Active deterrence for remote monitoring sites - Axis Communications - Canadian Energy News, Top Headlines, Commentaries, Features & Events

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Intrusion, interruption, injury. These are the three main threats to productivity, profitability, and employee welfare across your site. Smart critical infrastructure solutions can help you to address all three comprehensively and cost-effectively, with a single integrated system.

Active deterrence for remote monitoring sites through network audio can be perceived as a costly enterprise for some as remote locations can often have limited resources to respond to incidents or situations. Some of these situations could be vandalism, theft, property damage, natural disasters, accidents or malfunctions or cyber vulnerabilities. As situations arise, so do the risks of unwanted behaviour – how are we able to mitigate risk without being physically present to address these concerns? Let’s consider the following scenarios using network audio.

Scenario 1: Potential for vandal, theft or damage to the property

Detection of a potential malicious attack ahead of time provides a proactive approach to security. When using IP video and edge video analytics, it’s possible to trigger events that match a specific condition such as loitering, trip-line detection, person/vehicle detection and then send a notification back to a central location for awareness and further action. The trigger can also send a command to a local IP speaker to automatically play a message to warn a person of a security protocol in place, or it can be sent to a central monitoring station where the guard on site can relay their own message addressing the person or identifying a detail of the scene. This message can be customized based on the situation for example, “You, wearing the grey hoodie and blue sneakers, please be advised that vandalism is illegal, and you will be reported to authorities.” The culprit in that scenario will realize they are being monitored and be deterred from continuing their unwanted behaviour.

Scenario 2: Natural disaster

Business continuation is a critical component in remote sites and natural disasters can cause major service disruption. Moreover, keeping on-site staff safe and informed is of paramount importance. Audio can be used not only to prevent security incidents as mentioned earlier, but also to communicate important messages on site by using the same infrastructure. With an open infrastructure, it is possible to integrate signals or sensors to have a more comprehensive solution. For instance, a central station is monitoring severe storms, for example a tornado, in a geographic location. If the situation escalates, the monitoring station can broadcast a message only targeting the location/s affected by this incident and providing specific instructions to get to safety.

Scenario 3: On-site accident

A sudden change in the installed infrastructure could be the result of a malfunction and could potentially lead into an accident. IP cameras are a tool to monitor activity inside or outside the perimeter. Moreover, IP cameras can sense changes in temperature (i.e. thermal) or with the integration of video analytics detect smoke. Moreover, microphones can be used to pick audio signals in the environment where an increase in the sound level could be translated into malfunctioning or faulty equipment.

We have outlined a few scenarios here but there is an array of network audio and remote monitoring technologies to address your unique business operations and needs. Axis Communications can work with closely with you to better understand your business, challenges and operational objectives. For more information feel free to check out our audio solution offerings here or reach out to Obaid Hafiz.