Category: Case Study

Poor driving doesn’t just increase the risk of accident and injury – it also slows down traffic and increases delays for other motorists. To help local authorities overcome these challenges, Hikvision has created its traffic violation detection solution, which detects traffic and parking violations across the road network in real time and supports fast, automated incident responses and ticketing deterrents. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), traffic accidents kill approximately 1.35 million people a year and injure up to 50 million more. A large number of these accidents are preventable, caused by speeding drivers, or distracted drivers who are talking on their phones or texting on the road. As well as causing accidents and near-misses, bad driving practices also increase traffic congestion, which is a major headache for motorists and local authorities. Common driving behaviors that typically impact traffic flow include illegal stopping or parking, incorrect use of priority lanes, illegal u-turns, and unnecessarily sharp braking at traffic lights and junctions. To help make roads safer, and to keep traffic flowing, Hikvision has created a traffic violation detection solution. This focuses on three key areas to ensure that motorists drive as safely as possible, and that any infractions are recorded and notified. As an additional benefit, the Hikvision solution uses smart video to automate traffic and incident management. This not only speeds up response times compared to manual monitoring, but it also helps to save police time and free up forces to focus on major incidents. Detecting speeding and other traffic violations at checkpoints Using Hikvision cameras and velocity radars mounted on checkpoint ‘gantries,’ traffic violations can be detected at key locations on the road network. In particular, the speed of vehicles can be verified – either using a location-based snapshot, or an average speed between two checkpoints (as shown in the images below). Speed check method 1 I nstantaneous speed detection: This uses a speed radar, a video camera, and a supplemental light to detect the speed of the vehicle as it passes the checkpoint. Speed check method 2 A double-checkpoint segmentation system: This calculates the average speed of a vehicle travelling between two checkpoints or ‘gantries.’ In addition to speeding, Hikvision checkpoint cameras use deep learning technology to detect a number of additional traffic violations. For example, the cameras can determine if drivers are wearing their seatbelt. By recognizing license number plates, checkpoint cameras can also support local authorities to detect stolen vehicles, and check that only the right types of vehicles travel on highways and urban streets by recognizing vehicle attributes. Preventing accidents and improving traffic flow at intersections Traffic violations at intersections are not only dangerous for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians, but they can also slow down traffic and cause long delays. To address these challenges, the Hikvision traffic violation detection solution monitors driving behaviour at intersections, helping reduce the risk of accidents and speed up traffic flow. Most traditional intersection monitoring solutions focus on vehicles that run red lights – cross referencing license plate information with traffic light status. Hikvision solution also does this, but it also integrates lane properties to detect and respond to misuse of lanes, illegal u-turns, wrong-way driving, and other incidents that can cause accidents and delays. Improving safety and reducing congestion with illegal parking detection I llegal parking has major consequences for road safety and traffic congestion. It can also be inconvenient or dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians who need to pass badly parked vehicles. The Hikvision traffic violation detection solution addresses these challenges with high-performance illegal parking detection cameras. Employed with Hikvision’s DarkFighter technology, the cameras provide upto 4 megapixel video images, even in very low-light conditions. The cameras can reliably detect vehicles and capture their license plates when they enter into the pre-defined illegal parking zones, including those on highways and urban streets. Hikvision illegal parking detection cameras can also be configured easily to implement rules that allow parking only during certain times of day, or for a limited time period. This makes the cameras suitable for town car parks, parking bays on high streets, airport pick-up bays, and other areas where motorists can only leave their vehicles for a short time. Bringing it all together in a single-pane view To maximize road safety and to help reduce traffic congestion, all elements of the Hikvision solution are integrated into a single, intelligent technology platform using HikCentral VMS. This brings cameras, velocity radars, servers, and control room infrastructure together to provide a real-time view of traffic incidents across the road network and to speed up response times dramatically. With video data streamed into the platform in real time, authorities can view vehicles that violate traffic rules, and play back footage to verify what took place, and review traffic statistics at peak demand times. The HikCentral platform can also be integrated with third-party ‘ticketing’ systems that send automated fines and other penalties to vehicle owners via email, sms, or traditional mail.  

