England’s ambulance trusts are expected to be given body cameras by the end of the month as assaults on ambulance workers rise by almost a third in five years.

AmbulanceThe NHS is expecting to make body-worn camera equipment available to all 10 of England’s ambulance trusts by the end of the month, following an increase in attacks on ambulance workers.

BBC News reported that more than 3,500 attacks on emergency care staff were recorded last year. In 2018, SHP reported that 465 ambulances and their paramedics were to be issued with body cameras as part of an initial pilot.

Police officers in Humber, parking wardens in Yorkshire and recycling workers in Oxfordshire have all been issued with body cameras in recent years to help ensure their safety. In addition, there is a rising demand for body-cams for retail workers, particularly after an increase in verbal and physical assaults during the coronavirus pandemic.

This latest move has been welcomed by staff trialling the cameras, some of whom had experienced violence on the job.

Chief People Officer for NHS England Prerana Isaar told the BBC: “Every member of our dedicated and hardworking NHS staff has the fundamental right to be safe at work and it is our priority to eliminate violence and abuse, which we will not tolerate.”

Hikvision is helping to make the transition back to in-person learning easier for teachers, students and administrators with advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology built into their Deepinview IDS 7 Series cameras. Designed with a host of intelligent features, Hikvision Deepinview Cameras provide a cost-effective solution for a myriad range of security and health safety applications including elevated temperature screening, social distancing and mask detection, active shooter detection, visitor management, and more.
“Our second generation Deepinview cameras with AI-driven intelligence Artificial Intelligence can help school districts get back into classrooms with advanced proactive health, safety and security capabilities,” said John Xiao, VP of Marketing, Hikvision. “Hikvision continues to make a significant investment in AI technology, moving which will continue to move physical security system solutions from passive to more proactive solutions across all vertical markets and applications.”

Hikvision Deepinview cameras provide a range of benefits made possible by AI to improve security in school offices, common areas and classrooms. With the ability to classify target objects, With multi-target and multi-type detection, the cameras can simultaneously recognise multiple attributes such as clothing colour, age, and identify if a person is wearing a backpack, hat, or glasses – even in a crowded school hallway.

Specific areas of the facility or premises can be monitored with alarms set to trigger for human only, vehicle only, or human and vehicle, providing proactive security while also helping to reduce false alarm notifications, improve video verification, and enhance alarm response efficiency. Improved Deepinview AI algorithms reduce false alarms by more than 95 percent. The cameras can detect human and vehicle overlapping and multiple targets overlapping. It also precisely detects a human with the detection bonding box, excluding the broader range of a human shadow, for enhanced monitoring and accuracy. It is even possible to automatically track specific individuals across a campus or school grounds using e-PTZ auto tracking, while conserving bandwidth and storage space by only storing video clips of objects flagged as important.

To help boost health initiatives in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hikvision Deepinview cameras offer attribute-based people counting. This feature enables people counting for individuals entering or exiting a specified area within a certain timeframe. The camera sends a threshold alarm if people density becomes too high, alerting school staff to reduce occupancy to comply with social distancing and other safety requirements.

Every Hikvision Deepinview camera contains an AI chipset that supports six different deep learning algorithms. Any algorithm can be enabled manually for dedicated use and changed to another one as needed for greater flexibility in any situation. Each camera is equipped with Hikvision’s Darkfighter technology for clear images in low lighting or changing lighting conditions. Hikvision Deepinview cameras also feature EXIR 2.0, H265+ video compression technology, support for metadata, five video streams, and up to five custom streams for easy third-party integration. Seamless streaming improves video quality across varying network conditions. IPCs can also smooth and complete videos through smooth streaming technology when the network bandwidth is insufficient, or when the network environment is not stable.

Worldwide spending on information security and risk management technology and services is forecast to grow 12.4% to reach $150.4 billion in 2021, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc. Security and risk management spending grew 6.4% in 2020.

Gartner analysts said the strong growth rate reflects continuing demand for remote worker technologies and cloud security.

“Organisations continue to grapple with the security and regulatory demands of public cloud and software as a service,” said Lawrence Pingree, managing research vice president at Gartner. “Looking ahead, we’re seeing early market signals of growing automation and further adoption of machine learning technologies in support of AI security. To combat attacks, organisations will extend and standardise threat detection and response activities.”

In the Gartner 2021 CIO Agenda Survey, cyber security was the top priority for new spending, with 61% of the more than 2,000 CIOs surveyed increasing investment in cyber/information security this year.

Security services including consulting, hardware support, implementation and outsourced services represent the largest category of spending in 2021, at almost $72.5 billion worldwide.

The smallest but fastest growing market segment is cloud security, particularly cloud access security brokers (CASB). “The pace of client inquiry indicates that CASB is a popular choice for cloud-using organisations,” said Mr. Pingree. “This is due to the growing popularity of using non-PC devices for interacting with core business processes, which creates security risks that can be mitigated effectively with a CASB. CASBs also enable safer interaction between SaaS applications and unmanaged devices.”

Integrated risk management (IRM) technology is also seeing robust double-digit growth resulting from risks highlighted during the global pandemic crisis.

“Areas of significant risk driving near-term demand include the advent of new digital products and services and the related health and safety uses, as well as third-party risks such as customer data breaches or supply chain attacks,” said John A. Wheeler, senior research director at Gartner.

