To stay at the forefront of innovation, you must constantly seek out new and exciting developments. It’s great to know we don’t have to look far, with our partners pushing right past the ‘acceptable’ to firmly grasp the exceptional!
The Verifier Marketing team got wind of some amazing developments at Spectrum Communications, so we knew we needed a visit to their demo centre. Provision-ISR, a brand distributed by Spectrum Communications, is one of the world’s fastest-growing CCTV brands, whose core values are a passion for security, transparency, and facilitating accessibility to security technology. We met up with Renato from Spectrum, who gave us the inside scoop of some fantastic developments.
Cameras:
Provision-ISR is one of a conglomeration of security technology providers we had the opportunity to see at Spectrum Communications’ demo centre. Alongside Provision-ISR were alarm systems by Paradox, as well as access control systems from Commax (ranging from classic “doorbell-to-phone/gate-lock-buzzer” intercoms, through to touch screen systems with high-definition doorbell cameras that integrate with a mobile app!). But we were there to see what Spectrum Communications’ software and cameras were all about.
There were a wide variety of CCTV cameras, with slick designs expected from a world-class provider. One such camera that caught our eye was a version of Provision’s Hybrid 40m IR And White LED Bullet Camera known as one of the “rainbow” camera series. This Hybrid camera detects in infrared by default, then as soon as it detects a human (based on A.I.) it automatically switches to white light for high-definition recording. With multiple colour lighting systems built in, as well as a (glaringly bright) spotlight, there’s no confusion that if those lights shine on you, you’re being monitored! Along with the built-in lighting, the Hybrid camera comes fully equipped with siren/ customisable pre-set audio challenge/ VOIP (voice over internet protocol) audio challenge capabilities. When the audio-challenge was demonstrated, we were glad the volume level was set to 20%, how that little unit packs that much punch is beyond us!
The cherry on top was the capability to automatically arm cameras in conjunction with an associated alarm input. Provision-ISR is one of the few brands that offer a “combined alerts” option under video analytics. The cameras can be configured for e.g. line crossing, and be joined to an alarm trigger. So when the alarm is armed, the sensor is automatically set to high sensitivity. If the line is crossed and the alarm is triggered, a push notification can be set to send a notification to either a control room or the customer’s cell phone.
Software:
The Provision-ISR Ossia VMS platform immediately drew us in. With a sleek dashboard (with undeniably thought-out user experience design) customisable based on your needs, a clean interface and intuitive navigation, the platform certainly made a great first impression. Within minutes of walking us through the software, our eyes were wide…
Intuitive integration, facial recognition and LPR capabilities, thermal recognition, and A.I driven Video Analytics… all bundled up into one platform. And besides what we expected, there were a few surprises up their sleeves.
Their Artificial Intelligence capabilities extend beyond basic CCTV monitoring uses. One such feature was their “Face Greeting” A.I powered facial recognition concierge service, where a pre-loaded facial recognition database could be used to welcome a guest automatically when detected entering the reception. This could be used either to inform the reception staff about who the guest is, or to welcome the guest directly via audio. Their facial recognition A.I can also detect useful triggers such as masks, sunglasses, hats etc. for early warning purposes or tracking and tracing.
“DDA Video Analytics” is one of the Artificial Intelligence features demo’d by Spectrum Communications we were able to see in action. The software utilises “sterile area” (an area in the scene and specify access permissions) and “line crossing” (a line drawn in the scene with designated crossing directions and permissions) for increased accuracy and reduced false alarms. The platform also features object tracking, object detection, crowd gathering, and a wide range of detection categories. The object counting feature where you can search for the frequency of a number of inputs in each timeframe (such as the number of people, vehicles, etc.) can be used for access control through to business intelligence.
The search function was efficient and user-friendly with the alert inputs stacked and time-stamped, and correlated to colour-coded categories, making it easy to retrospectively navigate through an incident to pinpoint the instances of the trigger type (person, vehicle, two-wheeled vehicle, etc.) you’re looking for. Additionally, their Automated Number Plate Recognition/ License Plate Recognition (ANPR/LPR) detection software automatically records the vehicle make and model, with the option of automatically censoring the license plate number for effective POPIA compliance, or integration with Cloud-based LPR databases.
We’d like to thank Renato and the Spectrum Communications team for taking the time to demonstrate their technology. Spectrum Communications clearly demonstrated that it’s possible to have systems and devices that perform exceptionally well on the back end while looking good and interacting seamlessly on the front end/user’s side as well!