A Security Guard or A Remotely Monitored CCTV System?
A number of innovative cctv security solutions have sprung up as alternatives to the legacy professional manned security guarding services within the security industry across the globe.
Many individuals, communities and businesses now have the choice to opt for advanced remotely monitored video surveillance or cctv systems to protect their homes and assets at a fraction of the cost of the traditional manned guarding solutions.
The decision therefore to go along with video surveillance systems or to stick with the manned services now depends on how effective one will be over the other in securing and pro-actively preventing crimes or intrusions before they happen.
A mainstream shift in the video surveillance technology from analogue to IP has since seen a remarkable improvement.
Many contractors within the construction industry in the recent years have also opted for the much cheaper video surveillance systems in a bid to reduce overheads and still have some security measures in place to protect their sites out of normal working hours.
These cctv systems however proved to be unreliable at the beginning of the revolution due to their inability to accurately detect and prevent genuine site intrusions. The systems also faced an uphill battle to eliminate false alarms from moving objects like leaves and animals.
As a result, a number of contractors began to lose their confidence in the systems as most reverted back to traditional manned services alongside the cctv systems while others eliminated the idea of cctv completely especially where the stakes were high.
A mainstream shift in the video surveillance technology from analogue to IP has since seen a remarkable improvement in the functionality of most cameras where a variety of high-end intrusion detection and crime prevention features have been bolted on to them.
These cameras also have deep learning mechanisms which allow them to identify humans and vehicles as genuine alarms while discarding other movements like wind-driven leaves and foxes as false alarms to help improve the productivity of monitoring centres.
Even after all of that, the question still remains as to whether cctv or video surveillance technology systems are a worthwhile alternative to manned guarding services, and the answer will probably be around what you intend to secure and how long for.
In our experience over the last few years as remotely monitored cctv or video surveillance solutions providers, we have seen that a typical construction project may require one or both of these services at any one point in time during an entire project’s lifecycle.
Video surveillance systems that have been installed to industry standard will not only tick the insurance requirement box but will also proactively protect your site from the stray public, petty thieves and trespassing children who could potentially be injured while on site.
It is highly likely that the cctv system will detect and identify an intruder up to 50 metres away even in the night as they cross a virtually marked perimeter along the hoarding into the site at which point an audio challenge is issued from the monitoring platform to warn the trespassers off.
The virtual guards also have the ability to pretty much engage the local authorities or alarm response units to attend to persistent intruders within minutes if the warnings fall on hard ground which makes the system more interactive and proactive in preventing potential crimes.
we have a fully manned control room or remote monitoring centre which works on a shift basis and supports all our video surveillance and intrusion detection services 24 hours a day 7 days a week
At Optiwatch, we usually install at least one PTZ camera where necessary to not only track and trace intruders within the site but to also monitor vulnerable areas or targeted assets like toolbox containers, cranes, diesel tanks and site offices for added peace of mind.
We place as many cameras as possible in and around the site especially along the perimeter in a sequential order to eliminate any blind spots that an intruder can use to get into site undetected, giving us a broader coverage of the whole site at any point in time than a single security guard.
We have a fully manned control room or remote monitoring centre which works on a shift basis and supports all our video surveillance and intrusion detection services 24 hours a day 7 days a week, so no alarms go unattended at any point in time of the day or night.
We do advise however to place a temporary guard on site during critical periods in a project’s lifecycle like snowy winter shutdown periods where the visibility of cameras and response times of local authorities could be delayed or hampered by adverse weather conditions.
A well designed and deployed video surveillance system is therefore not only cheaper to run but much better to implement given the risks that may be involved in challenging aggressive or heavy-handed intruders that could cause bodily harm to the security guard.