Olymbec, one of the largest, privately owned industrial real estate holders on the East Coast has chosen Hanwha cameras to help secure its properties and improve rentability. Managing upwards of 300 properties in Quebec and 15 different States in the US, Olymbec owns more than 30 million square feet of property. Managing this much real estate means that Olymbec has to balance a variety of concerns, including providing positive tenant experiences, generating revenue, and protecting assets. When it comes to security, the company is faced with everything from accidental damage and theft to vandalism and refuse dumping both inside and outside their buildings. However, Olymbec’s existing analog-based camera systems were not meeting the company’s needs. After looking at a number of different options, the company chose Hanwha Techwin because of the range of products, the modularity of the solutions the excellent training and customer support, and the cost, which allows Olymbec to add components easily. Today, Olymbec has deployed over 700 operational cameras and carries stock for both replacement purposes and new systems. The deployed cameras are connected to either a Wisenet WAVE VMS system in their larger installations or to NVRs in their smaller installations. Through their VPN, everyone at Olymbec, from the CTO to security personnel and property managers, can access video footage from every security camera remotely from their phones and tablets. This allows them to view footage from anywhere at any time and gives them the flexibility to react quickly and appropriately when an incident occurs. Hanwha cameras have the capability to trigger alerts and alert security personnel, based on a variety of rules such as detecting motion after hours. The company has spent ¾ of a million dollars on equipment from Hanwha to deploy its new security infrastructure. The result is a robust, homogenous environment that makes it easy to manage and add new camera systems to its properties. The cameras are used as a deterrent or after-the-fact for investigative purposes. This means that Olymbec relies heavily on the quality of the video feed. To capture the best possible video, Olymbec decided to go with multi-sensor, multi-directional cameras, which are deployed across the company’s properties allowing them to cover a very wide area with just a single device. The multi-sensor cameras also work very well when it is time to pull footage. This is especially helpful because Olymbec’s security department receives video requests from law enforcement 4-5 times each month. “Using our new security system, we are able to ensure the integrity of our video evidence. This is important when local law enforcement asks us for footage to help with an investigation,” said Jack Ross, Chief Technology Officer, Olymbec USA & Canada. Olymbec remains enthusiastic about their decision to install Hanwha cameras. “It was important for us to choose a platform that is both complex enough to meet our needs and reliable enough to set up and simply let run. When it comes to reliability, as well as flexibility and ease-of-use, I think Hanwha really shines,” concluded Ross.  

Since its completion in 2017, the Gazprom Arena has served as the home ground stadium for the Russian football club Zenit St. Petersburg. And as one of the host stadiums for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the 2021 Euro Football Championship, the Gazprom Arena must also satisfy the strict security regulations of FIFA, UEFA and ESSMA. When selecting the video security system, the managers responsible at Zenit therefore opted for a solution from the German manufacturer Dallmeier. With its patented Panomera® multifocal-sensor system, Dallmeier guarantees the security of many stadiums all over the world The objective was providing coverage with video security technology for the entire area surrounding the stadium, the entrance gate approaches, the rooms below grand stands, and the grand stands themselves in one of the largest video security projects ever undertaken in a football stadium. Under enormous time pressure, a high-performance system had to be implemented in the stadium with a capacity of 60,000 fans and yet had to remain adaptable and flexible in response to changing customer wishes as the project progressed. Traceability of offenders through minimum resolution throughout the terrace area One requirement which from time to time presented the greatest challenge was capturing all areas of all the grand stands all of the time, so that unequivocal identification offenders could be assured in all circumstances. In order to achieve this, the Russian Interior Ministry stipulated two key requirements for the video security system. Firstly, it must capture the entire grand stand area with a ‘minimum resolution density’ of 250 pixels per metre (px/m). This also corresponds to the performance criterion defined in the globally valid standard DIN EN 62676-4 for video security systems for purposes of enabling identification of an unknown person. And secondly, the image frequency must not fall below a frame rate of 25 frames per second (fps). Because it is typically only the combination of the