UVS integrates Lucidity video wall manager with Synectics’ Synergy Command and Control platform

Video wall technology expert Ultimate Visual Solutions (UVS) has announced that its UVS Lucidity video wall controller now integrates with Synectics’ Synergy Command and Control software platform.

The move is part of an ongoing strategic partnership which dates back more than 14 years, with the integrated Lucidity-Synergy solution now being installed across multiple client sites, subsequently helping to protect people and assets across the UK.

Synectics specialises in the design, integration, control and management of advanced surveillance technology for those myriad environments where security is operationally critical.

The Synergy Command and Control solution is highly flexible and user-friendly, helping to ensure customers can always access the information that counts. Mission-critical data is made manageable, meaningful and actionable.

Inaugural project

Based in the ‘Burnley First’ Burnley Business Centre, UVS provides video wall displays and audio visual solutions for a range of clients across the UK and the rest of the world. The company is led by four senior colleagues who, between them, have more than 70 years’ combined audio visual, Control Room and visual solutions experience.

The companies’ first project together using Synectics’ Synergy Command and Control platform was for Wakefield Metropolitan Borough Council’s Urban Traffic and CCTV Control Room back in 2007. Since then, the UVS-Synectics partnership has been involved in multiple security Control Room installations across the UK, including high-security prisons, Government facilities, local council security and Shopping Centre security monitoring applications (the latter including Manchester’s ever-popular Trafford Centre). These installations have provided hundreds of thousands of hours of protection for millions of people and multiple assets.

Large-scale viewing

UVS managing director Steve Murphy said: “The integration brings the significant display functionality benefits of the Lucidity video wall solution to Synergy users, including the display of multiple data sources such as web browsers, remote workstations, message boxes, RSS feeds and collaboration devices alongside traditional CCTV images. Any data source can be displayed anywhere on the video wall, thereby allowing large-scale viewing of data sources during specific incidents.”

Murphy went on to comment: “Via the integration, Synergy also provides detailed alarm configuration to ensure that relevant data is displayed automatically when specific events occur.” 

The most recent Lucidity-Synergy installation includes multiple video walls and provides multiple collaboration device inputs, allowing data from mobile devices such as iPads, phones and tablets to be instantly displayed on the video walls wirelessly via the integration. 

Sree Namelil, product manager at Synectics, concluded: “Synergy is designed to make sure Control Room operatives always have the information they need when and how they need it. Its ability to integrate with leading third party technologies is essential to this mission. We’re delighted to have partnered with UVS on this latest development.”

*For further information on UVS go to www.ultimatevs.co.uk

Synectics to highlight value of ethical surveillance tools at Global MSC Security Conference 2019

This year’s Global MSC Security Conference and Exhibition, which runs at The Bristol Hotel in Bristol on 11-12 November, will see Synectics explain how advanced technologies and evolving features can support those practitioners tasked with ensuring that public surveillance is undertaken legally and ethically.  

Over 150 delegates from the fields of security, law enforcement, Government and academia are due to attend the two-day event, which will focus on the ethical challenges presented by the growing use of CCTV, ANPR, drones, facial recognition and Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the public realm. Risk Xtra is the Official Media Partner.

Speakers include Tony Porter, the UK’s Surveillance Camera Commissioner, who’ll be joined by senior representatives from police forces, Fire and Rescue Services and other organisations focused on public safety, crime prevention and national security.

‘Building Ethical Capacity into Surveillance Technology’

Synectics’ Martin Bonfield joins the event line-up. His detailed seminar will highlight how public concerns regarding surveillance ‒ especially those around the use of emerging technologies such as facial recognition and AI ‒ are shown to be greatly reduced if robust and demonstrable safeguards are in operation.

Those attending the session will gain a clear understanding of the tools available to help ensure that any public surveillance data can be captured, managed and shared in accordance with existing and evolving demands. 

The session will look specifically at solutions designed to support users in four key areas: the use of facial recognition, regulatory compliance (with, for example, the General Data Protection Regulation), data protection (cyber security) and evidence management.

Under the spotlight

To showcase emerging capabilities, Synectics will be demonstrating how its Synergy 3 Command and Control platform supports a wide range of safeguarding and compliance mechanisms, including comprehensive digital audit trails, automated workflows aligned to standard operating procedures and time-limited data storage.

The role played by highly secure, cloud-based evidence lockers ‒ which support secure, real-time authorised access to data ‒ will also be discussed, specifically in the context of inter-agency data-sharing.

Martin Bonfield

Bonfield informed Risk Xtra: “Synectics has been at the forefront of global surveillance solutions for over 30 years. We work closely with customers to tackle the complex issue of ethics surrounding CCTV use, data capture and monitoring, as well as the robust management of digital evidence. I’m looking forward to showing delegates examples of the smart technology available to ensure surveillance operations are effective, secure and compliant with legal and ethical frameworks – today, and years from now.”

As a premium sponsor, Synectics (exhibiting on Stand 15) will be showcasing its leading-edge technologies. Live demonstrations will run throughout the event to demonstrate how the tools explored in the seminar can be applied within a range of practical evidence management and incident response scenarios.

Security industry specialists to demonstrate expertise at Axis Communications’ Partner Showcase event in London

Axis Communications’ upcoming Partner Showcase biennial will welcome delegates from across the security industry and highlight the very latest advances in physical security technology. The event is to be held on Wednesday 16 October at White Hart Lane, the home of Tottenham Hotspur FC.

