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Hikvision ColorVu Cameras – Capture Vivid Chromatic Images in Darkness

Around 11 p.m., police got an emergency call and rushed to the scene. An assault had happened in a park. According to the victim, the attacker looked like a beggar in ragged clothes and smelling of alcohol. The victim was heading home from the park at the time of the incident, when the attacker suddenly ran out of nowhere and attacked her, took her purse, and fled. The police investigated the scene but found no useful information about the attacker. Because it happened at night, the security cameras in the neighbourhood could not effectively record any usable footage. When reviewing the surveillance video, the image was blurry and full of visual noise, which is bad for detection.

Neighbourhood parks should be a peaceful place where you can take a break from the hustle and noise of the city. However, an urban park at night is often synonymous with danger. At night, passersby have to be vigilant to stay safe. Although security camera systems are becoming more commonplace in urban parks in recent years, there are still many security requirements that cannot yet be met, such as high-resolution night vision and recording in colour.

Today, to effectively solve this problem, cameras equipped with Hikvision ColorVu Technology extend and enhance surveillance capabilities into the dark, lifting the cover of night to capture vivid chromatic images – leading to the prosecution of criminals like the one described above and ultimately enhancing safety.

As a video surveillance manufacturer, Hikvision has long developed products equipped with innovative new features based on video surveillance technologies that have been refined and improved over previous decades.

Hikvision ColorVu Cameras’ powerful ability to capture details in low lighting comes from two specific breakthroughs in hardware technologies: advanced lenses and high-sensitivity sensors. In contrast to conventional lenses, ColorVu lenses are equipped with a super-aperture, reaching up to F1.0, which allows more light to enter the lens so that imaging brightness can be increased.

Hikvision ColorVu Camera lenses also feature Broad-Band Anti-Reflection (BBAR) Coating and Extra-Low Dispersion (ED) Optical glass, to reduce light flare and efficiently reproduce an image’s sharpness and colour saturation. These technologies effectively overcome the kind of key information that gets blocked by a light flare.

The ColorVu Cameras’ high-sensitivity is designed for surveillance applications where high resolution colour images are required even in ultra-low light environments. Hikvision ColorVu Cameras sensors demonstrate an extraordinary photovoltaic conversion efficiency. They employ an advanced sensor technology – a new light-collection structure that vastly improves the utilisation of light. Tests show ColorVu cameras continually provide colourful, sharp images right down to the lowest light levels. At the same time, their self-adapting 3D DNR algorithm on ISP guarantees high imaging quality.

In addition, extreme light conditions are taken into consideration in the design process. ColorVu cameras are equipped with warm supplemental light, so when there is no light source whatsoever – even starlight or street lights – they can guarantee colourful imaging. This feature provides environmentally friendly, soft, warm lighting, reducing any harsh discolouration of the object being illuminated.

As a result, Hikvision ColorVu Cameras provide bright colour video images 24/7 in low illumination conditions. They excel at capturing vivid chromatic images in a multitude of application scenarios, such as public places with no lighting, night security at industrial parks, traffic intersections in low light environments, and many more – everywhere colour information is particularly important.

As an example, in general, license plate information of a suspect’s vehicle is crucial in traffic accident investigation. However, when the vehicle is non-licensed or the licence plate is deliberately obscured, the vehicle can only be investigated by its features – brand, model, and especially the colour. So, though external lighting conditions are poor, even completely dark, Hikvision ColorVu Cameras still capture valuable colour information.

Hikvision ColorVu Technology is being used in the Turbo HD 5.0 and Easy IP 4.0 series. More details can be found in the link or on the official Hikvision website.

Dahua surveillance solution guarantees the safety of Recife’s subway

Recife’s urban trains system carries around 400 thousand passengers a day – it is the third largest railway operator in number of users in Brazil. To ensure a safe journey for passengers, it is imperative to increase the subway security with modern technologies and monitoring equipment.

Izvor: Dahua Technology
E-mail: redakcija@asadria.com

The main challenge was to adapt the technology to the specific conditions such as lighting, people flow and speed of a subway station while not interrupting the transportation service. Therefore, ease of operation, installation and high availability of the system were prerequisites for choosing
the surveillance solution.