specified minimum resolution density and a fluid representation of events that can ensure incontestable evidence that is usable in a court of law. Thanks to Panomera®: The stadium solution from Dallmeier satisfies all criteria In order to meet these stringent requirements, the security managers invited a number of vendors to present their solutions in advance at Zenit’s former home ground – the Petrovsky Stadium – to enable them to choose the right solution for the Gazprom Arena. A Dallmeier video security system has already been operating in the Petrovsky Stadium since 2012, and after a thorough evaluation of all the solutions, the operators decided to install a stadium solution from Dallmeier in the Gazprom Arena as well. Because compared with conventional camera technologies such as megapixel or PTZ cameras for example, the patented Panomera® multifocal-sensor system from Dallmeier can guarantee coverage of even the largest expanses with the stipulated minimum resolution density and frame rate. Panomera® systems continuously capture everything that is happening in full resolution and allow high-resolution zooms – both live and in the recording and by several operators at the same time. This enables stadium operators to track and reconstruct relevant occurrences in detail both live and after the fact. Dallmeier’s 3D planning guarantees the objective will be met with maximum cost efficiency Besides the technical superiority of the Panomera® technologies, another decisive advantage of the Dallmeier stadium solution was the innovative 3D planning approach, with which a digital reproduction of the Gazprom Arena was created. This makes it very easy to fulfil the requirement according to which at least 250px/m must be assured literally ‘in every last corner.’ Colour coding in the 3D simulation makes it possible to see exactly where the value has been reached and where a correction should be made, perhaps by setting up in another position or using a different camera model. A further major advantage of this planning approach is the extreme co-efficiency of the solution. For example, Zenit St. Petersburg is able to provide security on the terraces throughout the Gazprom Arena with way less than 100 Panomera® camera systems, covering all areas with at least 250px/m and 25fps. An alternative solution would have required a substantial four figure number of conventional single-sensor cameras. Apart from enormously high infrastructure costs (masts, cables etc.) this would also have generated a practically unmanageable deluge of images for the video system operators. Another benefit of Dallmeier’s 3D planning programme is the automatic generation of ‘CamCards’ – exact configuration documents for every single camera. Armed with this information, installers on site know exactly which camera must be mounted where, how high and at what angle. The big advantage besides the immense amount of time saved consists in the planning reliability. It can be predicted with great accuracy how much labour the installation of the total solution with entail, because this approach minimises uncertainty factors. Thanks to Dallmeier’s unwavering assistance throughout the project, testing by the state technical personnel in Russia was also successful in the subsequent project phases, with the result that the stadium operators were able to begin operating the video security system after final project commissioning in good time for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Today, over 1,000 single-sensor cameras have been installed in the Gazprom Arena in addition to the Panomera® systems – these safeguard the remaining areas of the stadium. Due to the large number of cameras, the total storage capacity for the video security system amounts to more than six petabytes (equivalent to about 6,000TB). High-performance recording appliances from Dallmeier are used to process this information. Authorised personnel from various departments and stakeholders can access the system at 80 workstations. The Gazprom Arena is a thoroughly secure stadium – also thanks to Dallmeier The video security system from Dallmeier has provided ample evidence of its performance capabilities and reliability in the running of the Gazprom Arena, not least during the seven matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. On this subject, Karlheinz Biersack, Director Sales Eastern Europe/ RUS/ GUS at Dallmeier explained, “Of course we were delighted that the security managers of…

