Avigilon Blue and the Case for Upgrading Existing Systems

Many organizations keep regular schedules of refresh for  their security technologies where they replace old equipment on a set schedule, often somewhere in the 3 to 5 year range. Some choose to keep their tech through its full  usable life. In these cases, this life cycle may extend beyond warranty for the involved hardware products and past the support timeline for related software. Maintaining a balance for hardware and software upgrades is critical for keeping security threats in check and ensuring utility of security solutions. One of the most robust, nearly plug-and-play options for bringing existing infrastructure into the modern day is Avigilon’s Blue cloud-based analytics platform, which offers incredible value relative to its cost.

Avigilon Blue centers around a small piece of hardware that integrates with existing cameras while also enabling the customer to add new services and expand the platform in the future. The device is powered by Microsoft Azure to leverage cloud services deployed through a global network of trusted datacenters. The on-premise Avigilon Blue Connect device can be deployed within a day to store all video locally while also sending the data to the cloud for analytics processing. The solution offers access to Avigilon’s Subscription Center for real-time account and subscriber information and features an effortless dashboard for quick identification of trends and system behaviors. This allows isolation of issues without the need to dispatch personnel to affected sites.

Alarm notifications are analytics-based and the platform supports both Avigilon and ONVIF compliant cameras to generate real-time alarms pushed to desktops and mobile devices. The central appeal of Blue is how quickly it allows you to scale up security operations across multiple sites, in addition to the ease with which it allows takeover of existing cameras all with fewer resources and at a lower cost than the competition. Camera and system settings are adjusted remotely, with upgrades and system health checks all performed without deploying a technician.

Blue offers up to 12 TB of on-site storage which allows it to record around 30 days of HD video in addition to pushing  data to the cloud to perform analytics operations. All connected cameras stream to the cloud service platform for self-learning video analytics, but use only minimal bandwidth for this task with just 10-second analytics clips pushed to the cloud. These values are based on a standard 2MP/30 fps video stream, with Blue coming in two models; a 16-channel device ( recording at 196 Mbps) to 12TB onboard storage and an 8-port device (recording at 120 Mbps) to 8TB onboard storage.

Avigilon has also given much consideration to data security, as communication is protected by 256-bit AES encryption (typical of industry leading VPN services) with controlled key management. Various encryption models are used during data in transport and at rest, and no ports are left insecure. Data storage is also redundant locally and across data centers to eliminate the risk of data loss.

The platform is scalable from just a single camera all the way up to 33+ devices and allows for unlimited user accounts. Multiple subscription plans are available for the service, with upgrades easily performed alongside growth of the business the system is protecting. All built-in ports are PoE+ and support third-party devices (ONVIF-compliant).

 

 

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 or call 24/7        (210)-446-4863

Why Thermal Imaging?

 

 

Thermal Imaging

Once solely the province of police and military units, thermal imaging technology has seen a rapid adoption by the commercial security industry in the last decade. Thermal cameras give us the ability to see what our eyes cannot, and provide data that would never be available to analytics software with traditional devices.

Through imaging of invisible heat radiation given off by any object absorbing and reflecting light, irrespective of lighting conditions, these cameras allow us to see not just into dark rooms and outdoors at night, but also through foliage and semi-permeable objects such as netting and meshes.

As security cameras have become the staple for protection of property and personnel across every industry, the demand for better and more varied methods to produce high quality imaging in any setting has grown.

Thermal imaging cameras offer the best protection in conditions traditionally considered challenging:

.Work in the darkest of low-light scenarios

.Can see through foliage at night

.Are immune to visual limitations

.Produce fewer false alarms

.Work well in tandem with conventional high definition IP cameras

How Thermography Works

Thermographic or Infrared (IR) cameras create images using IR radiation as apposed to the visible light used in conventional cameras. Basically, what this means is that they are able to “see” heat as it radiates from an object and then display the differences in heat within its picture as various shades of grey in black and white video. Thermal cameras are therefore able to see through objects when a heat source is inside, require no light, and are not affected by things like smoke or dust.

Thermal cameras can be used to great effect in outdoor and low-zero light settings. This makes them particularly easy to camouflage, if desired. In many cases an IR camera could be used entirely in place of a traditional one, especially if it is being used to trigger an alarm and not just for surveillance.
IR is something that can be integrated into existing systems. It is especially helpful in analytics due to its ability to generate high contrast images.

