April 19, 2026
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How IoT and Smart Devices are Reducing Urban Traffic Congestion

Urban traffic congestion is a headache for drivers in every city. Luckily, the use of IoT devices and smart technologies is helping traffic controllers mitigate road congestion through the use of smart traffic management systems.
Izvor: a&s International
E-mail: redakcija@asadria.com

In 2018, drivers in world’s most congested urban areas lost hundreds of hours to road traffic. In Bogotá, Colombia, drivers lost 272 hours per capita — the highest in the world — to road congestion, according to the 2018 INRIX Traffic Scorecard. Americans on average lost 97 hours in congestion, with Boston, Mass., topping the country at 164 hours — the city also experienced the greatest costs globally from congestion at US$2,291 a year.

Government initiatives for traffic management, however, are increasing as the drive for smarter and safer cities continues. This and hyper-urbanization in developing countries are major factors in the growth of traffic management solutions, according to a report by MarketsandMarkets. On the intelligent transportation system (ITS) side, MarketsandMarkets estimates the global ITS market will reach US$30.7 billion by 2023, up from nearly $23.4 billion in 2018.

From smart traffic signals to IoT devices, there is a clear rise in adoption of smarter, better traffic management solutions globally. At the same time, manufacturers of ITS and traffic management solutions are working hard to develop technologies aimed at easing urban traffic congestion.

IoT Developments Help Ease Urban Traffic Congestion

The internet of things (IoT) is helping traffic controllers around the world ease urban traffic congestion.

While there is no way to truly prevent congestion, the use of ICT and IoT solutions is enabling traffic controllers to ease it significantly. Todd Kreter, SVP and GM of Roadway Sensors at Iteris explained that in the past five to 10 years, the traffic industry had focused on “introducing the kind of sensors and connectivity that enables us to help public agencies with a rich set of data.”

Rapid development of ICT and IoT solutions offers new possibilities to increase the capacity of existing infrastructure, according to Bas van der Bijl, Manager, and Stefan Hjort, ITS Expert at Sweco. “Communication between road users and traffic systems, and also more and cheaper IoT sensors, provide more traffic information for the systems to optimize the flows,” they said. “It becomes also possible to guide road users around congested areas, dividing the load over the network more equally.”

Some companies have developed solutions focused on integration of smart, real-time traffic signal control with emerging connected vehicle technology — the radios that will be going into vehicles to enable direct vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. According to Stephen Smith, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Rapid Flow Technologies, this integration provides additional opportunities for mitigating/reducing congestion.

“In the longer term, V2I communication will provide much more accurate sensing of vehicles approaching a given intersection, and hence lead to better optimization of traffic flows. In the shorter term, there are also mobility enhancements that can be provided,” Smith said. For the most part, the majority of traffic data comes from video and radar devices. Applying intelligent software algorithms to this collected data gives traffic controllers the tools to control congestion. For example, video outputs could help traffic controllers determine where cars are traveling, how fast they are going and what areas are most congested.

Using machine vision cameras to ease traffic congestion is one way to do this, explained Matthew Trushinski, Director of Marketing at Miovision. Machine vision can identify cars within video footage and count vehicle numbers. “Instead of a snapshot, traffic engineers can get a much bigger picture of how traffic is moving,” he said. Including this technology in smart intersections can allow traffic engineers to measure what is happening 24/7. Insights from this data can allow cities to make changes and measure the results, iterating until congestion measurably improves.

Urban Traffic Management Experts from Kapsch TrafficCom noted that traffic solutions deployed to measure, detect and respond relied on several sources, from widely used traffic sensors (e.g., loops) to specialized video processing, as well as FCD (floating car data) and also crowdsourcing (e.g., Waze). “IoT is mostly centered on highly distributed sensing networks or mobile devices, such as vehicles themselves that provide raw data to be processed for incident detection using time-series methods,” Kapsch TrafficCom said.

After detection, response plans can be selected from a pre-engineered library or built more dynamically according to recent available resources in the congestion area. In both cases, plans tend to reduce congestion by strategies such as information, rerouting and/or dynamic speed adjustment, according to Kapsch TrafficCom. While daily traffic congestion cannot be truly prevented, it can be controlled for planned events (e.g., roadworks, sports events, etc.), recurring situations (e.g., rush hour) or short-term forecasts. This is achieved by designing mitigating actions such as action plans that can be launched on-demand and automatically according to predefined triggers, explained Kapsch TrafficCom. “The more proactive traffic operators and systems can be, the less impact we can achieve.”

Smart Traffic Signals Make Intersections Safer, More Efficient

Smart traffic signals are becoming a regular part of urban traffic management, helping to make roads safer for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

Traffic signals are an integral part of keeping both drivers and pedestrians safe at intersections. As traffic control systems have become more intelligent, the use of smart traffic signals to optimize urban traffic flow has become increasingly important.

For decades, intersections ran independently using inductive-loop traffic-detection technology. However, the advent of internet of things (IoT) devices means more intelligent radar and video detection sensors that can count, measure direction and speed of travel, and also determine whether an objects is a car, bike or pedestrian. With this information, Todd Kreter, SVP and GM of Roadway Sensors at Iteris said “traffic engineers at a central traffic management center (TMC) can immediately modify signal timing, including how long a particular approach gets red or green, and then optimize timing throughout the day as traffic volume fluctuates.”More advanced smart strategies for traffic signals address highly dynamic changes in time durations for each and every movement within the intersection (cycle and split adjustments) and also across arterials (offset adjustments), explained Urban Traffic Management Experts from Kapsch TrafficCom.

Acquiring data for these adjustments can be done by using detectors (e.g., magnetic loops) or more advanced sensors, including video-based detection, and radar/doppler technologies. Additionally, advanced strategies are not limited to traffic counting, speed and occupancy measures. Adjusting cycle, split and offset in intersections in short intervals (e.g., 5 seconds) provides continued adaptation to varying traffic, and manages proactive adaptations, according to Kapsch TrafficCom.

Adaptive signaling regulation can be taken a step further with artificial intelligence (AI), using rules-based engines, machine learning or other AI capabilities, including recurring situations and also “human behavior,” to solve the most difficult situations, Kapsch TrafficCom said.

Rapid Flow Technologies’ Surtrac traffic signal system combines concepts from AI and traffic theory. The system allocates green time to different approaches at intersections in real time to optimize the movement of actual traffic on the road.

“The system puts computing at the edge (i.e., a computer at every intersection) to produce ‘signal timing plans’ in real time, collects information on approaching traffic in real-time from independent sensing devices (e.g., video cameras, radar, etc.) mounted at the intersection, and depends on real-time communication between networks to achieve network level coordination,” explained Stephen Smith, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Rapid Flow Technologies. Sweco is developing Smart Traffic, a traffic light controller that utilizes data already available from traditional loop detectors along with new data sources like floating car data, cameras and radars. The data from its real-time and predictive traffic model is fused into a reliable image of the traffic on the level of individual vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. Based on the predicted arrivals of traffic at the intersection, green phases are scheduled in advance optimizing both the duration as the sequence. Controlling traffic lights in this way results in reduced waiting times and CO2 emissions, according to Bas van der Bijl, Manager, and Stefan Hjort, ITS Expert at Sweco. “In addition it is also possible to inform road drivers about the scheduled green phases, offering the possibility to adopt their arrival speed at the intersection in order to prevent unnecessary stops and increasing the comfort,” they said.

Miovision offers a smart traffic signal platform called TrafficLink, which provides a range of solutions needed for a traffic team to collect, monitor and understand their traffic signals. The solutions include a managed cellular connection, and tools for signal monitoring, video streaming, maintenance alerts, as well as traffic data insights. Their SmartSense component brings traffic AI to the intersection, processing data gathered by its SmartSense 360 camera and enabling vehicle detection and ongoing studies of traffic, said Matthew Trushinski, Director of Marketing at Miovision.

In terms of solution implementation, there are many challenges when it comes to urban traffic signal control. One, according to Sweco, is finding the balance between optimal traffic light control and providing a reliable prediction of the future green phases to arriving traffic.

“The earlier drivers are informed about the signal changes, the harder it becomes to react to the actual traffic situation at the intersection,” Sweco said. They suggest using the latest sensor technology (e.g., intelligent cameras) in combination with predictive traffic models to make reliable predictions of the arrivals of traffic at an intersection for the next minute, making possible to optimize the traffic light control and to inform drivers about the scheduled green phases for the next minute.

Other challenges include pedestrian and bicycle detection. Effective traffic signaling in urban road networks must be able to distinguish different traffic modes (e.g., pedestrian, bicyclist, bus, passenger vehicle) and utilize this information in traffic signal control decisions, Smith explained. “Most current commercial vehicle detection devices are not capable of simultaneously detecting vehicles and pedestrians, and the option of using additional detection hardware to enable pedestrian detection is often not an extra expense that cities are willing to bear,” Smith said. The situation, however, is changing with more commercial detection companies introducing detection hardware capable of integrated vehicle and pedestrian detection.

How Everyone Can Benefit From Data Sharing of Real-Time Traffic Information

Sharing real-time traffic information across different agencies is the key to developing smarter traffic solutions.

Real-time traffic information is only available when traffic signals have a connection back to a central traffic management center. It is currently estimated that more than half of all signals are not connected, according to Todd Kreter, SVP and GM of Roadway Sensors at Iteris. Once connected though, agencies can access real-time traffic information through an advanced traffic management system in a variety of formats. They can then determine a signal’s status, as well as its diagnostic status.

With so many IoT devices being deployed for traffic management, the data being gathered is a gold mine for not only traffic controllers, but also other transportation and law enforcement agencies, as well as drivers. However, only when this data is shared can all parties reap the benefits.

Several solutions can address information exchange between agencies according to real-time needs and interagency agreements. Shared information can be achieved by using a shared data repository acting as a data hub, considering that agreed data is generated and consumed according to pre-agreed roles.

“Most or all agencies can also articulate an agreement for a shared ‘umbrella system,’ each one can already use such system for information dissemination and for coordination of actions across agencies,” said Urban Traffic Management Experts from Kapsch TrafficCom. They added the main challenges were defining agreements as firm as possible for consortia creations, building common platforms if agreed and intensive use of existing and future systems for the agreed goals.

Having data in standardized formats and an open architecture that avoids vendor lock-in are ways to avoid the challenges of data sharing, according to Matthew Trushinski, Director of Marketing at Miovision. His company believes in open architectures “to allow other city departments, third-party vendors and other partners to leverage the data generated at the street-level to make city life better.”

Bas van der Bijl, Manager, and Stefan Hjort, ITS Expert at Sweco, also noted that real-time open data would be used more and more. “Sharing information is the key to be able to develop smart solutions for the traffic in urban areas. When open data is available, the threshold for new solutions to enter the cities will be lowered,” they said.

Current developments in traffic management software are helping to facilitate better use of and sharing of collected data. “To effectively share information between city agencies, a common framework for representing city data is a prerequisite, and developing this common representation is the main challenge,” said Stephen Smith, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Rapid Flow Technologies. For example, Surtrac currently provides an API for communicating real-time traffic information to a municipality — one of its current deployments is starting to tap into this data as part of their Open Data initiative.

Kreter explained how Iteris’ Signal Performance Measures (SPM) was being developed to make better use of the information provided by IoT sensing devices as well as by the traffic signal controllers. “This can provide information on vehicle volumes, speeds, locations, signal status, as well as bicycles and pedestrians and can provide multiple views of overall traffic signal performance,” he said. All this data, when shared, could significantly help various agencies improve traffic management.

