Category: Feature

Synology Inc. has launched ‘Surveillance Station 8.2,’ a brand new LiveCam Security Camera App that instantly turns a phone into an IP camera. The iOS version is available at Apple Store and the Android version will be released this October. The revamped DS offers higher performance, along with the addition of IP speakers to the hardware support list. The next generation of application center offers greater flexibility for application management. “With the combination of LiveCam on iOS and the brand new DS cam, Surveillance Station has entered a mobile era of transforming the phone into a security camera and having its video recordings accessible by DS cam,” said Ivan Chang, Product Manager at Synology Inc., “Features like smart time lapse, dual authentication and support for IP speakers make Surveillance Station the project-ready solution.” Surveillance Station 8.2 includes the following new features: Turn phones into cameras with LiveCam: The mobile device can now be an IP camera. Once LiveCam is installed on mobile phones, it can be added to Surveillance Station as an IP camera that can record as users go. Application Center that knows just what is needed: New style of add-ons called Application Center provides up to 26 applications and utilities. Use the category filter or keyword search to quickly find the application that you are looking for and customize your Surveillance Station. Revamped DS cam with extraordinary performance and compatibility: The next generation of DS cam not only provides a more streamlined viewing experience but also multitimeline capabilities for intuitively searching through video footage. In addition, with off-line license authentication in place, you can now easily deploy the system at a faster pace. Now support IP speakers: Surveillance Station 8.2 can transmit audio or arrange scheduled broadcasts on integrated IP speakers. In multi-speaker deployment, either single or group broadcast is also available. Oversee sizable project with time lapse: Time lapse shortens lengthy videos down to minutes or even seconds. This application is particularly useful for showing a large-scale project from start to completion. Safeguard your data with dual authorization: A safer and more flexible privilege management measure, Dual Authorization restricts sensitive functions such as managing cameras or accessing video records to only be performed with authorization from another party. With extra protection in place, this prevents the leaking of sensitive information. Stream to the world with live broadcast: Share your excitement with the world as you live stream to YouTube with no settings required. Simply select the camera and enter the path information provided on YouTube. Your live stream broadcast is ready for action.  

Everyone can agree the convergence trend is in full force in the electronic security industry, and organizations are pushing more and more for integrated solutions that can not only enhance ROI but also solve problems that have traditionally been out of the realm of electronic physical security systems. This leaves system integrators and other solution providers in a difficult position as they scramble to be competitive especially when faced with an industry dominated by a few power players. Tackling this problem can now be a matter of survival for small to medium players especially in regional markets. To address this need, Apollo security access control has introduced a new ASP series controllers that promise to set a new standard for secure, scalable and customizable solutions. For 30 years, Apollo has been known for producing some of the most robust hardware in the industry, and with the ASP series a new layer of flexibility has been added by allowing ‘post-factory’ customization in addition to many other feature upgrades. This will help put more control in the hands of integrators, and even end-users so they are not locked into hardware solutions that are ‘off the shelf’ and don’t provide any ability to adapt to customer specific needs for the present or the future. The flagship of Apollo’s new controller series, the ASP-4 is an intelligent access controller designed to provide high performance security solution with ability to solve non-standard problems. Natively, the ASP-4 can support four readers and four doors, but when clustered with 32 other ASPs devices it can secure up to 128 doors in one management unit by utilizing inter-device communication across standard IT networks. Each ASP-4 can also support up to 16 additional readers by utilizing OSDP secure channel communications, supporting configurations such as 4 doors with in/ out (8 readers) or even more doors by adding input/ output modules for door control. Enterprise capacity of 250,000+ cardholders, 300 access levels with up to 50 access levels per card is provided at each device, providing total cardholders access rights database redundancy, preventing reduced functionality modes such as ‘facility code check only.’ The ASP’s real power lies, however, with the ability to customize the functions of the controller by loading customized App scripts and third-party protocols. Using industry standard ‘Clike’ programming language, the ASP can have new functions designed by the integrator. Running customizations at the hardware level instead of software offers the benefits of drastically reduced time/ cost of implementation, as well as superior reliability. Earlier if an organization wanted to integrate a new device such as an alarm panel, fire system or similar, they would have to request software customization which could take months and costed tens of thousands of dollars; however, with the ASP such a task can take days or weeks and be completed within a budget of hundreds of dollars. An example of how effective this customization works was provided by a subsidiary of a large multi-national that was struggling to comply with strict labor regulations. Under these rules, workers in their factory can only work six consecutive days, requiring the seventh day for rest. The HR department struggled to keep track of this as each employee’s rest day was prior to when six days was expired; in addition to workers switching shifts and other complications the tracking was too difficult to be done manually, so an automated solution was necessary. The current access control solution the company was using didn’t provide any solution for this so the only possibil ity was expensive customization which would take 3-4 months and then there was no guarantee what would happen in the future if needs would change. With ASP-4, Apollo’s local partner was able to offer a much more rapid solution. The requirements were programmed into a logic script that was loaded to the controller. This script checks every cardholder at time of access for any violation of the rules and deny access if necessary, displaying a reason on an LCD display as well as flash an indicator light so that the cardholder will know it is not simply an access level error that has denied their entry. This customization took less than one man-day to program and was tested over the course of one week before it was ready to deploy. The ability to do this customization gave the partner the edge needed to provide a timely, cost effective solution to a problem that could have costed the company greatly if a work-related accident resulted in legal action. In the future, the logic script can be easily changed, for example if the company would like to move to a five-day work week in the future. Additional customization possibilities are possible using the serial connections of the ASP. This allows integration of input devices such as scales or barcode scanners, or interface to any device that has a serial interface such as displays, mimic panels, entry phone systems and more. Protocols for these devices can be embedded in scripts and the devices can assume alarm input/ output functions, or even new card reader types can be supported such as wireless locks or long-range RFID readers. In addition to being customizable, the ASP of course is designed with security in mind. With all communication channels being secured with 128-bit TLS encryption which prevents attempts to intercept or forge data. Security goes all the way down to the reader using OSDP secure channel to protect card reader data transmission lines. Being able to communicate simultaneously with up to five software hosts also gives the ASP ability to be monitored in real-time by redundant systems, ensuring that important alarms are always delivered in time for the security team to react. The ASP series has been designed from the ground up to be friendly to software OEMs and system integrators using other systems in place of or addition to Apollo Security’s software platform. A native open platform SDK allows tight integration with all the ASP’s standard features in addition to…

