Sen nov2014

Security Managers ◆ Integrators ◆ IT Managers ◆ Installers November 2014 Issue 360

smart home l Installing 1080p HD IP cameras l SmartLiving from Ness l Leighton IT installs Bosch at PMG l 360-degree Thermal Radar l Security Industry Awards for Excellence l Integrators’ biggest worries l AVL-2: God of small things l Hikvision’s Prince of Darkness l Elvox digital intercoms l Interview: S2’s R. Todd Smith

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editorial s ec u ri ty e l e ct ro n i c s & netwo r ks nove mb e r 201 4 issue 360

Training failure imposes a material cost

S

EN spent years droning on about technical training in a bid to encourage the creation of national technical standards for electronic security installers.

Other organisations have taken up the torch at various times over intervening years but none has succeeded.

Whether this is an issue relating to the challenge of getting consensus between the educational systems of multiple states, or whether it’s been a lack of financial application is a moot point. The thing that has not changed in all those years is the lack of capable technicians.

Decades after the last Wormald apprentices came through, the situation is worse than it’s ever been.

Technology has not stayed still, yet the addition of networking as a new support strata has not removed the need for installers and integrators to have a handle on the fundamentals of electronics.

Today, our technicians need to understand cabling, power and UPS solutions, wired and wireless telecomms, alarm systems, bus or IP-based automation systems, access control solutions – serial and digital, intercoms, and video surveillance systems.

Flitting between the trunks of these primary disciplines are aspects of installation no less vital for performance

By John Adams

Technology has not stayed still, yet the addition of networking as a new support strata has not removed the need for installers and integrators to have a handle on the fundamentals of electronics. and reliability. Techs need to understand electronic locking solutions (integrated as well as standalone units), internal and external intrusion technologies and have an idea of defending likely approaches. They need to appreciate lens technology – to understand the impact of aperture settings and the impact of selected depth of field. They need to understand lighting technologies.

Complicating matters is the cross-over between hardware devices and IP networks.

Many techs are comfortable installing an IP camera but once it’s on the wall, lens fitted and focused, things come unstuck.

The back-end of an IP camera is a browser-based library of optional extras that no installer can sensibly ignore. Engaging with it might involve tuning a camera’s bit rate to give the best recorded image for review during investigations, or it might involve applying dual camera settings that automatically switch over to squeeze best performance from a camera at night.

Underlying and overlying all this is networking. Not just building subnets, but sharing networks, and not just LANs but WANs. Then there are associated areas of networking, including mobile applications that demand a more than passing comprehension of secure smart device setup. And overarching all

this other stuff we have solutions management, or PSIM, perhaps best described as the singular expression of multiple subsystem inputs and outputs on one workstation, in real time.

It’s not as if integration companies are oblivious to their needs. Speaking with integrators recently, all told me their greatest difficulty was finding, training and keeping hold of quality technicians. Most it seems, cobble together good technicians via a combination of electrical and IT trades, courses run by manufacturers and plenty of hands-on experience. And this group of techs is a valuable commodity – the best of them worth between $80-100,000 annually.

From an observer’s point of view, it’s interesting that the industry’s general unwillingness to establish and fund a national curriculum that might be linked with licensing has led it to the very thing from which it bridled - increased financial cost. And there’s an impact on end users, too, and for the same fundamental reasons. Continued downward pressure on integration costs means the application of poor technologies by less qualified technicians. Over the long term this means less reliable and less secure security solutions, and the decay of trust between end users and the industry that serves them. zzz

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rating, weighs less than 2kg, has a tiny 5-watt power draw, yet offers 360-degree thermal detection of 600m for intruders, 1800m for vehicles and 5000m for fires.

20: Installing 1080p HD

nov 14

What are some of the things installers who are unfamiliar with 1080p HD cameras consistently get wrong? And how much difference might rectifying basic problems make to the quality of 1080p image streams?

30: Get smart SmartLiving from Ness is a range of busbased control panels offering between 10-200 zones (with zone doubling) and incorporating automation features as well as access control and voice-over-bus transmissions.

36: 360-degree Thermal Radar A new ONVIF-compliant, uncooled, thermal camera features a compact size, IP 66

What are the biggest issues troubling integrators today? The obvious challenges include the overwrought pace of technological change and falling margins.

But arguably the biggest issue is something far simpler.

44: God of small things Infodraw’s tiny AVL-2 is a mobile lowpower cellular media relay that allows live streaming, recording and monitoring of video, audio, alarm inputs and GPS location.

26: Security Industry Awards for Excellence Members of the Australian security industry convened at The Ivy Ballroom in Sydney late October for the presentation of 2014’s Australian Security Industry Awards for Excellence.

38: Integrators’ biggest worries

50: Superconducting networks

30

Superconducting chips with no internal resistance would be up to 100 times more energy efficient that current chips. They would run cooler and so last much longer, and best of all, they might unlock the power of the mighty Josephson junction.

58: Prince of darkness Hikvision’s Darkfighter DS2CD6020FHWD(-A) is an ultra low light WDR 2MP IP camera with a ½-inch progressive scan CMOS sensor. The camera offers 60fps, 120dB WDR, a region of interest codec and 3D DNR digital noise reduction.

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52 26

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regulars

66: Elvox Digital Intercoms

10: news

Seadan Security & Electronics and Sprint Intercom are distributing Vimar’s range of Elvox 2-wire digital intercoms, which feature massive expansion and a range of robust and good looking entrance stations and handsets.

Latest business, product and technical news from Australia and around the world.

52: monitoring A recent study suggests homeowners like the idea of automation and identify safety and security monitoring as automation’s central role. But they have their own ideas about installation and monitoring.

70: Open-and-shut-case John Adams talks to S2’s R. Todd Smith about the company’s growth, challenges facing the client-server architecture model and the subtle definition of open architecture.

76: editor’s choice What’s new from our manufacturers.

72: All-in-one solution

80: helpdesk

Integrator Leighton IT has installed Bosch video, access control and alarm systems in Preston Motors Group’s new warehouse and dealership sites in Melbourne.

Publisher Bridge Publishing Aust. Pty Ltd ABN 11 083 704 858 PO Box 237 Darlinghurst NSW 1300 tel 61 2 9280 4425 fax 61 2 9280 4428 email info@bridge publishing.com.au

Security Managers ◆ Integrators ◆ IT Managers ◆ Installers November 2014 Issue 360

SMART HOME l Installing 1080p HD IP cameras l SmartLiving from Ness l Leighton IT installs Bosch at PMG l 360-degree Thermal Radar l Security Industry Awards for Excellence l Integrators’ biggest worries l AVL-2: God of small things l Hikvision’s Prince of Darkness l Elvox digital intercoms l Interview: S2’s R. Todd Smith

PP 100001158

SEM1114_1cover.indd 1

29/10/14 11:57 AM

Our team of electronic security experts answers your tough technical questions.

Editor John Adams Advertising Manager Monique Keatinge Customer Service Annette Mathews tel 61 2 9280 4425 annette@bridge publishing.com.au Design Tania Simanowsky e: taniasdesign@ optusnet.com.au

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Synology Partners with CSD in Australia p.12 CSD Grows SA Team, Talks National Expansion p.14 Hikvision Lifts Oceania Revenues 114 Per Cent p.16 CEM Wins 2014 Asis Award p.18

news in brief no v em b er 2 0 1 4

comp i led b y j ohn adams

David Pettigrew (l), newly appointed national marketing manager – CCTV Division, with Ian Harris, MD, Seadan Security & Electronics

Seadan makes key CCTV appointment

■

SEADAN Security & Electronics says David Pettigrew has joined the firm to further develop its growing portfolio of national CCTV accounts. Pettigrew comes with a wealth of business experience, skill and expertise in transmission products.

Pettigrew joins Seadan as national marketing manager – CCTV Division and replaces Bruce Maxwell who has now become Seadan’s national marketing manager.

Armed with extensive industry experience and knowledge, having spent the last 7 years at Pacific Communications (part of Hills Ltd) as national product manager transmission solutions, Pettigrew brings a whole new set of expertise to Seadan.

“I am excited to start a new challenge at Seadan and look

forward to working with the team to further develop its already extensive product and service suite,” he said.

Pettigrew’s niche expertise in transmission products developed when he managed a start-up called International Fibre Systems (IFS), supplying fibre optic communications equipment. IFS was eventually bought

by General Electric (GE) where Pettigrew continued to successfully manage and expand the fibre business.

According to Ian Harris, managing director of Seadan, Pettigrew’s wealth of experience and industry knowledge has already made him a key addition to the Seadan family.

“We view his appointment as a sign of our commitment to being the leading company in our industry,” said Harris.

Anixter appointed Australian distributor for CEM Systems n TYCO Security Products has appointed Anixter as the sole distributor for CEM in Australia. CEM is an enterprise security management system which integrates to BMS, CCTV, Intercoms, HVAC, HR Systems and PSIMs to offer a complete management suite.

It also manufactures the only aviation-specific security system on the market today.

According to CEM’s David

10 se&n

Galligan, the appointment is exciting for Tyco.

“Anixter is a perfect partner for us with this product,” he said. “It has a national presence, a professional team and offers a full suite of products; which includes Exacq Vision, one of our enterprise solutions; and we look forward to growing this product in the Australian market with our new partner.”

Stokes Retires, Rosa Takes Reins at Q

Rob Rosa

RICK Stokes has retired as MD and CEO of Q Technology Group Limited, the owner of electronic security distribution business, QSS. Rob Rosa, QSS COO, has been appointed acting managing director and CEO. “Over the past 18 months Rick Stokes has undertaken a part time leadership role of 2.5 days per week and also developed the management team to position the business for further growth,” said a QTG release.

“Stokes has served as CEO and MD since December 2007 and the directors would like to thank Rick for his leadership and commitment in growing the sales of the QSS video surveillance and security business from $A15 million to more than $A25 million over this period.

“The directors would also like to advise that Rob Rosa, currently chief operating officer of QSS, will be appointed effective immediately as acting managing director and CEO for the company.”

Rosa has worked as an executive in the security and investigative industry for over 28 years during which time he has held numerous positions in government, private and ASX listed companies.

His experience extends to 3 sides of the market. Rosa served as head of security for Melbourne City Council and was the general manager of Vangren Technology, a system integration company servicing financial and commercial blue chip clients. Rosa also has extensive experience as a former executive of Pacific Communications, part of Hills Ltd.

news

Tyco revs up

november 2014

Hills signals WA focus with appointment of Chris Arter n HILLS has announced the appointment of Chris Arter as group manager for Western Australia. The company says Arter will be instrumental in driving the growth and performance of sales and operations in the Building Technologies business.

Improving customer service and support will be a major priority for Arter as Hills continues implementing major operational changes to deliver the best brands, service and support in the industry.

“Hills is in the process of integrating its building technology business under one structure, and we need to share with our customers our vision and company approach,” Arter said.

“This is an extremely exciting time for Hills and I’m delighted to be joining the company during this period of growth. In WA, I will work with the broader team and take the lead to strengthen our relationships with vendors, identifying sales opportunities and partnerships and improving customer service.”

Chris Arter

Macquarie University Plans Cloud CCTV Storage

n MACQUARIE University in Sydney has released a request for proposal for data centre storage for its video surveillance solution, which is planned to expand to 1200 IP cameras by 2017.

The RFP, which closed on October 24, applied to the storage component only, and the selected solution will be deployed across both MQU’s datacentres, Site A on-campus and Site B offcampus.

Video surveillance is a key aspect of security and safety for all universities and with their powerful fibre backbones centres of learning like Swinburne

University in Victoria, have long been at the forefront of IP video in Australia. When completed, this MU system would be a ground-breaking video storage solution, arguably the first of its type in Australia.

“Macquarie University, has partnered with Milestone XProtect Corporate to update the existing closed circuit television (CCTV) application,’ says Macquarie Uni’s RFP. “As a result of the planned upgrade, we now have a requirement to review and replace the supporting infrastructure. “(The selected solution) is required to provide the

Synology Partners with CSD in Australia n CENTRAL Security Distribution reports it has been appointed a Tier 1 distributor for the Synology range of products in Australia.

Dedicated to developing high-performance, reliable, versatile and environmentally-friendly NAS appliances, Synology boasts a wide range of products, including the DiskStation for desktop models and the RackStation for compatible rack-mount models.

This announcement is a big plus for CSD according to

12 se&n

its CCTV product manager, Damien White.

“Synology products complement our range of enterprise cameras and CCTV systems to ensure that no matter what your requirements, CSD has a solution,” White said.

According to CSD, Synology NAS is not simply a storage expansion solution. Its solutions provide an affordable way to centralise data storage, simplify data backup, share and sync files across different platforms, and access data on-the-go.

With a continually expanding

feature-set, the Synology range has a number of benefits for both home and professional users.

For example, all Synology NAS have the Disk Station Manager (DSM) which allows users to easily program advanced features such as Raid Configuration, FTP hosting, VPN Server, DHCP and more.

Hosting websites from home or the office is also possible and Synology NAS can be used as a proxy server to speed up internet browsing on commonly accessed websites.

storage of video footage and support the requirement for live viewing of 60 concurrent video streams. “(The solution is) to provide a resilient video storage, retention and retrieval solution for the campuswide deployment of the digital CCTV system which is planned to expand to 1200 IP Cameras within 3 years.”

Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, Macquarie University is ranked among the national top 5 recipients of relative research income.

MU has nearly 40,000 students and 2350 staff members.

TYCO Security Products has announced the appointment of Mark Romer to the position of regional sales director, Pacific. Most recently Romer was national security manager for Schneider Electric and previous senior leadership roles at Dedicated Micros and Sensormatic provided a strong grounding in access and video products.

Romer has in-depth knowledge of systems integration and implementation of solutions to a wide range of vertical markets – telecoms, aviation, corrections, healthcare and retail.

“We are delighted that Mark has joined the team, and we are excited by the huge opportunities and growth we have recently seen in the market for our world class products” said Ken May, regional sales director, Tyco Security Products Asia-Pacific.

“I look forward to the next step in my career working with a highly motivated team at Tyco Security Products involved in some of the world’s greatest electronic security brands” Romer said.

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news november 2014

CSD Grows SA Team, Talks National Expansion n CENTRAL Security Distribution continues to expand its team with recent appointments to the South Australian branch.

Jody Watson is an addition to the internal sales team while Brian O’Flaherty has joined CSD as the new state manager.

With more than 22 years of experience in security product distribution, O’Flaherty brings a wealth of knowledge and skills to the role.

“I’m very pleased to be working with an innovative and dynamic team of people at CSD,” said O’Flaherty.

“These days it’s all about integration and that’s where CSD and Inner Range have a massive advantage. Great products and great people – it ticks all the boxes for me” According to CSD, these appointments signal some exciting times ahead for the company, which is looking to further expand its team nationally over the next few months.

Brian O’Flaherty

14 se&n

Honeywell Q3 Security and Automation Sales Up 9 Per Cent David Cote

Ted Pretty BRW Ranks Hills 20th on list of Australia’s Most Innovative Companies Ted Pretty

n HONEYWELL reports that in the automation and control solutions (ACS) segment of its business incorporating its security and automation business, sales were up 9 per cent.

Sales rose 4 per cent organically, compared with the third quarter of 2013. The company’s third quarter sales rose 5 per cent to $US10.1 billion.

