Using innovative developments in building security systems: realities and problems.
A year ago, when planning this publication, we certainly could not have foreseen today's surge of public and, if you like, political interest in the implementation of innovative developments and modernization of our country's economy, caused by the well-known article by the President of the Russian Federation and its subsequent broad discussion. But this cannot be called a simple coincidence. Because from the first days of its existence, the TZ magazine has been a conductor of innovative ideas, bold engineering solutions. It remains so now.
In this issue with you:
Pavel KURILENKO, Key Account Manager, Axis Communications
Mikhail SHAKAROV, Siemens security systems expert
Evgeny EROSHIN, Marketing Director, ByteErg
Sergey KUZNETSOV, Director of Distribution, Marketing and Technical Support Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, «Bosch Security Systems/Bosch Security Systems»
Sergey KALASHNIKOV, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Senior Researcher, STALT Group of Companies
Mikhail LEVCHUK, Head of Marketing and Sales Department, Argus-Spectrum
Leonid STASENKO, Relvest Group of Companies
Question for discussion
Innovations of recent years
Pavel KURILENKO:
In the field of CCTV, this is megapixel resolution and the HDTV video transmission standard. And, of course, the H.264 compression codec.
Mikhail SHAKAROV:
In the field of video surveillance, there is a clear trend towards the transition to digital IP solutions. There is a noticeable increase in the share of such solutions in general. Now even IT companies that were not previously associated with security systems have begun to actively engage in this area, expanding their scope of activity.
In fire extinguishing systems, it is obvious that there is a search for a compromise in the form of using the most effective measures with environmentally and human-safe extinguishing principles. Of interest are developments in the field of fine-dispersed water extinguishing, as well as in the field of gas volume extinguishing with minimization of harm to living organisms.
Access control systems are oriented towards the widespread use of high-speed networks, such as Ethernet. At the same time, the range of specialized readers is expanding, including for use in various climatic conditions. Large manufacturers are working on the implementation of more secure data exchange protocols.
The reliability and quality of fire alarm systems is increasing due to the use of advanced methods of fire detection and the use of mathematical methods for analyzing the development of fire in premises.
Evgeny EROSHIN:
Since our company specializes in CCTV, it will be easier for me to talk about innovations in this area. Of course, the most noticeable innovation is network video cameras, but this topic is already discussed quite a lot. If we talk about analog video surveillance, the most noticeable innovations are the “day-night” mode in video cameras, extended dynamic range technologies, including Pixim, automatic object tracking technologies implemented in network video cameras, intelligent functions built into video cameras.
Sergey KUZNETSOV:
The main vector of development of security video surveillance systems in recent years is the transition to digital IP video surveillance. Digital security video surveillance systems have two components: scalability and intelligence. Flexible scalability is achieved through the use of standard IT infrastructure, and the intelligent component consists of the use of unique functions developed by leading manufacturers.
The main direction of innovation in ACS, in my opinion, is the improvement and standardization of interfaces, in particular the use of IP technologies. Modern access controllers use IP not only to connect to the server, but also to combine them into a common distributed intelligent system. This provides enormous opportunities for building distributed ACS not only within one facility, but also within an entire city, region, country. The use of IP controllers allows you to create a single access control system, for example, for large companies (banks, large industrial and telecommunications organizations, etc.) with a large number of branches and additional offices. Such a system allows, in particular, employees to use one access card in all company offices, and the security service can easily find out where the employee is currently located.
IP also makes it possible to use wireless technologies. For example, if it is impractical to pull a cable network to some remote access controller, then it can be connected via a wireless IP network. Of course, peripheral equipment is also developing, and particular progress is observed in the development of biometric technologies, much is said and written about this.
With the publication of new European standards EN 50131, the requirements for security alarm devices are becoming more stringent, and leading global manufacturers are forced to develop equipment that will comply with these standards. In particular, anti-masking technologies are being developed in motion alarm detectors. It is no longer enough to ensure only the detection of detector shielding, since the new standards also require the detection of sprayers and the detection of stickers on the detector lenses.
