The Extinguishing Section of Euralarm has published a guidance document on Integrated fire protection solutions for lithium-ion batteries.
This new Euralarm guideline provides information on the issues related to the use of lithium-ion batteries, how fires start in batteries and on how they may be detected, controlled, suppressed and extinguished. It also provides guidance on post fire management. Excluded from the scope are explosion and ventilation issues.
Lithium-ion batteries have become the battery technology of choice in a variety of areas, including amongst others, power generation, communications, industrial, vehicles and many other applications. Active control of the energy being stored and extracted from lithium-ion batteries has been the foundation of their increasing popularity. The relatively low frequency of major incidents is testament to the effort and successful design applied to the critical aspect of using such high-density energy products. However, active control of the battery energy is not sufficient to prevent safety-critical situations and multiple levels of defence are needed to minimize the serious consequences of a failure in a lithium-ion battery.
The increasing number of lithium-ion batteries and an increasing amount of stored energy in different energy storage applications present a new type of fire hazard where fire protection is challenging. Key issues in any fire protection system are the selection of the most appropriate agent for the specific hazard, system layout, the correct discharge of the extinguishing agent, as well as correct installation, the use of approved systems and constant maintenance by appropriately trained staff.
The guidance document ‘Integrated fire protection solutions for lithium-ion batteries’ is intended as guidance for all professionals dealing with fire safety, fire protection, extinguishing and fire suppression in connection with the use, storage or transport of lithium-ion batteries and their fire risks. Aspects of consumers products are not covered in the guidance.
Euralarm states that the document is intended as general guidance and is not a substitute for detailed advice in specific circumstances. It represents the current understanding of the industry and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Motorola Solutions has acquired London-based Ava Security Ltd, a global provider of cloud-native video security and analytics.
This acquisition means that the Group strengthens its global dominance in the video surveillance industry and especially in the area of video analysis. The video security companies Avigilon, Pelco, Indigovision and Openpath (which deliver mobile access control solutions) are already part of the group.
The terms of the transaction were not revealed in the press release from Motorola Solutions, but according to the American online publication IPVM, it is said among many professionals in the security industry that it is about 400 million dollars.
Impressive growth
Earlier this month Ava’s latest financials revealed another year of triple digit growth for 2021. Overall the figures show that video revenue grew globally by over 300%, ARR grew by 500% and the number of cameras connected to the Ava Aware Cloud continues to double every three months. The company continued to make significant investments across R&D, sales, marketing and leadership throughout the year.
Innovative development
On the innovation front, during the year, Ava introduced two new cloud cameras (the Ava Compact Dome and the Ava Bullet), launched Ava Cloud Storage, delivered a unified dashboard for hybrid deployments and developed native integrations with IP Video’s Halo sensors and Disruptive Technologies’ environmental sensors. Ava also launched software-driven LPR (License Plate Recognition), enabling the technology on both Ava and third party cameras and not requiring separate dedicated LPR hardware.
“2021 was a great year for us, with our growth rate boosted by new enterprise customers – five Fortune 1000 customers in Q4 alone. But we’re not stopping there, as we’re projecting similar growth numbers for 2022,” comments Tormod Ree, CEO & Co-Founder of Ava Security.
Intelligent video surveillance
Ava Security’s scalable, secure and flexible cloud solution provides enterprises with real-time visibility and powerful analytics to optimise their operations and detect anomalies and threats.
“Our acquisition of Ava highlights our continued commitment to advancing cloud-based video security technologies,” states Greg Brown, chairman and CEO, Motorola Solutions.
“With Ava, we’re well-positioned to support our customers’ evolving security needs by expanding our portfolio of intelligent video solutions that help to enhance safety and streamline operations.”
In addition to allowing organisations to easily access, search and manage their entire system from a centralised dashboard, its self-learning algorithms also enhance enterprise security by detecting abnormal behaviour and alerting operators to events in real-time.
Merger created a hybrid
Ava Security was formed through a merger between Jazz Networks, a cyber security insider threat detection and response company, and Vaion, an end-to-end video security provider. Together, they would meet the market’s needs against both physical threats and cyber security threats by making companies and other organisations to monitor, understand and act on threats in real time to protect people, assets and data. Both companies were privately owned by Ubon Partners and employees.
Over the past few years, organizations across the globe have moved from piloting to operationalizing enterprise-wide computer vision solutions at scale. Breakthrough technologies that were destined to take 5 to 10 years to appear in the market are being implemented today, and this trend of adapting to the latest advanced technologies shows no sign of stopping.