In technology, the industry leaders of today are rarely the leaders of tomorrow. Technology innovations are being introduced to the market at an increasingly accelerated pace and the established multi-national companies that have long enjoyed strong market shares and growth rates are being challenged by hundreds of startups. This trend is ubiquitous in nearly every industry and vertical market, and continues to accelerate year after year. In the physical security industry, this technological disruption drastically transformed the largest sector of the industry in under 10 years and became the largest revenue in less than 15 years. The video surveillance market was unabashedly transformed with the introduction of the first mass market camera in 1999 by Axis Communications which started a groundswell of change that moved giants. Multi-national, wellfunded and established industry giants such as GE, Bosch, Panasonic, Sony, Pelco and Honeywell were upended by Axis, Samsung, Geovision, Milestone, Genetec, Exacq, and myriad others. Technical advancement The technological advancements of IP technologies were too rapid for most of the established companies to react to and they were confronted with ‘The Innovators Dilemma,’ a book and idea introduced by Clayton Christensen, a Harvard professor and businessman. These legacy corporations became classic examples of Christensen’s ideas about leadership. These established industry giants did everything ‘right’ and yet they lost their position at the top, and in some cases left the industry entirely. As this rate of disruption continues and accelerates, we can be assured today’s industry leaders will be usurped by new innovative businesses with unseen ideas in years to come. If we look across the physical security industry it does not take a Ph.D. to see that the next business sector that will be transformed is the access control industry. From a 10,000 foot view, the access control industry seems to have all of the right ingredients, making it extremely ripe for a monumental shift. The access control industry is dominated by large multi-national, multi-billion dollar manufacturers with recognizable brands such as Siemens, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, ASSA ABLOY, Dormakaba, Bosch, Allegion, and G4S. The products from these manufacturers are most often proprietary in creation and installation, and their markets are often artificially protected with geographical or vertical market protectionism for installers. The installation of the products are very costly and the technology is both antiquated and cumbersome. The functionality of the software and hardware products are generations behind other technology that is generally available to commercial consumers. There are technologies present in other industries that have the ability to transform the access control industry. Combine all of these factors, an industry with a CAGR of nearly nine percent, and a market opportunity that is projected to be over $10 billion in 2022, and one does not need to be Nostradamus to see that the industry will dramatically change. Blending advancements together The ingredients are all there for several technological advancements to transform the industry, and for new and different players to emerge as the leaders of tomorrow. Perhaps some of these companies and technologies are already present. If you have had the opportunity to stroll down one of the major trade shows in Las Vegas, London, or Dubai you have seen hundreds of companies offering their ideas to the market and most being awarded validation with some marquee customer story or award. There are newer hardware innovations creating reductions in labor costs, easy to use software solutions, and opportunities for increased margins for installers and manufacturers. There are also some prominent technological trends that have become main stream – access control as a service (ACaaS), wireless locksets, and mobile credentials – which are being promulgated by dozens of competing companies. Each of these trends offer a piece of the solution that advances the industry and provides the technology that commercial consumers are demanding. The wireless locksets reduce installation costs by over a thousand dollars a door, while the cloud-based access control eliminates the need for costly physical server installations and enable easy upgrades while solving many cybersecurity concerns. The mobile credentials enable easier administration and security of personnel in a facility while reducing costs. Interestingly, there is not a single company offering all of these technologies under one comprehensive package that could seismically shift the industry and present the comprehensive solution for the end user. Will there be an existing global player that will present this singular solution that will cause this move over the next 10 years, or will it take a giant from another industry such as Google, Amazon, Alibaba, Apple or Intel? Each of these corporations have been inching towards the security industry with their own offerings, and in some cases have video solutions that they see are strong for their brand and revenues. In addition, they could gain further insight and greatly monetize the data of a combined video, access control and perimeter protection solution. Existing global players such as ASSA ABLOY with its acquisition of Mercury Security and Allegion with its recent acquisition of ISONAS seem to be constructing the solution that could be disruptive; however, time will tell how much influence the combination of open architecture hardware, wireless locks, and in Allegion’s situation, cloud-based software will be rapidly adopted. Looking at the cost To further understand the opportunity, I would encourage you to try and describe a standard access control installation to a friend in technology outside of the security industry. I would recommend starting with the physical infrastructure required by most systems. Describe how they will need to dedicate physical space inside of the building to install a large circuit board inside a large metal box to a battery and a power supply that will need to be connected to a dedicated power circuit installed by an electrician. From that panel, they will need to buy expensive low voltage wiring that will connect to a reader and all of their door hardware connections. What is the price tag for this portion of the installation? Please allot the industry average of $2,300 per door. For…

