FEATURE: PHYSICAL SECURITY, POWERED BY GENETEC ///////////////////////////////////////////////////
to learn. Support and maintenance are also
more efficient, with one point of contact
to find the root cause of issues and ensure
compatibility between versions.
In this article, we emphasise the benefits of
unified physical security systems and why
they are better than integrated solutions.
Unified security solutions are
more efficient, flexible and
offer much more than security
Physical security is – or should be – at the
core of any business operation. In order to
focus on production, sales and ultimately
success, organisations have to provide a safe
and secure environment for employees and
visitors. Video surveillance, access control,
intrusion detection, communications, licence
plate recognition and analytics are all key
components of a modern security solution.
When they work together properly in a
unified way, they can not only secure a
business but yield actionable business
intelligence that can be leveraged and
combined with operational data to help
improve efficiency. When selecting a
security product to protect a business, you
are not only investing in a system that
works now but a solution that will be able
to change with the needs of your business
moving forward.
Your physical security
solution should be unified
and not just integrated
While the security industry (like the rest
of the software industry) has worked to
develop a variety of methods to bring
separate physical security solutions
together via integration, the result remains
a set of disparate systems with limited
communication and interoperability among
them. Integrating separate security functions
like access control and video surveillance
using software development kits (SDK) or
application programming interface (API)
A UNIFIED PHYSICAL SECURITY
PLATFORM IS A COMPREHENSIVE
SOFTWARE SOLUTION THAT MANAGES
THE DIFFERENT COMPONENTS OF A
SECURITY ENVIRONMENT.
programming only is limited and can be a
costly approach.
Unification, however, takes stand-alone
components of a security solution beyond
just being loosely or superficially connected
via an SDK or API. A unified physical security
platform is a comprehensive software
solution that manages the different
components of a security environment
through a centralised open-architecture built
to provide complete access to all data.
A unified platform goes above and beyond
tagging or bookmarking video when an
access control event occurs or offering the
capability to unlock an access-controlled
door from within the video surveillance user
interface. It’s a platform that combines
information from all available sensors to
provide greater awareness to operators. This
not only means showing video feeds when
alerts are triggered by the access control
system, but also being able to see data from
all related sensors in a single click, from
anywhere in the system.
A unified solution is developed from square
one to not only work together but to
purposefully intertwine functionality to offer
a powerful user experience that includes
built-in reporting and alarm management
functionalities. With unification, it’s
possible to configure and manage video
cameras, access-controlled doors, print
badges, monitor intrusion panels and have
everything at the security person’s disposal
52 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com