Popular consumer navigation apps like Waze are also doing their part to share data. In April 2018, Waze signed a deal with Waycare, a traffic management startup, to bring “two-way data sharing” of municipal and road traffic data. According to a press release from Waycare, the collaboration will enable “cities and public agencies to communicate directly with vehicles on the road and to harness real-time in-vehicle data for advanced traffic management operations.”

Securing beauty without ruining the view

With the seasonal inflow of a large amount of visitors, and revenue, popular resort cities need to make sure everyone has a great holiday, without being touched by crime. Balatonfüred, Hungary’s second most popular resort has over 1.5 million visitors (in 2016) flocking to its lake – the biggest in the country. The local police station looked to reseller WBS Systemhouse to provide a holistic surveillance solution for the city, and this was achieved by using Hikvision equipment.

Challenge
The whole area of the city needed to be covered, from the city centre to the border of the city covering the roads leading into the city and main traffic junctions, such as train and bus stations, locations preferred by tourists, walkways, entrances of beaches and bigger traffic junctions of the city. The city’s administration specifically needed to reduce the incidents of pickpocketing, shoplifting, car theft and breaking and entering.
Cameras needed to be positioned for maximum coverage, but they also needed to be placed sympathetically, to minimise any impact on the views and the beauty of the city – the reason for visitors to be there!
A particular challenge was the city’s railway station. Cameras were needed in the station lobby to ensure safety of passengers. However, the lobby was under renovation at the time, which complicated the installation. The cameras had to be fixed in a cavity covered with a suspended ceiling in a way that the casing was not affected.
The police department also needed to have a way to monitor vehicles to add to the security of the city and the safety of both residents and visitors.

Solution
WBS Systemhouse used 40 cameras around the city in strategic locations to offer maximum coverage. They chose PTZ Dome cameras (DS-2DE4220IW-DE) for their small, compact size, optimal resolution and zoom range. This meant it could provide the best pictures and range, while being unobtrusive to not spoil the beauty of the city.
The complicated installation in the station building was solved using a bracket (DS-1662ZJ) with a custom adjustment. The customer’s request was to ensure the camera’s mounting mechanism and the cabling was as ‘invisible’ as possible. This bespoke installation and the ability of the camera to deliver long range PoE power, resolved this issue to the delight of the customer.
The cameras are connected by a “closed-loop” wireless or optical fiber connection to the recording and Hikvision’s HikCentral video management platform installed in the server room of Balatonfüred Police Station. Camera images are recorded by 2 NVRs and a DVR, and the functions of the video management system are provided by iVMS 5200 (now called HikCentral) installed on a separate server. The WBS ANPR System installed on a separate server is also responsible for processing license plate data to check when vehicles entered and left the city, but also to have alarms on any ‘blacklisted’ vehicles that are picked up.
The feeds are monitored 24h at the police station in Balatonfüred, who are able to react quickly if necessary. The users find the system easy to use and flexible, thanks to the HikCentral and the fact that the cameras can easily be moved remotely.
László Regdon, Chief of Police in Balatonfüred, says: ““The area surveillance system has greatly contributed to the success of several traffic actions and criminal investigations by the police. Based on the system – which provides needle-sharp images – we have obtained useful information to provide evidence for various violations. Since the introduction of the camera system, the number of crimes has been reduced and the quality of events has been improved. The cameras in Balatonfüred fit into the atmosphere and environment of our small city, they do not create dissonance at all.”
This is a great example of how surveillance products can combine together to give an efficient, holistic system to cover a whole city. And, due to the choice of cameras, the quality of picture and the dedication of the installers, the solution quietly monitors the city and the people enjoying it without ruining the impact of the environment that attracts so many to it.

Perimeter protection – More than meets the eye

Perimeter protection is essential in critical infrastructures such as airports or utilities. Video analytics can greatly improve security in such environments while at the same time lowering costs and network strain.

286 perimeter breaches in ten years – this was the result of an Associated Press investigation on the busiest 31 airports in the United States. These incidents happened despite the fact that after the September 11 attacks, US airports had invested hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade their perimeter fencing. They basically prove two things: First, it is anything but easy to protect large areas, and second, it is not enough to build seven-foot high fences with barbed wire on top to keep intruders out. What is true for airports also applies to any other critical infrastructure, be it a utility, a power plant, a refinery or a pipeline. And although public safety may not at risk here, the manufacturing industry has a strong interest to protect physical assets and intellectual property.

While a fence and security guards may be an appropriate solution for lower risk environments, critical infrastructures need more than that. Network video surveillance has the highest potential to drastically increase perimeter security. The most obvious advantage being image quality. In today’s video surveillance applications there is an ever increasing demand for more detail. However, the industry does rely too heavily on higher resolution and consequently more detail. More details and thus pixels means more data, which in turn means more storage capacity and a higher network load. Although highly detailed images make it easy to distinguish individuals or minor details, we need to find ways to reduce storage requirements and network strain. But that is not all. The number of cameras being deployed in the market place is also rapidly increasing. Even if storage requirements and network strain are reduced significantly we still face an enormous amount of data. This leaves us with the manageability and accessibility of video data.

Manageability and accessibility of video data
At the end of the day, security personnel or operators want to be alerted instantly when suspicious events are detected. Built-in video analytics from Bosch analyze real-time images continuously to instantly detect suspicious events and alert when needed once predefined alarms are triggered. This helps operators and security personnel to spend more time on other tasks, and respond only to important events. In case an event did occur operators or security personnel want to browse stored video data to find irrefutable forensic evidence. If time and place are exactly known, this is quite easily done as the videos carry timestamps. But if you want to figure out and understand the escape route of a perpetrator on the basis of multiple cameras’ recordings, your ability to do so quickly will be limited by the sheer amount of data.

Considering this, it would be helpful if network video cameras understand what they see. In other words when they add “sense and structure” to video data in order to keep video data manageable and easy accessible. Built-in video analytics from Bosch does all this for you and much more. For mission critical applications like the perimeter protection of airports, critical infrastructures and government buildings as well as border patrol and traffic monitoring, we offer built-in Intelligent Video Analytics. Small and medium businesses, large retail stores, commercial buildings and warehouses can for example make use of our built-in Essential Video Analytics for advanced intrusion detection, enforcing health & safety regulations, and business analytics like crowd density information and people counting.

Intelligence at the edge
Bosch ensures the highest quality and reliability of video analytics by putting it at the edge. That’s why every single network camera with either Intelligent Video Analytics or Essential Video Analytics can operate independently without the need for a central analytics server – so no single point of failure. This is called distributed or decentralized intelligence. If one camera or encoder fails, the rest of the system remains at full performance. Expanding the system is therefore also easy. Network strain and storage requirements can be reduced by only streaming what is needed, since the analysis is done in the camera. With intelligence at the edge, our focus is to significantly enhance system robustness and flexibility while reducing costs.

Alerting only when needed
Network cameras with built-in video analytics can be configured to automatically identify alert conditions such as persons approaching or attempting to climb over fences, reliably differentiating between humans and the proverbial cat that flits through the image. Alert conditions can also include objects crossing one or more predefined lines, following a defined line of movement or changing their speed (running), shape (crouching) or aspect ratio (falling). Camera-based, real-time processing can also be used to issue loitering alarms and perform left object detection, giving the security team the information it needs to react and take action quickly. Automatically tracking moving objects of interest can help to verify or disprove alarms, alerting the security operator as appropriate. Such tracking can be initiated by a simple click or automatically when predefined alarm rules are met. Once integrated with intrusion detection systems or access control at the gates, intelligent video can also be used to automatically verify alarms from these systems or to double-check the identity of an individual presenting her or his credentials at the gate.

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.

Latest surveillance technologies keep seaports more secure

With two huge targets — people and assets, seaports are a likely mark for attacks. Video surveillance plays an important part of ensuring the safety and security of seaports, and new and improved technologies are helping do so.
Izvor: a&s International
E-mail: redakcija@asadria.com

Seaports are a gateway for people and goods to enter different cities and countries around the world. This, however, also makes them vulnerable to a number of threats. A robust video surveillance system, then, becomes a critical component of the overall safety and security solution at a seaport.

The requirements for a video surveillance solution at seaports have evolved over time. Not only does it serve to provide security and surveillance functions, but also for worker safety and operations. These evolving needs are the result of a growing risk landscape and growing threat of terrorist attacks.

“As families enter and exit cruise ships, large crowds are often shuffling around, creating a critical component of necessary protection for these spaces. For ships carrying goods and materials, the possibility exists that the inventory may present something suspicious that poses a potential threat, requiring proper scanning and searching techniques,” said Jumbi Edulbehram, Regional President of Americas at Oncam.

Video surveillance provides a valuable solution to safeguard these aspects, allowing officials to observe behavior in real time and quickly identify a risk or vulnerability.

Major Challenges
Seaports have many critical surveillance needs such as safeguarding against unlawful entry and terrorist threats, but they must also deal with day-to-day theft and damage issues. All this becomes increasingly difficult to deal with due to the large physical area that encompasses a port’s security responsibility and the fact that ports typically never close, having activity at all hours of the day and night. As a result, ports also encounter issues deciding how to effectively and economically protect a very large area. Something else to consider is that trade activity increases every year, resulting in more traffic and more assets the port must monitor and protect.

When it comes to deploying a video surveillance solution, major challenges at a seaport include the environment being very corrosive (salt water), harsh weather (fog and humidity) and the expansive layout. One way to combat such conditions is by taking advantage of surveillance cameras certified to operate despite constant sunlight, steady rainfall or high winds. Facility lighting and an ever-changing landscape of moving containers stacked to differing heights also pose a challenge for seaport security. “Stacking containers provide a real challenge for video coverage and ability to effectively illuminate areas and corridors between the stacks,” said Mark Brown, Director of Research and Development for Security at FLIR Systems. Another challenge is that ports are always full of activity.

“Although there are restricted areas that can be monitored using traditional surveillance technology, a port must also monitor and police areas that are open to the public and experience high volumes of foot and vehicle traffic,” said Eric Olson, VP of Marketing for PureTech Systems. “Ports must be able to quickly obtain usable surveillance data in the case of an event, and use advanced technologies to help them prevent these events from occurring.”

Better Analytics Mean Better Awareness
Among the many improvements in surveillance technology, several companies specifically pointed to artificial intelligence (AI) and improve- ments in video analytics as being key developments in improved seaport surveillance.

“The continued development of artificial intelligence algorithms, especially for video surveillance, will allow ports to more effectively monitor ‘soft events,’ whereby the event does not entail an intrusion, but rather a set of suspicious actions that may indicate threat, vandalism or other form of security breach,” Olson said. “The advancement of more intelligent video forensic algorithms, to provide quicker and more specific searches across video and other security sensors, will also be a great help to ports to speed up the investigation process and provide more accurate search results.”

Edulbehram explained that AI, machine learning and video analytics are combining to create one of the most beneficial aspects of video surveillance systems: proactivity. “These technologies allow the system to pick up on unusual or suspicious activity before an incident occurs, which is crucial for seaport security. Machine learning and AI probably have some of the most promising advancements for transportation, namely airports and seaports because they make existing applications such as facial recognition much more accurate,” Edulbehram said. “They also help identify anomalies which can indicate a security threat in environments in which traditional analytics fall short due to the complexity of the scenes. Being able to detect and mitigate a threat in advance can save countless lives and property in an environment where so many important pieces are gathered.”

Brown believes developments in deep learning/CNN (convolutional neural networks) and their contributions to improved video analytic performance hold a lot of promise for the seaport environment. Brown identified several types of video analytic functions that are improving seaport surveillance security, such as license plate recognition (LPR) and optical character recognition for the control of vehicular and container traffic entering, leaving and within the facility; object tracking analytics for forklift, truck, crane and container movements; and facial recognition and people counting analytics are applicable for many seaport facilities servicing cruise ships.