Naresuan University is a government university located in Phitsanulok province. It was established in 1990 following the upgrading of Srinakharinwirot University. Naresuan University is today the primary choice for education in the lower north and upper central areas of Thailand. Its campus is centred around a newly built four-storey university library and also features a newly built eight-storey multi-purpose domed building (the NU Dome), which caters to indoor sports competitions, graduation ceremonies and is home to a fabric museum, the student affairs division and various student clubs. The renovated Faculty of Medicine building housing Naresuan University Hospital is also on campus. With these new builds and renovations, the University needed to consider new fire alarm, video surveillance and conference systems to ensure the security and safety of its students and faculty on campus. A fire alarm fit for purpose Reviewing the fire alarm system that had been installed in the Faculty of Medicine, the building auditor had concluded that the previous system was not compliant to fire safety regulations and had even resulted in some false alarms in the past. To protect the reputation and credibility of the University and to safeguard the lives of its students and faculty, a new, reputable fire alarm system was needed. The new library also required a reliable fire alarm system that could detect a fire quickly to protect the high volume of books within its walls, and the new NU Dome, a multi-purpose building that is used as a venue to host large scale events with more than 3,000 people and consists of many breakout rooms, needed a robust system that could cater to its many spaces and separate zones. The Bosch FPA-5000 was the system of choice, selected for its reliability and ability to support the future expansion of the Faculty of Medicine. The system was specially designed to meet the building’s customised requirements, and thanks to the clever design by the Bosch team, the project was delivered under budget. Bosch Fire Monitoring System software is installed at the Faculty of Medicine which integrates all buildings and allows central monitoring of the fire alarm systems. The officers now have a full overview of the entire area, they can zoom in to check equipment and receive notifications by email. In addition, Bosch saved further on the budget by recommending a remote keypad instead of installing a new control panel. The system was also ideal to cater to the NU Dome’s multipurpose spaces, which required the installation of a total of 764 fire detectors. Adding faultless security with a robust video surveillance system The University was looking for a video surveillance system that would integrate with its existing Milestone software and Bosch Video Surveillance System fit the bill. The system is installed in the library and outdoor car park around the library to provide an added sense of security to the multiple spaces. Enhancing connectivity through an easy-to-use and a beautifully designed conference system The Bosch DCN Conference System was selected to support the meetings of professors, facilitate remote discussions between professors and students and support the University executives in their communications with partners and vendors. The conference system is user friendly and delivers high speech intelligibility with low susceptibility to mobile phones. It was used in most meeting rooms in the NU Dome. A sense of safety and security The three Bosch systems installed in the key buildings in Naresuan University and Naresuan University Hospital streamline communications within and beyond campus, provide an enhanced sense of security in surveillance and early fire detection, make it easy for officers to monitor the grounds and ensure that false fire alarms are no longer an issue on campus.  

Global supply chains, the booming online retail market, and rising demand for manufactured goods have driven growth in the logistics industry. An array of materials and goods are constantly on the move by truck – arriving at logistics parks before the last miles of their journey to stores or customers’ addresses. With goods moving 24/ 7/ 365, logistics parks need to work extremely efficiently to stay ahead of demand, and to ensure that goods are delivered on time. Additionally, security is a top concern for operators – from the moment shipments arrive, to the moment they are delivered to their final destinations. When it comes to achieving these goals, security cameras are critical – helping operators to monitor vehicles and people entering facilities, and to track goods leaving the premises. However, next-generation smart video solutions provide a number of additional benefits that help operators to operate more efficiently and securely than ever before. These include: 1. Enhanced personnel management With the latest smart video solutions, such as Prama Hikvision’s Smart Logistics Park Solution, site operators can protect staff more effectively against accident and injury. This is achieved with automatic detection of personal protective equipment (PPE) including eye wear, gloves, ear protectors and more. One example of this is Prama Hikvision’s embedded hard hat detection technology, which triggers automated alerts when team members enter restricted areas without their hard hats on. This enables logistics park operators to significantly improve health and safety, without deploying additional team members to supervise hard hat compliance. As an additional benefit, operators can improve security with facial recognition technology, which ensures that only authorized personnel enter restricted areas. Facial recognition can also make it faster and easier for employees to move around the logistics park, helping them work more productively and reducing waiting times at park entrances and exits. 