Years ago, computer vision was just a clever science fiction innovation, but now it’s a reality that is quickly becoming a part of the enterprise landscape.
In essence, computer vision uses AI and machine learning to make sense of digital video, images, audio and even biometric data, and provides insights and conclusions. With data gathered from both cameras and edge based IoT sensors dotted around a building, campus or an entire city, for example, computer vision technology applies algorithmic models to learn about visual data and turn it into information for decision making.
According to Forrester, 80% of organizations expect the number of AI use cases to increase in the next two years.[1] These data-driven organizations are implementing computer vision to improve the customer experience, gain operational efficiencies and ultimately drive new revenue streams. Indeed, IDC says that organizations that are considered data analytics innovators are two times more profitable than their peers.[2]
It all makes sense. Reliable, accessible data helps business and operational leaders make better decisions, strengthens security, gives companies a competitive edge and can transform how organizations deliver products and services.
The missing link: a real-time federated approach
Video intelligence is not new. Most companies, public spaces and even today’s schools are outfitted with video camera systems. What’s standing in the way of translating video into real-time actionable insights, however, is managing the volume, velocity and variety of data, as well as connecting the dots on that data.
While common approaches to data curation and analytics send data to a central platform for processing, doing so can create tremendous amounts of traffic across a network. There’s also latency involved with large data flows traveling back and forth, which is a significant issue if time-sensitive decisions must be made based on the data.
In order to overcome these challenges, some organizations are implementing real-time federated learning models (Figure 1) which allow for the data to be more efficiently processed and stored, for the most part, at the network edge. The idea is to build algorithmic models on a central server, which is often in the cloud, and keep data at the edge where it’s used. Send a model to the edge, train it with the local data, and then send back only the results to the central server for aggregation. In turn, the central model can be improved and sent back to the edge for enhanced local inferencing.
Figure 1. A Federated Learning Model: The flow of information in a federated model keeps data in place from each edge device while enabling secure data sharing of metadata, results and models across users, devices, data centers, and the cloud.
Today’s visual data models are also designed with typical end users – at the edge – in mind. Having data scientists on hand to perform analyses has largely been replaced with standardized models and drag-and-drop workflows for a “create your own” analytics package. An analytics model marketplace has emerged where companies that are investing in computer vision technology but don’t have in-house AI or data science expertise can incorporate models into their operations.
There are significant advantages to the real-time federated approach:
You ingest visual data once and can allow multiple applications access to the information.
The model that remains on the central server is not tied to specific data; models can be shared with others without security risks.
Because training takes place at the edge, network costs are lower and there’s no need to maintain a centralized data lake.
The data marketplace democratizes computer vision for the masses, enabling the sharing and monetization of pre-trained models aligned with specific use cases.
Computer vision’s impact today
Computer vision touches our everyday lives. You probably use computer vision without realizing it. Does your smartphone have facial recognition that lets you unlock the device or authenticate to online banking sites? That’s computer vision. Consider modern cars with embedded cameras. Visual data used from the cameras as well as other sensors gives modern cars the ability to parallel park themselves. Adaptive cruise control regulates a car’s speed while leaving a safe gap between itself and other vehicles, and the accident avoidance system applies the brakes when a car is too close to an object in front of it.
From a business perspective, you can find applications of computer vision across nearly every vertical – retail, transportation, healthcare, manufacturing and energy, to name a few. And you can apply computer vision across those verticals to achieve substantial outcomes, such as personal and facility safety, improved customer experience, operational efficiencies, sustainability and revenue generation. With good visual data and constantly improved models, airports can be run more efficiently, stadium customer service can be customized for each spectator and the healthcare industry can detect tumors more accurately and quickly.
Where is computer vision heading?
To answer this question, let’s look at Figure 2, which depicts the maturity curve of analytics. Over the past few years, many organizations have moved from using Computer Vision as a means to retrieve just descriptive and diagnostic results to being able to be more predictive in their approach, where the models help to predict likely outcomes.
Figure 2. Analytics Maturity Curve
Data-driven organizations are now deploying prescriptive solutions that are driving tangible benefits, outcomes and near real-time actionable insights. As these solutions become more adaptive, they will bring dramatic improvements to the performance of systems and automated processes, as well as decision making. And that’s when a real-time continuous improvement loop will be possible, where a model is constantly retraining itself. The later stages of the analytics maturity curve will see processes occur with little or no human interaction or decision making, with resources reaching their destination proactively.