Improvements in Camera Technology
Improvements in panoramic and thermal camera technologies are allowing seaports to see beyond what traditional video surveillance cameras have been able to offer.

“Current technology gaps that still need to be addressed to help ports in their security efforts include the ability to monitor very large areas economi- cally in both day and night conditions. For example, thermal cameras work very well for night time detection at a distance, but they do not allow for detailed identification. While video surveillance cameras do a good job at this, they require a large amount of illumination to do so during night time surveillance. Radars scan over large areas, but do not provide a visual confirmation,” Olson explained. “The key is combining these solutions in an economically and intelligent manner to provide ports with this wide range of coverage — day and night.”

Edulbehram explained how the development of panoramic surveillance technology has allowed seaport security officials to mitigate the issue of comprehensive coverage by providing the ability to obtain a complete view of the scene with no blind spots. “Investing in panoramic 360-degree cameras in seaports and incorpo- rating them as part of an overall video surveillance plan can help ensure total situational awareness,” he said.

Developments in thermal imaging with increased resolution have allowed thermal cameras to be utilized for analytics that are more reliable and not affected by challenging lighting conditions, according to Brown. “Multi-sensor cameras with visible and thermal cameras in the same housing allow for the analytics to run on the thermal payload and the visible to be utilized for identification of the intruder.”

In terms of radar, Brown noted that in combination with video surveillance for target identification, radar technologies are very effective for detection. In addition, it can be used to automatically slew cameras to detected radar targets and provide a very effective solution for covering large open areas on the waterside or land perimeters.

Developments in Drone Surveillance
Drone technologies from both the threat and security tool perspective can have a large impact in the seaport environment. Drones enabled with AI algorithms and traditional video tracking analytics also provide an exciting new opportunity for seaports. “Seaports have a significant area to cover, and the ability to automatically dispatch a drone to the location of event, to not only provide video verification, but provide a means of deterrence through the drone’s presence, can allow ports to not only react faster to events, but also manage ay-to-day operation costs,” Olson said.

“The recent ability to combine geospatial alarm and tracking with video equipped drones will now allow ports to perform guard tours and react to events using automatically deployed and controlled drones,” Olson added. “This technology will allow ports to not only react faster to events, but also manage day to day operation costs of security guards, security vehicles, training, fuel, etc.”

Despite this, drone detection and defense is still an emerging market with many challenges both from the detection side and ability to proactively stop drone threats, according to Brown. “Current drones have the capabilities to be utilized from the surveillance perspective for patrols and automated response to incidents, however there is still a gap in automated charging and enclosure solutions. Legislation around entirely autonomous control is also evolving and is a limiting factor in deploying fully automated systems,” he added.

Future Advances for Safer Seaports
The recent technological advances in camera technology and incorporation of AI for better analytics are all providing seaports with improved surveillance solutions. In the future, as AI in video surveillance and developments in drone use for surveillance all get even better, seaport operators will be able to enjoy more proactive solutions for even more effective and efficient monitoring.

How the Cloud and Edge Computing Can Help Seaports

Edge computing and cloud management could play key roles in seaport surveillance, according to Steve Hu, Product Manager of Merit LILIN. This is due to their maintainability and construction cost.

Seaports are vast and require a large number of cameras to adequately monitor the entire premises. This is where edge computing and the cloud could help seaport security operators manage systems more efficiently. “Without edge computing, a great burden will be imposed on the central management system. Also, due to the huge size of the areas needed to be covered, cameras are usually installed in places that are difficult to reach. Cloud management could make maintenance much easier and reduce relevant costs,” Hu said.

In the past, edge computing and cloud management were limited by poor computing performance and limited network connection capability. However, these two issues are now more stable and reliable, making it possible to upgrade and operate surveillance systems in a more efficient way.

“In terms of cloud management, IPv6 was the key to implement a firewall-less or NAT-less remote-control system. But now LILIN has developed a remote management system — DeviceHub,” Hu explained. “No more complicated network settings should be made, just plug and play. That can be seen as an important milestone in breaking the limits of existing network conditions.”

How PSIM Makes Monitoring Seaports More Effective, Efficient

To properly surveil seaports, many disparate systems have been used over time. Erez Goldstein, Director of Global Marketing at Qognify, explains how using a PSIM to integrate these systems can create a more effective, efficient system.

Seaports are both sensitive in terms of their operations and unique in terms of their structure — its open environment to the sea makes it hard to close by usual means, as well as the high volumes of employee and visitor traffic. As such they have invested heavily over time in safety and security systems including: video surveillance, video analytics, intruder and hold up alert systems, access control, sonar, radar, automatic identifi- cation system, and GPS, as well as the increasing use of drones, according to Goldstein.

“With so many disparate systems in operation, the big challenge (and opportunity) is to integrate them in a way that delivers a common operating picture that security teams can use to proactively monitor, manage and maintain the security of the port, its people, vessels and cargo,” he added. “However, seaports have also realized that while a single centralized platform can help to significantly reduce exposure to risks and improve incident management, it can also make them more operationally efficient.”

Take for example, Naftoport — Poland’s only oil transshipment port, where it is estimated that just one day of not operating would result in a loss as high as US$200,000.

“The seaport is using our PSIM solution, Qognify Situator, to integrate its diverse array of security systems and sensors. This includes 21 channels of our intrusion detection video analytics technology for both analog and infrared,” he added.

In doing so, Naftoport has been able to automate 40 day-to-day security procedures and implement a response plan that helps its security teams to pre-plan, coordinate and manage the response to emergency situations in real-time, as well as effectively manage routine security operations.

Choosing the Right Vendor for Seaport Needs

Choosing the right vendor can be just as important as choosing the right equipment. The following are things to consider when choosing a vendor for seaport needs.

One thing to consider is the ability to propose solutions that provide a high level of security required for critical facilities, said Mark Brown, Director of Research and Development for Security at FLIR Systems. Not only that, but the vendor should also be able to aid in operations allowing the port to operate efficiently and effectively. “This implies an understanding of operations and an integration capability with additional systems,” he added.

Integration is absolutely a key priority for seaport security operators, according to Jumbi Edulbehram, Regional President of Americas at Oncam, as these installations often require numerous cameras and additional security equipment to ensure a comprehensively safe facility.

“Integration is also a factor when it comes to leveraging existing infrastructure; many seaports may already possess security technology and are looking to augment their system by incorporating the newest solutions. In order for these integrations to work smoothly, seaport security operators are looking for vendors that implement an open-platform design, enabling seamless collaboration between technologies and systems,” Edulbehram explained.

Eric Olson, VP of Marketing for PureTech Systems pointed out that the unique environment of a traditional port — large physical areas with high activity — also makes it very important that they chose a solution provider, not just a product supplier. “No one sensor can provide a port the most effective means of surveillance, and as technology advances, ports need to have their solution provider be agile in reacting to their needs.”

Vertical solution: Advancements in analytics enhance airport surveillance

Due to the strict regulations for safety and air travel, airports require comprehensive security technology. To meet these requirements, the world’s largest airports use some of the most advanced technologies available — some of which are centered around video surveillance.
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Kategorije za web: Transport, video surveillance, Software, Access Control

Airports today are more focused on security than ever before. The number of attacks on airports in recent years have only further highlighted the need to better protect passengers and staff, even the reputation of the airports themselves. In terms of video surveillance, in the past it has been used as a source of video verification or observation into what has happened, but it has since become an essential source of data, too.

Developments in Analytics
Video analytics are in high demand at airports. With so many cameras to monitor, video surveillance that works with advanced video analytics to proactively identify potential threats is critical to the success of a security plan. Furthermore, these technologies can help operators identify the most critical information at any given time.

“Powered by sophisticated, computer- based algorithms, these advanced analytics incorporate neural networks and deep learning to imitate a human’s ability to recognize, allowing the technology to adapt to and learn from new situations,” said Alan Stoddard, VP and GM of Situational Intelligence Solutions at Verint. “These innovations open up new doors to airports because they can deliver the accuracy and scalability required to support advanced recognition in real-world environments with heavy traffic and diverse popula- tions, rather than relying on one-to-one scenarios.”

Jumbi Edulbehram, Regional President of Americas at Oncam, pointed out how airports are a notori- ously difficult environment for traditional analytics to work well. However, nowadays with machine learning-based analytics things are changing.

Machine-learning based analytics are capable of learning what is “normal” in a scene over time and raising an alert when something is out of the ordinary, such as people going the wrong way, bags left unattended for a period of time, etc. This is making it much more valuable. “These analytics may also be able to identify behaviors/anomalies in the scene that had previously gone unnoticed, which could be useful for airport security or even for operational efficiencies,” Edulbehram added.

Maarten Wings, Global Vertical Manager Airports at Bosch Building Technologies, highlighted how video analytics can be configured to recognize changes in speed (running), shape (crouching) or aspect ratio (falling), all of which can be very beneficial to airports.

“With the recent addition of machine learning capabilities Bosch cameras can now be trained to recognize objects or situations that matter most to airport customers. This is important consid- ering that in today’s market there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ when it comes to protecting people and property or delivering data for business intelli- gence,” Wings explained. “Now video cameras can be taught to recognize and detect stationary objects or certain situations instead of being triggered by motion alone. With this, video metadata is further enriched and delivers data when objects are present, but also once they have been removed, therefore providing more informative data.”

More Accurate Face Recognition
The advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are enabling analytics like face recognition to deliver highly accurate, automated and intelligent identification capabilities in mission-critical security applications like airports.

“Greater accuracy in facial recognition is obviously very beneficial at airports where correct identification of passengers, staff, etc., is critical. Some airports/ airlines have already started using facial recognition to identify passengers boarding flights, while others are using it as a biometric for access to restricted areas at the airport,” Edulbehram said.

Benjamin Low, VP of APAC at Milestone Systems noted that face recognition is also being used as another form of authentication for border control, passport and security access; tracking of black- and white-list individuals; speedy clearance in congested places; and real-time matching.

Need for Improved Situational Awareness
Video surveillance today still requires intensive manual labor. This leads to a higher number of errors since humans are not very good at attentively watching video for a long time, which in a critical location like an airport can have major consequences. Modern video management systems, however, can reliably bring forward incidents to operators and ideally enable prevention of incidents.

David Lenot, Airport Practice Lead at Genetec, noted how greater camera perfor- mance and resolution, higher computational power, AI, neuronal networks, etc., are all helping deliver more in-depth insights and improving situational awareness.

“In today’s complex risk environment, airports require solutions to help enhance risk management, boost operational efficiency and improve situational awareness. In particular, situational awareness software platforms can deliver significant benefits. These systems help stakeholders gain critical insight into an airport’s security operations — both physical and cybersecurity systems — to help protect infrastructure and build analytical data,” Stoddard said.

“By collecting actionable intelligence from any number of sensors, such as video surveillance, open source web intelligence, crowdsourcing, weather sensors, mobile locations and more, leaders are empowered to manage and respond to situations efficiently and share information easily with multiple agencies, employees, citizens, aligned agencies and first responders,” Stoddard added. “Moreover, by creating a single enterprise-wide view across disparate systems and technologies, these solutions can help airports improve response times, lower operational costs, and increase operational efficiencies.”

Improving situational awareness also involves ensuring that every nook and cranny of a facility is covered by video, without blind spots. This, according to Edulbehram, is what many airport customers most want.

