When you are visiting a friend living in an estate the experience can be quite different depending on which estate you are going into. Some estates ask you to write down your name and id on a piece of paper. Some use a sort of scanner device, that you don’t really know what it does or how it works. So lets clear the air a bit?
The information obtained at the gate
Normally the first thing an estate will acquire from you is your car image. As you approach the gate, there are normally many cameras that will pick you up coming in and leaving. Now the reasons for this can be many, including making sure they have a log of all the cars coming in exiting in case any incidents take place.
Another reason is that some not all, of the cameras, are licence plate recognition cameras, and can recognise your number plate and input it into a system to see if the plate belongs to a stolen car and who that plate belongs to now. Which sounds like a scary thing, and it is, but it’s far less scary as long as you aren’t someone who has stolen a car.
When you pull up to the gate if they are using paper as a capture system, they will probably ask for your name, and phone number and id. Now this information sitting on a piece of paper is quite useless. Because the use of paper-based capture systems takes so long to try and find relevant information. Whereas with an electronic system, searching for the time and date can be very easy.
When the guards at the gate scan your licence disk and drivers license, the device is comparing that data to government records to find out if your license is expired, where you live, what your name is, what type of car is the license for, what is the correct number plate for that car. Now that sounds a lot scarier, and it is. Because if a system like this is compromised, a lot of that information can be stolen by the attackers.
Systems from Identiscan have secure built and managed servers to make sure the data captured from the visitors at the gate remains secure and encrypted from outside attackers.
Cameras and electric fences
One thing that many people have seen about estates are the electric fences that surround them and the cameras that go along with them. Now here is a question for you, how do guards know which camera to look at when the alarm goes off? Well, Hikvision camera systems have a neat feature built into the DVR. Where each camera can be linked up to an alarm system output and when that alarm zone is triggered the control room which you are with, will get a notification. That notification will include a 5 seconds before and after a video clip from that camera that is nearest to that zone.
The guards themselves will also get a notification from the camera system showing them the camera that is linked to that zone. This can be very helpful to see what is happening from a distance so that the guards can focus on what to do next.
The electric fences can be linked up to an alarm system in zones so that when someone tries to pass over the fence it will trigger and the alarm will have a zone triggered. Now if you want the security company that you are with to get the zone that went off, you’ll need to either get an FSK radio or a GSM Radio. These two will allow the zone number that went off and then the Hikvision camera system can link up to that zone. If you want the security company to also get the live video from the DVR they will need to support it. Some companies like Premier Security support Hikvision uplinks to their alarm servers.
Patrolling around the estate
Another method that estates use to make sure that they have proper security is that they have the guards patrolling a route around the estate. This is done to make sure that there are no other entry points open for intruders to get in through. Patrolling is also done to make sure no intruders are walking around the estate at night if they did manage to get in without anyone knowing.
Patrol systems like the ones sold at Onguard are systems that are designed to let the manager of the estate know what the guards are doing. It allows for data capture like what time the guards started their routes if they missed any points and what point it was. They also have stay awakes built into them to make sure that the guards are not sleeping on the job at night.
The patrol routes are determined by where the points are placed in the estate and can be managed by the manager. They can be toggled on and off from the inline system that Onguard has put in place, to make sure that the manager has control at all times.
The new Onguard Mobi units even allow the guards to send an SOS in case help is need when they are on their patrol. This device also has GPS built-in, so that the manager can see where the guards are at all times.
If you enjoyed this blog about guarding and estates let us know and share it! Remember to leave a comment as well!
