After nearly a year of dealing with COVID-19, it’s no overstatement to say that the pandemic has hurt several businesses. Forced business closures, customers spending less, and the prohibitive cost of operating with the appropriate measures in place are decimating businesses across the world. As businesses across the nation lose millions of dollars to stay open, Yelp claims that nearly 100,000 small businesses throughout the US have closed permanently as a result of the pandemic.

COVID-19 is also making businesses rethink what it means to keep their employees and customers safe. Beyond regular security, businesses are now on the hook for assuring that their workforce and customers are protected from COVID-19. To stay on top of this challenge, businesses will need inventive solutions to keep their businesses running while concurrently prioritizing the protection of their employees and customers.

A New Type of Security: Surveillance Analytics

From schools to businesses, organizations everywhere are showing that they can readjust to the current conditions with the right tools. Motorola’s Video Security & Analytics team realized early on that Avigilon security solutions had an important role to play in setting up organizations to be successful. Avigilon critically assessed their current solutions and modified them to answer today’s pandemic response needs.

These solutions help businesses address multiple security needs that resulted from this pandemic. Here’s how surveillance analytics can help your business.

Counting Numbers

For years, retailers have been counting the number of people in their stores. For a few reasons: adjusting staff schedules, predicting revenue trends, and calculating growth. Now, keeping tabs on how many people are in your business is a necessary part of managing the implications of the pandemic. With Avigilon’s occupancy counting technology, existing security cameras and surveillance analytics software can be used to create a distinct, accurate picture of a business’s occupancy.

The Key to Social Distancing 

Until the pandemic, you likely never had to estimate the distance between you and other people. But, being aware of your space and checking if you’re six feet away from other people is a crucial part of keeping people safe. But since we’re not used to it, it’s a huge reason why social distancing is such a difficult policy to keep. When AI-powered analytics is integrated with your video security system, the surveillance analytics provides you access to assess the distance between people as well as the ability to analyze traffic patterns within your business. Information like this can go a long way in empowering your security teams to make knowledgeable judgments when they set up social distancing guidelines throughout your business.

Contact Tracing Through Surveillance Analytics

Having a COVID-19 case traced to your business or school could shut down your facility for an extended period. A positive case also endangers your employees and while simultaneously hurting your bottom line. With Avigilon technology in place, your business can significantly decrease the risk or downtime your business might experience. With Avigilon’s AI-enabled surveillance analytics you can help provide prompt insight into where a person who has tested positive has been within your business, and who they were in contact with. Decreasing the time it takes to analyze this information saves your money time, money, and potentially lives.

Rising to the difficulties posed by the pandemic is tough for all of us, but this technology can help you and your business. For more information on how AI and advanced surveillance analytics can give your business certainty and confidence during uncertain times give us a call or send us a message.

Protecting Essential Workers

Essential workers are risking COVID-19 infection every day. And the stress of a pandemic is changing the way the public deals with essential workers. With increasing reports of aggression and violence against essential workers and the risk of contamination, employers must care for their employees. They have to ensure the safety of their essential workers who are keeping communities functioning.

How Body-worn Cameras Help

A body-worn camera is a small, unobtrusive device specifically designed for commercial businesses to deter public aggression towards workers. In addition to recording interactions, the cameras provide an added sense of security to those wearing them.

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, verbal and physical abuse, including deliberate coughing and spitting on frontline workers, has been documented within stores from Missouri and Massachusetts to the United Kingdom. Many leading fast-casual restaurants are issuing body-worn cameras to the staff assigned to enforcing social distancing rules within their store.

During such incidents, the employee can verbally notify the aggressor of the fact they are wearing a body-worn camera, which often de-escalates the situation immediately. However, in cases where the abuse continues, the body-worn camera is activated by the employee simply with the click of a button.

This click initiates recording and when a body-worn camera is used in combination with the employer’s existing surveillance system, it can prompt an alarm and live video stream to the control room. This alarm then alerts security staff to the incident and allows urgent evaluation of the situation. The benefit of this integration is that body-worn camera footage is available alongside CCTV, giving an overall view of the incident as it unfolds. Should the need arise, the body-worn camera footage can be shared with law enforcement officials to assist in an investigation. This reduces the amount of time required to convict an offender and can reduce the emotional impact on the victim by alleviating the need to appear in court.