According to Honeywell, the positive results were primarily driven by the favourable impact of the Intermec acquisition

and strong organic growth across Energy, Safety and Security (ESS), particularly in the Scanning & Mobility, Industrial Safety, Security and Fire business units.

According to a release, ACS segment profit was up 11 per cent and segment margins expanded 40 bps to 15.9 per cent driven by higher volume, commercial excellence, and productivity net of inflation, partially offset by the dilutive impact of the Intermec acquisition.

“Organic sales growth and a double-digit earnings increase highlighted Honeywell’s strong third quarter,” said CEO, David Cote.

Sales rose 4 per cent organically, compared with the third quarter of 2013. The company’s third quarter sales rose 5 per cent to $US10.1 billion.

HILLS has been named as one of Australia’s most innovative companies as part of 2014 BRW Most Innovative Companies List.

Hills is ranked 20th on this list, which recognises 50 of Australia’s most innovative businesses.

Hills CEO Ted Pretty said he was delighted with the result, which follows the ASX’s recent reclassification of Hills from an industrial capital goods company to a technology company.

“Over the past 18 months, we have made a number of strategic acquisitions and grown our market position and profile to become a leading provider of integrated technological solutions,” he said.

“Our solutions span security, digital media, health and aged care, home networking and communications and mobility – a huge departure from our roots as the makers of the Hills Hoist.

“This is welcome recognition for Hills and our people and shows how we’ve continued to innovate to survive and succeed in today’s technology-driven world.”

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Innovative Solutions

news november 2014

CSD Expands Pioneering Technical Support Line n CSD was one of the first distribution companies in Australia to invest heavily in a technical support line and has now expanded its team to more than 20 staff.

According to CSD’s Mark Cunnington, the technical

support line saves integrators time and money.

“If you are a security technician you may have noticed a change in our technical support at CSD,” said Cunnington.

“We’ve listened to your

Mark Cunnington

videosecurityproducts.com.au

A Universe of Solutions

16 se&n

feedback and as a result, we’ve implemented a new system which has included employing new team members to dramatically improve our support service to you.

“As a security technician calling our technical support line, you are now directed to a technical support administrator, who takes your details and the details of the support required. While you’re on the phone they will identify the best person, with the skills to support your individual needs, and in most cases transfer you directly through.”

Cunnington said CSD’s technical support team has hundreds of years of combined security industry experience, as well as extensive IT and network knowledge.

“Furthermore, CSD endeavors to maintain strong relationships with all our suppliers, so we stand committed to resolving

any technical issues as they occur,” he said.

“And in addition to CSD’s own resources, our sister company Inner Range has Australia’s largest security R&D and professional services team.

“CSD also has co-operative R&D programs with Paradox and Hikvision, so when projects demand bespoke development, CSD can sincerely boast the backing of the most substantial technical teams available for security technicians.”

...CSD’s technical support team has hundreds of years of combined security industry experience, as well as extensive IT and network knowledge.

Ted Pretty Hikvision Lifts Oceania Revenues 114 Per Cent Michael Bates

HIKVISION reports it has had an outstanding Q3 in the Oceania region with revenues of $US4.65million in the 3 months to September 30. The company’s YTD revenue is up 114 per cent on 2013.

“The bulk of our growth in the past 12 months has been achieved with sales of our Easy IP range, but the last 3 months have seen our Smart IP range making strong inroads into the project market”, said Michael Bates, Hikvision Oceania sales director.

“I believe the market is responding to the quality and value of our product range, as well as to the outstanding efforts of our key distribution partners in the region CSD in Australia and Atlas Gentech in New Zealand.”

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news

BGWT Wins Distribution of Visonic Wireless Alarms

november 2014

Hills Makes Key Appointments to its Team n HILLS has made a number of key appointments to strengthen its business and improve strategic direction. Daniel Lee is now head of CCTV, surveillance and IT distribution practice, Kobi Ben-Shabat is head of security, access control and fire, while Stevan Ristic has been appointed general manager for security services.

As part of the full integration of Lan 1 into Hills, Daniel Lee has

progressed from his role as managing director of Lan 1 into a key role within Hills as head of CCTV, surveillance and IT distribution practice.

In his new role, Lee is responsible for building out Hills’ solution range in this area, with a particular focus on next generation IP-based technology solutions.

Following Hill’s acquisition and integration of Open Platform Systems (OPS) into its broader business

structure, Kobi Ben-Shabat has progressed from his role as managing director of OPS into a key role within Hills as head of security, access control and fire. Ben-Shabat is now responsible for building out Hills’ solution range in this area, with a particular focus on next generation IP based technology solutions.

Stevan Ristic is the newly appointed general manager for security services at Hills, with responsibility for positioning Hills as

the technology partner of choice for the security industry.

Daniel Lee is now head of CCTV, surveillance and IT distribution practice, Kobi BenShabat is head of security, access control and fire, while Stevan Ristic has been appointed general manager for security services.

CEM Wins 2014 ASIS award

QSS opens new office in Queensland

n CEM Systems, part of the Security Products business unit of Tyco, says its emerald multifunctional touch screen terminal has been awarded 2014 Security’s Best Award in the ASIS Accolades Awards.

CEM emerald is an intelligent multifunctional IP access terminal that provides ‘more at the door’.

The unit is a touch screen reader, door controller,

n QSS has opened a new office at U5, 56 Eagleview Place, Eagle Farm in Brisbane. According to QSS’ MD Rob Rosa, the new branch expands the Queensland team’s ability to service its customers and includes larger demonstration, service and training areas.

“The new branch at Eagle Farm carries a full range from all QSS’

18 se&n

VoIP intercom and system terminal in one slick housing.

According to CEM, the touch screen LCD is the first of its kind to greet cardholders by illuminating as they approach, providing a user friendly security experience. And for the first time, security professionals can use remote apps at the device to update personnel records, book meeting rooms and send messages.

leading brands, as well as a service area allowing the Queensland technical

WIRELESS alarm system pioneer Visonic’s solutions are now available from BGWT. “Visonic’s industryleading technology also now has a new home at BGW Technologies,” says Simmons. “The reason we brought Visonic on board was that it offers 2000m line of sight – it’s usually around 300m max. This big range makes Visonic ideal for commercial, industrial and rural applications.

The system has 64 zones and a very cool application for remote management.”

“As a Tyco partner currently distributing Software House, it made sense to extend our relationship to also include Visonic which is part of the Tyco Security Products family.

“As indicated at our partner conference, engineered end-to-end solutions are a key part of our business and this is our first step into the alarm space – but an important one.”

team to service product locally with the minimum of delay,” Rosa said.

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s p e ci al re p o rt

1 080p hd

Installing 1080p HD What are some of the things installers who are unfamiliar with 1080p HD cameras consistently get wrong? And how much difference might rectifying basic problems make to the quality of 1080p image streams?

T

HERE’S no point pretending IP video doesn’t have certain challenges for those who don’t have a working understanding of networks.

Any networked solution is the product of layers of integration and it’s bringing multiple devices together into a whole that’s a bit tough.

Sure, you can install an IP camera and plumb it to a local monitor using the external video out

20 se&n

BNC. But if you have to create a subnet yourself, either by setting up an NVR or server, linking a workstation, downloading or installing a VMS, configuring a PoE switch and getting the cameras happening, the whole can seem so much bigger than the parts of its sum.

It’s not just networking that can be challenging.

IP cameras are a bit different to analogue cameras.

You need to take into account different challenges when you install them, bearing in mind the possibility of motion blur and excessive noise as light levels fall. And when it comes to installing 1080p HD, the challenges are greater still.

Taking this into account, what are the few things installers may get wrong with high quality IP video?

Could a small amount of additional understanding offer improved system performance and customer satisfaction?

According to Andrew Del Biondo of Camvex, when it comes to installing IP video some installers get very simple things wrong that have a large impact on camera performance. He says the 2 biggest mistakes installers make are getting the shutter speed wrong and messing up the bit rate settings proportional to resolution and frame rate.

Part of the problem, according to Del Biondo, is that the market sells the idea of pixels not image

By John Ada m s

quality, and this makes users and installers think high quality video streams come in a box. But with IP video, image quality it is not about lots of pixels at the camera sensor. Instead it’s about knowing how to get the most out of a camera and an available network.

“I find some CCTV installers don’t understand the principles of correct IP camera setup – they struggle with selecting the right shutter speeds, etc,” he says. “You might see fantastic pictures when nothing is moving but as soon as something moves through a scene you get motion blur caused by incorrect exposure settings.

“The problem with this is that when there’s an incident - when something is moving - that’s when you want the sharpest possible still image from your camera. But too often, systems are installed that fail to meet these basic requirements. It can mean the entire solution is a failure.

“The issue is that bit rate settings need to increase as you increase resolution and frame rate but we see installers with no understanding of bit rate at all,” he says. “They’ll set bit rate to meet a storage demand, not to offer a quality recorded image.

“With 1080p cameras you can have a bit rate of 20kb or 80kb, when there’s scene change the lower

I find some CCTV installers don’t understand the principles of correct camera setup – they struggle with selecting the right shutter speeds. bit rate will have more compression interface. The bit rate needs to be matched to suit. As an analogy it’s mixing the right amount of cordial with the water when making drinks for your kids.

“Bit rate is the cordial and if you don’t have a big enough bit rate, the image stream is diluted – it’s not going to taste sweet,” Del Biondo explains. “You can’t design a 1080p system with 20kb bit rate.

It should be 60-80kb if you want sharp images without compression artefacts.”

Over at Hills Lan 1, Basil Delimitros, says that whenever the company is recommending camera models it will always look at key factors including lighting and depth of field.

“Of great importance is what type of lighting conditions the camera will be subjected to,” says

se&n 21

s p e ci al re p o rt

Delimitros. “Strong backlight may require a WDR camera, low light will make use of a low light camera, while extremely low or no light at all will certainly benefit from IR illumination.”

“From the point of view of installers, it’s vital to identify where your capture point is located and make use of the appropriate lens option,” Delimitros explains. “For example, a camera may be placed to capture vehicles driving down a 30m lane and the customer will have to determine whether they would like to capture that vehicle as it enters the lane at the 30m, or closer to the camera at the 10m point. These factors will directly influence the lens option used.

“Depending on the lens focal length, the same 1080p HDTV camera may be used to either provide general coverage of a wide area, or high level detail of a specific location.”

For Hills’ Pacom’s Keiron McDonough, getting the lens right is also a key issue.

“If you’re installing a full body camera, ensure you have a good quality megapixel lens,” he says.

“There’s no point paying for a quality camera then installing with an inferior lens. Next, you need to make sure it’s focused for both day and night and if the camera has auto back focus, then use that.

Installers need to make sure the positioning of the camera will provide the optimum image quality with respect to changing light conditions and the point of origin of various light sources.

22 se&n

1 080p hd

“Another important aspect of any CCTV installation is checking with the end user that the camera is correctly positioned for the view they need. And check hard drive storage and bandwidth requirements before equipment is installed. Too many times we get questions such as, “now I have installed the equipment how long will the cameras record for?” There are plenty of storage calculators online that allow techs to check this.”

According to McDonough, there are also neat features installers should look out for to meet the demands of specific applications. He says in the case of Panasonic’s 1080p PTZ, these include the ability to tilt the camera above the horizon.

Something else that can be very useful is rain wash technology, which keeps the dome clear in the rain, as well as keeping it clean of dust and dirt.

Mark Franklin at Sony says the 2 tips installers should bear in mind when trying to get the best from a top-line 1080p HD camera are the network and the lens.

“The network infrastructure and integrity must be of the highest consideration when designing an IP network system,” Franklin says. “Far too many systems are compromised by inferior network peripherals, including network switches. Installers should also ensure the camera lens matches the resolution of the camera, for instance, be sure to use a 3MP lens with a 1080p camera.”

Meanwhile, Steve Malesevic at Bosch Security Systems says network quality and correct camera position are key factors to consider.

“Installers need to make sure the positioning of the camera will provide the optimum image quality with respect to changing light conditions and the point of origin of various light sources,” Malesevic explains. “Additionally, the network must be stable and dimensioned correctly.

“With Bosch 1080p HD cameras, start out by

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s p e ci al re p o rt

selecting an appropriate pre-configured user mode like ‘Low-Light’ or ‘Day/Night’ modes. These modes have their settings pre-tweaked to use in certain conditions to provide an excellent starting point. In most cases, the installer will not need to configure the camera settings any further.”

For Frank Olson at Mobotix, a good installation tip when using a low bandwidth link on a hemispheric camera, is to set the image angles in low resolution, and then once happy with the image, to increase the resolution to high.

“This setup saves on bandwidth, time and frustration levels,” says Olson. “Something else that’s important is to set up exposure zones in differing light. This means revisiting the site at different times of the day and in some cases different seasons.”

According to QSS’ Rob Rosa, most good installers are completely across what’s needed to get camera installation right.

“Most of our installers are pretty switched-on guys so they generally already know they need to check default settings as these differ from manufacturer to manufacturer and out-of-thebox will generally not offer the best result from a camera,” Rosa says.

“For less experienced technicians, the big one is to check your bit rate, especially in harsh, busy and/or low light conditions, as this will determine true storage requirements and can cut short the amount of footage you can store.

From the point of view of Michael Bates at Hikvision, bandwidth is a critical consideration at 1080p resolution, so installers need to be sure to get the setup right with recording settings and use the smart features designed to maximise performance and reduce bandwidth utilisation.

And Sylo’s Peter Jeffree says the secret is to follow the system and design specifications during installation.

“We often notice that when installers pay little attention to the aesthetic and practical value of camera placement, architects, security managers and end users become unhappy, and often attribute poor camera angles, focus and placement to poor camera quality,” he says.

C R Kennedy’s Phil Viggiano agrees that the basic things are the most important and he says these

For less experienced technicians, the big one is to check your bit rate, especially in harsh, busy and/or low light conditions, as this will determine true storage requirements.

24 se&n

1 080p hd

core issues are why IT specialists can never really replace trained security installers in our industry.

“No matter how much technology is introduced into cameras, correct placement of the camera is still the most critical issue,” Viggiano explains.

“Lighting scenarios such as back lighting, cross lighting, as well as the correct choice of lens, still have a huge bearing on image quality.”

Canon’s Ben Crosariol says installers need to ensure they look for a quality camera to start off with – getting this part right will cause less issue and create a better and long lasting relationship with customers.

“Installers should really know the camera before going in for an install as one 1080P PTZ can be far superior to another which may look the same on paper,” he says. “And look at all the available menu and setting options to ensure you are really getting the best out of the camera.”

For Vivotek’s Stacey Lien, image quality and bandwidth management are the most important evaluation points.

“Bandwidth consumption might be increased when a camera is designed with high resolution and image technologies for securing superb image quality,” she says. “A top-line camera should be able to manage the bandwidth consumption while delivering good image quality in high resolution.”

IndigoVision’s Sean Borg takes a solution-based approach.

“Know your application and what the client is trying to fix,” he says. “Is it a locally-contained site or a corporate site utilizing a WAN or VPN? If you know the site’s needs, understand the potential scene variables including lighting, the level of movement and the level of detail expected by the end user, then you should be able to get the most out of a quality 1080p HD camera.” zzz

s p e ci al re p o rt rt Security Security Industry Industry Awards Awards for for Excellence Excellence u s t ry

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nd

2014

Security Industry Awards for Excellence aw

Members of the Australian security industry convened at The Ivy Ballroom in Sydney late October for the presentation of 2014’s Australian Security Industry Awards for Excellence.

ards

Aziz Raonaq and Joan Whelan

A

N initiative of Australian Security Industry Association Limited (ASIAL), the annual Australian Security Industry Awards for Excellence promote and acknowledge the outstanding achievements of security professionals. Winners are selected by an independent panel of judges.