Solutions
With a contribution of BRL 61.5 million to invest in the improvements for the Pernambuco subway, Companhia Brasileira de Trens Urbanos (Brazilian Urban Trains Company, CBTU) has started a recovery plan for stations, trains, electrical systems and permanent pathways last year. It then inaugurated a new phase of the surveillance operation with the acquisition of 1380 high-resolution cameras from Dahua Technology for the deployment of the surveillance system.

The Dahua intelligent surveillance system with embedded video analytics monitors 52 places scattered all over the 71 km of the railway line at the capital and the metropolitan region. The project led by Grupo Avantia from the publication of the bidding contest until the installation combines four models of network cameras from Dahua: DH-IPC-HF5231EN-Z-S2; DH-IPC-HF5231EN-S2; DH-IPC-HDBW8231E-ZS2; and DH-SD65F230FN-H – all equipped with H.265 compression and video analytics.

These cameras work every day capturing and identifying images. With an amount of data that needs to be analyzed daily, the H.265 video compression pattern, a format twice as efficient as its predecessor (H.264), is essential since it uses only 50% of the bandwidth, maintaining the same quality.

The equipment using the main features of Dahua (H.265 compression, analytics, Starlight) has reinforced the security of the Central and Southern lines of the Pernambuco Subway and has allowed the operators to obtain detailed views of the subway operations, especially at peak hours or during tourist events, such as Carnival.

Day and night, under difficult lighting conditions and even in points with extreme low light, Dahua exclusive Starlight cameras deliver sharp and colorful images to the surveillance center to guarantee the best performance in conditions of very low luminosity (0.005 Lux).

Technology strengthens user protection in a general way, because it avoids intrusions into vital areas of operation, depredations or other occurrences that could hinder the passenger transportation. With video analytics, even if the video surveillance operator is not tracking the images of a specific camera, the system automatically identifies and alerts a detected movement in a restricted region, for example.

In addition to the high technology, Dahua also provided professional technical support to guarantee the success of the installation process, which did not hinder the operation of the subway.

Benefits
With the help of Dahua network cameras, the coming and going of passengers from Central and Southern lines now have the protection of the security teams in multiple locations throughout the subway’s operation. The new video surveillance system was designed to operate in a centralized management, which differs completely from the previous single-management model. Thus, with this change, it became possible to take better advantage of the human resources of the security team at the 37 stations.

The whole system of Dahua video surveillance was thought to ensure not only the physical safety of each user, but also to avoid a common problem that causes a high impact to the quality of the service: vandalism. On some occasions, a window broken by a user can delay the routine of thousands of passengers. With the video surveillance cameras it is possible to identify suspects, trigger the maintenance service in a more agile way and minimize the impact on the operation.

The video footage of occurrences that happen inside the System of Urban Trains’ facilities can be shared with the Military Police which, if necessary, can conduct searches in the image database and use resources such as Zoom to capture details that help in the investigations. The operators themselves can alert the authorities depending on the incident.

This is the first CBTU project, which also manages the urban rail transport in other Brazilian capitals, such as João Pessoa, Maceió, Natal and Belo Horizonte. “With this case, Dahua Technology ratifies once again its expertise in projects for the public segment. The solution offered will enable the end client to have a fully smart video surveillance system that will provide optimal lighting in dark environments, 24h protection of restricted areas, occurrence alerts and high performance to operators. All this will focus on prevention and alerting possible situations that endanger the subway system as well as the security of its users”, Fabio Lopes, Channel Sales Director of Dahua Technology Brasil.

Client’s Quote
“The cameras are being installed and monitored centrally, in a control room. In the future, we intend to achieve a cost reduction for the company, since with the cameras we were able to reduce in local surveillance at some subway stations, but the great advantage will be seen in the safety of our passengers. The images help us identify crimes in the stations and send this information to the law enforcement. We are in the implementation phase and starting to operate with smart technology, the results have already started to be seen – we have already managed to identify and arrest suspects, forwarding them to the police. We are employing all efforts to train and hire new agents and I am sure we will achieve greater gains in the future”, Leonardo Villar Beltrão – CBTU Recife Superintendent.