The installation of a body-worn camera system is cost-effective and simple. It is easily suited to any company’s IT infrastructure and network. And the cameras are intuitive to use, requiring minimal operational training for employees.

During periods of uncertainty, protecting essential workers and equipping them with the tools to do their job safely and without fear is critical. By leveraging Avigilon’s body-worn camera technology, companies can guarantee their employees are ready to protect themselves.

5 Interesting Things You Didn’t Know About Security Cameras

The world of security cameras remains a mystery to many people. But with a growing market share, expected to reach $145 billion by 2027, we doubt it will remain a mystery in the future. We have compiled 5 interesting facts that we think are important for consumers to know about this growing industry.

We Like to Watch Rockets

Surprisingly, the first surveillance cameras have not used the way the majority of security cameras are used today. The first camera was used to watch rocket launches. That’s right, to watch rockets! That seems like a sweet gig if you ask me. I am sure most shopping mall loss prevention teams would rather watch rockets being launched than people shopping at a retail store. I know I would. Since the United States just launched astronauts into space for the first time in 10 years, this fact is slightly more important today than it did even a month ago. As an office, we gathered around to watch the initial rocket launch (which was postponed for bad weather) on YouTube. And all that was possible thanks to the very first cameras used to watch rocket launches way back in Germany in 1942.

Better Picture, Better Quality

In 1996, Axis Communications launched the first IP or Internet Protocol surveillance camera. Why is this important? IP surveillance cameras changed security systems significantly. Suddenly businesses were able to get significantly better image quality, view more area with fewer cameras, and view cameras remotely.

With IP video surveillance, the image is sent over the internet. This allowed for more data (bigger, better images) to be recorded and sent to viewing stations. Since it was over the internet, these viewing stations could be halfway across the world or in the next room over. The switch to IP surveillance allowed the integration of computer software to analyze images and alert camera owners for suspicious movement, or grant employees access to the building based on facial recognition. The switch to Ip cameras is beneficial for so many reasons.

The Kingdom of Surveillance

Did you know that the United Kingdom uses roughly 25% of all surveillance cameras? That is millions of cameras for both private business and government entities. The vast majority of cameras are owned and operated by private businesses. The United Kingdom uses all of these cameras to monitor potential crime and terrorism and to keep the public safe. So, if you ever travel to the UK, it is more likely than not you are on camera every time you are in a public space. It is likely that at any moment while in London, you are on at least 3 different cameras at any given moment. It’s also estimated that inside the city of London, there is one camera for every 14 people. Now that’s a lot of cameras!

300 Times Per Day

Is there anything that you can do 300 times a day? Aside from breathing and, well, being on camera. That’s right. It’s estimated that the average American is on camera nearly 300 times a day. Some estimates go as low as 70 times a day but the New York Times released an article here, estimating that number to be 300 times a day. And when you take a second to think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Any time you drive, shop at a store, walk the halls of a school, you are on camera. Multiple cameras at a time even and that adds up quick. Next time this fact pops into your mind, take a second to look up, smile, and wave!

What Would We Do Without DVR?

Do you remember when DVR was introduced? It changed the way TV was watched forever. Before that, we had to program our VCR with our tapes in tow and hope we got everything connected the right way. Is it just me, or did it never seem to work? Even though there were significant issues with the VCR we need to appreciate it for what it was in the realm of technological advancements. The first videotape recorder or VTR was created in 1951, with poor quality. Since that moment they’ve gotten smaller, better, cheaper, and more effective. Today we have digital video recorders that can save almost 200 TB of data. That is nearly 60,000 VHS videotapes worth of footage!

The surveillance industry is growing and changing almost every day. It’s hard to stay up to date on trends and growth. Which is why I think it’s important to understand the past. Understand where surveillance and security cameras have been. It’s incredibly fascinating to see the incredible growth in such a short amount of time.