2. Improved site management and safety Apart from the access control facilities with face recognition technology to prevent unauthorized visitors entering in the premise, logistics parks need more intelligent perimeter protection to improve security. This is now possible with Prama Hikvision’s thermal cameras, which provide crystal-clear video footage, even in zero-light environments. Radar and dome cameras can also be combined to detect any unauthorized people or vehicles entering the site, to trigger automated alerts for any suspicious movements, and to record clear video evidence of any incidents that occur. With high-definition and low-light smart cameras, logistics parks can also replace manual security patrols with ‘remote’ patrols. In this scenario, security teams check images from strategically placed, high-definition cameras based on a patrol ‘schedule’ and raise alerts if any suspicious movements are observed. To further increase efficiency, remote patrols can be enhanced with AI technology, which enables regular security checks with no need to review video footage manually. In this case, only video images that identify a potential security threat are sent to site security teams, dramatically reducing staffing requirements and costs. 3. Optimized vehicle and dock management With smart video, site operators can create an optimized vehicle and load management workflow – from truck entry to docking and cargo pickup. The Prama Hikvision Smart Logistics Park Solution achieves this with a dashboard that displays the status of each loading dock, allowing vehicles to be directed efficiently as soon as they register at the park’s security checkpoint. Based on simple red, yellow and green indicators, vehicles can be processed more efficiently and queuing can be reduced. As well as improving the vehicle processing workflow, park operators can improve access security based on vehicle license plate recognition technology. Smart cameras can also be used to monitor the speed of vehicles entering the logistics park, to detect illegal parking, and to send automated alerts to security teams when rules are breached. 4. Secure and efficient goods management With smart video, logistics parks can create an automated, secure, and fully trackable goods management process. This supports the secure flow of goods at one site or across multiple sites and includes solutions for accurate, secure goods scanning, tracking and delivery. One example of this the Prama Hikvision Smart Logistics Park Solution, which incorporates all the infrastructure needed for effective goods management, from monitoring cameras to smart code readers and scanners. Using embedded software tools, site operators can allocate an ID to every pallet or parcel and track it through to final delivery, easily search and view video footage relating to specific pallets or parcels, and generate daily inventory reports quickly and easily. Finally, logistics park operators can dramatically reduce fire risks in the warehouse with Prama Hikvision. This is achieved by combining thermal cameras and smoke detectors, which alert security teams of potential fires before any damage is done.  

Over the past few months, businesses of all sizes have been tasked with maintaining safe, healthy environments for staff and visitors against the backdrop of COVID-19. From educational and healthcare campuses to corporate offices and retail stores, many organizations are seeking to implement safeguards such as mandatory face masks to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Intelligent applications that can help automate compliance with new health and safety procedures are being introduced to the market, which can quickly put valuable information into the hands of facility decision makers. A new generation of video analytics, powered by artificial intelligence technology, is enabling higher levels of accuracy and speed than traditional pixel-based analytics, ensuring that organizations who depend on accurate results and high throughput can maintain the pace of their operations without having to deal with unnecessary alerts and alarms. For environments such as hospitals or healthcare organizations, where mask wearing is a critical part of a risk mitigation strategy, it’s crucial for video management systems with mask detection to operate real-time monitoring and alerting of ‘no mask’ events – making it easier to take prompt corrective action, optimize safety protocols and enhance situational awareness.   Organizations looking to audit their internal processes for improvement or regulatory compliance should also have the ability to search for ‘no mask’ events in stored video to be able to produce reports or track organizational compliance over time. Many of these functions are made easier with deep or even native integrations of video analytics into a video management system such as the new exacqVision 20.09 with face mask detection. With a seamless, cost-effective face mask detection solution, integrated from Tyco AI directly to the exacqVision VMS, this solution will continue to assist facility managers in adapting to new guidelines, and investing in cost-effective, scalable and efficient technology to help mitigate risks.      