Wireless alarm systems have become very popular recently, and this industry is probably developing most actively. Market requirements dictate the presence of two-way communication between wireless devices in wireless systems. The difficult radio environment at sites, mutual interference from neighboring wireless networks require a high level of noise immunity of wireless alarm systems. Leading global manufacturers solve these problems by using innovative modulation and coding technologies for channel separation.
It would seem that it is difficult to come up with something new in security alarm systems, but in fact it turns out that a large field for innovation lies in the field of developing simple and understandable user interfaces and programming control panels.
For example, modern security panels now support voice messages and menus. Now the user does not have to rack his brains to understand why his system does not arm – the security system itself will tell him everything. Voice functions are also very convenient when sending alarm messages to the user's mobile phone – he can simply listen to what alarm and in what room it occurred, without remembering which room the zone belongs to.
In recent years, innovations have not bypassed such a conservative area as fire alarms. Here, trends towards increasing the reliability of systems, the emergence of new technologies for detecting fires, and expanding integration capabilities are noticeable. Both in European countries and in Russia, the regulatory framework is being updated: new standards EN-54, “Technical Regulations on Fire Safety Requirements”, etc. Russian and Western manufacturers are finalizing solutions and creating new products to meet the new requirements. Devices for early fire detection are becoming increasingly popular: combined detectors with a gas detection channel and aspiration detectors. Such technologies, in addition to reducing the response time, also provide a higher level of prevention of false alarms. Aspiration detectors are becoming more accessible, and now the exact localization of the fire location within one air intake pipe does not seem like something fantastic. The emergence of new automatic life support systems for modern buildings requires a special approach to ensuring the integration of fire alarms into a single control complex. Without the use of standard tools and protocols, it would be difficult to create a single system. Modern systems use IP connections, open protocols, and provide developers with tools to integrate solutions into the building management system.
Sergey KALASHNIKOV:
First of all, let's understand the concept of “innovation”.
Innovation is a new development in the field of technology, engineering, work organization or management, based on the use of scientific achievements and advanced experience, providing a qualitative increase in the efficiency of the production system and the quality of the product. Thus, innovation is not understood as any new development or novelty, but only as something that significantly and seriously increases the efficiency of the current system and product. That is why innovative products appear on the market of fire alarm and fire extinguishing systems much less frequently than just new products, which are often just restyling of previously existing products and systems.
In addition, it is necessary to understand that any innovations in the field of fire protection systems must fully comply with the standards, which to a large extent is, on the one hand, a vector for the development of products and systems with the aim of their full compliance with the requirements for facilities of any level and degree of complexity, and a limiter for the industry, on the other.
For example, allowing wider use of computer technology is a progressive step in the development of fire protection systems, allowing the creation of systems with a flexible algorithm for programming the logic of operation. However, by giving programmers the task of setting up systems directly on site, it is impossible to be 100% sure of their qualifications, understanding of the technological features of physical processes and fire specifics, as well as the compliance of the algorithm of the logic of the system operation with the restrictions and frameworks established by the regulations.
Oddly enough, foreign manufacturers play an important role in the creation of innovative domestic developments. For example, about 10 years ago, a well-known Japanese company improved the communication protocols used in addressable analog devices. The communication protocol it developed is digital, highly reliable, noise-proof, and thanks to the polling “interruption” mechanism, the system response time is reduced. A similar communication protocol was recently announced by another company, this time an American one.
To introduce such innovations to the Russian market, equipment is needed that can work with new protocols, which is an incentive for domestic manufacturers to create new equipment for fire alarm systems and automatic fire extinguishing systems to work with truly innovative communication protocols.
Mikhail LEVCHUK:
I would like to note the rapid development of wireless technologies, trust in which is growing every day. Over the past five or six years, we have already stopped noticing how convenient it is to use a mobile phone; no one is surprised by the terms “Wi-Fi”, “GPRS”, “Bluetooth” or “WiMAX”.
Thanks to the new element base, modern wireless technologies have also entered the security system market, mainly in fire alarm and notification systems. A careful analysis of the capabilities of the latest generation radio systems shows:
— their greater survivability compared to wired systems,
— cost-effectiveness,
— practical feasibility of use, especially at sites with a continuous work schedule of “24 hours a day, 365 days a year”.