Integrator’s Quote
“The partnership with CBTU has been very successful, due to the peculiarities of the implementation of a state of the art security system. It was a major deployment challenge, since all the systems of the stations were in full operation. It was a result of an outstanding team effort with the full support and partnership of the Client, so that the implementation would occur in the best way possible and with minimal interventions in the subway system”, Hamilton Valentin – Avantia’s Operational Director

Dealer’s Quote
“This project is of extreme importance to Spectra. We have been close to Avantia and Dahua Technology throughout the implementation process, providing them with all the necessary support in the delivery of solutions”, Reginaldo Mattos, Director of Spectra Systems.

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Aperio®: 10 years of trust and innovation in wireless access control

London, July 2019 – Increasingly, access control is viewed as a wireless technology, as one recent market report* shows. Based on a 2018 survey of senior security professionals, the “Wireless Access Control Report” reveals almost 4 in 10 access control systems include wireless technology in their set-up. At places without wireless devices protecting their doors, twice as many already plan to add wireless locks as do not. The myth that wireless technology is not adapted to access control is rapidly fading away.

Wireless access control upgrades security without breaking the bank. Wireless RFID locks are much cheaper to install than hard-wired doors, because there’s no cabling around the door. They are also cheaper to operate, because they use no mains electricity. Wireless devices easily accommodate modern credential solutions such as virtual keys on smartphones, too.

Now available globally for a decade, Aperio wireless devices from ASSA ABLOY protect both exterior and interior doors, from fire doors to meeting rooms, labs and offices. Ten years of innovation investment have enhanced the security and usability of Aperio® hardware and firmware — and the range of applications Aperio® finds in businesses across Europe.

The Aperio® product range includes battery-powered cylinders, escutcheons and complete locks for security doors which transmit door status. An Aperio® server cabinet lock protects servers onsite or in a co-located data centre. Product design has also become a focus for refinement, with the new Aperio® H100 Electronic Handle. It packs the flexibility of Aperio® wireless access control into a slim door handle — “a brilliant example of product design,” one awards panel judged.

Aperio® integration can be Online or Offline, depending on your needs. Whichever you choose, a single interface controls any existing hard-wired doors as well as the Aperio® devices. Online integration is via Wiegand, RS485 or IP communication hubs which connect up to 16 Aperio® devices to the admin software. Aperio® also supports the leading industry standard for Offline integration, OSS Standard Offline.

Aperio® locks are compatible with all major door profiles, including Euro, French, Finnish, Scandinavian and Swiss.

Ten years of trust… in all kinds of industries and security systems
Businesses and buildings serving many different industries turn to Aperio® to expand the reach of their access control — wire-free. Universities in Birmingham (UK), Lund (Sweden), Hamburg (Germany) and many other cities remove the expense and hassle of lost keys when they control access with Aperio® devices instead of mechanical locks. Hospitals and health centres from Ghent to Grenoble protect patients, confidential records, drug storerooms and more with Aperio® wireless devices. At H-Farm, a campus-style business innovation centre in northern Italy, Aperio® handles, security locks and escutcheons integrate seamlessly with an AXIS access control system.

To serve customers better with the best wireless locking devices available, over 100 different access control and security manufacturers now integrate Aperio® locks seamlessly with their systems. The fast-growing list of Aperio® partners includes market leaders like Nedap, Gallagher, AXIS, Genetec, Lenel, ACS and many, many more.

Because it is built on an open platform and compatible with all standard RFID technologies, Aperio® also streamlines building management. At student accommodation provider CROUS Montpellier, Aperio® integrates with payment systems as well as access control, for example. It offers a single-card solution to replace mechanical keys.

A decade since launch, Aperio® access control technology continues to provide flexible, future-proofed, wireless security in diverse industries and premises. At schools and universities; hospitals, health centres and care homes; warehouses, factories and corporate headquarters; sports venues and concert halls, Aperio® makes buildings (and the people who use them) safer. What could the next 10 years bring?

Learn more about Aperio®, visit campaigns.assaabloyopeningsolutions.eu/aperio

Could you do more with your phone? When it comes to access control, you certainly can

London, June 2019 – In business and at home, the smartphone is a remote control for our lives. It’s a calendar and a credit card. We book holidays and do our daily banking. With video calling technology, we can even be in two places at once (or make it seem that way). Could there be untapped potential in using mobile phones for access control, too?