2N’s wide range of intercoms are now available in the AXIS Camera Station video management software, allowing customers to integrate a 2N intercom into their full video surveillance solution.     2N offers a large portfolio of high-quality intercoms for secure and comfortable communication. With various models – from stylish intercoms designed to blend into residential environments to tougher intercoms made for industrial use – 2N’s intercoms are designed to be easy to install and operate, providing clear camera identification and two-way communication. Features and functions in AXIS Camera Station Upon installation, the 2N intercom will be automatically detected as a device in AXIS Camera Station and is therefore easy to add to the existing system. Operators receive instant notification of an incoming intercom call in the PC user interface or mobile app, and can then identify and talk with visitors in addition to opening the door. The intercom’s camera can also be used for traditional surveillance like any other IP camera in the system. All 2N intercoms running on firmware 2.30 can now be used in an AXIS Camera Station system. An AXIS Camera Station Core license to connect the device and a 2N enhanced video or Gold license are also needed.  

Genetec Inc., a leading technology provider of unified security, public safety, operations, and business intelligence solutions, recently announced that the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, an iconic amusement park in California, has recently upgraded its security infrastructure with the Security Center platform. By unifying video and access control park-wide, the park’s security team is able to speed up investigations and emergency response. Touted as the ‘Coney Island of the West,’ the seaside park features about 40 rides, 30 restaurants, 15 retail shops, arcades, miniature golf, bowling, and conference and banquet facilities. As an admission-free park, guests can enter through multiple entrances to buy food, purchase ride tickets, or simply walk around and enjoy the surroundings. Unlike gated parks which typically have a main security checkpoint, the park’s security team must be hyper-vigilant to spot potential security threats before they can develop. Security operators constantly monitor video cameras and work directly with field officers to handle issues. While video surveillance technology helped security teams watch over the large park, aging equipment began compromising their efficiency. As the search for a new video management system began, the team prioritized openness, reliability, and a vendor’s reputation in the market. Moreover, their aging access control system would soon need replacing too.   The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk team chose the Genetec Security Center platform because of its unique ability to unify video surveillance, access control, and other systems and sensors. The flexibility of the platform was a key selling point and enabled them to choose their preferred cameras and door hardware. Today, the team at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk uses the Security Center platform to manage over 400 cameras and 220 doors across the entire amusement park. From one single interface, operators actively monitor cameras and doors, respond to alarms, handle investigations, and export and share video evidence. This ensures that every security incident is effectively resolved without having to switch applications. “Like any busy amusement park, our guests sometimes become separated from their groups. When this happens, we are now able to use the Security Center Omnicast™ video surveillance system, along with assistance from our field officers, to quickly reunite guests with their parties,” said Will Graham, Security Technology Administrator at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. If motion is detected near a perimeter after opening hours, the platform will trigger an alarm and display live video and a 10-second replay of the event on a dispatcher’s monitor. This allows them to quickly identify if it’s an actual threat. The team has also expedited investigations by sharing system access with other departments. This includes food service, loss prevention and ticket sales who can handle their own preliminary investigations, if needed. “Using the Security Center platform, all door events are linked to video which means our team can quickly gather the information needed and solve cases faster,” said Graham. With Security Center, operators get an instant view of an event as it’s unfolding. So before sending an officer to check on the area, they can quickly identify if it’s a threat or a false alarm. Using the Synergis system, the team has set up different door schedules and rules and created over 200 cardholder groups with unique access privileges for various roles and responsibilities.Synergis system, the team has set up different door schedules and rules and created over 200 cardholder groups with unique access privileges for various roles and responsibilities. For added peace-of-mind, the Santa Cruz Boardwalk team receives fully managed software maintenance and monitoring via the Genetec Advantage maintenance package to help ensure their systems always available and up to date.     “Using Security Center has definitely heightened our response efficiency at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Everything from video surveillance and access control to alarm management has been consolidated into one solution – it’s just a better, more effective way to work. We’re confident that with this unified platform, we’ll be keeping our guests happy and safe well into the future,” concluded Graham.  