Moreover, radio systems are also free from problems with false alarms associated with induced electromagnetic interference in communication lines, connecting lines and signaling loops of wired systems.
Of course, it cannot be said that wireless technologies are the solution to all problems, but the new innovative market segment of wireless equipment is growing rapidly, and precisely because of its already proven operational advantages.
Leonid STASENKO:
I won't judge fire extinguishing and fire alarm systems, although it is possible that something new has appeared there. As for the other two areas of fire safety, nothing revolutionary has been noticed. The main changes are related, as it seems to me, to the development of the element base. For example, in the field of CCTV, in recent years many specialized processors (or rather, systems on a chip) have appeared, focused on processing multimedia information. Due to this, it has become possible to make digital (including IP) video cameras with modern video stream compression algorithms on one such processor. Today, these are quite budget solutions, as evidenced by the emergence of mass production of such a plan from the countries of Southeast Asia.By the way, about budget solutions – there have also started to appear a lot of products that from the point of view of professionals are toys, but for the private sector are of certain interest. An example of such a device is a small-sized dual video camera with a viewing angle of up to 180 degrees, combined with a motion sensor, with IR illumination, equipped with a GSM modem for transmitting pictures from the camera in the form of MMS to the owner's phone, and also supporting up to a dozen external additional sensors, including radio channels. In addition, the camera has a remotely controlled sound channel. And all this in a case the size of two soap dishes and at a price of about 0.
In the field of ACS, the situation is unusually stable from the point of view of technical progress: there is a gradual renewal of the equipment fleet (again, due to the progress of electronics). Since now in the West a 32-bit microcontroller with a clock frequency of 100 megahertz or more costs about , then, naturally, controllers are gradually being transferred to these processors. The resources of microcontrollers allow rewriting the algorithms of the controllers without fear that there will not be enough program memory or speed, so such solutions are made quite quickly, the cheapness of memory allows even the most inexpensive controller to have a user database (i.e. cards) of up to several hundred thousand. But this does not bring anything fundamentally new. The development of wireless technologies, especially in the 2.45 GHz range, as a side effect caused the appearance of a large number of long-range identification systems based on active key fobs.
Biometric technologies, as several years ago, are used quite rarely – as before, the reliability of recognition and ease of use are not up to par.
Question for discussion
Demand for innovations in Western and Russian markets
Pavel KURILENKO:
Analog cameras are limited to NTSC/PAL specifications with a resolution corresponding to 0.4 megapixels at 4CIF. However, nowadays end users are already familiar with megapixel and higher resolutions offered by digital cameras, high definition computer displays and flat screen TVs. As a result, the demand for high resolution in CCTV systems is increasing. Network cameras meet these requirements and can provide more detailed images and cover a larger area than traditional analog cameras. This ensures that the investment in organizing the security system is not wasted and the intruder’s face and what he is carrying can be seen. Investigation time will be reduced and the stored video will provide detailed images of what was actually happening on the site. In addition, the increased resolution of network cameras allows for features such as digital zooming of archived video. This is one of the major reasons why end users are starting to abandon analog systems, as the investment does not justify the results. Any DVR or video capture card with software now offers a digital zoom function for archived video data, but this is a completely useless function with an analog camera's 0.4 megapixel resolution.
Demand for innovative CCTV solutions in the West is generally quite high. As for Russia, for example, we have many completed projects with megapixel cameras, and with the advent of HDTV cameras, we are seeing a clear trend of transition from standard television video surveillance to high-definition video surveillance.
Mikhail SHAKAROV:
It is obvious that in the West, active competition allows new and effective solutions to be offered on the market, which are simultaneously pushed by regulatory acts of state authorities and SROs. By updating and modernizing these standards, they seem to direct manufacturers to develop equipment in accordance with new requirements for security systems.
Unfortunately, the Russian legislative framework often lags behind technical progress and the regulatory framework is updated based on the actual situation on the market. Often, the consumer simply does not delve into the essence of the system and installs it either in accordance with the minimum standards and requirements, or relying only on various marketing materials.