The computer-vision-enabled car will automatically integrate with smart city traffic control systems to avoid and help alleviate traffic congestion, and it will connect with parking information to be guided to the most efficient spot based on its destination. With real-time computing at the edge and an updated model being pushed to the car, your car will “know” how to drive safely whether it’s in a senior community neighborhood or on a high-speed freeway.
Moving forward with a computer vision strategy
Adopting a computer vision solution requires proper testing and validation. Anyone can run compatibility tests and validate an application on a platform in a silo. The trick is to validate multiple applications that are working together on a platform at scale, which support the “ingest once, work on many” concept, and that span the full solution architecture from edge to core to cloud.
A computer vision model design should be validated to ensure the models work properly with specific real-world computer vision applications. Validated design solutions are tested and optimized for each use case. They’re also right-sized to the environment in which they will run, which takes the guesswork out of how much storage, compute and other specs you’ll need for proper purchasing. Opting to conduct real-world testing in-house can put a strain on resources but there are third-party options available. Dell Technologies, for example, offers lab-validated solutions from a curated pool of more than a hundred technology, AI and service partners.
Where validation addresses the technical elements, computer vision is also about the business. Each organization looking to adopt computer vision technology or bring their current implementation to the next level should focus on the insights they want to gain in order to run their business and improve processes. With computing done at the edge, previous boundaries and limitations are lifted. We can now deliver better quality insights, faster and at scale, so organizations should first focus on the outcomes they want to achieve in the areas of safety, customer experience, operational efficiencies, sustainability and generating additional revenue
Computer vision technology provides deeper insights than you can get just from data. Now you can complement that data with visual information, making the data much richer and more useful, and maintain a competitive edge in this new era of how organizations operate and serve customers.
Stay tuned: This is the first article of a series depicting how computer vision is impacting key industries. Be on the lookout for future articles from Dell Technologies on this topic.
[1] Forrester report: “Overcome Obstacles To Get To AI At Scale,” January, 2020. https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/VBMPEQLN.
[2] Computer Vision 030421 pdf. IDC report: “The Data-Forward Enterprise: How to Maximize Data Leverage for Better Business Outcomes,” May, 2020. DOC #US46264420.
Michael Byrden, Business Development Strategic Partnerships Manager at Vanderbilt & Comnet, delivered a presentation on three different solutions for the transportation and logistics sectors.
Cloud security solutions successfully manage multiple sites coordinated from one center. In addition, the presenter emphasized OSDP protocol as a solution against card cloning at airports and how to protect against it. The third solution is about pre-booking and optimizing car parking using ANPR technology.
Teledyne Technologies Incorporated has acquired a majority interest in Noiseless Acoustics Oy. Located in Helsinki, Finland, NL Acoustics designs and manufactures Si124 acoustics imaging instruments and predictive maintenance solutions, including the new cord-free Flir Si-Series cameras.
NL Acoustics’ camera products combined with advanced analytics provide easy-to-use advanced imaging and monitoring solutions. They allow users to detect critical problems and make intelligent maintenance decisions in multiple applications, such as electric power distribution, compressed air systems, and factory condition monitoring.
Kai Saksela and Jonas Nyberg, who founded NL Acoustics in 2015, will retain a minority stake in the business and continue in their current executive leadership roles with the company.
“Having worked with NL Acoustics since 2019, we are delighted to strengthen our partnership with the company,” said Rickard Lindvall, General Manager of Teledyne Flir Solutions. “Collectively, Teledyne and NL Acoustics provide a wide range of condition monitoring and safety solutions, including acoustic imaging systems, optical gas leak detection cameras, and hazardous gas and flame detection instrumentation.”
Rob Dupre, Product Manager at VCA Technology presented the company and its technologies, use cases and where these solutions are applied. In addition to the presentation of current technologies and applications, speaker also introduced the new releases and the road map for 2022. In its core, VCA Technology is a UK based software development company designing and developing the applications designed for security to traffic and business intelligence applications.
When it first opened on 14 June 1998, the Storebælt link, which consists of a rail tunnel and road bridge, was the longest in the world at 18 kms, and today the bridge and the toll operation ensures the smooth and efficient movement of up to 56,000 vehicles a day.
G4S manages the toll operation of the bridge which connects Zealand to Funen. The toll plaza has 12 lanes on the westbound side and 10 lanes on the eastbound. These are all located in Zealand. Drivers from Zealand go through the plaza before crossing and those driving from Funen make their payment once across.