Genomics England has recently expanded their Quantum ActiveScale object storage solution as part of an integrated environment designed to store, protect and provide access to hundreds of petabytes of genomic data. The solution enabled the organization to scale up from sequencing 100,000 genomes to millions while improving data resilience, controlling costs, and avoiding IT complexity. The implementation supports Genomics England’s commitment to sequence the genomes of intensive care patients with COVID-19 and other people with the virus, and is an example of Quantum’s leadership in storing and managing unstructured data. Expanding Genomic work beyond the limits of an existing NAS system Genomics England was established in 2013 by the UK’s Department of Health & Social Care to support the 100,000 Genomes Project – a ground-breaking effort to sequence whole genomes from a vast number of patients with rare diseases and common cancers. In 2018, the project was significantly expanded. The new goal was to sequence up to five million genomes over five years. Unfortunately, the existing network-attached storage (NAS) system used for genomic data was not up to the task. The NAS, which held 21 PB of data, had reached its node-scaling limit. Genomics England needed something more scalable than existing NAS solutions – an infrastructure that could grow to hundreds of petabytes. A new solution also had to facilitate simple, flexible access to data by more than 3,000 researchers around the world. Selecting Quantum ActiveScale object storage as part of a single, integrated solution To explore new storage solutions, Genomics England consulted with Nephos Technologies, an independent UK-based data services organization, to design and implement a new storage solution. After evaluating several possibilities, the Nephos team designed a multi-faceted solution that incorporates a high-performance parallel file system from WekaIO, Mellanox® high-speed networking, and Quantum ActiveScale object storage. The solution creates a two-tier architecture that combines flash storage plus an object storage system, which serves as a long-term data lake repository. The two storage tiers – each of which can be scaled independently – present as a single hybrid storage environment. As a result, researchers have the flexibility to query data in a highly randomized fashion. Taking on new challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic Within a few years of deploying the new storage environment, Genomics England needed to expand again. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 presented new, urgent challenges for the global medical-scientific community, and Genomics England was in a prime position to help better understand who is susceptible to the virus. The organization committed to sequencing the genomes of up to 20,000 intensive care patients with COVID-19 plus up to 15,000 people with the virus who are experiencing only mild symptoms. Around the same time that Genomics England was ramping up participation in COVID-19 research, the ActiveScale solution platform was acquired by Quantum. A Quantum team facilitated a smooth transition for Genomics England, which then expanded the object-storage environment from 40PB to more than 100PB. Scaling was seamless. The ActiveScale system’s architecture is underpinned by its RAID replacement technology, with intelligent, dynamic placement of erasure coded data. That placement of data eliminates the need for system rebalancing which can compromise performance and availability. Protecting vital Genomic data   ActiveScale object storage protects data and provides the resiliency that Genomics England needs for its critical work. The organization takes advantage of the geo-distributed capability of ActiveScale, an added strength of Quantum’s RAID replacement technology that spreads data and parity across multiple nodes in the storage grid. With ActiveScale object storage, the organization distributes data across three data centers, for full data protection against a major disaster such as site-loss. Data can continue to be accessed for reading and writing at the remaining sites and withstand additional hardware failures offering 19x9s data durability.   Gaining scalability while controlling costs and complexity With ActiveScale object storage, Genomics England no longer faces the capacity limits of its previous NAS solution. The organization has been able to expand its object storage to support more genomic analysis and even take on additional COVID-19 work without a major overhaul. In the future, Genomics England can easily integrate ActiveScale object storage with the Amazon S3-compliant public cloud environments for additional protection and scaling flexibility. The storage environment is also helping to reduce costs. According to Nephos, the Genomics England team decreased storage costs by 75 percent per genome compared with the previous environment. The organization is expected to reduce costs by 96 percent by 2023. Just as important, the Genomics England team has experienced these benefits without adding complexity. The new integrated storage environment makes it simple for researchers from around the world to store and access the genomic data they need for their work.  