Evgeny EROSHIN:
I would not say unequivocally that innovations are more in demand in the West than here. In my opinion, in Russia there are difficulties not with demand, but with the creation of domestic innovations. The reasons for this situation are the low prestige of such professions as scientist and engineer, insufficiently high salaries for developers, often outdated material base, unwillingness of investors to invest in innovative projects, underdevelopment of educational programs in the field of innovation.
But now the situation is slowly but surely changing for the better: top government officials talk about the innovative development of Russia, funds are created, exhibitions dedicated to innovations are held: Moscow Investment Forum, Rosnanotech, InnotechExpo – all this inspires hope that the future of innovations in our country is clear and cloudless.
Sergey KUZNETSOV:
The onset of innovation occurs from two sides: customers set direct tasks for manufacturers to solve current problems; the manufacturer creates solutions by analyzing and predicting trends in the industry. Thus, the state of the market is balanced by supply and demand, which characterizes demand in various markets.
I would not exaggerate the difference in demand for high-tech innovative products in Russia and the West, which really existed in the 90s and is hardly noticeable now. Yes, our market has its own peculiarities, yes, it is much younger than the Western one, but the infrastructural differences are gradually disappearing.
Sergey KALASHNIKOV:
The demand for innovations varies significantly in different market segments. For small facilities, the main criteria for choosing fire protection equipment are the availability of certificates and low price. Innovations are in little demand.
For the largest and most technically complex industrial and civil facilities, achieving a given level of efficiency and reliability of the security system in these specific conditions plays a decisive role. As a representative of a company that has long been operating in this market segment, I can confidently say that the level of consumer culture is growing. When equipping large industrial, engineering-rich civil facilities, customers increasingly choose equipment of the appropriate technical level and quality of execution, with high reliability, functionality, design principles, operating modes, capable of implementing interaction of security system equipment with automation control of the main technological processes, its emergency protection and other engineering systems of the facility.
In addition, when choosing security systems for such large-scale facilities, the operational characteristics of the equipment play an important role. Customers increasingly prefer the most advanced systems that can solve problems not only here and now, but also throughout the entire period of operation with the least effort and maintenance costs. This has become even more relevant during the crisis and the increasing frequency of man-made disasters; now customers consider investments in security as investments in the future of their business.
Mikhail LEVCHUK:
Continuing the story about wireless technologies, I will once again note the rapid growth in demand for security and fire radio systems over the past few years, both in Europe and in Russia.
Oddly enough, one of the reasons for such growth was the economic crisis – a time when every minute counts, every ruble is counted and the cost of an error increases significantly. It was vital for design and installation companies to find new ways to build a sustainable business system. Equipping facilities with reliable wireless alarm and notification systems is not only faster, but also more economical both during installation and operation. Even a small design and installation company with a limited or reduced staff of specialists (and the wage fund, as we know, is a serious expense item) can afford more orders and larger facilities, ensuring high turnover of funds and flexibility in doing business.
For the Russian security systems market, the crisis coincided with another important event: on May 1 of this year, Federal Law No. 123-FZ “Technical Regulations on Fire Safety Requirements” came into force, significantly increasing the requirements for the survivability of communication lines of fire protection systems.
Thus, the rapidly changing economic situation and new requirements of the Technical Regulations determined the choice of many companies in favor of wireless systems. The cost of radio channel equipment is, of course, higher than wired, but taking into account significantly lower installation costs, “turnkey” the customer receives the same amount and a shortened project completion time.
Leonid STASENKO:
Now, in the conditions of the crisis, as foreign market analysts write, users have begun to approach the choice of security tools more prudently, trying to choose optimal solutions in terms of functionality and price, without excesses. All new products are now most successfully consumed not in the West, but in the East – the same China suffered from the crisis less than Western countries. By the way, it is there that most technical innovations are now appearing, their engineers are gradually learning to create devices themselves that are quite competitive on the world market.
As for Russia, with a significant decline in the volume of consumption of TSB, especially in the large corporate sector, Russian manufacturers will have a very difficult time. The market, which is already small relative to global scale, has shrunk even more, and not for one year, and the decrease in sales volumes naturally leads to a decrease in investment in new developments. Our developments are quite competitive on the global market, the volume of which is orders of magnitude larger, but entering this market is extremely difficult, and also requires significant investment. And talk at the state level about supporting domestic high-tech companies and stimulating their exports remains just talk. So the difficulties for Russian developers and manufacturers of TSB are just beginning.
