FMJ.CO.UK SECURITY TECHNOLOGY FEATURE
OCTOBER 2021 41
Many organisation’s o ices, manufacturing facilities and
warehouses operated with significantly reduced numbers
of sta during the pandemic. This meant the need for remote
monitoring and remote management of facilities increased. But
now that more CCTV systems are on the network (and perhaps in
the future even in the cloud), it’s possible for these cameras to
be accessed by middle and senior managers to track operational
activities via the internet from their home o ice.
In a NW Security Group England-wide study carried out earlier this year,
a third of construction firms anticipated CCTV systems being used for
remote management more than before/pre-pandemic, and 28 per cent
of all firms with over £10 million turnover anticipated wider use of CCTV
cameras for remote monitoring this year.
Another consideration for those running CCTV systems is the increasing
potential of unlocking additional operational value by integrating CCTV
with other building management systems already on the network.
Firms are actively exploring tighter integration of CCTV systems with
access control, fire and intruder alarm systems for example. However,
when considering tighter integration, it’s worth thinking first about which
operational requirement is demanding it, if any.
POWER OF THE CLOUD
We also researched medium and large-sized firms running CCTV systems
throughout the country to gauge their appetite for migrating the
management of CCTV systems into the cloud. We found well over half (58
per cent) of UK companies were planning cloud migration of their video
security systems this year.
In some hotspot sectors the numbers are even higher: take the
wholesale distribution and retail sectors where 80 per cent are planning
CCTV system migration into the cloud during 2021; or manufacturers
– where 78 per cent were already migrating or planning CCTV system
migration into the cloud this year.
Cloud migration projects present huge opportunities for FM firms to
o„ er advice, IT capabilities and ultimately enhanced remote monitoring
capabilities if they have the skills or partnerships to deliver advice and
capabilities.
CCTV FOR COVID SAFETY
Also stimulated by the pandemic, there has been an increased demand
for the addition of facial recognition video analytics to premises’ CCTV
cameras to enable contactless access control as building managers
strove to reduce high usage touchpoints such as access control card
pads which could stimulate increased transmission of COVID-19. Over
half (52 per cent) of the businesses told us they were exploring use of
cameras to identify and automatically provide access to employees and
pre-registered visitors. In fact, half of medium and large-sized businesses
across England are already exploring the use of video analytics in their
existing cameras to manage social distancing in o„ ices and 48 per cent
are going further to deploy directional detection analytics to enforce oneway
systems and the use of specific doors for entering and exiting. Others
are using cameras for mask detection and (less successfully) temperature
checking at entrances.
VIDEO ANALYTICS
We are also seeing an explosion of other video analytics o„ erings, many
of which can be uploaded into some of the later network cameras. This
can add new functionality to existing devices – thereby upgrading their
functionality with relatively little capital expenditure.
However, here too it’s worth talking to a specialist security systems
installer as, if you are not careful, badly configured video analytics
so¬ ware could actually increase false alerts which will itself create an
additional drain on security management resources. We looked into this
problem in a second study of businesses with CCTV systems which we
ran in May 2021 and found that 93 per cent of firms reported excess false
alarms coming from their CCTV systems. Over a quarter (27 per cent)
attributed these false alerts to incorrectly specified and configured
video analytics so¬ ware. A further 29 per cent blamed excess false alerts
on poor lighting of cameras and 41 per cent blamed their false alerts
simply on obstructions on their CCTV cameras including dirt and
spider’s webs.
The irony is that much of the new video analytics, if deployed
judiciously and configured correctly, should reduce false alerts in
monitoring centres considerably. More than that, they should help you
detect threats that you’d otherwise miss, as well as tighten security and
o„ er multiple non-security operational benefits.
SPECIALIST OUTSOURCING
As new cyber threats increase, the stakes associated with cyber breaches
and the dangers of GDPR non-compliance are pushing visibility on risk
exposures in these areas right up to board level. In reaching the attention
of the board, we also found there was a growing propensity for larger
companies to outsource the monitoring and management of video
surveillance systems to manage those risks better.
Our study found that 29 per cent of medium and large-sized businesses
have already fully outsourced CCTV monitoring and management and
one in 10 companies now have a declared policy of working with an
external partner in this area. Here too, FM providers have an opportunity
to lead these discussions going on at the highest levels of their customerbase.
It’s clear there is a huge opportunity to deliver additional value for FM
security providers from helping their customers to upgrade and manage
their CCTV systems.
We specifically asked what were the top three skills which businesses
were looking for from any outsourced security provider today? The
answer in order came:
43 per cent demand 24/7/365 helpdesk facility to support CCTV
systems
38 per cent would select an outsourced partner based on evidence of
CCTV & network video surveillance capabilities and pedigree
32 per cent want to see Cloud CCTV migration knowledge and
experience.
Finally, it’s clear from our findings that strong abilities in helping them
to deploy video analytics o„ erings to reduce false alerts, increase
e„ iciencies, and unlock new capabilities is rapidly becoming the 4th key
criteria for selection.
OUTSOURCING ADOPTION EDGE
What’s also noticeable is that firms which have retained CCTV system
management in-house are not deploying major video analytics in their
security systems as quickly as those with an outside expert on board.
For example, 62 per cent of firms with external support had successfully
deployed ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) across their
CCTV system, whereas that number was much lower at 48 per cent ANPR
analytics adoption for in-house managed systems.
Adoption of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) video analytics,
o¬ en used to track deliveries and goods pallet movements in and out
of warehouses, is deployed in 62 per cent of firms where an outsourced
security partner is on board and only in 41 per cent of firms which still run
all security systems in-house.
Many CCTV systems operating inside commercial premises are ripe for
major upgrades over the next few years, o„ ering a huge opportunity to
add value by making systems improvements that deliver new business
intelligence and an array of operational benefits.
The survey confirms the importance of outsourcing to the experts in
order to ensure a successful CCTV System upgrade.