Facit Data Systems - Experts & Thought Leaders

Facit Data Systems is delighted to announce that it is working in partnership with Avigilon. Avigilon is a Motorola Solutions company that provides trusted security solutions to the global market. Avigilon manufactures video analytics, network video management systems, surveillance cameras and access control solutions. Avigilon's solutions are installed at thousands of sites, in education, transportation, healthcare, banks, public venues and critical infrastructure. Video data analytics Facit Data Systems specialises in video data analytics and compliance. Facit's analytics systems typically operate over installed monitoring cameras to help organisations to generate business intelligence and reduce operating costs. Waqas Hassan, Facit Data Systems CEO, says: “We are very pleased to be working with a company that has such a deserved reputation for quality and service. Our products are innovative and unique, and we look forward to helping Avigilon to add value for their customers.”

One of the UK’s largest video surveillance projects in recent years involving the deployment of 845 Wisenet cameras manufactured by Hanwha Techwin, is nearing completion. The video surveillance system, which is designed to play an important role in helping ensure the safe and reliable delivery of public transport across the West Midlands, is being used to monitor activity at over 50 railway stations, 11 bus stations, 3 Midland Metro park and ride sites, as well as the main Number 11 bus route around the City of Birmingham. Live and recorded images from all cameras are being monitored at an advanced control room, located in central Birmingham Wisenet HD IP camera integration The project which is targeted for completion in July 2018 has so far seen approximately 845 Wisenet cameras installed by Total Integrated Solutions Ltd. (TIS) on behalf of Transport for West Midlands which was set up by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to co-ordinate investment needed to improve the region’s transport infrastructure. The remaining work includes the deployment of the latest generation of Wisenet high definition IP cameras at a number of car parks, together with significant camera upgrades in Walsall and Solihull, two of four Local Authority public space CCTV systems are already monitored by WMCA. Live and recorded images from all the cameras are being monitored at a £1.2M state-of-the-art control room located in central Birmingham. “Our approach to this very large, complex project was not simply one of agreeing to meet exacting KPI’s from a performance perspective,” said Eamonn Murphy, Coleshill based TIS’s key account manager. “We felt the route to success would be to adopt a more partnership type approach, where we were not only the provider of technical solutions but were also involved at a strategic level in identifying with Transport for West Midlands a pathway of system upgrade, improved efficiency, cost reduction, innovation and utilising latest technology such as video analytics to the best advantage.” TIS is assured seamless integration between Wisenet cameras and Veracity Coldstore ‘direct to storage’ solution Wisenet cameras & Veracity Coldstore solutions Transport for West Midlands evaluated cameras available from 9 different manufacturers. The subsequent decision to source all the cameras from Hanwha Techwin, (previously known as Samsung Techwin), was partly due to the price/performance ratio of its cameras, but there were two other important factors which were taken into consideration. Firstly, Hanwha Techwin has a close working relationship with its technology partner, Veracity. This meant TIS could be assured that there would be seamless integration between Wisenet cameras and the Veracity Coldstore ‘direct to storage’ solution. This negates the need for Network Video Recorders (NVRs) and thereby substantially reduces capital costs, as well as minimising setup and maintenance requirements. Open Platform cameras The Veracity Coldstore recording solution is unique in the linear way that data is written to the hard drives. Only 2 hard drives are spinning at any one time, meaning a significant reduction in power consumption, lower heat generation and greater longevity of the hard drives, reducing the overall cost of ownership. When drive failures do occur, the faulty drive can be swapped with a new drive allowing uninterrupted use. The second important factor was the capability of the Wisenet open platform cameras to accommodate a variety of edge-based analytics such as ANPR and heat mapping, should Transport for West Midlands wish to deploy these at some point in the future. Trials of the Wisenet People Counting application are currently being carried out. This utilises the analytics software developed by Facit Data Systems, another Hanwha Techwin technology partner. Wisenet SNP-6320H cameras are configured for the transmission of 25 images per second (ips) at 1080p resolution Intelligent Day/Night cameras A large percentage of the cameras installed are Wisenet SNP-6320H 2 Megapixel Full HD network PTZ dome cameras. In addition to being a true Day/Night camera which is able to capture high quality images in low light, the SNP-6320H’s powerful 32 x zoom capability enables operators to observe the close-up detail of any activity. Trials were conducted where the cameras were capped at 2 Mbps and configured for the transmission of 25 images per second (ips) at 1080p resolution. The performance at this low bandwidth level was impressive and further contributed to the selection of the Wisenet SNP-6320H, which are also equipped with intelligent auto-tracking capability to ensure a greater level of detail can be captured when no operator is present. Other Wisenet cameras deployed as part of the project include the SNV-6084R vandal-resistant IR dome and the SNB-6004 fixed camera, both of which are able to capture Full HD 2 Megapixel images. Video Surveillance Technology “Working on rail, Metro and bus station sites spread across the wider West Midlands area is a complex and challenging operation and the TIS team deserve recognition for its expertise and diligence,” said Mark Babington, Safety & Security Manager for Transport for West Midlands. Suppliers such as Hanwha Techwin and Veracity have also worked extremely well in partnership with us to ensure we could achieve maximum benefit from this substantial investment" “TIS’s engineers were qualified to the highest degree to support the latest video surveillance technology, as well as being experienced to cope with older legacy systems. Both were needed within the unique environment of a busy integrated transportation network which brings its own exceptional requirements of compliance with bespoke health and safety legislation.” “Suppliers such as Hanwha Techwin and Veracity have also worked extremely well in partnership with us to ensure we could achieve maximum benefit from this substantial investment in the West Midlands transport infrastructure.” Commenting on the success of the project, Bob (H.Y.) Hwang Ph.D., Managing Director, Hanwha Techwin Europe, said: “We greatly value the opportunity to have been involved in this project. It is a excellent example of the benefit of all stakeholders interacting with each other in partnership at an early stage of a project to ensure the most suitable products are specified and subsequently installed to the client’s satisfaction.”