According to official EU data, by 2016 94% of European large businesses were issuing their workers with some sort of connected mobile device. We seem to use our smartphones for everything. Yet mobile phones are actually under-utilized when it comes to building security and access management.

Evolving technologies now enable us to manage access rights via mobile phone apps, open a door with a virtual key credential, and much more. An estimated 44 million mobile credentials will be downloaded by 2021, according to a recent IHS Markit forecast*.

Why? Because a mobile phone is so well adapted to controlling access at the workplace:

– It is convenient: part of the reason Apple Pay, Instagram and many more mobile services succeed is for the simple reason, we like to carry less stuff. With secure credentials on your phone, there’s no more need for a fob, a plastic smart-card or anything similar.
– It is secure: a screen-lock adds an extra layer of PIN, swipe passcode or fingerprint security. With phones, multi-factor authentication is baked into the credential. And how quickly would you notice if a plastic key-card went missing? Nowhere near as fast as you’d spot your smart phone was gone.
– It is flexible: security and facility managers can do things with virtual keys that are impossible with a plastic credential. They can issue, revoke or amend them instantly and from anywhere with secure cloud access via a mobile phone. However briefly a temporary visitor needs to enter your building, the easiest way to let them in is with their phone.
– It is efficient: scrap the queues at reception waiting for temporary visitor permits, waste fewer hours in plastic key-card handover meetings and spend less of your budget replacing lost and damaged credentials. Phone-based access control saves businesses time and money.
– It is compatible: mobile phones are machines built for connectivity, including with your existing RFID locks. Bluetooth and NFC radio technology are already inside most modern smartphones. Every future viable wireless and contactless technology will be there, too.

Another recent analyst report suggested as many as 20% of organisations would use smartphones for access, in place of plastic smart-cards, by 2020**. The move to mobile access control seems inevitable.

“Other highly security-aware industries like banking demonstrate the advantages of the smartphone,” says Thomas Schulz, Director Marketing & Communications Digital and Access Solutions at ASSA ABLOY EMEA. “Similarly, we see fast-growing interest in unlocking doors and other openings with mobile credentials, and in facility managers administering access rights via their smartphone.”

“To take one example from our portfolio of mobile access solutions, security managers using our new SMARTair® Openow™ solution manage all users’ virtual keys inside a secure app. If an administrator cancels a virtual key, it vanishes immediately from a user’s Openow™ app.”

Schulz points to the new Arkansas State University campus in Mexico, where students and staff have no access cards to collect or validate. Every site user installs and validates their own Openow™ app and collects keys virtually.

“Smartphones add convenience and functionality right across our wireless access control product and solutions portfolio,” adds Schulz. “Users can unlock our Aperio® wireless locks with a Seos® mobile credential. Small and medium-sized business managers can run their own access control with no specialist knowledge, using just the CLIQ® Go app and their phone. For companies with a remote workforce, the CLIQ® Connect app updates access rights of programmable keys with just a secure Bluetooth connection.

“Access control from your mobile phone offers so many efficiency advantages. I’d encourage everyone involved in managing access control to take a look.”

To stay up-to-date with the latest news and views from ASSA ABLOY EMEA — including the “Wireless Shorts” 20-second video series — follow their LinkedIn channel at
https://www.linkedin.com/company/assa-abloy-digital-and-access-solutions

Dahua Technology Wins Govies Award for Outstanding Security Product

Dahua Technology, a world-leading video-centric smart IoT solution and service provider, has been awarded a “Govie” by Security Today, an integrated product and technology magazine for the North American security market. The award honors outstanding government security products in a variety of categories, including video surveillance cameras.

“Each year we have the opportunity to view the latest and greatest products that will impact the government security sector, and this year’s contest is no different,” said Ralph C. Jensen, editor in chief of GovSec and Security Today magazines and the website SecurityToday.com, in the official Govies 2019 press release. “The solutions that have been entered represent great technology and innovations. I applaud all our entries and appreciate their tireless efforts to secure the government sector.”

An independent panel of judges from the security industry selected the winners in the 2019 Govies categories. The entries were evaluated for features, innovation, quality, design, market opportunity, and technical advances, among other characteristics. Dahua Technology’s Multi-flex™, a flexible, 4x2MP, multi-sensor camera, took home the gold award in the IP video surveillance cameras category.