In its 19th year, the Australian Security Industry Awards for Excellence recognised the following outstanding individuals and organisations for their achievements throughout 2014.

The Security Student of the Year Award went to Aziz Raonaq, of Crown Melbourne Ltd. Aziz came to Australia as a migrant with little English. Working in a factory by day, he completed a Certificate II in Security Operations by night, allowing him to gain employment in the security industry.

Selected by Crown Melbourne for its Talent Management Program, Aziz went on to complete a Diploma in Management in July 2014. He has since embarked on a rewarding career in the security industry; displaying a high level of professionalism

Australian Turf Club Security Team

26 se&n

Charter Security with ASIAL president Kevin McDonald (centre)

across all aspects of his work and providing consistently outstanding customer service.

The Training Award went to MSS Security, which has developed a Learning Management System that enables the company to monitor the training and compliance status of employees working across all sites, and allows employees access to their training records and the enrol themselves in other courses.

The system delivers a skills enhancement program that matches position descriptions to actual tasks required. A skills gap analysis compares required tasks with the individual’s skill level, enabling training programs to be developed and skills deficiencies to be identified.

The Award for Integrated Security Solutions above $250,000 was won by Chubb Fire and Security for its work on the Attorney General’s Project. The project involved the upgrade of security and surveillance systems across the ACT. It included installation of a state-of-the-art integrated enterprise solution that included IP video management, advanced intelligent analytics and intrusion detection. The system, including all cameras, was interconnected using an optical fibre network back to the Australian Federal Police 24/7 Operations and Coordination Centre.

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s p e ci al re p o rt rt Security Security Industry Industry Awards Awards for for Excellence Excellence

Hayley Morgan with Kevin McDonald

The Integrated Security Solutions under $250,000 Award was won by Fredon Security for West Belconnen ESA. Fredon Security was engaged to provide and install a highly automated security system for the first station to be built as part of the ACT Emergency Services Agency’s station upgrade and relocation program.

Each of the station’s inhabitants required a unified control panel with a simple user interface to execute multiple functions with feedback to the operator. Fredon Security worked with multiple stakeholders to develop a solution for these unique integration challenges.

The Individual Achievement, Security Management Award was won by Hayley Morgan, of CAP Security Services for the 1300SMILES Stadium Contract. Having won the security management contract for the North Queensland Cowboys stadium, Haley set about transforming security arrangements at the SMILES stadium. As a result of her hands-on and consultative management style, service delivery standards at the stadium have improved significantly.

The Individual Achievement, General Security was awarded to Mouhamed ‘Moe’ Abdallah, of Wilson Security for saving 2 lives. Moe is Wilson Security’s site supervisor at the Commonwealth Law Courts. Over the past 12 months, Moe has

Moe Abdallah

saved the lives of 2 solicitors who suffered heart attacks by performing CPR and using a defibrillator until paramedics arrived. A statement by the court advised that had the 2 separate incidents gone unnoticed both solicitors would have died. The attending doctor described Moe’s actions as a miracle.

The Special Security Event or Project Award was won by Charter Security for the World Aids Conference - Melbourne 2014. Charter Security provided event security for the largest conference in the world in 2014; the 20th International Aids Conference in Melbourne. The conference attended by 14,000 delegates, included 1,000 media representatives, world leaders and celebrities.

The award for In-house Security Team was won by the Australian Turf Club’s innovative inhouse security team which has delivered a safe, desirable and rewarding experience for hundreds of thousands of race goers, at 4 Sydney racecourses covering over 750 acres.

Highly Commended awards went to SNP in the training segment for ASIAL’s eLearning program, while Sensen Networks attained a high commendation in the integrations under $250,000 for its work on the West Gate Bridge project.

ASIAL CEO Bryan de Caires said that in a changing security environment, the private security industry is performing a vital and evergrowing role.

“Tonight’s awards reflect the diverse range of services provided and recognise the key role performed by the industry in safeguarding the Australian community,” de Caires said. zzz

Dr Subhash Challa (l) of Sensen Networks

Tom Roche and Joan Whelan

Tonight’s awards reflect the diverse range of services provided and recognises the key role performed by the industry in safeguarding the Australian community.

28 se&n

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p ro d u ct rev i ew

ness smartliving

get smart SmartLiving from Ness is a range of busbased control panels offering between 10-200 zones (with zone doubling) and incorporating automation features as well as access control and voice-over-bus transmissions.

T

O my mind the most interesting aspect of Ness SmartLiving is the I-BUS backbone, a high speed bus which increases robustness, resists interference and carries voice as well as alarm signals on a single cable.

Bus solutions are great when it comes to expansion because they can be grown organically without any need to cable back to a control panel – you just build a drop cable off an existing loop. In the case of SmartLiving, the bus is universal – you can hang a whole bunch of things off it, including proximity readers, graphical keypads, remote I/O expanders, RF transceivers, GSM communicators and siren/strobes.

You just wire these into the bus and they self-enrol automatically, which is a lovely way for a system to function. Also neat is the fact SmartLiving’s I-BUS can be protected, sectioned and regenerated by means of IB100 bus isolators/regenerators. It’s a great strength.

30 se&n

Alien-G touch screen keypad

by john adam s

Something else about SmartLiving panels that sticks out for me is the use of what the manufacturer calls FlexIO terminals. These terminals are programmable I/Os – you can select whether they are inputs or outputs depending on your application and that makes these SmartLiving systems very flexible indeed.

There are 4 SmartLiving panels, starting with the SmartLiving505, which has 5 terminals and supports 10 zones using zone doubling, the SmartLiving515 with a 7Ah battery and 15 terminals (doubling to 30 zones), and the SmartLiving1050L (doubling to 100 zones) and SmartLiving10100L (doubling to 200 zones), both the latter supported by 17Ah batteries.

I took a look at the SmartLiving range with Ness Corporation’s Naz and Elian Circosta and before we head down to the demo room, Naz reveals that to a certain extent, the company fell into the automation market in the mid-2000s without knowing much about it.

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p ro d u ct rev i ew

At that time, Ness manufactured and sold wellengineered traditional alarm panels but decided to take on the M1 automation solution to extend its range into the upper end of the market. Over time the company has had growing success with the M1 and the experience steered the company’s entire range towards automation.

“We certainly see automation as a key to the alarm industry’s future,” Naz says. “When you consider the global market, the US has moved away from the dollar-a-day monitoring model.

Basic automation solutions there are billed at $US69 per month as a matter of course.

“But what we have found over the years is that in the home automation market security is always at the heart of a solution – it’s the core. Integrators and their customers need security but they need something that integrates with lighting systems, with air conditioning, with access control.”

SmartLiving fills a gap in Ness Corp’s range of security and automation solutions. At the lower end is the Ness D8 (there’s also a D16), which is the cheapest touch screen panel on the market. When it comes to automation, the D8 has an auxiliary output so you can control lights, garage doors and other devices and there’s also C-Bus and access control – that’s very rare in an affordable domestic or small commercial alarm panel. At the upper level Ness sells the M1, which integrates intrusion alarms, automation, lighting, HVAC, access control and comms.

“Before we took on the SmartLiving range we had this gap between the D8/D16 and the M1 where our competitor’s panels don’t do much but they give you lots and lots of zones,” explains Naz. “We started looking at that space and wondering what sort of solution we should position there and that’s where the SmartLiving solution comes in.

“SmartLiving offers from 5-100 zones (10-200 with zone doubling) and sits on a high speed 2-way bus,” says Naz. “There’s a peripheral range that goes with it, including 2-way wireless devices, access control and automation. And you can use a high end keypad with additional functionality. Pricewise it’s nicely between the D Series and the M1.”

32 se&n

ness smartliving

What we have found over the years is that in the home automation market security is always at the heart of a solution – it’s the core.

We head down to the demo room and take a look at the hardware. It’s tidy kit, modular, simple to understand, and there’s a good range of peripherals. The keypads are particularly nice, with the Alien-G keypad offering a couple of onboard FlexI/O terminals. This sort of incidental expansion is found throughout the system.

“A neat thing with SmartLiving is that you can put an Evolution-S multimedia keypad onto it and then bring 10 SmartLiving systems together, giving you control of 2000 zones on a single keypad,” Elian tells me.

“SmartLiving also has a rule-based automation system, similar to the M1, which can be used to drive outputs. It’s if-when-then, and the other cool thing about the product is that there are not just inputs and outputs. Any terminal can be programmed as an input or an output – you can use some as alarm inputs and the rest to control automation functions, lights, doors and air conditioning.”

The rule-based system applies to some of the peripheral devices as well, so you can have a wireless reed switch that has got 2 extra terminals onto it so as to control 3 devices through one reed.”

There’s a full sensor range, including smokies, PIRs, dual technology sensors and reeds (wired and hardwired). SmartLiving is compatible with the complete range of Air2 wireless peripherals using an Air2 two-way transceiver. According to Elian, Ness hardwired sensors also work with the SmartLiving range but not the wireless range.

There’s a lot of detail here. You can choose from different models of reed switch – there’s one with a Flex I/O terminal which can be programmed to be an input or an output. There’s also a siren that has multiple tamper protection and recognising when foam has been sprayed into it. Something else I like is the Flex5 I/O expander, which allows you to insert 5 programmable I/O terminals anywhere in the bus your application demands.

And when it comes to alarm communications, there’s IP, GSM/GPRS and PSTN. SmartLAN/SI and SmartLAN/G boards that give TCP/IP connectivity and allow the intrusion control panel to send

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p ro d u ct rev i ew

One of the beauties of this system is that you can start out simply and then grow into the future. e-mails and attachments. At the same time, they allow users to access the system via the Internet and provide a web-server function.

This web-server function allows end users/ operators to connect to the control panel from any PC, verify the status of the system and interact with it.

The web-server, embedded in the SmartLAN/G, also allows users/operators to use their Smartphones as SmartLiving wireless keypads, both inside the protected premises, via WiFi, or from any part of the world over GPRS. Installers can create redundancy of communications by integrating the Ness Nexus, a GSM device that manages voice and digital communications, receives SMS commands and sends programmable SMS messages when specific events occur.

The reason for the high speed bus is that SmartLiving also offers access control and voice over bus technology – driven by a SmartLogos Voice board. This board offers a range of advanced voice functions.

The brain of the automation capability of SmartLiving is a matrix that allows the correlation of actions and events the system manages. Each of the system events can be associated with output actions, voice dialler actions and digital dialler actions. The system can be accessed by user codes and proximity keys/cards and it’s possible to associate each code/ key/card with one of the weekly timers which can 34 se&n

ness smartliving

then be programmed to enable/disable it at certain times of the day.

“One of the beauties of this system is that you can start out simply and then grow into the future,” says Elian. “You might begin with security and then progress to automation.

“And with the smart touchscreens you can customise or select preset graphical user interfaces.

The Alien-S touchscreen keypad has an access control reader built into it both Alien S and Alien-G keypads have a USB port so you can install the system, do programming on the computer and upload system setup in the field.”

Something else that’s interesting is the way automation is handled at the reader. The length of time a card is badged has an impact on what the system does in terms of automation.

“This is a brilliant prox reader – instead of having to remember a multiple badging process, you just present the card and hold it and depending on which function it lands on (you can tell by changes in reader LED colours), you get a different automation scenario,” says Elian.

“In the past if you wanted to unlock a door and turn on a light you needed to badge the reader twice but in this case you badge and hold the card against the reader until the F2 colour is displayed and you know F2 handles that particular automation function.”

The SmartLiving control panels can be programmed from any keypad on the bus or via a PC running SmartLeague software. Programming from a keypad is easy thanks to graphics – you can use the default settings which eliminate the need to configure the parameters of the voice dialler and digital dialler, if you choose.

Setting up a system using SmartLeague on a PC is easy, too. You drag and drop operations and the software has text-to-speech allowing the creation of voice messages just by typing in text. It’s a nice feature for an affordable alarm and automation panel.

According to Elian, the 505, which has 5 terminals and supports 10 zones with zone doubling, sells to the trade with a standard keypad for $A125 and if you add the 4.3-inch touch screen it sells for $225. Given the additional capabilities inherent to the product, that’s an excellent price.

“As a takeover product it’s great,” says Naz. “For instance, it doesn’t matter what the value of a resistor in legacy zone cabling is – you just install the panel and the system wraps around the value. And resistor values can change from zone to zone, the system just encompasses them all.

“You also have a remote diagnostics package that’s just beautiful. You can look at the overall system, look at voltages on the bus – it’s very easy to troubleshoot remotely.”

The Smart Living range is available to installers who have done the necessary training and Ness has courses running around the country for those who want to expand their installation capabilities to include automation. zzz

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n ew p ro d u ct

thermal radar

360-degree Thermal Radar A new ONVIF-compliant, uncooled, thermal camera features a compact size, IP-66 rating, weighs less than 2kg, has a tiny 5-watt power draw, yet offers 360-degree thermal detection of 600m for intruders, 1800m for vehicles and 5000m for fires.

T

HERMAL cameras are an amazing piece of technology and the new Thermal Radar, manufactured by Thermal Imaging Radar and distributed locally by Infratherm, is perhaps the most amazing thermal camera of all. Given its detection range, Thermal Radar is tiny yet it’s FLIR Tau 2 continuous-rotating long wave infrared (LWIR) camera provides intelligent, high definition

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infrared surveillance for challenging or remote sites.

Unlike radar or other active surveillance systems, Thermal Radar is a completely passive system, rendering it invisible and impossible to detect.

Rotating at speeds up to 60rpm this camera stitches together a composite image of up to 16 virtual thermal cameras creating a 360-degree thermal image of over 5MP resolution.

Thermal Radar operates as a fully self-contained unit providing its own power, communications, connectivity, analytics and alert monitoring. You can literally take it anywhere an ATV can go and deploy it in minutes. All components, including the entire rotating assembly, are completely protected from the elements inside a sealed enclosure. No rotating seals to fail, no more sandblasted lenses, no more fogged out images are just a few of the advantages of Thermal Radar’s unique design.

By John Ada m s

Once set up, powerful onboard video analytics that are simple and easy to use, allow the user to quickly identify intrusions over the entire 360-degree field of view. Embedded analytics offer detection categories including intrusion, classification, tracking and high temperature, and detection range is up to 600m for a human intruder, up to 1800m for a vehicle and up to 5000m for a fire.

Once an alert has been identified by the analytics, Thermal Radar has the ability to send these event notifications along with coordinates and JPEG images via SMS, Wi-FI, Ethernet, cellular, satellite or pre-recorded phone messages.

Once calibrated, Thermal Radar can pinpoint any alert on a map and to send those coordinates to the user as part of the event notification. This makes Thermal Radar the ideal platform for tracking objects and it can be used in conjunction with other camera systems to provide slew-to-cue data.

Obviously, Thermal Radar is impervious to light levels or to weather conditions. Thermal cameras penetrate dust storms, fog and smoke and work just as effectively in complete darkness as they do in daylight hours. No lights, emitters or other devices are required.