Axis Communications will host 27 partners who’ll be providing product demonstrations, engage in seminars and offer Q&A sessions on key topics ranging from cyber security, Artificial Intelligence (AI)/machine learning, behavioural analytics and detection right through to cloud/hosted services such as Video Surveillance-as-a-Service (VSaaS) and Access Control-as-a-Service (ACaaS).

The much-anticipated Axis Communications Partner Showcase represents an informal opportunity for system integrators, security installers, distributors, security consultants and end users to learn more about the future trends that are shaping the industry. Joining the Axis Communications team of experts will be subject matter specialists from every field across many industries who will explain the technology and, as valued Axis partners, deliver integrated solutions that address the key security challenges of today.

Content highlights to be delivered on the day will include:

*Future technology trends and their impact on video surveillance and access control

*How Internet of Things technologies are integrating in the cloud and the benefits they offer

*How ‘as-a-Service’ solutions (eg VSaaS and ACaaS) are changing the way in which end users buy security

*The importance of leveraging partnerships to address industry-wide challenges

*How innovation in network video is helping to drive business performance

*Analytics: AI, machine learning, deep learning and their impact on today’s industry

Delegates will benefit from an invaluable experience to learn more about the physical security landscape, while also networking with security industry peers. The Axis Communications Partner Showcase event provides an opportunity to engage in discussions around the hot topics with learnings that can be taken away and implemented to improve efficiencies delivered through greater business intelligence.

Registered exhibitors include 2N, Briefcam, Camstreamer, Citilog, Dedrone GmbH, Facit Data Systems, Genetec,  Milestone Systems, Morphean, Observit, Quanika, Secure Logiq, Siemon, Siklu Communication, SimonsVoss, Sound Intelligence, Synectics, Total Security Stockholm AB, Vaxtor Recognition Technologies and Veracity UK.

*To register for the event visit the website

ONVIF makes plans to highlight member companies at IFSEC International 2019

ONVIF, the global standardisation initiative for IP-based physical security products, will be exhibiting at IFSEC International 2019. The show runs at ExCeL in London from 18-20 June. The organisation will be joined by 40-plus ONVIF member companies.

As part of its presence at the exhibition, ONVIF will host the ONVIF Lounge on Stand IF2524, which provides charging stations for attendee use throughout the show. Representatives from ONVIF and various member companies will be present at the booth throughout the event to answer questions about ONVIF and provide insight on how they use the ONVIF standards for their businesses. Participating companies will include Hikvision, Costain, Synectics and TDSi.

“We’re happy to be exhibiting at IFSEC again this year, giving those who are unfamiliar with ONVIF the opportunity to learn more,” said Per Björkdahl, chair of the ONVIF Steering Committee. “ONVIF provides valuable tools that can make things easier for practising security professionals and their host organisations. We hope that, by having member companies present on Stand IF2524, attendees gain the inside track on what it means to be an ONVIF member.”

IFSEC International is Europe’s largest dedicated security exhibition, with more than 27,000 security professionals expected to attend this year’s event.

Founded in 2008, ONVIF has a global base of established member companies whi produce cameras, video management systems and access control solutions, in trun realising more than 12,000 Profile-conformant products.

ONVIF offers Profile S for basic streaming video, Profile G for edge storage and retrieval, Profile C for door control and event management, Profile Q for quick installation, Profile A for access control configuration and Profile T for advanced video streaming.

ONVIF continues to work with its members to expand the number of IP interoperability solutions that ONVIF-conformant products can provide.

*Further information about ONVIF-conformant products is available on the ONVIF website at www.onvif.org

icomply partners with TIS in security upgrade project for Boots UK

icomply has recently partnered with TIS – one of the UK’s leading independent fire, security and communications specialists – in a project designed to overhaul the security systems operated by Boots UK.

The Security Control Room at Boots UK required an update, with many of the current analogue hardware deemed unfit for purpose and data gathering sometimes proving to be a difficult process.

The proposed solution consisted of upgrading 22 CRT monitors within the Control Room to just 8 LCD flat screens which would serve as a versatile and responsive display area for the network of cameras. Not only would this free up space in the Control Room, in turn making organisation and data collection a whole lot easier, but it also meant that more areas could be surveyed at any given time while the detail captured would be clearer and easier to record.

From icomply’s perspective, there was much work to do in what was a relatively short space of time. Centralised server software had to be installed in order to enable connectivity between the IP CCTV, IDS, intercom and access control systems while the central operator control system demanded involvement from a more general perspective.

Boots UK’s Control Room

As stated, one of the biggest challenges was integrating the platform with varying equipment and different manufacturers’ devices. These included the Synectics matrix integration, PC232 integration and HIK and NVR integration.

Completely overhauled security regime

The end result is a completely overhauled system. The single front-end graphical user interface can be used effectively not only to gather and record data but also to review that information.

What Boots now has in its UK Control Room is a GUI with easier navigation and mapping which also unifies all technology in one intuitive space, in turn saving on desk space and making sure that Boots is absolutely ready for the next generation of security technology when it emerges without having to compromise in the short term.

Speaking about the project, Nick Hollins of TIS told Risk UK: “Boots UK is one of my key accounts, and when TIS was asked to look at upgrading the CCTV Control Room it was imperative that the solution I proposed was not only fit for purpose but also offered a significant improvement on the existing CCTV system. Of course, we also had to be mindful of the budget.”

Hollins added: “The assistance received from icomply all the way through this project was exceptional. Business development director Michael Gallagher was always was on hand to offer a technical solution and provide a quotation that was within budget and both the installation and post-installation support was of the very highest standards. This project was delivered on time, within budget and met our end user customers’ high standards and expectations. This was down to the teamwork and professionalism of both TIS and icomply.”