The Multi-flex boasts innovative flexibility, allowing users to position each sensor module independently around the camera’s internal track for 180-, 270-, or 360-degree fields of view. The camera’s integrated IR illuminators move along with the sensors for nighttime illumination. One of the Multi-flex’s notable benefits is that it can be easily configured to minimize blind spots and improve situational awareness.

“The high-performing Multi-flex makes video surveillance more adaptable, easier to use, and more cost-efficient for a variety of vertical markets,” commented Jennifer Hackenburg, senior product marketing manager at Dahua Technology. “We are honored to be recognized for our contribution, which represents Dahua Technology’s continued innovation and commitment to quality.”

Gemalto Identity Management System to empower secure identities

Gemalto, a Thales company, is launching its Identity Management System (IDMS) that can help governments address the challenges posed by a world in which over one billion people have no official ID.

Using the latest biometric capture and identity verification techniques, Gemalto’s solutions enable public authorities to empower citizens with a fully secured and trusted Foundational Identity. This system supports people identification and authentication so they can securely access online and offline services such as education or healthcare, and proves their right to participate in elections, apply for a passport or open a bank account. Users retain full control over their personal data, choosing how and when it is shared with service providers.

UN targets universal provision of ID by 2030

The staggering number of citizens rendered invisible to public agencies by the absence of an official ID includes one out of three children worldwide. Most international financial institutions are supporting Digital ID schemes in many countries over the next ten years. These initiatives are also backed by the UN, which has itself set the target of everyone on the planet having a legal identity by 2030.

Mobile, biometric-based registration can reach remote and isolated areas

Gemalto’s IDMS provides authorities with a fully integrated, end-to-end solution which can adapt to existing identity schemes and orchestrate its interactions. The process starts with registration of a person and capture of their biometrics, with easy-to use mobile technology ensuring coverage can reach even the most remote regions. Registration is followed by entry onto a central database or civil registry and the creation of a unique individual identifier.

Reaping the benefits of Foundational ID

This Foundational Identity can provide the basis for issuance of digital and physical ID credentials, and subsequent registration with numerous different public bodies and services. All these processes can be verified beyond doubt using the individual’s biometrics and unique identifier. Gemalto’s approach also offers citizens outstanding protection, and assurance that their data will not be used for commercial gain.

US security industry growth outpaces GDP growth

Despite the backdrop an unfavorable economic climate, the security industry in the U.S. in general is outperforming expectations, with video-related products driving growth, according to trade associations, which on the whole are optimistic about where the security industry is going.

The Security Industry Association (SIA) is the leading trade association in the electronic physical security arena. It has more than 800 corporate and organizational members, and produces a bimonthly security market index (SMI). The index measures the current thoughts and future expectations of the security industry’s executives.

The latest SMI index stands at 60 – a little down from the beginning of the year but still positive. Any score above 50 indicates conditions within the industry are largely positive and that security professionals hold predominantly confident outlooks.

“If we look at the SMI we see the industry in the U.S. has been growing steady for a few years. There are of course ‘ups and downs’ in the confidence indicator, but overall it is positive,” said Geoff Kohl, Senior Director of Marketing at SIA.

The latest dip has been attributed to tariffs and the U.S.-China trade war. People had doubts but the market managed to sustain the setback, Kohl explained. “The global economy is always something that influences the industry. As long as the economy in general is growing, there will be investment that will require security.”

SIA’s latest poll found that 78 percent of respondents had a positive outlook for the next three months, while 16 percent predicted no change in their business environment and 6 percent responded that they expected a slight decline in business.

Product-wise, video surveillance continued to be a growth driver. “Video growth is outpacing all others, the applications for video as a sensor are very strong and there is a lot of consumer demand for it,” Kohl said.

The quality of the feeds is getting better as are management tools that provide actionable data. “Analytics and AI (artificial intelligence) are definitely influential in driving this forward,” Kohl noted.

Data issues hamper successful machine learning and AI launch

According to a survey of 277 data scientists and other artificial intelligence (AI) professionals in large companies across nearly 20 industries, AI is still in its early days and challenges abound to prevent AI’s successful implementation.

