the weather is cloudy over a couple of days, then it will fail. More than anything, I want to alert other integrators to the challenges of these sorts of systems. You need to be sure of your overall equation when you choose solar and you need to be certain the solution you recommend to your client has the capacity to expand the size of solar panels, as well as batteries, to cover those times when weather is inclement. In Queensland, that’s not going to be so often, but in places like Victoria, Tasmania, New Zealand – you need to make thoughtful choices and have the support of a supplier prepared to stand by its performance claims.

A: Solar applications can be difficult. Overspecifying in all directions is likely to be the key to best performance 365 days a year but you need clear communication from your provider in order to get an idea of potential. You want the ability to expand

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IF YOU HAVE YOUR REQUIRED ANGLE AND HEIGHT OF VIEW, YOU CAN FOREGO OTHER PARTS OF THE SCENE IN THE INTERESTS OF ELIMINATING SERIOUS INTERNAL REFLECTIONS. the capacity of the system, enabling it to carry more or larger batteries offering more amp hours, you need the ability to grow panel numbers, or to upgrade to a larger panel size whenever required. You want panels with standard weatherproof screw-in connections and junction boxes rated to IP65 at a minimum.

Small scale solar is not rocket science and once the core of the system is installed, including an appropriate regulator, things like battery and panel capacity should be malleable on the fly. Something else worth mentioning is that solar panels are becoming more efficient, less expensive and more compact for a given output all the time. You want to be able to offer your client these performance enhancements moving forward. As you point out, should you go with a customised solution that has less flexibility in this regard – some street furniture has an emphasis on form – then you need to be aware of all your options in advance for the sake of your client and your reputation as a solutions provider.

Q: We have a camera in an exposed location which has a sunshade but in winter the sun gets low enough on the horizon that it causes intense internal reflections for a busy hour in the afternoon when we need perfect coverage. We’ve tried tweaking the camera angle slightly, but we need that wide view for our quadrangle

application. Moving the camera would be an expensive option, too.

There’s no trenching or power on the opposite site and it might also move our problem from the afternoon to the morning. What are your feelings about this – what could we do that’s easy and affordable that will resolve the issue?

A: It sounds like the integrated sunshade is too short – they all are. Integrated sunshades also tend to be too close to the lens – too low. This means as they extend they extend into the field of view. But this latter point might provide a solution. You’ll need to experiment with this, but we’d be thinking about a sunshade that was considerably longer yet elevated above the lens, allowing it to extend further before intruding into the scene. You don’t mention it but something else to ponder is the amount of sky in the frame. If you have your required angle and height of view, you can forego other parts of the scene in the interests of eliminating serious internal reflections. You probably don’t need walls, windows, trees, sky.

slotting the cable ends into termination blocks, soldering multiple fine wires into a composite solid makes them less likely to be squeezed to one side as the termination screw is tightened, less likely to form a weak join that can be shaken free by vibration, less likely have stray wires likely to create a short, and less likely to corrode and add resistance to a circuit. You must be certain your soldered wire ends will fit into termination blocks, however, so go easy on the tinning.

Crimping is a bit different. Typically, you are not going to need to crimp cable connectors onto wires to serve alarm and I/O termination blocks, but it will still be preferable to solder the hair-fine wires that comprise a required strand into a single contact before you crimp connectors in other electronic security applications where this is applicable, such as ground and battery connections.

You can see the common thread here.

Most low voltage electrical circuits include pressure terminations and connections.

These are fiddly and unpredictable, even for experienced techs. Core strands are so fine that even stripping them can be a fraught process, let alone trying to poke them into a connector and hold them in perfect position while applying pressure at the correct crimp diameter – some fine electrical work requires 3 hands. How many of us have built electrical circuits that include twisted wire pressure terminations of doubtful quality? How good were our connections and what was our procedure for testing that quality? For most of us, the acid test was a gentle tug just to be sure the wire was not going to fall out the moment we turned our back. The bottom line is that you can’t be sure all the wires of a given strand are in contact with the termination screw unless you solder. n

Q: Would you recommend soldering the termination wires of 7-strand, 4-core cable, or is it acceptable to crimp or just twist/fold wires, then tighten termination screws?

A: It seems there are a couple of questions here. Soldered wire terminations are best practise. Even if all you’re doing is

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A MESSAGE FROM THE FUTURE

AUGUST 2018 ISSUE 401

events

PP 100001158

Secutech Thailand

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l Seadan Security Electronics & Sprint Acquired By MML l ISCS Appoints James Macrae As National Sales Manager l Vin Lopes Leaves Inner Range CSD Group l Alarm Panels: Best of the Best l New Products at Security 2018 l Cyber Attacks on CCTV Systems l Charlestown Shopping Centre l Alarm monitoring: The Ties That Bind l News Report: Facial Reconstruction l The Interview: Dominic Campagna, ECS l Product Review: Bosch MIC IP Fusion 9000i

Dates: November 8-10, 2018 Venues: Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Center Contact: +886 2 8729 1099 Secutech Thailand is a premier platform to showcase the latest innovations and build up strategic partnerships with the supply chains of security, smart home and fire and safety products.

SECURITY & GOVERNMENT EXPO

+

Security and Government Expo 2018

Date: November 2018 Venue: The Realm Hotel, Canberra Contact: Monique +61 2 9280 4425 Security and Government Expo is a one-day expo with over 30 companies promoting their technologies and products in the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capital. SAGE brings together government and commercial end users, consultants, integrators and installers in Canberra and the ACT to see the latest security solutions in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

ISC West Dates: April 9-11, 2019 Venue: Sands Expo, Las Vegas, NV, USA Contact: Outside the US call +1 203 840 5602 or email inquiry@isc.reedexpo.com ISC West is the largest security industry trade show in the U.S. allowing you to network with more than 30,000 security professionals, with technology encompassing everything from access control to unmanned vehicles from more than 1000 manufacturers and distributors.

Security 2019 Exhibition & Conference

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Date: July 24-26, 2019 Venue: International Convention Centre, Sydney Contact: +61 3 9261 4662 Security Exhibition & Conference offers Australia's largest showcase of cutting-edge security technologies from more than 150 exhibitors.

DAILY, WEEKLY, MONTHLY.

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Make security an asset not a burden Galaxy Dimension is a versatile high security solution that seamlessly merges intruder and access control functions.

In Galaxy Dimension, Honeywell offers you a security solution that you can trust. It protects simply and effectively- becoming an asset, not a burden, to your business.

Look to the future with Galaxy Dimension • Fifty years industry experience • Proven Galaxy® technology • Flexibility for all your high end residential and business needs • Compatibility to bring your existing systems into the future

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RACKS

DESIGNED DESIGNED AND AND MANUFACTURED MANUFACTURED TO TO MEET MEET THE THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE AUSTRALIAN SECURITY INDUSTRY. REQUIREMENTS OF THE AUSTRALIAN SECURITY INDUSTRY.

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