The high-contrast, black and white images provide another metric in an entirely different spectrum of light for the algorithm of the analytics software to perform its operations on.

Analytics is already used to similar effect in systems with conventional cameras only, but being able to match heat signature against already existing video analytics creates a more robust and reliable overall surveillance operation.
Most importantly, a system can be set up to trigger only on the heat signature of a person, whereas the heat signature of an animal would be ignored.

To learn more about how thermal imaging cameras can help protect your commercial facility, please contact:

Security Technology of South Texas, Inc. at 210-446-4863

or email admin@gostst.com

Source: FLIR.com

Security Drones Out in Force with NYPD

29 officers have been trained and licensed to operate 14 drones for the NYPD in a unit known as the Technical Assistance Response Unit. These drones will perform a wide variety of tasks such as monitoring both vehicle and pedestrian traffic, surveilling large events, search and rescue, and assisting in other miscellaneous emergencies. It has been a little while since we looked at the emerging market for security drones. It is still true that security drones require human pilots to be effective in a police force, and it is worth clarifying that these UAVs are not autonomous.

The idea is for the drones to act as an advanced party to a crime or emergency scene. Drones having eyes on the situation first gives incident commanders the chance to see what they are getting into before they jump into danger. Unlike in China, where drones disguised as doves watch every living thing in Beijing, these 19 drones will not be used to perform warrantless surveillance, though many still suspect misuse to occur anyway.

Two of the drones are quadcopters with zoom-in cameras and thermal imaging capabilities. The remaining drones are smaller, with one being relegated to training purposes. NYPD has said that these drones are for special situations and not for routine patrol or for use in traffic enforcement. They also claim they will never attach weapons to these machines or use the drones themselves as weapons. Whether or not that is a promise that sticks remains to be seen.

Drone use by police is certainly not new and not just for big city departments anymore. The Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College has shown over 900 law enforcement agencies with deployed drones at the time of their study. However, that scale of drone surveillance still pales in comparison to what China is executing, and for that we should probably be grateful.

 

Security Technology of South is proud to offer integration of security services and custom solutions for any and all security needs.

Please contact us through email at admin@gostst.com on our website or via phone at 210-446-4863 24/7

Avigilon Announces Their Next Generation of Advanced AI Cameras

Avigilon has recently announced what they call a “next generation” AI capable camera system. Called the “H5 Smart Camera”, this technology makes use of Deep Neural Networks built into the devices themselves to provide the ability to learn, detect, and notify for events requiring investigation. So called “deep learning” or “deep neural networks” are the same type of AI tech used in the AI operations of companies like Google and Amazon. Deep learning AI works by sorting through massive amounts of data, the more the better, and modifying its own code based on what the program sees. Google’s “Watson” is a famous example of this kind of software, and gained public exposure when it defeated the world’s top player of “Jeopardy”. Deep learning was also used in the software that established computer’s as the top “players” of Go, a chess-like strategy game which is well known for its highly technical play and difficulty.

Avigilon is working with Intel, a leader in the emerging AI marketplace. Intel’s “Movidius” VPUs allow for power-efficient acceleration of hardware in deep neural networks. These networks are inspired by and in some ways modeled from the way that biological systems (brains and central nervous systems) process and interpret information. Intel believes this technology will “usher in a new generation of video analytics capabilities with deep learning approaches” (avigilon.com). The H5 camera line uses these AI facilities to develop more sophisticated event detection and automatic notifications. The cameras are to be displayed at the Global Security Exchange conference of 2018 in Las Vegas, and are expected to be launched into the market in 2019.

This is the focus that Avigilon has had in the industry for a while already and they have analytics systems available now. Yet as technology marches up an accelerating curve in processing power, we can expect more and more functionality in all AI systems to come. AI itself is a fascinating technology that we have looked at in more detail in previous articles, and is expected to radically change the markets in almost every industry and the global economy as a whole.

Security Technology of South Texas is an authorized integrator for Avigilon systems and has designed systems with this kind of functionality. Avigilon analytics is particularly useful in enterprise scale operations, school and college campuses, as well as car dealerships or any other large property where tight security is necessary. Please contact us at  admin@gostst.com on our website or via phone at  210-446-4863   24/7.

Source: Avigilon.com