Wavestore and analytics experts Facit Data Systems have formed a technology partnership to help organisations comply with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when managing their surveillance system.  The GDPR regulation stipulates any person whose image is recorded on a video surveillance system has a right to seek and be supplied with a copy of their own personal data from the footage. However, the identity of any other individuals who also feature in any part of that footage need to be protected when the recording is shared with a third party.  Identity Cloak The technology partnership will see Facit working closely together with Wavestore to promote Facit’s proprietary video redaction software, Identity Cloak, alongside Wavestore’s Video Management Software (VMS).Identity Cloak complements the privacy features of our VMS and will ensure our clients are able to achieve maximum benefit from their video surveillance systems" Identity Cloak transforms high-risk data to the low-risk category, allowing operators to see what is happening in exported video footage without violating anyone’s privacy. It does so by blurring out the faces of people captured on video in a dynamic way, allowing persons of interest to be selected and made visible whilst everybody else remains blurred throughout the entire video clip.  Relevant video can be effortlessly exported from Wavestore into Identity Cloak and a full GDPR compliant video clip made available in a fraction of the time it takes using other methods. “Our VMS is extremely user-friendly in terms of helping clients comply with GDPR,” said Enrico Bizzaro, Head of Integrations for Wavestore. “Identity Cloak complements the privacy features of our VMS and will ensure our clients are able to achieve maximum benefit from their video surveillance systems, without being in danger of breaching the new regulation.”  Wavestore’s GDPR-friendly features Facit Data Systems Managing Director, Waqas Hassan says he is pleased to align the company’s new Identity Cloak software with the Wavestore Technology Partnership programme. “We believe the combination of Identity Cloak and the Wavestore VMS will allow a significant reduction in risk and exposure to the requirements of all organisations utilising video in their environment for their GDPR compliance. Having now a full redaction function to complement the existing Wavestore VMS features will be extremely helpful.” In addition to lightning-fast incident search and GDPR compliant export with Facit, Wavestore’s VMS has a host of other features which help organisations comply with GDPR in the day-to-day administration of their systems. These include: The ability to set hard limits on video storage duration so not to retain video longer than intended User privilege separation, including user-privilege enabled privacy zones The option to ‘lock’ recordings to prevent overwriting whilst investigations are taking place Security hardening as standard including enforceable password policies No ‘back door’ access into the system