The expanding roles of video in commercial building security

Security for commercial buildings has always been a tough challenge for operators who deal with people with different roles, like employees, visitors and contractors, on a continuous basis. Traditionally managing these identities has been the job of access control systems, but more and more video plays a more important role in this regard, too.

That was the message brought out by Samantha Hu, territory sales account manager for IP surveillance at ACTi. She made the remarks during a recent webinar.

According to her, effective security in a commercial building begins at the outer perimeters, where electric fences can be drawn to inform security of people seeking to enter critical or sensitive areas. Automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) combined with the parking system can also play a role. For example, vehicles that are suspicious or blacklisted by law enforcement authorities will be stopped right at the gate. Those that are authorized to enter will be cleared to do so.

In the front entrance and lobby area, facial recognition can be used to identify staff or contractors who are authorized to enter. Any strangers or suspicious figures will be stopped or cause the system to send an alarm. For visitor management, visitors usually need to sign in, or in a more advanced system get a QR code on their smart device that they can scan at the lobby kiosk. With video, their image will be captured and shown to the person they are visiting. Then they are all set to go.

Another area where video can help is to detect piggybacking or tailgating. “With people counting analytics, forced or unauthorized entries can be detected and notified to security personnel,” Hu said.

According to Hu, ACTi solutions have been deployed in commercial properties around the world, including the Taipei headquarters of a prestigious cosmetics brand.