“Many airports have opted to strengthen their video camera arsenal with panoramic technology — both through 180- and 360-degree cameras. Think about the expansive areas of an airport, such as long corridors connecting terminals, large areas with baggage claim carousels or spacious boarding areas — all of these areas require extensive coverage that a traditional pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera cannot reach without units that are pointing in every direction. Instead, airports are uniquely suited to panoramic cameras that can maintain situational awareness in these vast areas and help officials track individuals to critical choke points, where narrow field-of-view cameras can help identify persons of interest in an investi- gation,” Edulbehram explained.

Major Challenges
Airports today face a massive increase in passenger counts. Not only this, but high volumes of luggage, public and employee access, and the vast size of these facilities can pose problems for integrators when implementing video surveillance solutions. Furthermore, wide-open spaces around a perimeter and large passageways from terminal to terminal can present a significant challenge for video coverage.

“These challenges have only grown over the years, with the requirements of meeting federal regulations set forth by countries around the world on how long to keep surveillance video, which parts of an airport should be under surveillance, and how the video is used,” Edulbehram said.

Low said, “We often see older airports tearing out entire surveillance solutions because the legacy approach to using one brand of camera/software to try to fit an extremely challenging environment is no longer valid.”

Making the best use of existing infrastructure at airports means they are often very dynamic environments and physical infrastructure is constantly changing. “As a consequence, a lot of construction works are going on which need to be monitored from the control room. This also asks for frequent adaptation of the video security system (e.g., changing field of view or focus of a camera),” Wings said.

“Today a field technician is ordered to make the changes and while doing so he often disturbs the operational environment with a crane or ladder to work on the camera. Embedded remote commissioning and configuration features, which are available in the latest camera models, allow adaptation from a remote location without the need of a ladder or crane. It is done either from the ground with a smartphone or tablet application or from the configuration software on a PC somewhere remote,” Wings explained.

Lighting is also a common surveillance challenge at airports, and can especially affect analytics such as facial recognition. To combat this, in an airport environment (especially indoors), lighting conditions can be better controlled and there can be more trials on camera and angle deployment that allow for reduction of false positives, Low advised.

Lenot added, “Indoors, where lighting is mostly controlled, constraints are mostly related to the expected design/ aesthetic expectations of architects and the nature of the construction material such as glass, wood or aluminum that should not be altered by visible sensors/ devices. Finally, when used for video analytic purposes, camera locations must be selected very carefully to enable the analytic to perform at the expected quality level.”

Outdoor airport conditions can also be very challenging. However, camera vendors are now offering a greater variety of very wide angle, panoramic, multisensor cameras that improve visual coverage and may limit the burden of installation and deployment by limiting the number of cameras and the required cabling civil engineering work, according to Lenot.

Cybersecurity risks are also becoming more prevalent. Wings noted that video security solutions should offer the latest hardware and software measures to ensure data security and privacy protection at the highest level and data security should be approached end-to- end.

“This involves that communication can only be allowed between trusted devices, data must be encrypted both in-transit as well as stored, user access rights can be easily managed, and PKI (public key infrastructures) can be supported,” Wings said.

Evolving Future Challenges
As the security needs of airports continue to evolve, the need for more advanced technologies will become increasingly crucial to airport surveil- lance. Especially in today’s age of IoT and connected everything, cybersecurity risks will only become more of an issue. However, with more advanced analytics, better camera technology and improved situational awareness, airports will be safer than ever.

What to Look for When Choosing a Vendor

Airport security operations must incorporate a number of systems from a variety of manufacturers in order to achieve the type of coverage necessary to ensure the security of the entire facility. That is why choosing the right security vendor is important.

Video surveillance is just one of the many systems necessary for airport operators and security departments to deploy to have a comprehensive security solution. According to David Lenot, Airport Practice Lead at Genetec, nowadays, these entities are also expecting system platforms that unify all underlying systems, as well as the technical complexity to actually offer a human interface that grants: optimum situational awareness; stream- lines and support decision making; delivers insights to support process monitoring or incident resolution; and most importantly to improve the overall performances.

“The security vendors must have the distinctive abilities to select individual systems, sensors and devices, but also to master all aspects of IT, including servers, networking and software. And beyond technology and technics they must understand how an airport operates to help define workflows and standard operating procedures,” Lenot explained.

Maarten Wings, Global Vertical Manager for Airports at Bosch Building Technologies, explained that vendors should ideally be able to cover multiple security domains (e.g., video systems, intrusion, access control, management software, cloud services, etc.). Additionally they should be able to deliver future-proof solutions that can be regularly updated to ensure latest data protection and functionality; offer solutions that approach data security end-to-end and built-in intelligence (video analytics) to enable security operators to collect important statistics to further improve their levels of security.

“It can go without saying that all these capabilities and functionalities are seamlessly integrated with third- party vendors since there is no one-size fits all,” Wings said. “Airports are in intense competition with each other. Queues shall be short, travel at the airport transparent while at the same time gate turnaround times need to be short to keep airlines contracted. All within a safe environment as nobody flies from an unsafe airport. Airports need to optimize and in order to do so they need data to analyze, learn and optimize. Airports need a vendor with a clear digital strategy so they can make the transition toward the digital airport.”

It is also important to remember that different camera vendors often have advantages in outdoor, indoor, control room, etc., and customers should choose the best solution/vendor for their deployment, reminded Benjamin Low, VP of APAC at Milestone Systems.

How Airports Benefit From Analytics on the Edge

Video analytics at the edge allows every network video surveillance camera to be smart and understand what it sees. In an airport environment, this allows for operators, security staff and other users to be alerted to potential threats or situations the moment they happen.

Improved camera technology and advance- ments in analytics have made analytics at the edge a more viable option. At airports, edge analytics can, for example, detect counter flow on an escalator or a group forming in unusual places or a person or car near the perimeter fence.

“Built-in video analytics allows users to retrieve the right footage from hours of stored video instantly, analyze the scene by providing all kinds of statistics (metadata), and take appropriate action faster, easier and more efficiently,” said Maarten Wings, Global Vertical Manager for Airports at Bosch Building Technologies.

“With built-in video analytics it is possible to set certain alarm rules, such as someone approaching or climbing over a fence, someone loitering at the parking lot, or objects left behind in a certain area like a box blocking the emergency exit,” he explained. “Operators in the control room will be alerted the moment one of these alarm rules is met.”

This is different to what can already be detected today. “When data of multiple cameras is aggregated statistics like counting metrics, crowd density and other information can be used to inform passengers about waiting times, or other relevant information beyond security,” he added.

What’s new in access control for 2019

The adoption of new technologies in the access control market looks set to grow in 2019, as users demand greater convenience and security.
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The global market for access control products grew by 8 percent in 2018, reaching sales of nearly US$7.5 billion, according to market research firm Memoori. This was driven in part by IP networking products, access control as a service (ACaaS), biometric readers and identity management tools. The firm predicts further growth through the integration of other physical security systems and building automation systems (BAS).

More Wireless Locks, Identity-Based Systems in 2019

From increased adoption of wireless locks to integration of authentication and access management, access control industry players discuss some of the trends they see for 2019.

Overall, the access control market has been slow to adopt the latest technological trends. One reason for slower adoption is that organizations do not update access control systems as regularly as they update other technologies such as cell phones.

According to Gaoping Xiao, Director of Sales for APAC at AMAG Technology, traditional access control is still 10 years behind other sectors. Despite this, Xiao thinks increasing awareness of the security benefits will see the market warm to newer technologies in 2019. “These newer technologies have more rigid regulations (and) in the next 12 to 18 months I think there will be a major uptick in people understanding that there is risk associated with legacy platforms, like using proximity cards or Mifare CSN cards in critical locations and updates in technology are needed to provide a safe environment.”

Jason Spielfogel, Director of Product Management at Identiv, expects to see an expansion in the use of of wireless locks in 2019. “Not only do wireless locks represent the marriage of reader and lock in the same hardware, but the ease in which a wireless lock deployment can be installed and made operational dwarfs the older, cabled methods of installing an access control system,” he said.

He added that the hospitality industry “moved in this direction several years ago, and now the main commercial/ industrial segments are rapidly following. Wireless locks also represent a way to establish fast, temporary access control environments that can just as quickly be uninstalled or moved to another location.”

Francois Lasnier, SVP of Identity and Access Management at Gemalto, highlights the use of identity-based access control across a user journey in both the physical and digital spheres as an interesting development for 2019.

“Instead of looking at each access transaction individually, with each access control system relying on disparate identity systems, global access control platforms feeding from various identity systems (e.g., AD for enterprise apps, physical access database, biometrics, etc.) and taking smart decisions based on global access policies using both physical and digital context information is something we could envision down the road,” Lasnier said.

Lasnier also expects the integration of authentication and access management to gain momentum over the next few years. “Authentication will need to be integrated into access management more tightly in order to afford the risk mitigation organizations need, and in order to reduce the burden of logging into multiple apps for end users,” he said. “This is driven by an ever present need to provide access security at the application level, as a result of a continuously expanding threat surface and of an intensifying threat level. The expanding threat surface is the result of a hyper expansion of cloud- and web-based delivery, while the intensi- fying threat level is evident in the scope of the breaches in the past few years and its repercussions.”

According to Vince Wenos, VP of Global Technology and Engineering at Allegion, other trends of interest this year include: the continued rise of IP-based network solutions as a challenge to traditional RS-485 architectures; continued demand for and adoption of cloud-hosted solutions over traditional on-premises solutions; increasing intelligence in “edge” devices due to improvements in power management and lower cost computing; mobile access and its ability to drive further convergence of physical and logical security; the inclusion of advanced machine learning and AI; and biometrics.

Moving From Card-Based Credentials to Mobile Access

Although card-based credentials have long been a mainstay in the access control industry, end users have begun demanding more secure and convenient methods of access. One technology tipped to address these concerns is mobile access.

The consensus among industry players is that mobile access will take center stage in 2019. Technologies like Bluetooth and PIR are increasingly being incorporated into readers, enabling users to leave their phone in their pockets and achieve entry simply by waving their hand near the reader. IHS Markit expects strong growth in the mobile access market over the next five years. According to its report, global mobile-credential downloads are estimated to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) exceeding 100 percent between 2017 and 2022. Furthermore, it predicts that roughly 20 percent of currently installed access control readers will be mobile capable by 2022.

“While the most secure environ- ments will continue to use cards as part of their multifactor credentialing schema, in the commercial/industrial/ residential markets, the shift is to move away from cards and use smartphones as the primary credential,” said Jason Spielfogel, Director of Product Management at Identiv. Richard Huison, Regional Manager for the U.K. and Europe at Gallagher Security, said mobile access was no longer seen as a gimmick and had gained traction due to its convenience and added security. He added that mobile provided undeniable benefits, such as the fact that it could be used across multiple sites and that creden- tials could be sent remotely over the internet. “This is a huge benefit for the customer in administration. It gets away from all of the card printing and keeping those cards catalogued and in the correct hands.”

Francois Lasnier, SVP of Identity and Access Management at Gemalto, said that as phones became the central point of interaction not only in identi- fying and authenticating users, but also in initiating access requests (physical or digital), it would be easier to build global access policies and make access decisions based on the overall user journey. Additionally, Rick Caruthers, President of Galaxy Control Systems, said more customers were requesting mobile applications where push notifi- cations were sent from the access control system to mobile phones with video for review.