  PMT Security recently deployed an advanced facial recognition (FR) solution and network of advanced IP cameras at a busy shopping centre in Sydney. The customer The shopping centre is a modern, medium-sized retail precinct, based in Western Sydney. It contains a Big W and a Woolworths as well as more than 50 specialty stores. The site also hosts several heritage-listed cottages, some of which date back to the1860s. The security mission at the centre is sensitive, due to the diverse nature of the buildings and a mixed demographic. The challenge The retail destination had been experiencing antisocial behaviour from a small group of repeat offenders, and frequently worked with police to remove them from the premises. Trespassing outside of retail hours was a big issue for the shopping centre, and several known drug offenders were evicted on a regular basis. Antisocial behaviour included individuals who frequently became a public nuisance by entering the centre whilst under the influence of illicit substances, shoplifting and disturbing the peace. “We could only use footage from our network of cameras to find these individuals after the event, which was time-consuming. Trespassing in particular was a real problem for a while, it was happening almost every day,” reported a spokesperson at the facility, “The shopping centre required a solution that would help them recognise individuals who were known to have transgressed in the past, and alert staff and authorities that they had entered the premises despite being banned. “We needed a more sophisticated system that could help us single out these individuals before they become a problem, and enable us to be proactive about clamping down on antisocial behaviour before it deterred our loyal customers.” The PMT Solution Management approached security service providers PMT Security about a holistic, best-of-breed solution. “We needed something that went beyond the footage provided by our network of analogue security cameras and the people sitting behind them watching monitors all day. The retail centre is a real destination for local shoppers who come for the diverse speciality stores, big retail and food chains and a wide variety of excellent cafes. We needed to create a safe environment that made our customers feel secure, so it was essential that we introduced cutting-edge technology to help us achieve that,” said the spokesperson. PMT Security worked with world-leading vendors to create a complete solution, which now enables this shopping centre to be proactive about security. At the centre of the technology stack, an open-platform video management software (VMS) solution from Milestone Systems powers a network of IP cameras, encoders and digital video recorders. One such integration is the shopping centre’s facial recognition (FR) solution, powered by VixVizion’s Imagus software. The FR solution allows security administrators to automate parts of the monitoring process, by setting alerts and profiles on the system for certain individuals. The FR solution will recognise these people as they enter the store, pulling up a record of their misdemeanours, and automatically alert security personnel. Further to this, the Imagus system also recognises and tracks their associates, to add a further layer of security to the network. “The Imagus FR solution uses Artificial Intelligence to pick out an individual in a crowded centre, then learn who they are known to enter the shops with. That way we are able to keep track of not just a noted person on the banned list, but any people that they associate with upon entering the premises, so we are able to stamp out further bad behaviour before it becomes a problem for our shoppers,” added their security manager. Fraser Larcombe of VixVizion explains further, “Facial Recognition technology can add benefits to security by not just identifying criminals, but also giving users the ability to look for unknown associates of that criminal, and finding people that may have been involved but weren’t originally known to the user. It empowers users to find links between suspected individuals and follow certain behaviours on a whole new level of investigation.”     “Deployments like this are at the very forefront of today’s video technology, but also opens up the possibility of more complementary technologies being added in the future. An open platform allows for a huge amount of functionality to be built into a security solution, and as we see in this case, essentially future-proofs the premises and the business. They can add the latest technologies as they become available and therefore continue to offer their customers the very best retail experience moving forward,” said Brett Hansen, Country Manager, Milestone Systems.   Larcombe from VixVizion went on to add, “Facial ‘verification’ can also help customers in say, a retail environment, by recognising a VIP shopper and creating a seamless experience. Imagine walking into your local retail bank branch to discuss a loan and finding all the paperwork ready for you at the desk, or walking into a coffee shop and using your face to get your regular order, with no waiting in line.” Managers also cited the ease-of-use as a big factor that is making life easier at the shopping centre. They said, “We have got a lot more cameras than we did before, they are placed all around the centre now which is much better than it was before. However, despite having more devices with more data being recorded, it is actually quicker and easier to monitor and administer the cameras than it was previously. We can put say, four or five cameras on the one save rather than doing each one individually, and we can now just put the times in, export the files and we are done. It really is easy – honestly, you could train a monkey to do it.” Return on investment The PMT Security solution has enabled the shopping centre’s security team to curb offensive behaviour and trespassing, making the security mission much more effective while saving the team a lot of time that was previously spent monitoring screens and manually inputting data. The number of individuals attempting to trespass…