*This article was published on Globest.com by Paul Bergeron on February 6, 2023
Drag-and-drop software means the security team doesn’t have to stare at 16 cameras round-the-clock.
Video security monitoring in commercial real estate buildings has taken a big innovative step forward lately with advanced cameras combined with artificial intelligence that cut operational costs and increase accuracy.
About 98% of all security video goes unwatched, according to Matt Tyler, VP of strategic innovation and business development at security solutions provider Wachter.
“It’s simply too hard for humans to watch 16 cameras at once, for example, for more than two hours without losing their attention spans and rendering that process less than helpful,” he tells GlobeSt.com.
“Today’s cameras, when programmed properly, can do things such as people-counting in spaces and measure dwell time and direction of movement. They can analyze it so commercial real estate space can better manage their buildings for things such as space planning, climate control, energy savings, noise, and security.”
Tyler said using a product such as Scenera, which sets up multiple cameras in strategic locations throughout an asset, allows property owners to reduce their human security workforce and deploy those workers in different ways, such as walking the property and interacting with persons in the building rather than simply staring all the time at video monitors,” he said.
Tenants or patrons prefer to have at least some humans at the property because that alone gives them more feelings of safety and security, according to Tyler.
Drag-and-Drop Customized Monitoring
Tyler can rely on a drag-and-drop system where his clients can determine what can be seen, where and by whom. His platform also allows for third-party data sources such as weather conditions, which improves the data analytics it can provide, he said.
“In the past 10 years, many have found video data analytics’ accuracy to be inadequate,” Tyler said. “When incorporating AI into the mix, accuracy levels are through the roof.
Tyler said data generated by this platform can help landlords reset their rents (higher) to earn more revenue from tenants, offering them a more efficient way.
“Video can detect things such as leaking pipes, liquid spills, and cleanliness – which all improve operations,” Tyler said. “It can detect things such as people smoking or vaping in areas where that are off limits.”
Used in apartment community pools, it can detect if kids or others have breached the fence line during off hours.
The platform also tracks audio. Wachter provides audio analytics that can determine aggressive voices as an alert to employee conflicts, Tyler said.
When something is detected that is out of tolerance, Scenera can be programmed so that the proper, assigned people at the company are alerted about given things, Tyler said. And the property can set alerts so that the authorities (police, fire) are notified as necessary.
Relying on an automated, AI-driven system helped Wachter to cut down on its training costs because this new system, which it has used for the past three months, reduces complexity.
“We employ 2,000 technicians and teaching them all a variety of technologies and platforms that are needed for our installs is a burden,” he said.
More Innovation on the Way
Jack Watkinson, COO of Protos Security and former executive director of JLL, tells GlobeSt.com that more innovation is on the way through Scenera’s global partners, which include LG Electronics and Docomo in Asia markets; and its collaboration with Microsoft aligns with Azure for operations so that 5G operators such as AT&T and Verizon can offer smart building services to their enterprise clients.
Watkinson said that Scenera’s platform as a service (PaaS) on 5G MEC (multi-edge computing) services for Verizon are being tested in its facilities and the SATM solution enables tenants like them to combine 5G IoT data and AI event detection data for intelligent building solution management.
“Many in the video analytics industry are still in a lull, believing that this technology is less than adequate and so the ROI just isn’t there,” Tyler said. “They need to understand that products being developed today are ahead of the game.”