Gallagher Security’s Huison believes the ubiquity of smartphones gives them a distinct advantage over access cards. “I think of it this way: how many people return home if they realize they’ve left their access card behind on the way to work? No one, realistically. But most people would do so if they realize they’ve left their mobile phone at home. They’re using their phone for paying for goods and to carry their cinema ticket or restaurant booking, so why not equip it to let them through doors they’re allowed through?” This view is echoed by Andrew Fulton, Head of Product Management for Access Control at Vanderbilt. “Mobile access control is in higher demand right now from end users looking for a way to incorporate their mobile phones with certain access levels within their organization. In today’s world, a mobile phone is a constant, and it’s natural for businesses to see this as an opportunity to integrate mobile access into offices and varying levels of access,” he said.

John Davies, MD of TDSi, said that while mobile access was already prevalent in residential spaces, research suggested some larger end-user organizations were already buying new readers in readiness for mobile-identification technologies. Estimates suggest mobile identity readers are likely to make up around 10 percent of reader sales by 2020. Mobile was also being used for access control in ways beyond opening doors, with security departments using mobile solutions for remote monitoring, setting alarms and enrolling employees into systems, said Gaoping Xiao, Director of Sales for APAC at AMAG Technology. “Mobile solutions provide more functional control (in your hands) of a system that is developed and deployed. A functional purpose is accepted and adapted. Mobile has not been widely accepted for opening doors, but it’s coming,” Xiao said, adding: “We will see it adopted in universities and in vertical markets where there are remote buildings such as the energy/utility market.”

Despite the benefits, there are sectors where Huison thinks it will not be adopted, such as the U.K.’s National Health Service and local authorities, due to concerns over a “lack of control of cards.”

Balancing the Pros and Cons of Mobile Access

With adoption of mobile access solutions tipped to increase this year, here are some of the benefits as well as challenges to consider when implementing a mobile access solution.

Convenience is one of the biggest factors leading to mobile access conversion. “ F o r m a n y o f u s , remembering our mobile phone is significantly easier than remembering a badge or keycard. There’s also the issue of waste, as the plastic used in these credentials can be wasteful – especially when used in large quantities, such as in a hotel environment,” said Andrew Fulton, Head of Product Management for Access Control at Vanderbilt.

Other benefits include near-instant credentialing, faster, more convenient access and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for multifactor authentication.
“The means of credential delivery has improved and the cost of the readers themselves has come down. This has prompted more companies to consider mobile access for upcoming projects,” said Rick Caruthers, President of Galaxy Control Systems. “We feel mobile access technology will continue to gain in acceptance and capture more market share from traditional proximity technology,” he added. While mobile access is convenient, considerations over whether log data will be stored on a mobile device or on a cloud server also need to be factored in.

Gaoping Xiao, Director of Sales for APAC at AMAG Technology, added that “the cost of virtual credentials versus traditional physical cards must (also) be considered as the investment can be high for some vendors’ solutions.”

Nancy Islas, President of Maxxess Systems, said that in order to be a suitable replacement for existing card and proximity access readers, the speed and capacity of mobile credential access readers needed to be at least equivalent to existing devices. AMAG’s Xiao noted that one of the challenges for office environments was that they still required employees to have a physical badge with a photo in order to distinguish between employees, visitors and contractors. Still, mobile access in this scenario has a clear advantage — it is convenient as most people carry a smartphone with them most of the time, and it is more secure as smartphones are typically protected by a password.

Vanderbilt’s Fulton said another challenge was the large number of different platforms on which these programs were built. “Not everyone carries the same type of phone – or even a smartphone for that matter. Another consideration is how to handle visitors and contractors that might require short-or long-term access to a facility, as well as how privacy issues are handled – that is, if an employee is using a personal mobile phone for access, how much can the employer access if that phone is being used as a credential. All of these challenges must be addressed and discussed before a company can implement these kinds of solutions.”

Cybersecurity concerns must also be addressed, as the line between how we use our mobile phones for work and personal matters becomes increasingly blurred. Because of this, mobile devices were likely to become a more attractive threat vector, according to Francois Lasnier, SVP of Identity and Access Management at Gemalto.

“Users therefore should be aware and more vigilant regarding the apps they install; enterprises will dedicate more resources to end-point and access security on mobile devices. Inherently, mobile devices have some limitations in terms of security and will become the center of cyberattacks as their role to help us run our lives keeps on increasing. Therefore, security mechanisms to maintain a high level of trust while assuming that the mobile as a device could be compromised (‘zero-trust’) will become increasingly important,” Lasnier said. Other issues include diminished phone battery life, since most mobile access solutions using Bluetooth will need this function to be turned on at all times.

Video Integration With Access Expected to Continue

Integration of video surveillance into access control systems is expected to continue in 2019, as end users look for seamless solutions to group different functionalities onto a single platform.

Video integration with access control has been happening for years and access control industry players believe this will continue as part of a wider integration trend.

“Integration in general will be critically important for manufacturers of both access control and video components, such as cameras and management systems. The shift toward video integrated with access control is a natural extension of this trend and manufacturers that make this a critical component of their offering will be more successful than those that don’t,” said Andrew Fulton, Head of Product Management for Access Control at Vanderbilt.

Nancy Islas, President of Maxxess Systems, said: “Any entity with a NoC or SoC will experience immediate benefits by merging all critical surveil- lance, access control, security systems and two-way communications onto a unified platform. Such higher levels of integration provide security and operations management with total situational awareness, allowing them to coordinate the activities of first responders and the people they are protecting with the information they need to know in the event of an emergency.”

Rick Caruthers, President of Galaxy Control System, said industry profes- sionals were “increasingly looking for higher levels of systems integration to consolidate operations and tie in previously disparate system capabilities on a unified platform.”

“Galaxy Systems has supported VMS integration for the last several years and we will continue to expand with new integration partners as they arise,” he added. Jason Spielfogel, Director of Product Management at Identiv, said video “represents a simple way to visually verify an access control event, and access control represents additional data that can be used in a surveil- lance investigation. The prerequisite for such integration really depends on how the end user uses their system, but whenever cameras are co-located near access control checkpoints, it is a waste of investment to not have them integrated together and, once integrated, provide an amazingly fast way to verify events and validate correct/incorrect practices.”

While both live and recorded video will continue to be of value, solutions that can leverage images to enhance security — for example, facial recognition on the video stream — will likely be most popular, according to Vince Wenos, VP of Global Technology and Engineering at Allegion. “

It is important to note that expanded use of video technology in the consumer electronics space for logical access control and payments is positively changing end-user percep- tions and acceptance, which will allow for greater deployment and adoption in the traditional physical access control world,” Wenos said. Vanderbilt’s Fulton said solutions offering both access control and video management in a more cloud-based format were being chosen by small to medium-sized enterprises, due to the price point and services offered. Other verticals that could benefit from video integration included those in which video was a critical component to access control, such as health care, education, financial services, higher education, casinos and hospitality, he added.

Richard Huison, Regional Manager for the U.K. and Europe at Gallagher Security, sees video surveillance integration with access control as driven more by manufacturers and suppliers trying to differentiate themselves, rather than by market need or desire.

Instead of being a necessity for every application, Huison believes video integration with access control should be based on individual need. “Video integration simply isn’t practical or worthwhile as there isn’t the manpower to monitor video where there is a huge access control throughput. I’m thinking here of hospitals and education, for example. For instance, at Kings College London, the Gallagher access control system controls a million door movements every month!”

Contactless Biometric Access Control Spreads Across Verticals

Biometrics in access control is already a trend, and now the focus is on contactless technology.

Contactless biometrics are expected to see continued growth in the access control market over the coming year, thanks in part to more accurate and advanced technology.

The global biometrics- system market is expected to reach US$41.8 billion by 2023, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20 percent, according to a report by Markets and Markets.

Similar to how analytics was expected to be the “it” trend for over a decade, predicted explosive growth in biometrics has also remained “just around the corner.” Today, however, significant advances in technology have lowered the cost and improved the performance of virtually all biometric modalities, making adoption easier.

“Combined with a general shift in user acceptance due to the application of biometrics on smartphones for logical access control and electronic payments, these advances will fuel continued deployment of biometric solutions,” said Vince Wenos, Vice President of Global Technology and Engineering at Allegion.

Jason Spielfogel, Director of Product Management at Identiv, said creating an access control system that didn’t require the specific cooperation of the user had always been the Achilles heel of contactless biometric systems. This is because such systems generally require the subject to be in an exact spot and/ or looking at a specific place for the system to recognize and authenticate the user. However, as technologies that can recognize an iris or a face at non-direct angles mature these barriers can be overcome. “When combined with systems designed to prevent tailgating, this technology has the potential to revolutionize security checkpoints,” Spielfogel said.

Gemalto recently announced a joint pilot program with a leading airline to implement biometric boarding. According to Francois Lasnier, SVP of Identity and Access Management at Gemalto: “The test will confirm that passenger needs and expectations are met through use of facial recognition versus a traditional boarding pass as well as satisfying CBP (Customs and Border Protection) U.S. Exit requirements.”

Allegion’s Wenos noted that government and public safety would no longer be the only primary verticals utilizing biometric technologies, adding that education and health care would also see expanded use for general access control. “In health care, applications are likely to include streamlined workflows that improve staff utilization and patient outcomes; more cleanliness with contactless implementations; and verified identity for access to patient information and other data. “Businesses, too, may dramatically increase the use of biometrics for logical access control, with potentially 90 percent using the technology by 2020 according to Spiceworks,” Wenos said.

John Davies, MD of TDSi, said construction sites were a good example of where biometric access control could be beneficial. In such an environment, it was far more practical for workers to use a palm-vein or facial-recognition system, as carrying a token would be impractical and a fingerprint could be difficult to read due to the harsh conditions workers’ hands are exposed to. Such a system would also be well suited to sports grounds or stadiums, where the professional players need to gain access to non-public access areas without having the availability of pockets or a bag to carry credentials. According to Wenos, another contactless biometric gaining ground was voice technology, as evidenced by double-digit growth in the adoption of voice assistants. “Voice authentication can be a bridge between physical and digital security and an extra layer of protection when needed,” he said. Still, there are barriers to adoption.

Richard Huison, Regional Manager for U.K. and Europe at Gallagher Security, pointed to the increased consciousness of data privacy in the post-GDPR era. He said people were worried the “authorities … are taking a picture of me” without knowing “what they might do with it.” “The fact that the system is just taking measurements of certain facial characteristics and plugging them in to an algorithmic image doesn’t matter. It’s the same reason why scanners in cashpoints didn’t take off 20 years ago — because of people’s fear. But, ultimately, because of the consumer convenience it will be a growing trend and the technology will improve to facilitate this, along with public education to conquer the fear factor.”

Facial Recognition to Drive Contactless Biometric Growth

Advancements in facial recognition and growing acceptance of the technology are driving growth for its use as a contactless biometric for access control.

Despire initial skepticism from consumers the increased ubiquity of facial-recognition technology has smoothed the path for its use as a contactless biometric for access control. Nancy Islas, President of Maxxess Systems, pointed out that the implementation of facial recognition in leading smartphones had dramatically reduced the learning curve. It is now widely accepted by the public, which will further accelerate deployment of facial recognition for more applications, like access control. The global facial-recognition market is expected to reach nearly US$7.8 billion by 2022, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.9 percent, according to a report by Markets and Markets. Growth is attributed to the increased need for enhanced surveillance and monitoring in public places and the increase in the use of the technology in sectors such as government departments.

Andrew Fulton, Head of Product Management for Access Control at Vanderbilt, noted that similar to mobile credentials, users looked for flexibility when it came to access control. Biometric readers could help achieve this, while also offering an additional layer of security to protect an organization, he added.

Although new technologies are constantly being touted, the most popular biometric systems are generally the most established and practical, such as facial recognition and iris. “We see facial readers have been developed rapidly in the past few years, and many customers are beginning to use facial readers instead of fingerprint or hand-geometry readers because they are convenient and highly secure. Also, the facial template capacity can be as high as 10,000 to meet the large number of people required in some applications,” said Gaoping Xiao, Director of Sales in APAC at AMAG Technology.