Thermal Radar’s FLIR Tau 2 sun-safe amorphous silicon microbolometer has an FPA resolution of 336 x 256 or 640 x 512 pixels. Images have a bit depth of 8-bit w/AGC or 12-bit raw and there’s

a selection of lens focal lengths - 7.5mm, 9mm, 13mm, 19mm or 25mm. Camera rotation speed is configurable between 30-60rpm and the image field of view is 360-degrees horizontal, while the vertical field of view can be 69, 56, 45, 35, 32, 25 or 20 degrees.

Meanwhile, the image resolution is configurable from .77MP to 5.24MP. Input Voltage is 18V-57 VDC, polarity insensitive and the input connection is IEEE 802.3at PoE+ compliant, with a consumption of 5-7 Watts. Handling the thinking is a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 plus C64X+ DSP (TI OMAP DM3730) processor, with 512 MB DDR, 512 MB NAND Flash memory.

Image storage memory is 8GB and there’s a removable SD Card. zzz

Applications of Thermal Radar include: l Challenging and remote site coverage l 24/7 360-degree intrusion detection l Early forest fire detection l Border surveillance l All terrain access and surveillance l Monitor of sites with low infrastructure l Establish 360-degree geospatial environment l Wide area continuous thermal monitoring.

You’re in very secure company se&n 37

s p e ci al re p o rt

integrators by j ohn adam s

Integrators’ E biggest worries What are the biggest issues troubling integrators today? The obvious challenges include the overwrought pace of technological change and falling margins.

But arguably the biggest issue is something far simpler.

LECTRONIC security integration is not an easy business. There was a time when hardware was more expensive, when competition was not as fierce, when installation companies made dizzy margins.

In the late 1990s and early 2000’s it wasn’t unheard of for integrators to drive highpowered Italian sports cars and enjoy lives of comparative luxury.

But the last 10 years have changed all that.

Hardware margins have fallen considerably and end users have developed a propensity towards accepting the cheapest quote. Security integrators are no longer just competing against each other. Electrical contractors, IT integrators and internal IT departments are nibbling away, not only at entire jobs, but at key components of electronic security solutions.

At present we are seeing this in infrastructure and storage but it’s hard not to see the same things happening in management and control.

Despite these challenges and at once because of these challenges, what concerns security integrators about their businesses most in the current market is not simply hardware price and competition. Instead, integrators say the hardest thing is finding quality staff, training them up and then keeping hold of them. And it’s a global issue.

“A big problem is finding good people and training them,” Mark Hodby of Tokyo-based Avtel Global told me at the BGWT conference recently.

“Training is certainly the key to our ability to service our customers consistently. At an engineering level we look for electrical engineers, electronic engineers, IT engineers, as autoCAD operators we need electrical draftsmen. The type of jobs we do are not pulling cables and connecting them at the other end.

“There’s a lot of fabrication work involved – we need people who can design bespoke solutions, such as a custom camera mount that might hang off a 25-storey building. And while we design a lot of our products in Tokyo, we

What are the key challenges for integration companies? Finding good staff at the technician level is the big one and I think it’s the same for all integrators.

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s p e ci al re p o rt

integrators

Mark Hodby

Finding the right people, training them and keeping them - that’s my biggest challenge.

Sydney Anthony

build in different countries, so quality control can be a challenge, too.

“We have a sharp focus on customer service and consistency and it’s very difficult to offer a consistently delivered product, and that difficulty is the same everywhere,” says Hodby.

“Product is product and most good product is fairly similar. Manufacturers and customers can at times be hard to deal with. But finding the right people, training them and keeping them - that’s my biggest challenge.”

According to Lee Evans, technical manager at training company, Rutherford Technical Services, based on what many people are telling him as well as his own experiences, the

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industry definitely needs to work harder on technical training.

“There needs to be a committed focus on technical training,” he says. “No industry group has really made a big effort with training before.

There’s licensing but there’s no industryspecific, high quality technical training. This needs to be addressed.”

Evans says he has spoken to big companies about this issue and they all see the value-add but it comes down to funding.

“I think we’ll get there when the industry realises there should be a particular technical standard required to get a license – as is the case in other industries,” he says. “The failure to focus on this area is definitely having an impact on the quality of available staff.”

Meanwhile Sydney Anthony of TASC, who has long experience in both the distribution and integration businesses says over the years he has often observed technicians failing to complete a job to perfection.

“There can be a lack of responsibility to finish a job off,” he explains. “You often see this when visiting legacy sites and looking at the terrible work of some unknown technical team. And there may well be a lack of training causing this, which leads to a lack of personal standards and a lack of commitment to a job.”

Michael Hingerty of integrator MJH agrees with the others.

“What are the key challenges for integration companies? Finding good staff at the technician level is the big one and I think it’s the same for all integrators,” he says. “It reflects an ingrained lack of training and I think most people have been screaming about putting a recognised system in place for many years.

“With the technology levels in our industry, why don’t we have proper apprenticeships in place?” he asks. “The sooner the industry rectifies training the better off all sides of the industry will be – manufacturers, distributors, integrators, installers and most importantly, end users.

“Widespread training will also control the inflated wages of quality technicians we are seeing,” says Hingerty. “That may not make technicians happy but it will allow business owners to employ more technicians.

“At the moment because good technicians

s p e ci al re p o rt

integrators

What are the key challenges for integration companies? Finding good staff at the technician level is the big one and I think it’s the same for all integrators.

Michael Hingerty

are so hard to find, as soon as you train someone up and competitors hear about it they’ll start beating a path to the door offering more money.

“For instance, we had a technician we trained from scratch, put him through as an electrician and at the end of it he was offered 20k more by a competitor.”

According to Hingerty, something else he finds challenging is falling margins.

“Some big companies must be buying jobs, in my opinion,” he explains. “It’s a bad thing for the market because it lowers customer perceptions of what a fair price is. And it’s no good for end users in the long term. When you cut corners you are more likely to mess up a job. That sort of thing will always be around but it’s especially challenging right now.”

While training is an issue for many integrators, they all mention cramped margins as being a cause for concern when it comes to system quality.

According to Mike Jones of Melbourne-based Able Microwave, end users go through cycles of being quality conscious and cost conscious.

“We are in a cost conscious market at the moment,” says Jones. “The quality conscious market has gone. We find very often that at the last minute our quote will be under-cut by a slight margin despite the fact we are the incumbent supplier and have never put a foot wrong.

“Recently we quoted on a site we’ve looked after for 8 years and were undercut by $A3000 on a job worth $A65,000. It’s because procurement departments are all about price – they don’t care

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about your site knowledge or your relationship with the security team. Loyalty is gone. It’s all about cost.”

According to Jones, this has an impact on the products he specifies.

“If I put in a quote for a quality product that will do the job properly no matter what, I also put an alternate price for a cheap product,” he explains.

“And I do this because I often lose jobs because someone is willing to install the cheapest product to win the job on price. It’s not good for me or for the customer but in this sort of market you have to do it to survive. The old quality-first model is discounted by end users these days. They don’t care about quality anymore.

“Personally, I think cheap, poor performing products are stupid,” says Jones. “If you have to make a single trip across town, you’ve just lost your profit. It doesn’t make sense. What if the device is across town, up on top of a tower and you need 2 technicians on site because one has to watch and make sure the other doesn’t fall off?

“And then there are the remote features of the quality solutions. Good product – like InfiNet - allows remote troubleshooting and that’s awesome,” he says. “You can tell from any location if an antenna is out of alignment because the alignment tool is so good and that capability is money in your pocket. Good product also guarantees performance in challenging environments around cities.

“When it comes to quality we say to customers, “this is what we recommend as being the best solution for your job and this is what we will install if you want the lowest price” and we find customers often go for the cheaper product,” says Jones.

“Ultimately, I’d rather put a lower grade product in and keep the customer than lose all my business to someone else. If a competitor gets a foot in the door with a cheaper product you might never see your customer again - you have to stay in with the client at all costs.”

According to Jones, the GFC ignited the latest cycle of cost consciousness – and he think it has made the cycle last longer. Also, he concedes, perhaps cheaper products are better than they used to be. zzz

Security control at your fingertips Solution 2000 & 3000

Built around the concepts of lifestyle, connectivity and expandability, Bosch introduce the Solution 2000 & 3000 alarm panels. Offering 4+4 and 8+8 zones respectively, Solution 2000 & 3000 give you everything you love about the Solution Ultima with the added bonus of IP & GPRS communication options and 4 on-board outputs, with an optional output expander to add 8 more relays. With LCD Icon, Alphanumeric LCD keypads and a range of touchscreen options, controlling your security system has never been simpler, especially with the Bosch smartphone app available for IOS & AndroidOS. These panels are even NBN ready with integrated CSV-IP communications*. Add remote programming via USB/PSTN/IP using A-Link Plus software and the option of wireless expansion using Radion (for Solution 3000 only), and you have an extremely agile security system that can cater for residential and small to medium commercial applications. All at an extremely competitive price!

With future expansion options in coming months incorporating video integration and home automation, Bosch is excited to present the Solution 2000 & 3000.

For more details visit: www.boschsecurity.com.au or contact your nearest Bosch Security Systems distributor. * some functions mentioned require additional modules.

Bosch National Order Desk: 1300 1 BOSCH (26724) Security Master License No: 409 400 739 Email: stsales@au.bosch.com

Smartphone app for IOS & AndroidOS

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p ro d u ct rev i ew

infodraw avl-2

God of small things Infodraw’s tiny AVL-2 is a mobile low-power cellular media relay that allows live streaming, recording and monitoring of video, audio, alarm inputs and GPS location.

A

VL-2 from Infodraw, distributed locally

by Conceptual Technology Solutions, is an interesting animal. The unit is a palm-sized, portable multimedia streaming and monitoring system that comprises embedded hardware and software combined with built-in cellular network interfaces. At a surprisingly low cost you get a professional grade video, audio and alarm input monitoring solution with GPS, that is highly mobile yet leaves nothing out.

The AVL-2 unit can be carried, installed in vehicles or at fixed locations. Once installed

44 se&n

by john adam s

and configured, AVL-2 allows users to stream live video/audio/location from anywhere over wireless cellular networks (4G/ 3G/ HSPA/ EDGE/ GPRS) or LAN. Units can be monitored and controlled from any location on alarm event or request using fixed/mobile control centres, mobile phones/PDAs or an internet web client.

The first thing that hits you when you get hold of the AVL-2 is that it’s tiny – just 5 x 10 x 2.8cm with a weight of only 130g. Important for a mobile device, it has decent heat tolerance of -10C to +60C and it’s tough.

The other thing you notice is that despite its compact size, AVL-2 is a sock puppet for functionality. There’s onboard storage, an integrated GPS, 3 alarm and 4 outputs, 2 analogue camera inputs and 1 x USB, a serial port offering support for PTZs using RS232 or RS485, a builtin advanced 4G/3G cellular modem and GPS receiver, a built-in rechargeable battery giving up to 5 hours of independent operation, and a 5VDC Power output for miniature covert cameras.

The attention to detail goes way under the skin. There’s cellular router functionality for third party connecting equipment, a high performance DSP, an H.264 CODEC handling dual encoding per channel, a sleep function to extend battery life and all comms are secured using IPSEC RSA 1024-bit encryption and Open VPN. In terms of the fundamentals, video resolution is CIF/D1 and the video bit rate is 10kbit/s to 2Mbit/s at a frame rate of up to 25/30 fps, depending on network quality.

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infodraw avl-2

As well as handling video and audio, AVL-2 has 3 input and 4 output ports and it’s the clever way these inputs and outputs can be set up that gives you the clearest idea of the level of serious thought that’s gone into the product. The designers of AVL-2 were not mucking around.

There’s configurable alarm event triggers which include accelerometer, magnetometer, VMD, GPS-based virtual fence, 3 digital inputs (NO/NC) and a duress button. This is all beautiful stuff for a mobile or wearable solution and allows for very flexible applications.

AVL-2’s GPIO ports are at TTL level. The first input port is the alarm button which is embedded in the side of the device and you access the other ports through the GPIO/PTZ cable wires. These GPIO ports can be set up to trigger a variety of events including live video streaming, video/ audio recording, GPS tracking etc. The unit can also send an SMS to any number of phones as a result of a GPIO alarm settings trigger.

When it comes to output switches, the AVL-2 unit has 4 GPIO output switch ports and external peripheral devices (such as alarms and external sirens) that can be connected to these output ports and then set to trigger a variety of actions once activated.

The excellent management software suite

The excellent management software suite gives client and device support and supports setup and live monitoring of video, audio and location from multiple AVL-2 devices.

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gives client and device support and supports setup and live monitoring of video, audio and location from multiple AVL-2 devices. Managing the show is MRS Monitor Client Application that’s used for connecting to the server to monitor and control AVL-2 units. This is the application through which you watch video, listen to audio and monitor the location of your AVL-2 devices. In this application you also change the parameters of the video and audio and view recordings you have made. The software allows position tracking with live and recorded data map-based view, and there’s good user access and control permission management, as well as on-the-fly cellular remote device configuration.

There’s server and client modules for Windows PCs, as well as Android and Apple IOS mobile clients. Rounding out the software suite is the AVL-2 Player Application which is used for viewing recorded video/audio files, verifying digital signatures on recorded files and decrypting recorded files – you use it to view specific event recordings you’ve downloaded for the purposes of investigations.

Sitting down with AVL-2 is instructive. While the hardware is compact, there’s absolutely nothing small about the MRS Monitor Client application. In some ways this client seems more complete than many VMS solutions – probably because of the integration of alarm events and mapping. It’s a typical Windows look with a directory on the left hand side of the screen that’s amazingly comprehensive.

This directory is your entry point into AVL2 and it gives you access to functionality like audio, alarm inputs, GPS location, VMD settings, video settings, audio settings, recordings,

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display of all linked AVL-2 units, network data, device temperature and battery state. There’s much more – all the unit’s many functions have their front doors in this directory.

The main part of the screen when set to display 4 tiles is taken up by a camera view on the left hand side, and a GPS locater map on the right – this means operators can look at image streams from a vehicle or a worn camera, talk to an operative in the field and/or listen to conversations and environmental noises, all while tracking the exact location of the AVL-2 on a map.

This applies for each AVL-2 unit linked to the client application and the viewing area can be split into 1, 4, 6, 9, 12, 16 or 20 viewing channels, so considerable expansion is provided for. Further empowering real time operations, underneath the viewing screen is a simple chronological event log displaying alarm events. Given the accelerometer allows man-down applications and there are multiple digital alarm inputs, there’s a lot of value here for very little cost.

From the point of view of setup, the unit must be configured prior to operation. The unit is configured using the Device Configurator software, by connecting a USB cable between the unit and a computer (XP or higher). The unit also has 4 dip switches used for setup and operation, located on its side.

The setup process includes pointing the unit’s connection settings to the IP address of the server.

And the unit’s cellular connection settings must adhere to those of the cellular provider in use,

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infodraw avl-2

with the cellular provider’s APN (Access Point Name) provided.

MRS Server (Windows Service Program) is the Web Admin Interface program used for setting up your server for AVL-2 units to connect to, setting permission and access levels for connecting clients and configuring a variety of other settings in the server. With this program, the server’s settings can be accessed and changed from any location, via web browser.

When it comes to the AVL-2 device, you need a SIM card (data only) from a cellular service provider to provide communications for the unit. The AVL-2 supports any 4G/3G/HSPA/EDGE/GPRS SIM based cellular providers.