“When a driver has difficulty making a payment or if there is a technical issue, G4S team members led by our traffic manager, are on hand to talk remotely to the driver using a voice link,” said Brian Zimmerman, the department manager at the Great Belt Bridge for G4S. “We can also turn on the video monitoring in any particular lane so we can see the payment machine and help the person remotely, so there is no need to go to the lane in person.”
The operation has changed substantially over the last three years, with the implementation of a new technology system, which G4S has worked with A/S Storebælt to ensure it works accurately. This is part of A/S Storebælt’s digitalisation strategy to improve the safety and security of drivers and employees alike. It has transformed the safety and physicality of the working conditions for G4S professionals, who prior to this system’s operation, could walk up to 12 kms in an 8-hour shift, helping drivers with their payments.
The combination of skilled G4S employees and the technology provided by A/S Storebælt, means that up to 6,000 vehicles per hour can pass through the toll plaza. The record for a single hour is 5,600 vehicles.
“We’ve worked hard to deliver excellent customer service. Technological advances have brought great health and safety benefits to our employees by removing the need for them to physically be at the plaza. Previously this work was extremely strenuous and the improvements have increased the well being of G4S employees,” said Brian Zimmerman, the department manager at the bridge for G4S.
“This is testament to the commitment of the team to build a partnership of trust and respect with our customer,” said Julian Rudland, Director of Manned Service for G4S in Denmark, commenting on the operation and on the extension of the contract. “We are completely focused on 100% cooperation, working hand-in-hand at all times with the Storebælt team to ensure that any operational issues are solved quickly and we provide a very high standard of service.”
The latest year end financial results for Securitas AB demonstrate a strong and transformative year for the organisation, with record level operating results and the highest operating margin in more than a decade.
Commenting on these latest figures, the company’s President and CEO, Magnus Ahlqvist, said, “Our strategy, investments and actions are starting to pay off and resulting in increasing profitability in all business segments.” He believes that the strong cash flow generation has contributed to reduced leverage and a solid financial position at the year end, preparing the company for the closure of the Stanley Security acquisition.
Real sales growth
The company has finalised two transformation programmes and has achieved costsaving targets in key areas and good benefit realisation in North America towards the end of the year, all of which, Ahlqist suggests, positions the company with a stronger foundation to enhance client value and drive operating margin improvement.
“We finished the year with 4 percent organic sales growth in the quarter and full year. The conditions in the business environment improved gradually during the year, with good commercial activity across all business segments while growth was hampered in North America due to reduced corona-related extra sales and the previously announced contract losses.
Sales of security solutions and electronic security showed real sales growth of 8 percent in 2021, representing 22 percent of Group sales. We saw improved growth in the fourth quarter despite challenges related to component shortages,” commented Magnus Ahlqvist.
“The operating result for the Group, adjusted for changes in exchange rates, increased by 15 percent in the fourth quarter and by 28 percent for the full year. The operating margin improved to 5.9 percent in the quarter and to 5.6 percent for 2021,” he confirmed.
Transformational acquisition for leadership position
At the end of 2021, Securitas took a significant step in its strategy to pursue growth through technology with the agreement to acquire Stanley Security. “This is a transformative acquisition, which we expect will lead to significant added commercial growth and a substantial operating margin improvement over time,” said Ahlqvist.
Building a “new Securitas”
Going into 2022, the company is preparing to close the acquisition of Stanley Security. The integration has started and is well on track, according to Ahlqvist. “We are continuing to execute on our transformation programs in Europe and Ibero-America, which are developing according to plan. The transformation programme in North America was successfully finalised in 2021 and we see positive impacts on our operations and the operating margin at the end of 2021 with further opportunity going into 2022.”
“When Stanley is integrated and the transformation programs are fully implemented, we will have built a new Securitas – a modern, digitised and innovative security solutions partner for our clients with a structurally higher margin profile” concluded Magnus Ahlqvist in his closing statement.
The global fire protection system market size is expected to reach USD 130.37 billion by 2030, according to a study conducted by Grand View Research, Inc. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.7% from 2022 to 2030. Increasing adoption of wireless technology in fire protection systems, growing human and property loss owing to fire breakouts, and stringent fire safety regulations are projected to fuel the market growth.