Facial recognition technology had improved significantly over the years and it was now more accurate than iris recognition, said Richard Huison, Regional Manager of U.K. and Europe at Gallagher Security.

“We’ve seen facial recognition, originally developed by Aurora Computer Services, adopted effectively in controlled situations such as passport control at airports,” Huison said. However, he noted that even in highly controlled environments like passport control, the hit rate was not always ideal.

“We have the additional problem of the constraints of the camera being too tight to accommodate some people. I’m over 6-feet, 6-inches and can’t find a camera high enough to take me, while people in wheelchairs may be below 4 feet,” he added.

Vanderbilt’s Fulton said that regionally, facial-recognition software was “making its way into the Asia Pacific market as a means for contactless biometric access control, as well as analytics capabilities. We’ll start to see this work its way toward Europe and the U.S. as the technology continues to develop and companies move toward the adoption of these types of technological advancements.”

Vince Wenos, VP of Global Technology and Engineering at Allegion, pointed out that facial recognition investment had been growing significantly, particularly in China, as players see the combination of facial recognition and artificial intelligence (AI) as a major disruptor. “Reports show that venture capital investment in biometrics over the past two years exceeded US$4 billion, with approximately half of that amount going to Chinese facial recognition companies,” he said.

More Cloud and Awareness of Cybersecurity

With storage becoming increasingly affordable, the migration of access control onto the cloud looks set to increase in 2019.

Acceptance of cloud-based access control and video management solutions is expected to continue in 2019, with industry players pointing to an increased willingness among end users to adopt cloud products. While most consumers still want to invest in more traditional access control solutions, the benefits of the cloud, such as quicker installation time, automatic software updates, flexibility and mobility, managed services and increased cybersecurity, are enticing users. “We anticipate the major growth in the upcoming year will be in the cloud-hosted access control space as it opens up new revenues for resellers as well as the opportunity for many small-to medium-sized operations to economically deploy advanced access control capabilities,” said Rick Caruthers, President of Galaxy Control Systems. “As a result, we will also see cloud/hosted access control solutions continue to evolve with more features and integrations in 2019,” he added. Jason Spielfogel, Director of Product Management at Identiv, said moving control and management of an access control system to the cloud made sense for many reasons, including improved management and controlÍÍ and better security.

“It also gives access control systems nearly infinite scalability unburdened by the requirement of additional panels in an on-premises environment. The current state is a hybrid approach, with the cloud being the primary brain of a system and an on-premises backup. As access control manufacturers continue to move more system functionality to the edge (bridges and readers), it will make the cloud an even more attractive option for access control,” Spielfogel said.

IHS Markit expects market revenues for access control as a service (ACaaS) to increase to US$950 million by 2022. Small- and medium-sized enterprises will lead the adoption of ACaaS, according to IHS Markit. SMEs accounted for 21 percent of market revenues in 2017.

“Pushing access control into the cloud ensures end users can enjoy enhanced security but without necessarily having to invest in expensive IT infrastructure to do so. Access control as a service promises to be a robust and rapidly growing segment of the market for small- to medium-sized projects (up to 50 doors). However, it is not something that looks like it will take off for larger projects just yet,” said John Davies, MD of TDSi.

“Interestingly, with access control as a service presenting a new paradigm for providers, we may well see new players entering to market as a result. New entrants mean more competition, so it will be interesting to see how the market reacts and how providers meet these fresh challenges,” Davies added. With access control expected to shift to the cloud as well as become more IP-based, the question of cybersecurity becomes an important consideration.

Awareness of cybersecurity was the main force driving technological development in access control, said Richard Huison, Regional Manager of the U.K. and Europe at Gallagher Security. This was tied closely to GDPR and partially to mobile credentials, he added.

But Huison stressed that “cyber is the big issue and it’s resonating at a higher and higher level.” “At multinationals, in specific industries such as banking and in enterprise level companies, they want compliance with various government standards and to be confident that ‘whatever is being plugged onto my network’ will not facilitate hackers gaining access via the access control or video surveillance system.

“In the internet of things, systems that meet a range of global standards such as the U.K.’s Cyber Assurance Products (CAPs), the U.S.’s FIPS and Australia’s Type 1A are where genuine cyber resilience will be found. In the U.K., for instance, only a handful of the 40 or so manufacturers will offer this level of standards compliance and cyber resilience,” he said.

For SMEs — where typically there is a lower level of knowledge, expertise and resources — Huison believes users need to be convinced of the resilience of their network, as well as whether their security investment is future proofed and “cyber safe” in the long run.

The growth of cold chain and the opportunities it brings

The cold chain industry is growing at a rapid pace, thanks to the increased need to transport perishable goods like food and medicine. For solution providers in this sector, opportunities are several. However, they need to have a clear understanding of the pain points to make a real difference.
Izvor: a&s International
E-mail: redakcija@asadria.com

As countries worldwide increasingly realize the importance of maintaining robust trade links with each other and the technological developments that can assist them in it, trade volumes are on the rise. According to data from the World Trade Organization (WTO), merchandise trade volume is expected to rise 4.4 percent in 2018, almost as much as the 4.7 percent increase recorded in 2017. Growth could ease a bit to 4 percent in the coming year but will remain firmly above levels recorded during the financial crisis.

The cold chain market, one of the major components of global trade, was valued at US$147.6 billion in 2017 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15 percent from 2018 to 2025, according to Grand View Research. The increased presence of connected devices and automation of refrigerated warehouses is considered some of the major factors fueling this growth.

The growth figures mentioned above include statistics from different sectors, including food and medicine. Speaking specifically on the latter, Mark Sawicki, Chief Commercial Officer of Cryoport, said that according to recent reports, the total global sales year to date for biologic products and drugs has exceeded $300 billion.

“The specialized global logistics solutions for these products are forecast to reach approximately $15 billion by the end of 2018 and grow to $18 billion by 2022,” Sawicki said. “We agree with the estimates and see a growing demand for our products and for the industry.”

Not all industry experts are, however, convinced that the growth could rise at the rapid pace that is projected. This is not because of a lack of demand. In fact, the demand is strong but the infrastructural support to meet the demand may still be at a nascent stage in certain parts of the world. For Alvis Lazarus, CEO of Hesol Consulting, who spoke specifically about the Indian market, the outlook shows strong potential, but the reality is slightly different.

“With the current outlook, cold chain industry could easily be a winner, but it isn’t yet,” Lazarus said. “Though the demand is so promising, the means to cope up with that demand is still very fragile.”

Naturally, the more products that require cold conditions are developed, the more the need for cold chain solutions. Till Krenzien, Principal of Competence Field Engineering and Implementation at Miebach Consulting, pointed out that the cold chain is a process requirement.

“It is constantly growing since more products are developed, which require constantly cold conditions,” Krenzien said. “Our industry studies for the pharmaceutical market during the last five years show a growth of 8 to 10 percent per annum.”

Factors Driving Growth
While there are several factors that contribute to market growth, certain key aspects stand out. According to Lazarus, the root of growth is the rising per capita income and changing consumer buying behavior. The US Department of Commerce, in a recent report, noted that the expansion of cold chain systems is a force multiplier that can boost exports and open new opportunities and markets over multiple sectors in the long term, rather than a one-off export transaction that can be quantified simply as an export success.

Industries like pharmaceutical are increasingly in need of cold chain solutions. Krenzien pointed out that pharma companies are developing more liquid (injectable) and biopharmaceutical drugs, which require cold storage conditions of 2 to 8 ̊C and deep freeze conditions of -20 ̊C and below (down to -70 ̊C). The requirements for existing drugs are also seeing an increase, leading to accelerated efforts to comply with regulations.

Explaining further on the market conditions and the factors fueling demand, Corey Rosenbusch, President and CEO of Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA), added that occupancy levels have peaked at the moment.

“We have seen growth from a capacity standpoint,” Rosenbusch said. “We are looking at about 5 percent growth rate a year in terms of what capacity is added to the industry. Capacity is tight right now, both on the transportation as well as the warehousing side. Occupancy levels are in the upper 80 percent, which is not full but in a distribution environment, it is considered so. Most people would even say at an 82 or 83 percent they are full because they need to have the flexibility for products to flow in and out.”

There are several reasons for this. One of the main reasons is that manufacturers have started to rebuild their inventories after the economic crisis in 2008 when they were trying to pull back and clear up balance sheets. Also, there is a lot of Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) diversification that require additional pallet positions. Further, many retailers are introducing policies that penalize manufacturers who are unable to fill orders. All these have pushed growth.

“Generally speaking, the growth of the food industry, especially the perishable food industry, is highly correlated with middle-income growth,” Rosenbusch said. “So, any time you see a growth of middle income in a region, country, or part of the world, that is going to drive the growth of cold chain.”

According to Grand View Research, growth factors include trade liberalization, government efforts to reduce food waste, and expansion of multinational retail chains. Entities like the WTO, bilateral trade initiatives such as the European Union Free Trade Agreement and the North America Free Trade Agreement have boosted the need for transporting perishable goods across the globe.

While this may be the case mostly in developed economies, emerging markets are seeing a different trend altogether. Here, the cold storage market is fueled by a move from consumption of food that is rich in carbohydrates to those that are protein-rich.

“Countries such as China are expected to portray a significant growth rate over the coming years due to a consumer-led transition in the economy,” reports Grand View Research. “With growing technological advancements in warehouses management and refrigerated transportation, the market is likely to expand in developing economies. Furthermore, growing government subsidies have enabled service providers to tap these emerging markets with innovative solutions to overcome complex transportation.”

Trends Seen in the Industry
Industry experts point out that technological developments have paved way for several trends in this sector. Key among them is the need for real-time monitoring of factors like temperature and atmospheric composition. These data help service providers understand the various conditions and help them take preemptive action.

However, some experts are quick to point out that the trends are in line with technological developments in other sectors in the transport and storage industry.

“There is a misconception that the technologies are so different, but the truth is that they are not,” Lazarus said. “If you consider the overall supply chain, the cold chain fits in majorly on the distribution (warehousing and transportation) as well as the raw material storage and transportation industries. Hence, all the key supply chain concepts, methods and tools make perfect sense for the cold chain as well.”

For example, tool kits for procurement and sourcing, transportation and warehouse management as well as standards all apply to cold chain operations as well. Even in a cold chain setup, all the existing tools and techniques like space planning, layout designing, storage systems, and material flow and handling are used. Despite this, there are certain differentiators that need to be mentioned.

“Now, the differentiator is the technology in maintaining the product at the right specifications like temperature, packing, handling etc., throughout the supply chain,” Lazarus continued. “We really struggle to achieve this due to lack of design norms, operational inefficiencies, discipline issues and lack of process controls. As a cold chain supply chain consultant, I have worked on multiple projects fixing these gaps and, in most cases, we are not inventing anything new, but fixing the missing basics. There have also been instances, where we used IoT-based supply chain solutions to bridge these gaps. Recently we worked on an IoT solution to bridge multiple upstream and downstream issues within a dairy product supply chain.”

Lazarus’ point is that new tools and technologies keep coming up but those that are already there are not obsolete, and they make perfect sense even today. Speaking on this point, Rosenbusch said that technology was indeed the main topic of discussion at GCCA’s recent board meeting, stressing on its importance.