A question for discussion
Is the home appliances market more conservative or, on the contrary, receptive to innovation? Here we are talking primarily about demand – after all, few people will change a lock until it is hacked or until it breaks itself. Moreover, very few people change working systems just because new, more technologically advanced ones have appeared.
Pavel KURILENKO:
The Russian market is more conservative. There are several reasons for this, but one of the most important, in my opinion, is the low literacy of installation organizations and their reluctance to accept the new and unknown, since the unknown is frightening. This is especially felt in the regions.
Mikhail SHAKAROV:
I would say that the entire HSE market is so diverse that it cannot be calculated as an average temperature in a hospital. For example, fire safety systems are a rather conservative area, but this is explained by strict industry standards and requirements. But in the field of video surveillance, there is an active growth of innovative solutions and their introduction to the market. In this case, we can say that the equipment is starting to become obsolete much faster, and first of all, morally. Therefore, the conservatism of consumers is quite justified in some ways.
Evgeny EROSHIN:
If we talk about the demand for innovations in the TSB market, then it certainly exists both in cases of installing systems for the first time and in cases of upgrading old ones. The fact is that, having tried, for example, video surveillance once, customers acquire a taste for it, but in the future they want not the same, but better and more advanced, so the demand for innovative products, in particular in the field of video surveillance, always exists.
Sergey KUZNETSOV:
In my opinion, the security systems market is indeed quite conservative, which is quite consistent with the level of responsibility that is placed on such systems. No one in their right mind would want to experiment with untested technologies on a combat system installed at a critical facility. Therefore, leading manufacturers offer only proven innovative products, which in most cases are based on technologies that are no longer innovative for other industries. And I believe this approach is correct, despite its apparent conservatism.
It is another matter when the reasons that slow down the active implementation of innovations are, for example, the lack of close connection between equipment manufacturers and the insurance system, due to which manufacturers have to independently convey to the consumer the need to use this equipment. Regional regulations also do not stimulate the development of the market. Another important factor is that the cost of implementing the system is still in the foreground, and not the cost of owning it.
Sergey KALASHNIKOV:
As stated earlier, the demand for innovative products in the field of security is primarily formed by large companies that seek to equip their facilities with modern security systems that ensure full compliance with all requirements of existing standards and, as our experience shows, often even exceed them. Due to the high social significance and potential danger, the systems of such security facilities must be designed based on special technical conditions that reflect the specifics of each individual facility. Only one criterion should be recognized as universal for all these facilities – achieving a given level of efficiency and reliability of security systems. This is where unique innovative technical and design solutions come to the fore. Thus, every year the use of addressable analog fire alarm systems, the integration of all security systems, life support, automatic process control systems, warning systems, etc. is becoming more and more relevant.
The security systems market has no right to conservatism, it must develop in accordance with new, previously unsolved problems arising before it, related to equipping increasingly complex modern facilities with the latest production technologies.
Leonid STASENKO:
Of course, the market is quite conservative. The reasons for this have been discussed many times, so we won't repeat ourselves. For example, sometimes controllers manufactured more than 10 years ago are brought to us for repair with the complaint: well, it worked and worked and then stopped… Sometimes there are no more components for repair, and the controller has to be replaced with a new one. The same goes for software: people still have our programs running, written for 16-bit versions of Windows, and when asked why they don't update, since it's free, they answer: everything suits us so well – why create problems for yourself?
Question for discussion
Problems of implementing innovations in Russia, imports, entering foreign markets
Mikhail SHAKAROV:
The main problem in Russia is the organization of modern production and the constant introduction of innovative technologies. As practice shows, it is difficult to organize it in Russia without the help of the Western experience accumulated over decades in the production sphere. And the fact that we have our own innovative developments, but their introduction into mass production is minimal, is said a lot. But with specific actions and the creation of real incentives, the situation is, unfortunately, much worse.
A very interesting question seems to be: what will happen during the crisis and after it with innovative solutions in high-tech areas?
