Timelesss technologies
How to achieve effective outdoor
perimeter security & surveillance
S
afeguarding outdoor assets, whether
commercial sites or residential estates
often comes down to the same thing: Accurate
detection and timely information about
the unfolding event. While there are many
technologies for outdoor security, combining
reliable alerts with knowledge about what is
actually happening and where it is happening
has been hard to achieve.
For outdoor security applications, a common
goal is to detect intrusions with low nuisance
alarms in widely varying environments, often
over large areas that are difficult to patrol. For
these reasons, automated systems are typically
combined with manpower. Smart systems never
tire, can cover large areas, and “see” what the
human eye would miss, while people – when
provided with accurate alerts – can respond.
appropriately.
Detection Accuracy is the Key to
Outdoor Security
But to work well, such an arrangement has to
start on a foundation of accurately detecting
people violating securing policies. When
alerts are unreliable, there is no accountability
– a responder doesn’t know which of an
overwhelming number of alerts are the ones
needing attention. Historically, the common
approach for securing large outdoor areas has
been to use a “blind” sensor, such as coax or
fibre on the fence, acting as an activity detector,
supported by a camera to help determine the
cause of the alert. The drawback is that these
sensors can generate so many nuisance
alerts caused by the outdoors that reliability
is diminished. At the same time, costs for
deploying and maintaining two separate
systems – a sensor and a video system – will
quickly escalate.
This is why using smart video on the perimeter
has been gaining appeal. Video offers a key
functional advantage over “blind” sensors
because it combines detection and visual
verification into a single system. Video has
already been established as an effective
forensic tool for analyzing what happened after
an event. Now video has been established as
a top choice for detecting outdoor intrusions as
well.
Thermal Cameras Solve Many Outdoor
Security Challenges
The most common challenge for video over
wide areas has been an inability accurately
detect outdoors, where changes in lighting,
wind, reflections, and weather can create
a lot of nuisance alerts. There’s been great
disappointment among customers in cases
where video analytics have been deployed for
perimeter security without addressing these
issues. Thermal video security systems are
built specifically for these outdoor difficulties. A
thermal camera offers a number of advantages
over visible cameras for outdoors: They detect
in complete darkness or bright sun, ignore
reflections off water or stray lights from passing
cars, and represent a reliable, all weather 24/7
solution. In the past, the higher price for thermal
technology limited their use in commercial
applications, but as costs continue to fall, many
organizations are now able to choose thermal
cameras for their outdoor security needs.
As an example, achieving security awareness
around maritime ports was once considered
difficult to achieve using traditional perimeter
security solutions. Ports cover large geographic
areas that include vast and varied perimeters,
while lighting is often poor or unavailable along
extensive port perimeters due to cost and lack
of infrastructure. Smart thermal cameras with
video analyti