Any 2 analogue PAL/NTSC camera can be connected to the AVL-2 unit. Neat for covert or wearable applications, the unit’s battery can feed power to a 5V camera. Meanwhile, a Class 10 Micro SD Card (SDHC) up to 64GB is required if you want to record onboard the AVL-2 device.

Bandwidth demand numbers are 1 channel at 100kbit/s uses 1.08 GB per day, and 32.4 GB per month, 1 channel at 200kbit/s uses 2.16 GB per day and 64.8 GB per month, 1 channel at 300kbit/s uses 3.24 GB per day and 97.2 GB per month, and 1 channel at 400kbit/s uses 4.32 GB daily and 129.6 GB per month. The AVL-2 has automatic bandwidth control which will reduce the bit rate and frame rate of the video channel if they are set too high for the mobile network bandwidth to manage.

AVL-2 is a solution that’s perfect for law enforcement agencies as a mobile, worn or carried video and audio solution. But the applications go deeper than that.

It’s capable of handling quick deployment in public surveillance applications, taking on challenging applications like providing coverage for special events, supporting covert surveillance and resolving topical mobile or remote monitoring challenges of all sorts. From top to toe, hardware and software, AVL-2 is very nicely done. zzz

Features of the AVL-2 include: l 2 Video Inputs l USB camera input l Audio input l 3 alarm inputs and 4 outputs l CIF/D1 resolution at 25/30ips l PTZ camera support via RS232/485 port l Tiny wearable form factor l Server and client modules for Windows PCs l Android & Apple IOS mobile clients l Position Tracking with live and recorded data map based view l Comprehensive user access & control permission management l On-the-fly cellular remote device configuration.

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n etwo rk i n g sup erconducting chip s

Superconducting networks Superconducting chips with no internal resistance would be up to 100 times more energy efficient than current chips. They would run cooler and so last much longer, and best of all, they might unlock the power of the mighty Josephson junction.

M

IT researchers have presented a new circuit design that could make simple superconducting devices much cheaper to manufacture. And while the circuits’ speed probably wouldn’t top that of today’s chips, they could solve the problem of reading out the results of calculations performed with Josephson junctions.

That’s important because superconducting circuits that use Josephson junctions have been clocked at 770 gigahertz, or 500 times the speed of the chip in the iPhone 6. But Josephson-junction chips are big and hard to make; most problematic of all, they use such minute currents that the results of their computations are difficult to detect.

For the most part, they’ve been relegated to a few custom-engineered signal-detection applications.

But commercial applications could significantly increase the operational performance of the internet, a well as WANs linked to local data centres. Working towards this, MIT researchers — Adam McCaughan, a graduate student in electrical engineering, and

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his advisor, professor of electrical engineering and computer science Karl Berggren — have released a new device called the nanocryotron.

“The superconducting-electronics community has seen a lot of new devices come and go, without any development beyond basic characterization,” McCaughan says. “But in our paper, we have already applied our device to applications that will be highly relevant to future work in superconducting computing and quantum communications.”

Superconducting circuits are used in light detectors that can register the arrival of a single light particle, or photon; that’s one of the applications in which the researchers tested the nanocryotron. McCaughan also wired together several of the circuits to produce a fundamental digital-arithmetic component called a half-adder.

The nanocryotron — or nTron — consists of a single layer of niobium nitride deposited on an insulator in a pattern that looks roughly like a capital T. But where the base of the T joins the crossbar, it tapers to only about one-tenth its width. Electrons sailing unimpeded through the base of the T are suddenly crushed together, producing heat, which radiates out into the crossbar and destroys the niobium nitride’s superconductivity.

A current applied to the base of the T can thus turn off a current flowing through the crossbar. That makes the circuit a switch, the basic component of a digital computer.

After the current in the base is turned off, the current in the crossbar will resume only after the junction cools back down. Since the superconductor is cooled by liquid helium, that doesn’t take long.

But the circuits are unlikely to top the 1 gigahertz typical of today’s chips. Still, they could be useful for some lower-end applications where speed isn’t as important as energy efficiency.

Their most promising application, however, could be in making calculations performed by Josephson junctions accessible to the outside world. Josephson junctions use tiny currents that until now have required sensitive lab equipment to detect. They’re not strong enough to move data to a local memory chip, let alone to send a visual signal to a computer monitor.

In experiments, McCaughan demonstrated that currents even smaller than those found in Josephsonjunction devices were adequate to switch the nTron from a conductive to a nonconductive state. And while the current in the base of the T can be small, the current passing through the crossbar could be much larger — large enough to carry information to other devices on a computer motherboard. zzz

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To find out more or arrange a demonstration: Contact Jason Hartley at Inner Range E. jason.hartley@patriotsystems.com P. +61 3 9780 4300 | M. +61 447 357 186 www.patriotsystems.com

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Automation driving security– but where?

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BY JOHN ADAM S

A recent study suggests homeowners like the idea of automation and identify safety and security monitoring as automation’s central role. But they have their own ideas about installation and monitoring.

L

OWE’S 2014 Smart Home Survey reveals a majority of residents favour the idea of smart homes. But some contradictory findings include that while around 50 per cent prefer do-it-yourself solutions, 62 per cent believe home automation solutions are most beneficial for real time monitoring of safety and security. At the same time, nearly 30 per cent of home owners want domestic access control solutions they can control remotely from smart devices or workstations.

The report found that 56 per cent of residents found upfront costs and fees to be a significant purchasing consideration (31 per cent monthly fee, 26 per cent upfront cost), with considerations like ease of use being 13 per cent and security coming in last, at 11 per cent.

“In general, residents feel positively toward products that will make their homes safer, more energy efficient and easier to manage,” said Kevin Meagher, Lowe’s vice president and general manager. “It is added evidence that the smart home and Internet of Things are here to stay.”

In addition to citing overall cost as the most important factor in the purchasing decision of smart home products, residents are more than twice as likely to prefer a DIY solution without a monthly fee over a professional installed/monitored system with a monthly service fee (50 per cent versus 21 per cent). That’s a concern for the industry.

While around 40 per cent say a benefit of

owning a smart home would be to cut costs and save money on energy bills, a majority of 62 per cent rank real time security and home monitoring as the most beneficial reason to own an automation solution.

Overall convenience comes in at third place (35 per cent), and protection from floods, fire and other disasters (29 per cent) ranks fourth.

Residents aged 65 and older (24 per cent) are more than twice as likely as those aged 18-64 (11 per cent) to name ease-of-use as the most important factor in smart home product purchase consideration.

One-third (36 per cent) of all responders and most smartphone or tablet owners (70 per cent), wish they could control something in their home from their mobile device without getting out of bed.

Humorously, an automatic meal machine ranked second in this option question (19 per cent), followed by a flying suit (16 per cent).

In order of importance, those who own a smartphone or tablet want to adjust the thermostat (44 per cent), turn on the lights (39 per cent) or start the coffee pot (27 per cent) before getting out of bed. Nearly half wish their home was the perfect temperature when they arrived home.

Other popular wishes include the lights being on (37 per cent) and doors being unlocked (27 per cent).

The top 3 things residents wish they could control before they arrive home are actually the same 3 things they’re most likely to forget to do before leaving the house: turn off the lights (18 per cent), adjust the thermostat (15 per cent) and lock the door (5 per cent).

More than 60 per cent of parents with children aged 3-17 plan to monitor their children in some way when they go back

Residents feel positively toward products that will make their homes safer, more energy efficient and easier to manage.

to school, with 35 per cent planning to buy their child a cell phone, 19 per cent planning to use at-home cameras and 17 per cent employing automated text notifications.

Meanwhile, 13 per cent plan to put a GPS or monitoring device in their child’s backpack.

Men are more likely (68 per cent) than women (55 per cent) to want to monitor their child’s after-school activity.

Data like this is useful as a reflection of where the future is going to go based on what buyers actually want. But the way residents want to interact with their home automation and security solutions is something alarm installers and monitoring companies need to get their heads around.

There’s no doubt that this area of the data unsheathes a double-edged sword.

Residents seem to want to pay very little upfront and in ongoing fees, yet they want something that has an intrinsic cost – live safety and security monitoring. And curiously, they believe the best way to get this unlikely dichotomy of value and low cost is to install a system and monitor it by themselves.

Owners of smart phones and tablets seem to be the most demanding of all in this regard. They are used to being connected, they are comfortable interacting with technology and they want to extend that connection into other parts of their lives.

Clearly, residents cannot self-monitor a home 24-hours and 365 days a year.

Incidents may occur that incapacitate the homeowner when on-site. There are also times when people don’t want to be bothered carrying and monitoring smart devices. And very often for part of every day, it’s inappropriate or impossible for them to do so.

Nevertheless, the data argues that a key for alarm installers and monitoring companies is ensuring residents are able to interact with their security and automation systems, while at the same time ensuring those systems are simultaneously professionally monitored.

For installers, the answer is going to be offering very clever technology at reasonably sharp prices with sales hooks based on the delivery of genuine services self-monitoring cannot match.

I was speaking with ASIAL’s GM John Fleming recently and he confirmed ASIAL

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alarm m oni tori ng / segm ent

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is in discussions with Australian police departments about the possibility of police response to video verified alarm events.

Fleming said the process was national and was necessarily slow, given the variations between state laws. This seems to me to be an excellent initiative we should all support, a differentiator that no DIY solution could ever approach that would impact on levels of house crime.

There’s no question that the flow of technology towards automation is taking place at multiple levels. Some are familiar, others are unexpected. Something that caught my attention during the month was research published in the International Journal of Web-Based Communities. It suggested familiar interfaces of online social networking sites might be adapted to allow users to interact with networked controllers, including domestic appliances and devices, as well as allowing controllers to interact with each other and with social media feeds.

Writing in the International Journal of Web Based Communities, computer scientists Bruno Cabral, Cibele Vasconcelos and Cássio Prazeres of the Federal University of Bahia, in Brazil, argue that as

54 se&n

the internet of things evolves, there is the potential to bring together this connected world and to use it to enhance and make more efficient the use of devices, including automation and security solutions.

The researchers suggest that in some circumstances and for many applications, automation devices might interact through the infrastructures of social networks without real time human input.

Online tools such as IFTTT, (IF this, THEN that), already allows users to connect web

As systems are made more capable by video and audio analytics, security systems might communicate with each other about events in their neighbourhood and respond.

applications, smart phones, online social networks and a range of cloud services and networked devices, including lighting, heating security and outputs that could drive additional devices.

This sounds whacky but bear with me for a moment. Their concept hypothesises interconnected automation devices that follow social media, including news reports and weather reports. If a cold snap is forecast, the automation system might warm the house. If forecasts predict a hot day, the system might cool the house and/ or adjust sun shades.

Should a particular crime take place in your locality, a connected home might activate an unarmed security system. If residents were asleep at the time, it might arm the perimeter or waken residents using an audible tone. In the event of local bushfire reports, the system could activate specialised watering systems and/or waken residents allowing them to assess the situation and undertake bushfire procedures. If a traffic route was flooded the system would alert residents.

And in the future, as systems are made more capable by video and audio analytics, security systems might communicate with each other based on confirmed events in their neighbourhoods and respond as groups. This response could include locking doors after gunshots, passing on smoke sensor, carbon monoxide or open pool gate activations to neighbours.

An IVA event might jump-start a whole street’s real time perimeter video recording, as well as the collective arming of perimeters, the summoning of emergency services and the activation of tones alerting residents to a local threat.

And if one home has its communications cut or suffers network component failure, it might pass tamper reports to multiple neighbouring systems using Wi-Fi as a form of local wireless mesh.

These speculations might sound like security and automation will pass out of the hands of electronic security people and into the hands of machine intelligence but that’s not so. Instead, electronic security solutions are going to become much bigger, more powerful and more connected, than we ever thought they could be. In this connected world, secure and redundant uptime will be king. zzz

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Illinois State P olice

Illinois State Police Choose Raytec IR Mobile Pro Systems has installed Raytec’s VARIO Infra-Red LED Illuminators to provide high performance surveillance lighting for an urban concert park.

W

ITH large public events regularly taking place in a major park, Illinois Police Department decided good lighting was required to improve CCTV image quality for ensuring public safety and reducing crime. The previous street lighting along the park’s pathways did not provide optimal illumination for night time surveillance.

It produced a highly uneven spread of light and was not aligned with the camera fields of view, leading to poor quality, unusable images with insufficient detail and dark areas. This resulted in some areas of the park being unmonitored and open for vandalizing.

Furthermore, the park surveillance system requires regular modification for different events, so a lighting solution was needed that could be quickly adapted. This led to the Police Department approaching Illinois-based security integration company Mobile Pro Systems, which is a specialist in mobile and rapid deployment surveillance solutions.

“We had previously carried out extensive trials with illuminators from several different manufacturers,”

says Joe Anaya, project manager from Mobile Pro Systems. “We selected Raytec VARIO Infra-Red illuminators as the clear winners.

“The VARIO IR illuminators produced crisp and clear illumination and excellent CCTV images at night without bright or dark spots, with an illumination range that spanned further than its opponents while requiring less power.”

VARIO holographic lens technology with Hotspot Reduction Technology provided the even light distribution needed for the camera system to provide clear, sharp and detailed images of the scene at night.

Choosing an Infra-Red LED solution also meant that there would be zero light pollution and no disturbance to the park events.

Power consumption was another key factor in choosing the illuminators for this project. VARIO Illuminators were able to deliver an outstanding performance up to 310m (1010ft) with minimal environmental impact, consuming significantly less power than competing illuminators.

VARIO i8 models were specially integrated into an all-in-one camera and lighting system from Mobile Pro for ease of transport and installation on site.

“Our systems are based on mobility and rapid deployment so we also needed a robust illuminator that could be adjusted on the fly without the need of a service technician,” Anaya explains. “VARIO’s interchangeable lens filters allowed us to easily change the beam angle on site for the highest level of flexibility on demand. We are delighted to say that the Raytec product line has become a standard offering on all of the Mobile Pro Systems”.

The end user is also pleased with the solution.

“The Raytec lighting technology has allowed us achieve a fit for purpose system with minimal environmental impact, and has greatly reduced system setup time,” said a spokesperson for the Illinois Police Department. “We couldn’t be more pleased with the results.”zzz

Raytec lighting technology has allowed us achieve a fit for purpose system with minimal environmental impact, and has greatly reduced system setup time.

56 se&n

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p ro d u ct rev i ew

Darkfighter DS-2 CD602 0FHWD( -A)

Prince of darkness Hikvision’s Darkfighter DS-2CD6020FHWD(-A) is an ultra low light WDR 2MP IP camera with a ½-inch progressive scan CMOS sensor. The camera offers 60fps, 120dB WDR, a region of interest codec and 3D DNR digital noise reduction.

58 se&n

by john adam s

I

’VE been keen to test Hikvision’s DarkFighter DS-2CD6020FHWD(-A) full body camera for a while now, so it was a thrill when Hikvision’s Michael Bates and Tony Lagan turned up at the office one morning laden with boxes containing the Darkfighter, a couple of lenses and Hikvision’s DS-7600 Linux embedded NVR. Along with the Darkfighter, the boys also brought along a new SmartIP 4-Line 6MP full body camera that I wasn’t expecting to see.

The idea of this was to allow some comparison during the test. Happening to have a brand new 6MP camera in your kitbag that no one’s heard of before strikes me as being a very Hikvision thing.

