Focus on Security Monitoring

In the first of a series of in depth video podcast (vodcasts) we explore how modern control rooms have become the latest part of advanced security technology. In this vodcast we speak to Joe Parravizzini from Securitas about his experiences and upcoming trends when planning your next control room fitout.

Technology is evolving at a rate that is unprecedented in human history.  Not too long ago, the kind of major advances that might change the course of the entire security industry, changes such as CCTV or IP networks, digital video, biometrics and so on, would occur at best, once a decade. Then it became every five years. Now, one could be mistaken for believing that an industry-changing development occurs almost every year.

Over the next few months, in the lead up to the Security Exhibition and Conference taking place from the 17-19th of August 2022 at the ICC, Darling Harbour Sydney, we will be presenting a three-part series featuring interviews with experts from various areas of the industry. The aim of this series is to help readers make sense of the rapid technological evolution occurring across the security industry.

Insights from Security expert Joe Parravizzini

In this, the first in our special three-part series, we spoke with Joe Parravizzini. Joe has over thirty years experience in the technical security industry ranging from sales to installation and serving, including teaching at Box Hill Tafe in Melbourne as part of the Security Installer program. He owned and ran Allstate Security and Communications for over two decades before opening his own control room business with Staysafe Security until that business was acquired by Securitas a few years ago where Joe continues to work as their Business Development Manager of Monitoring Services.

 Video Verification and how it has improved Security with AI

According to Joe, the monitoring and control room sector, like most areas of security, has undergone significant change in recent years. Examples include upgrades from 2G to 3G, 4G and now 5G, the phasing out of traditional alarm dialers and the old Public Switch Telephone Networks (PSTN) and more recently, the introduction of video verification. However, what we have seen to this point, pales in comparison to what we will see over the next five to ten years according to Joe.

The introduction of video verification has had broad-reaching implications for the industry. For decades, when a control room received an alarm event, confirmation of that alarm required dispatching a security patrol to confirm if the event was real or a false alarm. Often, alarm activations were false alarms. Regardless, the client still had to pay the response fee to a patrol company and if the alarm was a result of a faulty or poorly installed sensor, then a company might suffer multiple alarm call-outs per evening. At a rate of $50 or more per response, costs could quickly add up. What’s more, in the rare event where the alarm activation was a result of a real event, by the time the patrol service arrived, the perpetrators would be long gone.

Joe believes video verification has addressed both of those issues. He feels that when a video alarm system is properly designed and installed, it enables control room staff to immediately identify real versus false alarms negating the need for a cost of alarm response. Further, in the event of a real event, control room staff can immediately call for local emergency services such as police or fire. These are just the two most obvious benefits of video verification. According to Joe, the introduction of video analytics combined with artificial intelligence and deep learning is set to take control rooms of the future to a whole new level.

“We can do things now that would have been impossible just a few short years ago” states Joe.

“Now we can immediately identify objects that have been left in a particular area such as a bag left in an airport or sports stadium. We can also determine if an object has been removed from an area, such as a painting being removed from the wall in a gallery. When combined with other forms of analytics such as facial and/or license plate recognition, we can determine if some is loitering, perhaps in an effort to conduct surveillance on a building or person, and then direct the appropriate response to intervene.

“We can detect people or vehicles acting strangely, but this does not even begin to touch on the things we can do to add value to an organization such as people counting, heat mapping and so on,” states Joe.

Modern control rooms the new future for proactive security measures

Of equal importance, is the fact that modern control rooms can now take what has traditionally been a passive, reactionary resource and turn it into a proactive security measure. Instead of simply letting you know a crime had been committed, a modern control room should be able to establish two-way communications with a site so that offenders can be warned that they are being filmed, and that police arrival is imminent.

With so many advances on the horizon, I asked Joe what he feels the next big trends will be in control room and monitoring technology. He feels that the implementation of artificial intelligence will provide all sorts of breakthroughs. Add to this the potential things like drones and robots to provide mobile platforms for remotely monitored cameras, so that control room operators are no longer bound by fixed cameras, and the possibilities are endless.

With monitoring and control products transforming, now is the time to showcase your products and find new suppliers. To find out more about exhibiting at Security Exhibition & Conference, get in touch with a member of our team here.