Security cameras are not only the eyes but also the heart of a Smart City

Eagle Eye Networks is a global leader in bringing CCTV to the Cloud, suddenly making the dusty security camera the smart sensor of cities like Elche and Mexico City. And all this invented in Amsterdam South-East.

The Smart City concept is always grand and compelling. But let’s start with a business park in the Netherlands with several companies, indoor and outdoor cameras from various manufacturers, analog and IP. This business park wants to monitor and manage the outdoor cameras together, so that burglaries can be registered by multiple cameras and can be viewed directly in one central platform. Extrapolate this and Eagle Eye Networks installed 14,000 cameras in Mexico City in 4 months in a project to make the city safer. All this is made possible by a company from Amsterdam South-East where entrepreneurs Rishi Lodhia and Tijmen Vos have been working for 15 years to bring camera security to the Cloud. 

Cyber ​​secure by design

A lot has happened in 15 years. Lodhia and Vos have merged their CameraManager company with Austin-based Eagle Eye Networks, led by Dean Drako, who previously founded and grew Cybersecurity company Barracuda Networks. Because there must be attention for Cybersecurity within camera security. A company or city can invest a lot in cameras to improve physical security, but if this creates a gaping hole in Cybersecurity because the cameras are insecurely connected to the network, people are further away from home.

AI and Analytics so that the camera becomes a sensor

Cameras are getting smarter, everyone agrees. The question, however, is where you put that cleverness. Eagle Eye Networks believes that collecting the data in the Cloud, and then having the analysis take place there, has many advantages. To reinforce the ambition of AI and Analytics, the Indian company Uncanny Vision was recently acquired, specializing in AI and Analytics for camera security. Uncanny Vision’s Award Winning AI is used in a variety of applications today, including:

•  Smart parking

•  Access control security

•  Automation of toll roads

•  Smart cities

•  ATM monitoring

Uncanny Vision’s tools for training, building and optimizing models and the infrastructure for managing and storing training data are superior. 

Cloud stands for scalability and that is what a Smart City needs

A Smart City collects and combines relevant data in the Cloud where computing power and data history is available, and ensures that it is shared and used efficiently with stakeholders. It is therefore essential that the time needed to create a Smart City is only spent on the installation of sensors. By using smart networks (Lora, 5G, Fiber), everything can be performed remotely, and the installation and service time on location can be reduced to a minimum. This is a requirement for the rapid development of a Smart City in which the scale should not play a role in the engineering hours. Cloud is synonymous with volume, and that is what a Smart City needs.

A Smart City case in Elche

There is often the idea that Smart City plans must immediately consist of large investments for all kinds of state-of-the-art technology and that this must be implemented in the major cities of the world. Nothing could be further from the truth, as was discovered in the city of Elche in Spain. An average city with 250,000 inhabitants and about 100 cameras that monitor important points and buildings in the city. 

Managing security incidents using complex IT systems has been an ongoing challenge for the city’s IT staff. When the pandemic hit, city workers began working from home and it became clear that many systems could not be managed remotely. 

City officials decided to update their CCTV system with the following objectives:

1.  Ease of use

2.  Integrated 

3.  Accessible remotely

4.  Share images with the police and other city services

5.  Easy and cheap to maintain

6.  Scalability

Over the next five years, the city plans to expand the system by applying artificial intelligence (AI) to better investigate incidents. The city will use the system’s parking and traffic data for city planning and infrastructure improvement. There will also be direct integrations with the police and the fire service to enable faster response to incidents. The project with the municipality of Elche was voted the best security project in Spain of the past year last week. 

To know more about the possibilities of Cloud camera security for your city or company, check www.een.com . Eagle Eye Networks will also be at Provada in Amsterdam from October 26-28, booth 11.10. Book your meeting here. https://cloud.een.com/provada 

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