After great success in Chennai, COM-SUR has once again joined hands with Bosch India to help protect their Bengaluru factory. COM-SUR, the CCTV video footage auditing, smart backup and intelligent reporting software, has been deployed by Bosch India for the second time to complete workflow of video surveillance. “This is a great honour for us at COM-SUR that Bosch which is a camera manufacturer themselves has once again recognised the value and potential of our technology. The ability to audit their video footage regularly with such ease and efficiency was of prime importance to them. It has been a pleasure working with their team, who also share our philosophy,” says Gautam Goradia, CEO & MD, COM-SUR. With the regular and dedicated use of COM-SUR, Bosch has far greater prospects of: Achieving crime, fraud and loss prevention. Solving crime faster. Improving processes, compliance, safety. Improving employee performance, customer satisfaction, and sales. Gaining situational awareness, actionable intelligence. Reducing data size and remote storage. Standardizing multiple activities related to CCTV/ surveillance. Besides, they shall also be able to audit hours of video footage from multiple cameras in minutes; remotely store huge amounts of relevant data; search, tag and retrieve data easily, quickly create videos from multiple cameras in single MP4 file; create and share intelligent audit/ incident reports and gain business intelligence based on patterns etc.  

Fortinet and IBM Security will collaborate through the bi-directional sharing of cyber threat information. The goal of the agreement is to proactively combat cyberthreats and threats to privacy globally through the sharing of contextual threat information generated by the Fortinet FortiGuard Labs threat research team and IBM Security’s X-Force research team. IBM Security and Fortinet will directly collaborate through bi-directional sharing of threat intelligence using secure channels. Joint threat information sharing will deliver deep security research expertise and global threat intelligence for increased protection for the customers of each company. IBM Security and Fortinet global threat research teams monitor and analyze security threats from a variety of sources, providing valuable and near real-time threat intelligence. By integrating the threat intelligence feeds from each company, customers will now benefit from more thorough data being available. Ongoing cooperation between Fortinet & IBM While the agreement formalizes the cooperation between Fortinet and IBM Security in regards to threat information sharing, both organizations have already been working together in regards to comprehensive security protections. IBM Security has been a Fortinet fabric-ready partner since 2017. Fortinet’s open approach extends the broad visibility, integrated threat prevention, and automated response of its security fabric architecture through well-defined APIs to IBM for unified security management and security incident response. In addition, Fortinet earlier this year announced collaboration with IBM on its IBM X-Force Threat Management Services. Working with IBM Security on X-Force Threat Management Services enables both organizations to further provide mutual customers with threat insight, attack detection and prevention, and an integrated defensein-depth strategy designed to seamlessly span across an organization’s entire attack surface. Caleb Barlow, Vice President threat intelligence, IBM Security said, “By entering relationships with trusted partners like Fortinet, IBM is able to construct a clearer picture of the global threat landscape. Today, threat actors are highly skilled, organized, well resourced, and able to operate globally and swiftly. In order to defend effectively, we must operate with that same speed and develop informed, accurate counter-measures. The kind of collective defense we’ve formed with Fortinet helps IBM better protect clients and communities by equipping us with additional intelligence that enables us to respond to emerging threats more quickly and more completely.”  