“When I say technology, automation is a big part of that,” Rosenbusch added. “If you look at Europe, the continent has always been a leader in automation, with just about any building you go into having some form of it. This is obviously because of the lack of availability and high price of land and labor. Labor is very expensive in Europe, so that has been a driver behind a lot of the automation that you see there. Those same challenges are not necessarily there in the U.S. However, we are seeing a tipping point and that is labor availability. [Concerns on] the availability of labor have pushed people to seriously consider automated solutions.”

He added that automation does not necessarily mean complete AS/RS systems in the cold chain industry. In some cases, for instance, it’s just about integrating conveyors or pallet moles into existing infrastructure. So, anything that can create efficiency or help replace some of the labor that has become a challenge is definitely being used.

“But it’s not just automation from a technology standpoint, but also systems, that include WMS and TMS, business intelligence, solutions to help look at supply chain optimization for customers, etc.” Rosenbusch. “We have even heard of people using drones in their buildings to do cycle counts, fully IoT-enabled systems for refrigeration. It’s a broader introduction of technology into all elements of the business.”

Challenges Hurting Growth
When it comes to the challenges in this industry, factors ranging from regional differences to economic concerns play a major role.

“We primarily represent, what we call, the third-party cold chain,” Rosenbusch said. “This means anybody who is offering cold chain solutions as a service. There is a lot of demand for these services right now, but I think the contractual environment has prevented a lot of food companies that are demanding those services from making long-term commitments. So, when you look at the need to put up more assets, to put up more buildings, to invest in growth, what they require is an anchor client, an anchor tenant or a long-term commitment.”

This is not just from a return on investment (ROI) perspective but also from a financing perspective when banks and financial institutions look at feasibility.

“The industry in the food sector has become so dynamic,” Rosenbusch continued. “It’s changing so rapidly, that it makes it difficult for food companies to make a ten-year commitment for some assets. But these are not cheap assets, and I think that’s one of the factors that is affecting growth.”

Regulations are another factor that is important to consider. For instance, certain automation solutions might require tall buildings and the height may not be in line with what the local laws permit. The general political environment of a country may also come into play when considering challenges that need to be overcome. Concerns in this regard may limit the amount of investment that individuals and organizations would want to make. Especially when it comes to expanding to new markets, there are uncertainties on how governments function and this too becomes a hurdle to growth.

But perhaps the biggest challenge is labor itself. Having a skilled workforce to fill the jobs and be able to meet the current requirements is not easy.

Krenzien added certain other technological challenges as well. In his opinion, while it is critical to monitor factors such as the temperature at each point of the supply chain, aspects such as lack of adequate infrastructure, especially in terms of refrigerated trucks, warehouses and efficient roads in developing economies is a difficulty.

Enhancing Business in Cold Chain
For vendors that provide technical support to cold chain service providers, understanding the challenges and requirements is critical. Labor and energy are the two biggest costs for service providers, and manufacturers would do well if they can concentrate on coming up with solutions that would ease the pressure on these two fronts.

On a final note, Rosenbusch added that a survey of food companies that GCCA had conducted recently found that food safety and protecting their brand was the biggest concern. No one can afford to have an outbreak of a food-borne illness because it would completely destroy their brand. In other words, this is the major fear that keeps them awake at night and, this, in turn, should be the primary focus of technology vendors who manufacture cold chain solutions.

Giga-TMS Offers an Ideal Cold Chain Solution With Promag

With global trade links continuing to grow at a rapid pace, the need for an uninterruptable cold chain to transport perishable goods like fresh food and medicine is at an all-time high. One of the key players in this industry, offering robust solutions to cold chain service providers, is Giga-TMS.

Controlling the various parameters of temperature is critical to the efficient operation of cold chain systems. In this regard, Giga-TMS offers Promag, its solution that enables temperature monitoring, cloud-based data with web portal access and mobile apps, prevention of data tampering, and track and trace of transport. From an operational point of view, the solution that Giga-TMS provides allows fresh products to hold their value longer, increasing their transportability and providing opportunities that expand their market reach.

What Features Make Promag Special?
Giga-TMS offers an end-to-end solution. Monitoring begins at the farms and factories and remains in operation until products reach destinations like distribution centers, third-party logistic outlets, warehouses, grocery stores, specialty retail stores, restaurants, and hospitality centers. While this itself is a great advantage to the customer, Promag’s following features ensure the whole process runs as smooth as possible.

1. Basic functions: These include a range of relevant sensors for factors like temperature and light, along with an integrated alert mechanism. The solution can make use of Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity.
2. Ease of use: End customers like restaurants and retail outlets do not have dedicated technical departments to take care of cold chain processes. The solutions offered to them should be robust and easy to set up and use. Promag, with its ease of connectivity and cloud-based support, ensures minimum onsite maintenance.
3. User interface: Given the fact that customers in the transport and preparation of food often must adhere to stringent deadlines, a simple, intuitive user interface is critical. This will reduce the time required for training new employees as well.
4. Data for analytics: The role of data is being increasingly understood in various industries and the cold chain is no different. With Promag, customers will be able to gather information through real-time monitoring, which can be analyzed and used to predict conditions.
5. Accuracy and reliability: None of the features mentioned above matter if the solution does not provide a consistently dependable service. This is where Giga-TMS truly stands a class apart. Promag conforms to international standards that ensure reliability and accuracy.

How Does It All Benefit the Customer?
By ensuring that products like food and healthcare supplies remain intact during transport, Giga-TMS is an asset to cold chain service providers. Naturally, customers of different products have different requirements. For instance, the conditions that are necessary to transport fruits and vegetables are different from that required for medicines. The advantage of Promag is that it can suit customers across verticals. By ensuring the efficient transport of goods, the solution helps to boost productivity, improve accuracy, customer satisfaction, reduce costs and enhance the overall brand image. In short, with Promag, cold chain service providers can rest assured that their investment is in the right place.

From pick up to drop off – student tracking provides peace of mind

Student tracking solutions for school buses are allowing both parents and school administrators to keep track of students during their bus journey to and from school.
Izvor: a&s International
E-mail: redakcija@asadria.com

It’s a simple fact — parents want to know where their children are. Now, with student tracking solutions, this peace of mind can be offered to both parents, drivers and school administrators alike.

Most of the technologies used by school buses to increase safety (e.g., collision detection, surveillance cameras, GPS tracking, etc.) are not unique to school bus transportation – many of these technologies are already widely used in the transportation industry. What is unique to the school bus industry, though, is the proliferation of apps and student tracking technologies. With these technologies drivers and parents can track both the school bus and students on the bus, while also ensuring that school buses are as efficient as possible.

Different Types of Student Tracking
The latest solution for student tracking is to equip students with their own ID card which is swiped when getting on and off the school bus. This allows administrators and parents to view and track where students are during the school bus operation. Companies like Wireless inks offer passive and active RFID solutions integrated with fleet management to track students. The company’s student and school bus tracking fleet management solution provides visibility and control over the real-time location of students and buses while providing assistance in ensuring student transportation safety.

According to Gene Ballard, Smart Bus Program Manager at Kajeet, the following are required for an effective student tracking solution: full GPS services on the bus, ID cards for the students with RFID or NFC, and driver tablets (which some states prohibit). “The driver tablet is important as students will forget their ID cards and their information must be manually entered into a tablet,” he explained.

The Kajeet solution provides the connecting piece of Wi-Fi to ensure student tracking information can be transferred safely and securely. “Our SmartBus solution also includes the GPS services to: view the current location and location history of every school bus; visualize the position of buses across the school district with a breadcrumbs trail; and create custom reports, including when buses exceed the speed limit,” Ballard said.

Seon’s student ridership tracking solution is integrated with video, GPS tracking and route operations software. “Student tracking requires an RFID card, card reader, wireless connectivity (cellular) and interface with routing or tracking data. Most vendors offer pieces of this solution, leading to incompatibility and incomprehensible data reports. We offer a fully integrated video, routing and tracking solution,” said Justin Malcolm, Director of Product Management for Safe Fleet.

ReaXium has created a unique solution using mobile biometric devices that are outfitted on the school bus. “Upon boarding, students and bus drivers authenticate themselves with a device that captures their fingerprint or ID card which verifies who they are, when they boarded, and what bus and bus stop they should be going to,” explained Edgar Zorrilla, CEO of ReaXium.

Unlike cameras, GPS tracking and roll-call methods of student monitoring, which lack a big proponent in visibility, ReaXium’s solution removes the guesswork of which students are on the bus, what stop they will be getting off at, and when they will be getting off. “Parents and administrators can track the buses in real time and get notifications on student status. The ability to provide constant visibility throughout the bus route is critical in making sure that no child is not accounted for and to advocate safety for the greater community,” Zorrilla said.

Overcoming Challenges
School districts are always under strict budgets, and “extras,” like student tracking, are often seen as unnecessary despite their value. As such, solution providers are working with school districts’ restricted budgets so they can still reap the benefits of this technology.

ReaXium boasts a flexible business model to allow school districts to make the most of implementing its solution. “For starters, as a managed service provider, we don’t make districts take on a capital asset that will depreciate in value, instead our customers will pay a monthly fee that covers full-time monitoring and support as well as access to any software or hardware update,” Zorrilla explained.

Wireless Links offers low-cost options such as its RFID solutions integrated with GPS telematics. “We offer both passive and active RFID solutions in addition to the GPS telematics devices installed on the bus. Both are budget friendly options. For the passive RFID, the student card serves as a passive RFID card. When the student gets on or off the bus, he scans the RFID card by the reader to log the location and time of event. For the active RFID, each student is issued a personal RFTag with a unique ID. When students get on and off the bus, the RFTag automatically links and registers with the Piccolo Plus telematics device installed in the bus,” said Morgan Minster, Marketing Manager at Wireless Links.

While cost is a major challenge, Leslie Kilgore, VP of Engineering at Thomas Built Buses (TBB) pointed out that most school districts keep their school buses for 15 years or more. “Even if a school district does decide to install student tracking technology, some older buses may not be compatible with the technology, leaving only their newest buses (a small percentage of the overall fleet) equipped with the safety feature,” she said.

Education and technology awareness are also challenges. While schools districts are adopting more new, smart technologies in the classroom, understanding how technologies like student tracking work and the benefits are not always so easy.

For companies like ReaXium, with their unique biometric student tracking solution, educating users and exploring with them the effectiveness of its biometric solution is essential to its deployment. “Not understanding how biometrics works, how this would improve safety and security, what are the costs of this system are objections that we face,” Zorrilla explained. “As biometrics makes an advancement toward preventative security, people tend to have the negative connotation that their identity is at risk and that their personal information is stored on a database that everyone can view, which is not the case. In addition to biometrics, we offer card-based ridership solutions with the same solution.”

From a technical standpoint, Zorrilla noted connectivity and the potential for a bus route to cross blind spots as challenges. “However, our solution works online and offline. Any data collected during a lost connection or blind spot such as bus location, students entering and more is automatically synced and logged correctly when a connection is established again,” he added.

Still a Ways to Go
Tracking students can definitely have its benefits, especially in highly urban settings where safety and security may be more of a concern. However, at this point, with limited budgets, school districts will have a hard time spending on technologies like student tracking considering the overwhelming majority of school buses in the U.S. are not even required to have seatbelts. Although, with safety becoming more of an issue, certain school districts are sure to find such technology very valuable.

How Student Tracking Helps School Administrators and Drivers

Student tracking helps parents know where their child is while on the school bus; however, the technology also largely benefits school administrators and drivers.

Student tracking increases awareness on buses by verifying who is who and where. It also helps to provide parents with peace of mind, but more importantly allows school districts to more effectively manage their transportation.