The idea here is to set up the Darkfighter in a challenging WDR situation and then note its low light performance as night falls. The appointed day of the test arrives and it’s a bright blue Sunday afternoon in Sydney. The period of the test kicks off around 330pm and runs until 830pm at night.

The test-jig at the office is simple. The DS-7600 is ported straight to an HP L2445w widescreen monitor using a converter cable and there’s a wee mouse to drive the NVR’s very simple GUI. Meanwhile, I’m also able to port into the NVR via browser and play with camera settings using my elderly HP EliteBook, which has an Intel Centrino dual core processor gasping away under the bonnet. Not surprisingly, the images look better direct from NVR to monitor and I stick with that configuration most of the time.

The Darkfighter is connected to the NVR via a 20m length of Cat-5 bought for the purpose from an electrical wholesaler. Just untangling the torturous loops this cable came wound up in puts white stress marks in the cable jacket.

1/2-inch sensor

Face recognition

WDR at 90,000 lux

Into full sun

90,000 lux side light

The idea here is to set up the Darkfighter in a challenging WDR situation and then note its low light performance as night falls.

Quality Cat 5/6 cables are worth the price you pay for them, I think to myself.

The lenses I’m running for the test are Hikvision’s own 3.8-16mm F1.5 – an 8MP IRcorrected 1/1.8-inch (9.2mm) lens, as well as the 11-40mm @F1.5 1/1.8-inch 8MP IR-corrected lens which arrives mounted on the Hikvision SmartIP 4-Line 6MP. This 11-40mm gives a tighter, longer view and holding both lenses gives a sense that the glass is good quality. The feel of the focus is smooth, the poly is heavy, the fixings are metal.

As well as being bright, the test scene is a complex and challenging one, with plenty of detail from front to back. We are looking out across the lower end of Surry Hills towards the CBD. As well as elements of the courtyard itself, there are surrounding towers, a lane, a row of houses, a line of treetops on the next street down, then commercial and residential towers at multiple distances, from 350m to 1500m away.

As I get underway, I measure the light level in full sun in the North-West facing courtyard at a monstrous 15.1 EV (90,000 lux). WDR is going to be nasty this afternoon, which is exactly as I want it to be. I start with Darkfighter camera looking from inside the office where light is 5.8

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p ro d u ct rev i ew

EV (160 lux) to the outside where light is 15.1 EV (90,000 lux) and sit down at the monitor.

In this environment, Darkfighter does great work – it’s getting excellent detail and great colour into vicious backlight in a scene depth of around 10m using the short lens. Fine details of buildings at 350m are being ironed out by the backlight, but tones remain good at all times and overall depth of field is excellent. I test a face in the doorway and the Darkfighter handles that, while still giving great images into the courtyard and beyond.

Comparatively, the 6MP 4-Line looking out the front window of the office onto a scene with plenty of movement is not quite as smooth. This camera is good with backlight but doesn’t do as good a job front to back of this nasty internal-toexternal scene as Darkfighter is doing. In fact, I’m starting to wonder if Darkfighter is a misnomer.

Now I get deliberately unfair. I tilt Darkfighter’s lens to a point just under the sun, facing towards Central Station. It’s an intense challenge – no technician would install a camera at this silly angle to the afternoon sun - but Darkfighter handles it. There’s some slight pinkish flare (from the lens, probably), but it’s still a more than useable image.

Given the black-bodied Darkfighter is sitting out in full sun with no housing, something that’s on my mind is heat. Darkfighter is doing processing work under the surface and you can feel that work through the camera housing once it’s been powered up for a while. It’s not as if the camera is too hot to touch – I can put the side of my face onto it - but it’s noticeably warmer than the SmartIP 4-Line 6MP. At about 4pm I turn the camera away from the sun towards the North. It’s a tight but complex scene about 60m deep. I can see the pleats in

Darkfighter DS-2 CD602 0FHWD( -A)

Fred’s shirts drying over the back fence, I’m getting details in the besa blocks of the Yaffa building 4 doors up, across the lane at about 25m I can see detail in brickwork, relections in glass, as well as details in city buildings 1000 metres away.

This is a strong image in bright (14.9 EV – 90,000 lux) sidelit conditions using a naked lens with no shroud. There’s a reasonable amount of movement too; with plants, washing, cars moving in the lane, and throughout this; the camera does well in real time. It’s not movie-reel smoothness but it’s a good stream. Overall the Darkfighter is exemplary with backlight. It’s not got the highest WDR levels on the market – around 120dB – but that’s a huge level for a camera that leans towards low light performance.

At about 4.30pm I switch the camera lenses over and run the 11-40mm tele on the Darkfighter (this gives me a chance to look at the big ½-inch sensor). The Darkfighter does well outside with the tele in what is still very strong sidelight of around 80,000 lux. Details at every distance greater than about 10m become much clearer

Overall the Darkfighter is exemplary with backlight.

It’s not got the highest WDR levels on the market – around 120dB – but that’s a huge level for a camera that leans towards low light performance.

60 se&n

p ro d u ct rev i ew

Darkfighter DS-2 CD602 0FHWD( -A)

Tele lens towards World Square – note gate bottom left

Kitchen light on – sub 2 lux

Tele lens – Centrepoint far right

Light off

with the longer lens mounted – it’s actually a nice match for this camera.

Many camera makers talk about ‘crystal clear’ images in their marketing material but given the constraints of lens quality, sensor size and compression artefacts introduced by the application of live ROI, crystal clear is probably not the right word to use. Instead, this image stream is surprisingly tight, holding detail-giving contrast deep into the scene. To give myself a comparison, I take a 7MP still image of the same view using my Nikon 7100D and a Nikkor 40mm f2.8g prime lens.

When I compare this still image with the live image stream, the Darkfighter is by no means disgraced.

Next, I tip the camera up to view Centrepoint Tower and again the detail throughout the depth of field I get from this Hikvision telephoto lens is surprising. It’s not the pin-sharp image of a super fast f1.4g FX lens but it’s not meant to be. Instead it’s a clean, integrated and progressive live video stream stretching across Bellevue Lane, over Belmore St and way off to the World Square building at 1000m and Centrepoint Tower at 1500m. And while this long distance work is going on, Darkfighter is also picking up detail in a galvanised steel gate at a distance of 1.5m from the lens. Nice.

At 5pm the light is starting to soften – around 12.513 EV (14,500 to 20,500) – as clouds start coming over. At about 510pm I switch over to the 6MP and the wide angle lens. After setting up and running backfocus, I settle in to watch the live image and it’s quite interesting. The image is strong and the stream is smooth – the clouds move across the sky like silk. The sun drops behind a cloud and I lose a little detail in the shadows. I have a play with

brightness – and ok then – that looks much better again.

Unsurprisingly, this wide angle lens has a shallower depth of field, it does nicely up close but you don’t get the strong detail you see with the longer lens. In this scene past about 30m or so the background starts softening into situational bokeh.

You can sort this by tweaking the zoom in a test but it would not be so easy with the camera installed.

Now I switch to the tele lens on the SmartIP 4-Line 6MP and point it towards Centrepoint - wowee, it’s good. It’s excellent. That’s the strongest long range

62 se&n

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image of the day. I can read the words World Square on the World Square building 1000m away.

At 545pm we are down to about 12 EV and the light is fading faster now. The sky is starting to go a little milky with the 6MP and tele and as clouds come and go you can see the camera adjusting itself to give best performance in the available light. Nevertheless, detail is staying strong and colours are good, too. The wind has dropped off and with less movement in the scene all the edges are staying contrasty and tight.

At 615pm the light is down to 10.6 EV (3600) and I decide to dedicate the rest of the twilight period to playing with Darkfighter. I start with the tele and after running back and forth between camera and monitor twiddling the lens focus I work out what remote monitors are used for. Phew. With the tele on, as the light fades, I’m starting to lose a little colour and contrast in the district scene. At 8.6 EV (900 lux) I push the camera lens down into Under 10 lux, wide lens

Face ID up close, wide lens

64 se&n

Darkfighter DS-2 CD602 0FHWD( -A)

I tilt Darkfighter’s lens to a point just under the sun, facing towards Central Station.

It’s an intense challenge – no technician would install a camera at this silly angle to the afternoon sun - but Darkfighter handles it. the laneway again and it’s a nice, tight and bright image with loads of gritty detail.

At 7.23pm we are at 5.6 EV (114 lux) – I still have the tele on and I have to go out and check to make sure it’s actually dark in the laneway out back. The image seems weirdly disconnected from reality – it’s dark outside but the image is still bright. The depth of field has stayed really strong. I decide to keep the tele on until it’s darker and see how it goes.

At 730pm it’s 3.3 EV (26 lux) and there’s a little yellow haze around the street light in the lane but the image front to back is oddly good. At 735pm it’s 2 EV (10 lux) and the image is still strong. Contrast is softening and there’s a little ‘swim’ in the image but no visible noise snow and I’m still getting colour, though the tones are towards sepia. When I reposition the camera closer to the low pressure sodium street lamp the scene seems far more brightly lit.

My first walk at 745pm I measure .1 EV at the lens (about 2 lux) and 1.6EV in the lane (7 Lux). What’s odd though, is that the camera is doing so well in the foreground. There are leaves visible, although I’m measuring only 2 lux in front of the lens.

This is a very useable image with only ambient street light support. The amount of detail the Darkfighter is manufacturing in the wall of the Yaffa building is something to see. The image is consistent throughout, too, despite the fact that in reality, this scene has a pool of light under the street lamp and nothing much else but light from neighbouring windows. And when I stand at the camera and look out, the scene is dark to my eye.

Now it’s 8pm and as dark as the night is likely to get. I do a final walk and a last test of the light in the lane - it’s down to 1.4 EV (6 Lux). It’s at this point I switch the camera lenses from tele to wide and with the wide angle lens installed the DF blows me away. The image in the courtyard, which to the naked eye is blackness, is being rendered in colour, with serious details.

I’ll fix you, you bastard, I think to myself, turning off the adjacent kitchen light. That’s harder work for the Darkfighter but it still does very well, considering. Next, I turn Darkfighter back into the dark lane with the flare from the street

At 4:31pm – 90,000 lux

At 7:42pm – 7 lux

At 6:55pm – 900 lux

At 8:01pm – 6 lux

lamp full into its wide angle lens, that’s a harder task but there’s still full situational awareness. Not surprisingly, the wide angle is better in the dark at ranges closest to the focal length I’ve dialled into the lens.

Next, I drag Darkfighter through the office and plonk it outside looking at Bellevue Street.

Ambient lighting here is a couple of street lights and internal lights from houses around about. On the street I measure a skimpy 1.9EV (9.5 lux) but on the monitor the scene is really excellent. There’s colour, contrast and detail – even face recognition at closer ranges. And the depth of field is a real eye opener, too.

Looking at the monitor, I think Darkfighter does best between 5-10 lux. At around 7-8 lux, when other cameras are getting lost in a snowstorm, Darkfighter starts singing and dancing. The image is brilliant at 7 lux. And it’s much stronger than competitors under 6 lux, in my opinion. You are nearly getting court-admissible face ID at 10m distance in 6 lux, which is the point other cameras are giving up the ghost. I can recognise my own face in the lane at 6 lux at around 10m watching the live stream. And Darkfighter seems to slurp up whatever available light it can off walls, from windows. I never saw black and white at any point in this test.

In this city location there’s too much ambient light to go under 6 lux without taking the camera inside and turning off the lights but I’ve seen images at under 1 lux externally that suggest it’s probably the best low light performer on the market today.

And that’s not bad for a camera that handles sensorfrying levels of WDR without turning a hair. zzz

Features of Hikvision Darkfighter include: l 2MP 1080p Day/Night 60fps l ½-inch progressive CMOS l 120dB WDR l 3D DNR (Digital Noise Reduction) l Defog feature l ROI codec l Audio/Alarm I/O l PTZ, bullet and fixed dome coming soon.

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p ro d u ct rev i ew Elvox Digital Intercoms

Elvox Digital Intercoms Seadan Security & Electronics and Sprint Intercom are distributing Vimar’s range of Elvox 2-wire digital intercoms, which feature massive expansion and a range of robust and good looking entrance stations and handsets.

I

NTENSE building development in major cities, including Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, where large numbers of new apartments are being constructed, means intercoms are an important part of the business for many installers. The challenge is to find solutions that don’t just look good, but are strong on functionality and expansion.

According to John Varthalis, national marketing & development manager - Intercom Division of Seadan Security & Electronics, the decision to take on the handsome Elvox range of intercom solutions was driven by the demands of a growing high density housing market.

“With Elvox, the capacity of the system is arguably the largest in the intercom market and we needed a solution with a wide range of hardware options that was powerful enough to handle all our jobs,” he explains.

“Elvox’s 2-wire digital solution goes up to 6400 apartments/users and 484 entrance panels using a horizontal bus – that’s just huge. We’ve done quotes recently for development sites of 600-plus apartments, so that gives an idea of the scale some of our customers require from our solutions”.

“The manufacturer of Elvox is Vimar, a massive company that manufactures more than 6000 SKUs,” says Varthalis. “Vimar is strong on integration between intercoms, automation, video surveillance and access control, and these are things we’ll be looking at more closely in the future.”

According to Varthalis, programming of the system is easiest using a PC but you can also do a small system change using the door station.

66 se&n

by john a dam s

And he says other strengths of the Elvox range include its ability to allow communication between premises in the same development.

“It’s rare in intercoms to be able to talk between premises that share the same overall system,” he says. “And in the case of Elvox you can also have up to 8 monitors or handsets in an apartment, commercial office or large house and call any one of those”.

“So Elvox extends our capacity and allows us to offer a solution for big jobs and a different range of aesthetics. And to be honest, it looks pretty sexy, too.”

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p ro d u ct rev i ew Elvox Digital Intercoms

Elvox’s 2-wire digital solution goes up to 6400 apartments/ users and 484 entrance panels using a horizontal bus – that’s just huge.

At this point we have a look at the demo system. It’s a nice looking piece of hardware, this 1200 Digital Series, as the attached photos clearly show. The finish is excellent and the overall design is good. It’s not just handsome but intuitive from the point of view of users.

“One of the first things that attracts architects and consultants to the Elvox solution is the aesthetics, especially for multi-tenant apartments”, says Varthalis.

The unit we are looking at is the 1200 Digital Series entrance panel, which is a marine-grade 316 stainless steel and IP44 rating with anti tamper secured fittings. IP44 means the 1200 Digital Series is protected against the ingress of solid objects greater than 1mm in diameter, as well as from splashing water from any direction, so it’s a tough monkey.

It’s available in analogue push button in 2 and 3 modules in length or digital keypad version with backlit alphanumeric LCD display in Elvox’s Due Fili audio and video system technologies.

This unit is available in 3 modules for provision of an integrated digital access control reader and there are options of recessed wall mount or surface rainproof wall mount. There’s an optional premium gold colour finish with PVD protective coating also available and this applies to other entrance stations in the line-up.

Another option is the 1200 Digital Series with an integrated biometric fingerprint reader.

In this case the unit is the same premium 316 marine-grade embossed stainless steel with an IP44 rating. The unit incorporates an integrated biometric fingerprint reader, with anti tamper secured fittings.

Again, the unit is available in 1-4 push button analogue that’s 3 modules in length or as digital keypad version with backlit alphanumeric LCD display in the Due Fili audio and video technology systems.