Ozone Enterprise Group, an Everstone PE Capital funded company and leading player in the Architectural Hardware industry, announced its acquisition of ‘WallCam,’ a company engaged in security and surveillance business in India. The acquisition will make ‘WallCam’ a fully owned subsidiary of Ozone. The acquisition process, which is in its final stage, will be completed soon. Ozone sees a lot of synergies in the business with its existing business lines, and will accelerate and strengthen WallCam’s model of working through its R&D, manufacturing and re-seller partners. Ozone has a diversified presence in architectural hardware, safes & vaults, locks, fire & safety doors and urban furniture. The brand is among the top 3 players in safes and locks in the country. The group has been actively exploring options to diversify into new businesses, security and surveillance being one of them. Talking about its business aspirations, with its aggressive growth and diversification plans, the group is eyeing Rs.1,000Cr turnover by FY 2021. The company plans to invest over Rs.100Cr in next 2 years on diversification primarily on building manufacturing capability for CCTV cameras and other security and surveillance products and IoT in India. Ozone Group already has international tie ups for product and software and are also looking at fresh equity influx to fund expansion in electronic security and surveillance business. A significant amount of this equity influx will be dedicated for a greenfield manufacturing unit for electronic security and surveillance under the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Government. “Security and surveillance is one of the fastest growing industry in India. The market size of the industry from the current $1Bn is likely to grow 2.5 to 3 folds by the end of 2021. We have been actively exploring options to diversify into this industry and after contemplating both organic and inorganic options, we finally narrowed down on taking the inorganic route with the WallCam acquisition. We are all geared up to make the most of the market opportunity and will soon be seen as one of the prominent players in the market,” said Mr Aggarwal. Ozone’s solution centric approach has enabled them to grow from a start-up to becoming India’s most popular architectural hardware solution provider, which has been able to prove its worth in international markets. The company has a global presence across 15 countries, 4 R&D centres in Israel, Korea, China and India, and 4 state-ofthe-art factories in India and China. Ozone offers internationally certified products & solutions through its product portfolio of more than 3000 SKUs across various product categories. Ozone has strong presence internationally with offices in India, Canada, Australia, Dubai and distributor’s network in Poland and Saudi Arabia. “The idea behind acquiring WallCam was to give a head-start to our diversification plans, get accesses to WallCam’s existing business, the brand, sales & distribution network. We are excited about this new move as it is in synergy with our growth ambitions and abilities” – Alok Aggarwal Founder & Managing Director, Ozone Enterprise Group  

Infochips (an Arrow Company) has launched Eragon 660 and 625 modules for companies to accelerate the time-to-market for products using the Qualcomm SDA660 and Qualcomm APQ8053 processors, respectively. The addition of these Qualcomm Technologies’ processors to the Eragon 600 series allows eInfochips to address the growing demand in advanced computing and video processing on handheld devices. “This work with eInfochips allows large numbers of innovators to create exciting products and solutions using the technologies that transform how the world connects, computes and communicates,” said Joseph Bousaba, Vice President of product management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., “These Eragon 660 and 625 modules from eInfochips deliver new and advanced capabilities that developers can use to participate in the large and growing IoT opportunity.” Eragon 660 and Eragon 625 modules can work as building blocks for embedded products requiring solutions for gaming, 4K camera, smart HMI, digital signage, medical imaging, and more using on-device AI. The Qualcomm SDA660 processor at the heart of Eragon 600 is a powerful processor, featuring the Qualcomm® AI Engine, Qualcomm Spectra™ 160 ISP, Qualcomm® Kryo™ 260 CPU and Qualcomm® Hexagon™ 680 DSP with vector extensions. At the same time, the Qualcomm APQ8053 which powers Eragon 625 is designed to provide fast connectivity, vibrant visuals, and exceptional performance for immersive experiences. The Eragon 660 and 625 modules come pre-integrated with Android, making them ideal for prototyping and parallel development of hardware and software solutions. “eInfochips offers custom hardware design and manufacturing solutions, based on Qualcomm Technologies’ processors, by leveraging comprehensive experience of 200+ designs and a strong ecosystem of contract manufacturers associated with Arrow Electronics. As an early adopter of technology, eInfochips is already engaged with its customers in the design and development of Smart HMI and IoT solutions based on the Qualcomm SDA660 processor,” said Parag Mehta, Chief Business Development Officer at eInfochips. eInfochips, an Arrow company, is a leading global provider of product engineering and semiconductor design services. The company’s service offerings include digital transformation and connected IoT solutions across various cloud platforms, including AWS and Azure.