The new site places a large emphasis on visitor experience and provides a streamlined, modern design, improved functionality, and accessible resources to help support the informational needs of clients and prospects alike.

“We are thrilled to launch the new SALTO website and strongly feel that it aligns with our sustainable company vision of becoming the most technologically-advanced access control provider that develops disruptive electronic smart locking solutions for any type of application all around the world,” said Borja Ganzarain, Brand, Content and Marketing SALTO Systems. “We have been working hard to give our website an upgrade. Our goal with this new website is to provide our visitors, customers, partners, and end-users a new ecosystem that will help them develop a better understanding about SALTO. They will find a sleek new comprehensive site that delivers the information they need to make informed smart access decisions.”

The website provides easily accessible information for potential customers, business, and technology partners to gain key insight into SALTO access control solutions and deliver personalised and engaging content and experiences about cloud-based smart access solutions from the SALTO KS platform or industry-leading SALTO Space on-premise access management platform.

The new saltosystems.com website offers a clean and modern design, with information that will be updated on a regular basis with news, blog articles, business cases, new product launch updates and more. The newly-designed website offers detailed product information on the electronic lock products SALTO develops and manufactures as well as educational information about robust access control technology platforms that enable end-users to experience the most advanced, secure, and convenient keyless smart access.

An enhanced section of the website features in-depth solutions for the variety of market industries that SALTO has established a growing footprint and world-class references within: commercial, residential and shared living spaces, education, healthcare, hospitality, coworking, and retail.

The popular SALTO MyLock configurator is also featured on the new site so that specifiers, architects, partners, and end-users can individually configure SALTO’s wire-free electronic door lock components and visualize them on different door types or styles. In addition to the SALTO electronic hardware, MyLock users can choose from several door models and a wide range of colours, finishes, handles, and functions, and then download the technical specifications of the selected product configurations.

At Axis’ Annual General Meeting, Bert Nordberg was appointed new Chairman of the Board of Axis AB. He replaces Biörn Riese, who is leaving the board.

Bert Nordberg is also Chairman of the Board of Vestas Windsystems A/S and Sigma Connectivity AB, as well as a board member of Essity AB, Saab Group AB and Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget SCA. Previously, he has also held several other board assignments, including Axis.

“I look forward to returning to the board and leading our work going forward. Axis has had a fantastic journey and continues to develop its offerings to fit a growing and exciting market. As an independent company in the Canon Group, Axis has very good potential to continue to grow and develop,” says Bert Nordberg.

Bert Nordberg, who was born in 1956, has previously been CEO of Sony Mobile and held various positions in Ericsson. He is a trained marine engineer and has also studied business and management at INSEAD in France.

The changes in the board mean that Axis board now consists of Bert Nordberg (chairman), Martin Gren, Marianne Brismar, Håkan Kirstein, Toshizo Tanaka and employee representatives.

The Flemish Government has chosen AEOS access control by Nedap to secure its sites across Belgium and other European countries. A 6-year framework contract was awarded to Nedap channel partner G4S. This will involve G4S replacing the technology for more than 4,000 doors with AEOS.

The new AEOS system will accommodate up to 50 software users and will feature various integrations, including visitor management, automatic number plate recognition, mobile readers and QR code readers.

The Flemish Government was looking for an open system that provides the freedom to select which technology it integrates and which installers it works with.

Standardisation across Europe

The Government also wants to streamline its systems and processes. It currently has a wide mix of access control systems at its premises in various locations and wants to introduce more standardisation through AEOS.

As a large firm with teams of project managers, technicians, programmers and more, G4S has the capability to handle such a big, multi-faceted project. And to provide the great-quality, responsive service and scalability the Flemish Government is looking for.

Tom van de Moer at the Flemish Government says: “We’re looking forward to working with G4S and Nedap on this project. The detailed conversations they conducted during the tender process reassured us that we’ll receive a high-quality system and service. AEOS has the flexibility to adapt to our needs at each location, however intricate the demands, while standardising our processes nationally and internationally.”

Thomas Quante will take over as President of the Bosch Building Technologies division on June 1, 2021. As a board member for the division, he was previously responsible for the international system integrator business as well as for the fire alarm systems business within the global product business.

Quante succeeds Dr. Tanja Rückert, who will become Chief Digital Officer of the Bosch Group on July 1, 2021.

“In the field of safety, security and building technology, we are operating in a very exciting and dynamic market environment. Due to the growing integration of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, we see enormous potential for innovative AIoT solutions and intelligent services that provide even more energy efficiency, comfort, security and safety for our customers. I am very pleased to be playing a key role in shaping this development,” explains Thomas Quante.

Quante, who has a degree in business administration, began his career in 1994 at Robert Bosch GmbH and has worked as an executive with strategic and operational responsibilities in various Bosch divisions in Germany and abroad.

Quante has broad experience in the B2B sector as well as in-depth market and customer knowledge in building and security & safety technology. Joining Bosch Building Technologies in 2012, Quante initially headed the international business for professional communication and audio systems based in Burnsville, USA. In 2015, he became a member of the board for Bosch Building Technologies, where he played a key role in establishing and successfully developing the international system integrator business.