I will express my vision: during the crisis, investments in the search for and development of innovative solutions, and therefore in important but long-payback projects, will be reduced. Companies, seeking to optimize their expenses, will be very selective in choosing such projects. In general, this may even have a positive effect on the development of technology and business in the field of security, as it gives way to truly new, effective solutions and removes various short-term, purely marketing “features” from the market.
Evgeny EROSHIN:
If we talk about the problems of innovation specifically in the TSB market, then this is primarily the strong pressure of our innovative neighbors from Asia, who quickly and cheaply (though not always qualitatively) produce many innovative goods and supply them to our market. This also includes the problem of finding and delivering components from abroad. Unfortunately, many high-tech parts, such as matrixes for video cameras of the required quality, are not produced in Russia, and they have to be imported from Japan, thereby feeding the innovative economy of other countries.
Sergey KALASHNIKOV:
The main problem of implementing innovations in Russia is the ambiguity and sometimes contradictory nature of legislation in the field of security. For example, the concept of addressable-analogue fire alarm systems still does not exist in the regulatory framework, which allows each manufacturer to interpret this concept in its own way.
In general, regulatory creativity in the field of fire safety has gone in several directions at once, and not always very interconnected. The possibility proposed in light of new regulatory requirements to rely on fire risk assessment when choosing engineering solutions for large and unique industrial facilities seems very problematic. For large enterprises, due to their technological complexity, diversity and uniqueness, the necessary authoritative and truly efficient methods are unlikely to be developed in the near future.
It is also incorrect to rely on statistical data in assessing the risk of these objects, again due to their uniqueness. In addition, a number of significant circumstances should be taken into account: somewhere equipment wears out – risks grow, somewhere a radical reconstruction is carried out with the replacement of technologies – risks change fundamentally, somewhere with the change of the management system, funds are significantly redistributed between the main, profit-making, technological process and expenses on auxiliary systems. In any case, these processes significantly break statistics, even if it were possible to obtain the necessary information.
As for any other security systems, except fire systems, the justification of technical requirements for them can be considered completely unregulated to date.
A significant factor negatively influencing the situation is the obvious departmental desire to freeze the list of equipment used, or more precisely, manufacturing enterprises, under the guise of unification. In reality, this is often a consequence of bias (corruption) and does not allow the introduction of new, more progressive innovative equipment and technologies, even if they are more efficient and less expensive.
Of course, the problems of implementing innovations in Russia should not be completely shifted onto the shoulders of the state and government bodies; domestic manufacturers of security systems themselves play a significant role in this process; the vast majority of them, instead of relying on the experience of leading Western and Russian companies to create their own truly innovative products, follow the path of blind copying, and not always successfully.
The lack of in-house advanced developments is the result of companies saving on maintaining a staff of highly qualified specialists and a scientific and technical base, on the one hand, and a small number of highly qualified specialists in the field of security, on the other. The acquisition of competitive advantages by getting into the previously mentioned lists, or even directly lobbying their interests at the stage of rule-making, rather than by increasing the efficiency of production and the quality of manufactured products, has an extremely negative impact on the creation and implementation of any innovative products in Russia.
Mikhail LEVCHUK:
Our country has always been famous for its innovative developments, but often the ideas remained on paper, and only a few reached the stage of serial production.
It is gratifying that the situation in the field of wireless technologies in the security sphere looks very optimistic. The competent selection of a modern element base and technical solutions incorporated into the equipment are not only competitive, but also currently ahead of the developments of world leaders. This is confirmed by contracts for the supply of radio channel systems, which our company concluded back in 2006 with the world's largest corporation-manufacturer of security systems.
Leonid STASENKO:
Entering the foreign market, export is a sore subject, it is useless to discuss it until the state policy on these issues changes radically (and in reality, not in words). Plus the import of components: with a virtually dead microelectronic industry, importing equipment with taxes, as in our country… This is a significant part of the cost of products that are practically no longer competitive. The above-mentioned microprocessors, which cost up to for a foreign manufacturer, cost no less than for a Russian one, taking into account taxes, distributors' profits, etc. As they say, feel the difference…