Wireless Links’ solution helps school transport managers to communicate better with school bus drivers, know their driving patterns or violations, view the location of a school bus and receive instant warnings on exit from regular route, explained Morgan Minster, Marketing Manager at Wireless Links; thus assisting schools in managing their transportation effectively. Edgar Zorrilla, CEO of ReaXium, noted that one of the biggest issues with school bus safety is awareness of who is onboard, and what to do in a situation. “While implementing surveillance cameras and bus tracking software are some solutions to show the activity of the bus, they don’t accomplish the greater goal of accountability. This means; who enters and leaves, what time they did, and constant communication between the bus driver and the school,” he said. Student tracking solutions can help to resolve the imbalance of awareness that results in students boarding the wrong bus, not getting off at the right stop, and lack of updates for parents when they ask the school where their child is and the school is unable to answer that. Whether through a data plan or using mobile Wi-Fi, Zorrilla noted that smart school buses can now communicate with dispatchers and administrators in real time by automatically syncing their current rider list and their location, as well as sending any alerts dispatched by drivers. “Administrators can track buses and the students onboard from their secure web dashboard. Parents or guardians can also track the bus and their students using a mobile app.”

Student tracking can also make school bus drivers better. “For instance, our device acts as a student information manager meaning drivers can know how many students and who to expect at a stop,” Zorrilla explained. “Similarly, the device acts as an alert dispatcher letting drivers quickly tell administrators or families of an unexpected delay or incident.”

How technology is making school buses safer

Ensuring the safety of the millions of children that ride school buses daily is a top priority. New and more advanced technologies are helping school districts protect students both on and off the bus.
Izvor: a&s International
E-mail: redakcija@asadria.com

School buses are one of the safest modes of transportation on the road. In fact, students are 70 times more likely to arrive safely at school if traveling by school bus rather than by car, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Even so, recent school bus accidents, such as the 2016 Chattanooga, Tennessee, bus crash that resulted in the deaths of six students have highlighted the need for stronger safety measures.

Today, a combination of public awareness, driver and student bus safety training, and installation of integrated onboard safety technologies are essential for modern school bus safety management, according to Justin Malcolm, Director of Product Management for Safe Fleet. By deploying a combination of different safety solutions, school buses across the U.S. can better ensure the safety of the precious cargo they transport.

Using Cameras and GPS Tracking
Nowadays there are many different types of safety and security solutions for school buses. Cameras are a common safety measure, and in the past have mostly been installed inside buses to monitor and keep track of what is happening aboard. However, advancements in camera technology and accompanying software can now offer school districts real-time video footage of what is happening both outside and inside the bus. This is important since students are most vulnerable during the loading and unloading process.

While the deployment of stop arms and crossing arms have helped reduce student injuries and fatalities over the years, implementing stop arm cameras on the outside of the bus is helping penalize drivers overtaking stopped school buses.

“Stop-arm cameras track any illegal passing and some states allow districts to use these cameras to issue tickets to those drivers,” said Gene Ballard, Smart Bus Program Manager at Kajeet. “Rearview or backup cameras provide drivers another point of reference to ensure there are no pedestrians walking behind the school bus. Additionally, bus drivers have a silent alarm or panic button, which they can press to alert their transportation department of an issue or emergency on their school bus,” he added.

Leslie Kilgore, VP of Engineering at Thomas Built Buses (TBB), explained how using a 360-degree camera, such as TBB’s PV360, could provide a 360-degree bird’s-eye view of the exterior of the bus. “Unlike other cameras in the market that provide images on split screens, the PV360 camera shows full visibility all the way around the bus with screens that are stitched together to create one image,” she said. The PV360 uses four cameras to provide bus drivers with real-time video images of everything that is happening outside the bus, without constantly switching views. “If the driver needs a closer look, he or she can toggle between cameras for a closer look. This technology is especially important since most accidents involving a school bus happen outside the bus.”

GPS tracking is another popular solution used for school bus safety. Through GPS tracking, school districts can know the exact location of all buses in its fleet. “GPS technology also provides speed reports, such as the posted speed vs. the actual bus speed. So if bus drivers are speeding, transportation departments can now see who is speeding, where they were speeding, and by how much,” Ballard explained.

Installing GPS telematics units also provides school transport managers with important information ranging from real-time bus location; school bus driver’s driving behavior; geofencing alerts when vehicles exit and enter predefined areas or routes; and maintenance, according to Morgan Minster, Marketing Manager at Wireless Links.

How Wi-Fi Changed the Game
Aside from improved camera and GPS telematics technology, companies have developed a wide variety of solutions to enhance school bus safety. Much of this development has been brought on and made possible by the increased availability of Wi-Fi networks and the overall IoT revolution.

“Technology is bringing more and more safety solutions to the school bus. The first solution to bring school buses into the 21st century is internet access,” Ballard said. “As school buses become well-connected vehicles, there needs to be a factor that ties all of the technology together. And that connecting piece is internet access. With Wi-Fi on the school bus, districts get the access they need to keep moving forward in the connected world while saving money and expanding their capabilities to integrate any Wi-Fi enabled solutions.”

Kilgore observed, “Cellular data and Wi-Fi has enabled apps to function and to be accessible. In addition, cellular data also enables some technologies like onboard telematics to receive over-the-air updates much like a standard computer update. This saves the fleet managers and technicians time and money and makes the school bus safer overall by allowing communication with the transportation department.”

Malcolm noted that adoption of live streaming, which offers the ability to tap into installed video cameras to assess onboard emergencies, has been hampered by the high costs of cellular data plans. “Deployments of mobile Wi-Fi will help reduce the adoption barriers to live video streaming, by sharing data plan costs across applications.”

Additionally, filtered Wi-Fi — meaning students can only access educational, safe sites — on school buses allows students to focus on their homework or educational games, which keeps them entertained and reduces the chances of fighting, according to Ballard. “They won’t be spending their time on social media or watching TV. And students can gain an additional 20 days of instructional time with Wi-Fi on their school bus,” he explained.

New Technologies Creating Safer Buses
There are many new and innovative technologies on the market today that are being deploying on buses to increase safety and security in and around the bus.

“When developing technologies for our industry, we strive to hit the right balance, bringing to market only the innovations that make sense for the customers. In other words, the right technology at the right time. We don’t innovate for the sake of innovating,” Kilgore said. “Instead, we try to address problems in the industry and work to make school buses safer, more efficient, easier to maintain, and to provide a lower total cost of ownership.”

One such technology being developed is pedestrian detection. TBB is currently developing its own pedestrian detection solution, which will be comprised of LED ground lights on the cross-view mirrors as well as multiple radar units on the 77 GHz frequency band installed around the exterior of a Thomas Built bus. “These higher frequency radars, which are used for autonomous vehicles and high-resolution meteorological observations, will allow for more precise detection and measurement of a pedestrian or object within 10 feet of the front, back or side of the school bus. The entire traditional danger zone will be visible. When a pedestrian is detected, the system will alert the driver on an in-cabin tablet, as well as through caution lights on the cross-view mirrors,” Kilgore explained.

Safe Fleet is also working on smart pedestrian detection technologies that use a combination of video, sensors, artificial intelligence and deep learning, which will help analyze and reduce future accidents. “Safe Fleet is currently working on a number of school bus danger zone safety technologies that both improve visibility around the bus and analyze and alert both students and drivers of any hazards in the danger zone. These technologies working together will analyze whether an oncoming vehicle is likely to pass illegally, and warn students and drivers not to cross. These technologies will improve visibility and send both visual and audible alerts to drivers when motion is detected near the school bus at a stop to reduce collisions,” Malcolm said.

Lane departure and collision avoidance warnings, which can alert the driver before an impending accident occurs, are also being adopted by school districts.

While technologies like collision avoidance and pedestrian detection are considered new technologies for the school bus industry, Kilgore pointed out that they are not necessarily new to the transportation industry.

Challenges to Safety and Security
One of the biggest challenges school districts face when wanting to deploy new technology is budgetary. “School budgets are limited and when it comes to purchasing multiple school buses or equipping just a few buses with state-of-the-art technology, most school districts opt to purchase more buses rather than a few with the latest in safety technology,” Kilgore said.

“Budget is consistently a roadblock to advancing school buses with the latest technology,” Ballard said. To meet this challenge, Kajeet has reduced the upfront cost of its solution with a new program, SmartBus Select. “This program brings the first-year cost down to US$840. This fixed monthly rate for this all-in-one program includes: SmartBus hardware, installation kit, installation services, data plan with 4G LTE connectivity on six North American wireless carriers, and GPS services,” he explained.

Urgency, as observed by Minster, is another challenge. “Although schools and districts are aware of the benefits, they are not urgent to pass the necessary budget to equip school buses with these types of technologies or they do not feel that they should invest in these solutions at the moment. This causes delays in the implementation in these solutions which is a shame as all can benefit from these types of technologies to ensure student safety.”

Malcolm noted connectivity challenges, high cost data plans, and IT networking infrastructure knowledge as obstacles preventing faster adoption of newer technologies. “Also with the proliferation of data from all these technologies, school administrators are overwhelmed by system operations and data analysis,” he added.

Seon, a Safe Fleet brand, has tackled these problems by offering a completely integrated out-of-the-box solution for school transportation that combines video, route operations, tracking and student ridership technology to make it easier for administrators to pull meaningful data that improves student safety. Additionally, its Certified Wireless Network Administrators can help districts architect their wireless networks to handle the demands of video transmission.

A Future of Smart School Buses
Despite budget limitations, school buses will continue to become not only safer and more secure, but also smarter. With regulations changing to better ensure student safety, along with increased connectivity and advancements in technology, school buses are bound to become smarter — not just because of available technologies, but because student safety will demand it.

Deadly school bus accidents are driving US lawmakers at both the federal and state levels to strengthen the regulations that govern school bus safety.

New regulations are oftentimes an unfortunate result of tragic accidents. For example, the death of a two-year-old girl in New Jersey resulted in Abigail’s Law. This law requires school buses in the state to be equipped with sensors to detect objects in the front and back of the bus. Then earlier this year in May, a school bus accident in New Jersey, which resulted in the death of one student and a teacher, brought increased attention to school bus safety. In response to the accident, state lawmakers passed a bill requiring all new school buses to have three-point lap and shoulder belts – previously school buses were only required to have two-point lap belts.

Nationally, school bus safety is governed by strict regulations set forth by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). “School buses must meet 42 FMVSS requirements, more than any other vehicle on the road,” explained Leslie Kilgore, VP of Engineering at Thomas Built Buses (TBB). “Beyond the federal requirements, individual states have their own safety regulations, plus the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) make recommendations on regulations and restrictions to further enhance the safety of school buses.” According to the NHTSA, in a single day more than 104,000 school bus drivers observed 77,972 vehicles illegally passing school buses in 2017. To combat this, the NCSL reports there are currently 15 states that allow local governments or school districts to use cameras to capture images and issue tickets to drivers illegally passing stopped school buses.

Recently, the NTSB recommended all US school buses be equipped with lap-shoulder belts and electronic stability control. While some states take these recommendations to heart, others are still considering the recommendation. Currently, only eight states — Arkansas, California, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Texas — in the U.S. have laws requiring school buses to have seatbelts, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

Electronic stability control, which assists school bus drivers by detecting when a school bus is unstable and corrects the path of the bus before a rollover or loss of control occurs, can help eliminate accidents before they happen. Kilgore noted Canada requires all new school buses be equipped with electronic stability control. “With time, more and more of these safety features will become standard on school buses. Today, our new Saf-T-Liner C2 school buses already come equipped with electronic stability control and engine telematics as standard equipment. More features will follow, due to regulations or needs within the industry. But it will take time and further education before all school buses across the United States and Canada feature all these technologies,” Kilgore said.

 

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