Technology enhancements
Increasing implementation of building safety codes and renovation projects is also anticipated to be a major factor influencing the market growth. The application and usage of fire protection systems are anticipated to increase continuously with the developments of commercial entities and corporations. Furthermore, technology enhancements such as extinguishing technology based on mist and products such as laser optical/infrared smoke detectors, alarms with embedded voice evacuation announcements, hypoxic air fire suppression systems, and wireless fire alarm systems are expected to gain traction in the market globally.
Integration an opportunity
The growing trend of integrating fire alarm and detection systems with building automation systems offers vast growth opportunities to the market. Connectivity with building automation systems is increasingly becoming a major feature of fire protection systems in commercial, industrial, and residential applications. This can be attributed to the fact that such integration allows for the development of systems that are capable of sharing and gathering data, which can help in alerting individuals about fire safety issues in the premises. A notable rise in investments in smart building automation technologies across several regions is expected to lead to new opportunities for building automation systems in the industrial and commercial sectors.
Unregulated and untapped markets
Consumers in developed regions such as Europe and North America have seen a steady rise in demand over the past few years, and the growth trend is also projected to continue over the next few years. However, a lack of stringent regulations and the high cost of advanced fire protection systems have kept the markets in emerging countries largely untapped. Nevertheless, improving economic conditions in countries, including Brazil and India, are anticipated to boost the demand for fire protection systems over the forecast period.
Infrastructural development activities across the Asia Pacific region owing to the rising demand for new transport and utility infrastructure will drive the demand. The high rate of urbanization is placing increased pressure on under-invested, weak city infrastructure. The consecutive rise in focus on new residential and infrastructural development projects is expected to propel the demand for fire protection systems across this region; thus, such factors are fueling the market growth.
Key players
Key players in this market and named in the report include companies such as, Honeywell International, Inc., Johnson Controls, Raytheon Technologies Corporation, Gentex, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Halma and Eaton.
As the top 3 security manufacturer with complete product lines, Uniview enriches CCTV products with series of cutting-edge technology. Meanwhile, as a security company Uniview takes its responsibility seriously and is dedicated to helping overcome technical challenges.
As we all know PTZ Can rotate to monitor multiple directions and its zoom function allowing it to capture a target at a greater distance compared to normal cameras. Based on that, we prefer PTZ camera than normal camera in many scenarios.
However, there is a cons of normal PTZ which only can monitor in one direction at a time, Once the lens rotates to another direction, the live view in the original direction will be disconnected. For UNV previous solution to this problem, it generally was linkage IPC and PTZ, but it might result in higher costs.
Committed to solve above problem with cost effective solution, UNV has launched the dual-lens PTZ camera of easy series which combined the advantages of fixed IP cameras and PTZs. It is a new form and suitable for more scenarios. However, other competitors at this level do not have this type of dual-lens formed product.
The aesthetic of Dual-lens
In terms of appearance, this camera overturns the previous design by adding a lens. The upper lens is a 2.8mm panoramic lens to capture the overall picture, while the under lens is a 4x zoom detail lens which can rotate 345° to capture the details of the picture. Owing to the design of Fixed lens & PTZ，it prompts that when PTZ tracks the target, the panoramic lens still monitors the whole situation at the same time, will no longer lose any information and makes blind spot eliminated.
Bi-directional MIC design：
Built-in two MICS, distributed on both sides of the fixed focal lens, to achieve surround radio. This design makes the sound of the collected video louder and more three-dimensional, which makes the video sound better when viewed back.
Dual light design：
Equipped with IR light and warm light. It could provide more clarity at night. At the same time, the warm light can also be linked to smart intrusion prevention. When a target is detected entering the area, the warm light will blink to alarm, which can deter things before they happen.
Smart Intrusion Prevention
In security monitoring, most users only want to pay attention to the real events, such as alarms triggered by people and vehicles. UNV Smart Intrusion Prevention (SIP) filters false alarms with a lower than 1% detection error rate and allows people and vehicle classification to focus only on interested targets.
Good and clear image
Powered by Lighthunter Technology, it has an excellent low-light sensor with a minimum illumination of 0.002 lux. It can deliver clear and colorful images in low-light environments. Featuring a 4x optical zoom motorized lens, the cameras are able to catch more details.
Applications
UNV new dual-lens PTZ, not only increase a panoramic lens configuration, but also comprehensively upgrade other hardware configuration.
Equipped with better sound and painting effects, more comprehensive intelligent functions, so that it can be better used in intersection, perimeter and some public area such as fire lanes and other no parking areas, which are always supposed to be free of obstructions.
More information please visit www.uniview.com. If you have any business query, please contact huangluyu@uniview.com.