Nearly all companies pursuing AI projects have run into problems with data quality and data labeling. Four out of five data scientists said training AI with data is more difficult than they thought, according to the survey conducted by Dimensional Research.

More specifically, errors in data, not enough data, data not in a usable form, and not having enough people and tools to label data, are the challenges.

The amount of data required to train the AI algorithm is huge. 72% of the respondents reported that, in their current project, production-level model confidence will require more than 100,000 labeled data items; 10% indicated they’d need more than 10 million.

“Labeling and annotating training data for machine learning projects is a serious problem for data science teams, and a significant obstacle to getting those projects into production,” says the report titled What Data Scientists Tell Us about AI Model Training Today published by Alegion, which commissioned Dimensional Research to conduct the survey.

Human resource issues

Nearly two thirds of the data scientists surveyed said their machine learning (ML) projects have progressed beyond proof of concept (POC), which is the litmus test for an idea, like identifying strawberries and how ripe they are, for example.

The next phase of feeding the algorithm with enough data “to be ready for validation in the real world” presents a host of challenges, the report says.

Human resource is also an issue. 80% of data scientists’ time is spent on preparing and managing data. This is problematic for companies because data scientists are expensive, and also, it is dissatisfying for data scientists “who take the job to do interesting, challenging and strategic work, not to draw boxes,” the report says. As a result, data scientists are not left with much time to do what they were hired to do – using machine learning to improve the business, and to potentially “carve out a position of industry dominance through innovation,” the report says.

Outsourcing produces results

The surveyed data scientists said “offloading training data labeling and annotation” is associated with a significantly higher rates of successful project deployment. This is not surprising, given the typical volume of training data involved, the small team size and the numerous data quality issues.

“Depending on the volume of data the algorithm requires as well as the number and complexity of the tasks needed to structure the data appropriately, an ML project team may need to find, train, and manage hundreds of people,” says the report.

Up to 71% of companies have outsourced some AI or ML activities. Companies that don’t have the correct data and enough data often outsource the data collection task.

Also, people are needed to supply human judgement to the data preparation process. “These data specialists drive the tools, label the data and evaluate the work of other people,” the report says.

Office security: Code Handle® PIN locking function keeps private offices private

London, June 2019 –PINs protect… just ask your credit card company. How many rooms at your office shouldn’t offer an open access, free-for-all? Probably quite a few. But expecting everyone to keep them locked, and the key-carrying and-tracking that entails, is unrealistic. This is when you need Code Handle.

This simple, secure, easy-to-fit handle works with your current door lock. There is no need for you to change the door lock mechanism; just replace the existing handle to add PIN security to an office door. With Code Handle, there is no wiring, no expensive access control system and no need for cumbersome physical keys. Two screws fit a Code Handle to almost any interior office, meeting room, archive or storage room door.

The inbuilt electronic PIN pad does the security work for you. Press a 4-digit code on the handle’s integrated keypad and the door opens. Code Handle comes with a Master Code and 9 different user PINs, so you can restrict access to a select group of people — senior managers, the IT department or the office cleaners, for example.

Code Handle also locks itself. Auto-locking ensures an office, storage room or staff toilet is always secure when you close the door. You know for sure nobody has seen the new org chart you left on your desk, nor entered the stationery cupboard without authorisation.

Simple security, elegant design: why Code Handle is the right fit for offices
With Code Handle, user-friendly security comes with clean, elegant design. Forget about ugly push-button-and-twist mechanical PIN locks. The low-profile Code Handle is brushed in stainless steel and satin chrome zinc, in a sleek design to blend with any modern office décor.

All the security you need is in the handle. Two standard batteries (CR2) slot inside, and typically last for 30,000 lock/unlock cycles before you need to replace them. An indicator tells you when it’s time to change them. Code Handle comes in left- and right-hand versions. It is fire tested and enables free exit from the inside of a room.

Code Handle keeps sensitive documents, meeting rooms and personal belongings safe and secure at your workplace. You can’t lock every room, nor install CCTV everywhere. With Code Handle, you don’t need to.

To learn more about Code Handle, visit https://campaigns.assaabloyopeningsolutions.eu/codehandle