68 se&n

Flexible use and simple installation are the distinctive features of Elvox 1300 Series Entrance Panels. You can ‘compose’ your own video door entry panel as you prefer, by adding call buttons according to installation needs and the number of calls required. Blanking modules can be replaced with the required number of keys, either during installation or in the case of subsequent expansion of the system. Starting from a basic entrance panel with one pushbutton, the installation can be progressively expanded.

Then there’s the Inox Flat Digital Series, constructed in 316 marine grade stainless steel as a robust, flat-construction entry panel (5mm thickness) with anti tamper secured fittings, backlit alphanumeric LCD display for Elvox Due Fili digital audio and video technologies.

There’s also a wide range of door stations and being Italian, they offer a big range of colours that can be changed as users like. The stations include the lovely Wide Touch series with its 7-inch touchscreen, colour video monitor, hands-free hi-fi audio with Memovision recording of video images and audio of missed calls, electronic note pad, internal messaging, control of up to 40 devices or functions.

Wide Touch is one of the units that offers residents the ability to communicate between door stations inside their complex. It also offers the ability to view up to 16 remote CCTV cameras installed within the Elvox Due Fili digital system.

It’s this video surveillance capability that Seadan and Sprint may incorporate into their line-up.

Another door station option is the 7200 Series, which has a 7-inch colour monitor with hands-free and 4 intercommunicating call push buttons. Next, there’s the most popular 7500 TAB series in white poly with a 3.5-inch hi-res colour LCD and a hand piece. This unit features capacitive touch keypad with 8 buttons for interphone and intercom functions. The 6600 series 3.5-inch with hands-free and the 6600 Guardian series with 4-inch tilt screen and handsfree, the 6611 series and the 6800 series.

While Seadan and Sprint have the whole range of Elvox intercoms, the Elvox 6800 Home Automation series, which incorporates a modular home automation control module, may become available in the future.

Sprint’s Greg Perkins says he’s pleased to have Elvox onboard and is looking forward to working with integrators installing it.

“At Sprint we are lucky because we have Blake Chester, who joined us in 2005 after working with Elvox for ten years. It means that in taking on the agency, we have an expert in older Elvox systems on hand,” Perkins says. zzz

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t h e i n t e rv i ew

to d d s mi th w i th john adams

A: S2 obviously manufactures cool security technology but the most important thing is to make sure your technology works in real world applications. All our products are tested rigorously on local (beta) customers in the U.S. so our OS clients are not part of the development process. Right now we’re on the third generation of IP-centric product.

Open-andshut-case John Adams talks to S2’s R. Todd Smith about the company’s growth, challenges facing the client-server architecture model and the subtle definition of open architecture.

Q: How is the S2 business going, Todd?

We’ve had a pretty tough last 5 years.

Are you continuing to experience growth globally in the current market?

A: Yes, we are doing very well. We now have a range of very high-profile global accounts in addition to local business we do in the U.S. We manufacture all our products in the U.S. so we can keep

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control of quality and our IP-based solutions are economical to install and maintain. We are making inroads in Australia, too. We are represented here

by BGWT and they have strong sales and support capability and plenty of stock.

Q: What do you put the success of the company down to?

Q: S2 is a disruptive manufacturer in the electronic security space. What makes you so different?

A: I think the way we are different from everyone else is that we have invested in a different type of technology than many of the traditional manufacturers. If you look at the products out in the field, most of the underlying technology was designed in the 1990s and some of these companies have not re-invested. They have not done what they needed to do to stay ahead in business solutions.

Something else that’s important is that security is not just about security any more, it’s about an overall solution. Our technology offers this overall control of sub systems. It’s also designed to be browser-based, to operate on the fly, to be easy to manage technically and to be much less expensive to purchase and install, which is more and more important.

What proves the strength of S2’s technology is its market performance.

Through very tough economic times we have continued to sell our products and increase our sales. That’s because we are stealing market share. I think the overall electronic security market grows at 5-6 per cent in most areas and if you are growing faster than this – between 30-40 per cent as we are - then you are taking business away from the other guys. We are definitely taking market share from traditional access control manufacturers whose products are based on old, proprietary technology.

Q: Are you saying that the traditional access control and traditional IT models are being irrevocably eroded?

A: That’s what the evidence shows.

When you look at traditional players like Microsoft which develops software for PCs and server applications, their share of the market is waning. This flagging performance shows that Microsoft-based

products are on their way out. Supporting this was news last month that Microsoft is laying off 20 per cent of its work force taking contractors into account the figure may be closer to 25 per cent.

This is very bad news for electronic security products that are shackled to the Microsoft operating system which resides on servers and PCs, and links to controllers using serial RS-232 and RS-485 that was invented at Bell Labs way back in 1968. That whole model is not the latest technology. What we are talking about is obsolescence risk. The traditional and expensive Microsoft-based solutions are outdated and tired, and customers are becoming more sensitive to that.

Q: How are S2’s systems different?

A: Our solutions are completely different in that controllers have embedded servers running Linux and you browse into them via any internet link. There are not multiple layers of on-site software and hardware required. We chose to go browser-based because everyone can use a browser and also because browsers are more secure than client applications because they don’t store any data. You often hear of PCs being hacked but that can’t happen with a browser-based system.

The design of our solutions makes them endlessly expandable vertically and laterally. And along with our security management system platform and video management system platform, we have global mobility applications that link multiple systems, anywhere. This makes our solutions very powerful. For instance, NetVR couples alarm management, access control and intrusion alarms, and you can type in a person’s name and call up all the video related to access events involving that person across a global solution. It’s very simple.

You can scale up to global systems that bring all the alarms, events and video from multiple independent systems wherever you happen to be. It means you can see all the cameras, alarm and access events and handle emergency mustering using a wireless mobile device you pull out of your pocket. And it’s plug and play architecture so it snaps together - you don’t have pay us hundreds of thousands of dollars to build it for you.

R. Todd Smith

We think there’s greater change going on in the security industry than at any time in the last 20 years and that change is accelerating. There are really big and shocking types of changes taking place.

Q: It’s true the electronic security people can be slow to change. Do you think the security industry is changing now?

A: We think there’s greater change going on in the security industry now than at any time in the last 20 years and that change is accelerating. There are really big and shocking types of changes taking place. When I say shocking changes what I mean is the sort of changes that impact on suppliers, installers and end users when manufacturers disappear. We have seen that in the video surveillance market with the transition from analogue to digital. Some companies failed to successfully make the transition, or having partially made the transition, they failed to keep developing their solutions.

Q: What do you think is the most important consideration for suppliers and installers of security technology who want to stay on top in the current market?

A: Recognising that end users want to do things differently today, they want different types of services and they want to interact with systems differently. The people who supply technology and services have to be able to keep up. We see companies who are failing to keep up, whose service levels start declining, and whose relationships start failing.

Q: What is the mistake such manufacturers are making, in your opinion?

A: Their technology remains proprietary even when they say it is not and that’s expensive for customers. It’s such a fundamental thing. We won a banking job recently where it would have cost almost the same amount just to replace the existing system’s old servers as it cost to completely switch over to S2.

The customer said, “So, for an extra $US20,000 we can have a brand new S2 system? Give us the new system, please”.

In comparison to the proprietary model, S2 can use its own or multiple vendors’ access control hardware on the same network and on the same system.

S2 also has the ability to go in and use the existing hardware – locks, readers, sensors, cameras. And we have free architecture tools you can use to put together third party applications - there are very few products that we don’t integrate with. We are doing this right now on a 4000-reader system in the U.S. and this will happen more and more often with the systems of traditional manufacturers.

This is what open platform is.

Everybody talks open platform, every manufacturer says “we’re open platform”.

Really? What they actually mean is that they have software development kits that allow integrators to tie software together but not hardware. If you can’t work with a manufacturer’s hardware in an open environment then the system is not open.

Locking clients into a proprietary environment is old school, it’s not the way this business works anymore. End users want seamless, affordable integration.

We see the big, traditional brands as not leading the market today. Instead it is smaller companies focused on investing in technology, service and relationships we see winning the race. zzz

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ems ts on h n onic s: ms, l.

cas e st u dy

p reston motors group

All-in-one solution

Integrator Leighton IT has installed Bosch video, access control and alarm systems in Preston Motors Groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new warehouse and dealership sites in Melbourne.

Bosch Security Systems was successful in its bid to provide Preston Motors Group with a complete solution covering all 3 electronic security essentials: CCTV, alarm systems, and access control.

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By John Ada m s

P

RESTON Motors Group is at the forefront of car sales in Australia. Founded in 1912, it is one of Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s longest established and most highly-valued motor vehicle retailers. Originally, Prestons Motors Group distributed predominantly Holden vehicles to the drivers of Melbourne. Today, however, Preston Motors Group sells motor vehicles and spare parts from brands including Hyundai, Suzuki, Holden, Ford and Porsche, throughout its range of dealership sites.

Earlier this year, the Preston Motors Group began constructing a brand new spare parts distribution warehouse in Dandenong, as well as a new dealership site in Oakleigh. Both the warehouse and dealership will play host to some of the most expensive and highly valuable motor vehicle products. An advanced security system at both sites was of paramount importance. Also, as the sites are newly constructed, a solution covering all areas of security was crucial.

John Leighton, owner of Leighton IT, was charged with sourcing an optimum security solution for the 2 new facilities. Bosch Security Systems was successful in its bid to provide Preston Motors Group with a complete solution covering all 3 electronic security essentials: CCTV, alarm systems, and access control.

Despite the differences between the 2 Preston Motors Group sites, Bosch was able to provide equipment highly tailored to the warehouse and dealership. In terms of CCTV requirements, IP cameras which are able to produce clear images se&n 73

cas e st u dy

The products that I worked with were great, and both sites are performing fantastically. under low lighting conditions were noted as critical by the customer. Bosch FLEXIDOME IP starlight 7000 VR cameras were chosen to cover these CCTV needs.

These cameras have excellent low-light performance, boasting a sensitivity of 0.017 lux in colour mode and 0.0057 lux in monochrome mode.

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p reston motors group

In addition, the cameras are ideal for indoor and outdoor use, due to the compact aesthetic design with vandal resistant housing, which was ideal for both the warehouse and distribution site. The mounting options for this camera are numerous, including surface, wall, corner, and suspendedceiling mounting, which tailored nicely to the various sections in the warehouse and dealership.

To meet alarm system requirements, Boschâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Solution 6000 was selected due to its combination of functionality and flexible design. For large applications like the Dandenong warehouse and Oakleigh dealership sites, the Solution 6000 is ideal, as it is powerful enough to handle 144 zones and up to 16 access doors, as well as cater for up to 256 users.

In addition, the Solution 6000 has innovative

connectivity features, including GSM, SMS, Email, CID, GPRS, CSV IP, SIA 3+ Text, Voice and Domestic Dial communication formats. The built-in high speed connection (RS485 LAN) allows devices to be placed up to 1.2 km away from the control panel, which is extremely convenient for the large Dandenong warehouse.

To cover access control, Bosch AMC2s were selected and installed in the Dandenong warehouse and Oakleigh dealership. These intelligent access controllers can manage between 1 and 8 entrances.

In the Preston Motors Group locations, the AMC2s were used for access points including doors, gates, barriers, ID card readers, door opening elements and sensors.

The AMC2s allow monitoring of entrances and internal alarm status, as well as implementing

authorization checks, PIN codes and reader configurations, plus sending out error, malfunction and alarm messages. All of these functions are essential in ensuring safety and supervising valuable stock.

“From the word go everything worked so seamlessly,” says Abe Tinginis, sales representative at Bosch Security. “The products work very well in combination, and we are pleased to have provided Preston Motors Group with a whole security package.”

The integrator is pleased with the system as well.

“I am very happy with the way it all went together and the support provided by Bosch Security,” says John Leighton. “The products that I worked with were great, and both sites are performing fantastically.” zzz

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s p e ci al re p o rt

new pr o d u ct s h owcase / new p roduct showcase / new p roduct showcase /

editor’s choice

What’s new in the industry

Sony SNC-VB632D Full HD IR Bullet l SONY’S new outdoor SNC-VB632D Full HD infrared bullet camera employs Sony’s

Dual Light system with infrared illuminator and white LED, working as an effective deterrent and allowing for clear visibility under dark conditions in either black and white or colour. The SNC-VB632D supports high-performance illumination during the nighttime through the IR illuminator, up to a wide range of 30 metres in black and white, with a minimum illumination of 0 lux at 50 IRE. This IP camera also features the Generation 6 IPELA ENGINE EX, which combines Sony’s unique signal processing and video analytics technologies.

Distributor: Sony Australia Contact: sonypro.anz@ap.sony.com

Honeywell Video Analytics

FSH’s FEL990 Series Mortice Locks l DEVELOPED with simplicity in mind, FSH’s new FEL990 series electric mortise lock is a true multi-functional locking device. With monitored and non-monitored options available, the FEL990 is easily site configured in a variety of different ways including: single-sided locking (vestibule)/double-sided locking (combination), fail-safe/fail-secure, in left hand and right hand configurations.

Additionally, the FEL990M includes comprehensive monitoring options, such as a door monitoring reed switch, dual key override monitoring, request to exit via hub/handle(s), LED indicators and lock status monitoring via a combination of locking parameters.

Distributor: Central Security Distribution Contact: Contact: 1300 319 499

l HONEYWELL’S video analytics suite of products enables enhanced security and surveillance solutions by automatically monitoring video for specific people, vehicles, objects, and their associated behaviour within a camera view. Honeywell Video Analytics can provide real-time alarms based on userdefined rules to detect abnormal or suspicious behaviour without the need for human supervision. This powerful capability enhances both manned and unmanned operations by working 24/7, reducing the amount of video data operators must review, and enabling a high level of monitoring for any size of video system.

Honeywell Video Analytics software is accurate and high performing and is capable of monitoring and analysing the behaviour of up to 20 objects per camera view, both indoors and outdoors. There are 3 packages available, Active Alert, People Counter and Smart Impressions. Active Alert is available in 3 levels, Base, Standard and Premium. Each of these enables a different set of detectable behaviours.

Contact: Honeywell Security Group Call: 1300 234 234

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duct showcase / n ew p ro d u ct s h owcas e / new pr o d u ct showcase / new p roduct showcase / new p roduct showcase /

Honeywell Performance Series HD IP Video Kits l HONEYWELL unveils its Performance Series high definition IP video kits to provide dealers with a hassle-free upgrade from analogue to IP video. The kits consist of Honeywell’s new 4-channel embedded NVR with4 ball or 4 bullet style high definition IP cameras.

The simple, low-profile camera designs are ideal for tight spaces, and built-in PoE simplifies camera installation through plug-and-play functionality, saving time and costs.

End users can also program the system to record only when motion is detected to maximize the system’s efficiency. The network-connected system allows users to view video from smartphones, tablets and computers. E-mail alerts can be programmed to warn users of network failures or motion detection.

Synology DS415+ NAS l SYNOLOGY’S DS415+, a NAS is designed with small and medium-sized businesses in mind. Synology’s DS415+ delivers outstanding performance, accelerated hardware encryption, and ample storage capacity satisfying the need for speed and security.

Equipped with a quad-core processor and AES-NI hardware, the DS415+ delivers blazingly fast file transfer speeds when performing tasks such as protecting critical assets. Utilising Synology’s award-winning operating system, DiskStation Manager, Synology has dual Gigabit Ethernet support with failover and Link Aggregation.

Additionally, the DS415+ is also ready for VMware, Citrix and Microsoft Hyper-V. Backed by Synology’s 2-year limited warranty, this solid device is both easy-toinstall and will provide performance and a jam-packed feature set.

Distributor: Central Security Distribution Contact: Contact: 1300 319 499

Contact: Honeywell Security Group Call: 1300 234 234

Dahua 4K Camera Enhances Your HD Demand l DAHUA Technology has introduced its first 4K network camera IPC-HF81200E. A 4K

camera provides 4 times the resolution of 1080p, rendering superior image detail and exquisite colors, ideal for large area monitoring.

Dahua IPC-HF81200E adopts a 12MP sensor, incorporating a high-performance DSP and has 12MP (4000 x 3000) at 15 fps and 4K at 30fps preview, with a suggested bandwidth at 8Mbps. The IPC-HF81200E also supports multi-functions such as ultradefog, ROI and IVA including face detection, tripwire, intrusion and scene change, all with alerts.

“Dahua is among the first manufacturers to introduce a 4K camera, making UHD surveillance something real,” said Peter Pan, product manager at Dahua Technology.

“A high C/P ratio 4K camera will come out this November and next year, we will offer more 4K camera types to the market so our customers can find the right 4K camera to meet their specific demands.”

Distributor: Dahua Contact: overseas@dahuatech.com

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s p e ci al re p o rt

new pr o d u ct s h owcase / new p roduct showcase / new p roduct showcase /

editor’s choice

What’s new in the industry

Samsung 5MP fisheye camera l SAMSUNG has released its new 5MP Fish-eye cameras, the SNF-8010 and SNF8010VM. The cameras are topped with 6MP CMOS sensors which produce strong image quality in 2560 x 2048 resolution and can stream at up to 20FPS. The 1.14mm fisheye lens provides 187-degree field of view, plus onboard de-warping technology can stream the video in single, quad, double panorama and single panorama format.

Both models are topped with ICR for Day/Night, and Samsung’s Super Light Enhancer technology brings outstanding images in low illumination. The outdoor model SNF8010VM is IP66/IK10-certified for protection against extreme weather and vandalism.

In addition, EN-61373 & EN-50155 compliance makes the SNF-8010VM the perfect choice for use in transport applications including trains, buses, truck and other transports.

Distributor: EOS Australia Contact: +61 2 9749 5888

Hikvision adds Gain Glass to EXIR bullets l HIKVISION’S DS-2CD2T series of 2 and 3MP EXIR bullet IP cameras feature highperformance LED light sources, a rectangular lens for seamless HD formatting and Infrared Gain Glass for better performance at night.

The DS-2CD2T series also features 3D DNR and DWDR image enhancement technology, dual video streams, Power over Ethernet capability and IP66 environmental protection.

With an IR range of up to 80 metres from its 4 EXIR LEDs, the DS-2CD2T-I8 is ideal for perimeter intrusion detection, especially at night time.

The DS-2CD2T series incorporates EXIR infrared array technology that Hikvision says provides up to 30 per cent more illumination efficiency compared to other LEDs and a revolutionary rectangular lens for uniform scene illumination and seamless HD formatting.

The DS-2CD2T series network bullet EXIR cameras are part of the Hikvision’s Easy IP solution, boasting Easy Installation and Easy Viewing with the combination of Hikvision plug and play NVR and video surveillance software.

Distributor: Central Security Distribution Contact: Contact: 1300 319 499

CEM AC2000 V6.8 l CEM Systems version 6.9 of AC2000 software adds userdefined keys through the AC2000 SmartCard Utility application.

This means if encryption keys become compromised, updates can be implemented. AC2000 v6.9 now also supports 128-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption across the CEM DESFire reader versions of the emerald terminal, the S610 reader range and the sPass reader.

With the release of AC2000 v6.9, emerald now supports Imageon-Swipe mode, which allows the terminal to display the cardholder’s image, and grants or denies access based on this verification. Also with the release of AC2000 v6.9, emerald remote apps are now more user friendly with new intuitive menus and improved response times.

In v6.9, AC2000 now supports full 2-way integration with Exacq’s exacqVision video management system and integration with Future Fibre Technologies’ CAMS 3 perimeter intrusion detection system.

Distributor: Anixter Contact: +61 2 9333 0800

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duct showcase / n ew p ro d u ct s h owcas e / new pr o d u ct showcase / new p roduct showcase / new p roduct showcase /

Axis Releases 6000-E 360-degree Network Camera

Hikvision adds mini IR PT camera to Easy IP range l HIKVISION has released an IP pan/tilt IP camera. The DS2CD2Q10FD-IW 1MP Mini IR PT network camera is compact in size yet features 720p real-time HD video with motorized pan and tilt. The discrete housing also incorporates a built-in microphone and speaker, an SD card slot supporting on-board storage of up to 64GB, a 100MB/sec Ethernet interface, plus Wi-Fi connectivity.

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 0-355 degree pan range and a 20-90 degree tilt range of view. The DS-2CD2Q10FD-IW is also ideally suited to quick and easy installation, the Wi-Fi WPS capability enabling automatic configuration for users with limited or no network knowledge. With an IR range of up to 10 metres, the new camera features 3D DNR and DWDR image enhancement technology and zone configurable backlight compensation for outstanding day/ night performance in any lighting conditions.

l AXIS has released the Q6000-E network camera, a network camera with a 360-degree overview provided by four 2 megapixel camera heads, that when integrated with AXIS Q60-E simultaneously offers high detail optical zoom on areas of interest.

With a single click, operators can optically zoom in on details of interest with high precision, while at the same time being able to maintain an overview of large areas of up to 20,000 square metres â&#x20AC;&#x201C; about the size of 4 football fields.

This makes the AXIS Q6000-E ideal for city surveillance applications such as monitoring of public squares and parking lots, as well as food courts in shopping malls and other open areas.

AXIS Q6000-E provides multiple, individually-configurable video streams in H.264 compression to greatly optimize bandwidth and storage without compromising image quality. Motion JPEG is also supported for increased flexibility.

Distributor: Axis Communications Contact: +61 3 9982 1111

Vivotek VCA and VADP l VIVOTEK has announced its first video content analysis (VCA) application package, which includes 3 key functions: Field detection, line crossing detection, and object counting. Introduction of the new VCA application package follows the debut of the Vivotek Application Development Platform (VADP), an open platform for integrating video analytic functionality within its cameras. Now, the VCA package can analyze data directly on a camera to provide solutions for business applications, in addition to traditional security use cases.

Distributor: Vivotek Distributors Contact: +886-2-8245-5282

Distributor: Central Security Distribution Contact: Contact: 1300 319 499

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re g u lars help desk

helpdesk

Our panel of experts answers your questions.

Q: We have a site with an older surveillance system which we get OK performance during the day but the cameras drop out of focus at night. Is this a problem with the lenses or are older cameras likely to do this in low light?

Q: Could you explain the principle of double knock in sensor technology?

Does this mean that a sensor needs to detect intrusion twice in order to activate an alarm?

A: Yes, there are multiple activations but they happen extremely fast.

PIR sensors and dual technology detectors both work on the principle of double knock – or in some cases triple knock. Double knock works in this way. One sensing element within a detector picks up the presence of an intruder but the triggering of the second sensor (and the third in more advanced designs) is required before an alarm contact is opened to report that intrusion.

With dual technology, sensor designers allow that even if the PIR portion of the sensor is compromised by a big increase in heat, the presence of the microwave component still provides adequate protection. The quality of this sensing technique rests firmly on the nature of each of the 2 sensing technologies with dual technology sensors. PIR elements sense the level of IRE changing across zones over a set time at a set speed.

Meanwhile, the microwave sensor detects an object moving towards or away from the transmitter/receiver.

Both parts of the sensor need to activate to create an alarm circuit.

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A: IF cameras on a site seem to go out of focus at night it’s almost certainly due to the back focus and/or lens focus not being set correctly. It may have drifted over the years but if all the cameras are out, then it sounds like back focus was never undertaken during installation.

If the cameras are within reach of a ladder a technician needs to set back focus on site and if possible set back focus at night with the lens focus set to infinity. If it is not possible to set back focus at night, it’s possible to use neutral density filters to open the lens to its maximum opening (lowest f stop) during daylight allowing a tech to set the back focus with the lens focus set to infinity.

When you are satisfied the back focus is set correctly it’s time to set the lens focus.

A common reason for the lens focus to change at night in low light is the depth of field reducing as the iris opens. Because of this it’s important to set lens focus to the area of interest at night when the light is

low, the lens iris is wide open and the depth of field is reduced.

We think it’s sometimes better to do these jobs at night or in the late evening – this is easier during winter months, when sunset comes early. It sounds unusual but because lens focus must be set on site there’s sense in setting back focus and lens focus at the same time on site after sunset under the site’s artificial lighting.

And don’t forget that the colour temperature of the site’s lighting compared to daylight can impact on focus when the lens is wide open under artificial lighting. This means applying back focus and focus settings in darkness with site lighting will give a better result than using filters in full sun.

Q: We’re servicing an access control system in which there’s been a burnout of the coils in one of the strikes. It’s not a high volume entry point and the system is not old, so there must be something else going on.

A: It sounds like it could be a friction issue to us but it’s also possible the failed coil was not rated for continuous operation. When you’re installing door hardware you want strike plates to have a very slight forward and back play when the mortise is held in

the striker. This ensures that an overload of the coils won’t result from lock friction.

Also be sure that electric strike plates are heavy duty with continuous operationrated coils.

Q: I often find myself getting variable performance when using Cat 5/6 cable runs. Sometimes I get much more range than I expected and occasionally, I’ll get much less. Because we don’t always install cable to the camera points it can be hard to know why this is so.

A: THE things that can have an impact on Cat 5 connections include return loss, d.c. resistance and attenuation. But the biggest thing is near end cross talk (NEXT) caused by sloppy twisting in the conductor pair before and inside the connection. If the conductors untwist the result is unwanted variations in the balance of the pairs that lead to changes in the impedance of the conductors. This sort of thing inevitably leads to signal degradation.

It’s not too hard to get it right, however.

Just make sure that untwisting of the pair continues for no more than 13mm between the twisted cable run and the connection point. Importantly, you should just re-twist cable if it comes undone during the connection process. The exact twist is required to maintain balance and any variations you twist in yourself could lead to degradation of the signal.

Something else to bear in mind is variable quality cable – especially if it’s Cat-5. A higher grade like Cat-6e is likely to offer much more consistent performance than bog standard Cat-5 from an unknown source.

A: When batteries in an alarm system are discharging for no apparent reason then the chances are high that you have a ground fault. This earth-flowing current will discharge batteries quickly, too. Happily, the presence of a ground fault is easy to detect. Turn off AC power and disconnect the positive cable on the positive side of the battery then measure between the battery’s positive terminal and the positive cable. To do this, put your negative test probe to the cable end and your positive probe to the terminal after setting the DMM to volts. If the meter reads zero then there’s no ground fault problem and the chances are the panel itself is faulty.

If the meter measures any voltage at all, then there’s a ground fault. All ground faults are short circuits caused by things like bung wiring, poor terminations, bad switches or moisture getting into places it should not be. You’ll need to use your ammeter setting to trace the exact location of the trouble. If you want to further evaluate the ground fault first, connect your ohmmeter between the disconnected positive battery terminal and the negative connection of the battery. What you’re looking for here is the resistance of the fault. The lower the reading the more serious the leak is likely to be.

Q: When doing a takeover of an old alarm panel with a new system, there are times we are de-soldering terminations in order to retain the old cabling and that’s a really messy process. We’ve used sheets of newspaper, old towels, but somehow solder still manages to get loose.

A: Gravity is your enemy when de-soldering and the answer is a solder sucker. The last thing you want is stray solder getting onto circuit boards or dribbling across terminations and connections underneath the spot you’re working. A splash of solder can ruin an alarm or access panel.

When choosing a solder sucker consider that you need a device you can operate with one hand – you’ll need the other hand to operate the iron. The moment you’re looking for is when the surface of the solder starts to swim. Smart installers will position some sort of spill tray just under the work area. You can use cardboard, or a small ceramic or timber bowl. We’ve seen techs using a damp cloth or some aluminium foil but in both cases make sure you’re not setting the system up for future corrosion or a damaging short.

It goes without saying that it’s always easier to pull a board and work on a bench using brackets and a proper working surface.

Of course perfect work environments are rarely the lot of the electronic security installer and it’s just as likely the work will be undertaken in a crawlspace by torchlight. And speaking of light, you will need some. Buy a Black Diamond LED headlamp with a diffusion setting for close up work and a couple of sets of rechargeable batteries. zzz

Q: We maintain a legacy alarm and access control system and the batteries at one of our client’s locations keep discharging. We’ve replaced them twice.

There’s no problem on the supply side that we can tell. What does Help Desk think?

se&n 81

events

november 2014 – july 2015

Security Managers ◆ Integrators ◆ IT Managers ◆ Installers November 2014 Issue 360

SMART HOME l Installing 1080p HD IP cameras l SmartLiving from Ness l Leighton IT installs Bosch at PMG l 360-degree Thermal Radar l Security Industry Awards for Excellence l Integrators’ biggest worries l AVL-2: God of small things l Hikvision’s Prince of Darkness l Elvox digital intercoms l Interview: S2’s R. Todd Smith

ISC West Date: 15 - 17 April, 2015 Venue: Sands Expo & Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A. Tel: 1-203-840-5602 With more than 26,000 industry professionals and more than 1000 exhibits, ISC West is the largest physical security event in the Americas. ISC West’s attendees represent over $US50 Billion in buying power.

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SecTech Roadshow Date & locations: Brisbane, Monday 4th May, 2015 Sydney, Wednesday 6th May, 2015 Melbourne, Monday 11th May, 2015 Adelaide, Wednesday 13th May, 2015 Perth, Monday 18th May 2015, Contact: Monique Keatinge on +61 2 9280 4425 www.sectechroadshow.com.au SecTech Roadshow is a dynamic new event that will put the latest security products into the hands of installers and end users in the capital cities of 5 Australian states over 2 weeks. SecTech is an exciting new concept – a pop-up roadshow with one stand per exhibitor – no one company dominates the floor. At SecTech, new products do the talking.

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IFSEC Date: 16 - 18 June, 2015 Venue: ExCeL London, U.K. Tel: 44 (0)20 7069 5000 IFSEC International is the only event to bring together the entire buying chain, from end users, installers and integrators to consultants, distributers and manufacturers.

Security Exhibition & Conference

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Date: July 15-17, 2015 Venue: Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre Contact: Kylie McRorie on 03 9261 4504 or www. securityexpo.com.au for more information.

Australasia’s premier security industry event, the Security Exhibition & Conference, will return to Melbourne in July 2015. In 2014 more than 4500 security professionals attended, there was a record number of individual registrations and 170 brands exhibited on the show floor.

DAILY, WEEKLY, MONTHLY.

Security Managers ◆ Integrators ◆ IT Managers ◆ Installers November 2014 Issue 360

SMART HOME

WEBSITE

l Installing 1080p HD IP cameras l SmartLiving from Ness l Leighton IT installs Bosch at PMG l 360-degree Thermal Radar l Security Industry Awards for Excellence l Integrators’ biggest worries l AVL-2: God of small things l Hikvision’s Prince of Darkness l Elvox digital intercoms l Interview: S2’s R. Todd Smith

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Advertising enquiries call Monique Keatinge on 02 9280 4425 or email info@bridgepublishing.com.au