Axis Systems Group

07/06/2023

Axis Communications Optimizes Production to Conquer Supply Chain Constraints... An industry leader in video surveillance, announced today that the company has reached key supply chain milestones, including more than 45% year-over-year increase in Q1 deliveries with continued growth through May 31, and record inventory levels in its Americas distribution channel to meet strong demand from integrators and end customers.

This comes after a record-breaking 2022 yielding $1.6 billion in global revenue and 20% global year-over-year growth, as outlined in the Axis 2022 Sustainability Report. These achievements are a result of the company’s recent initiatives, along with its industry-leading sustainability program which has long focused on enhancing operational efficiency and strengthening supply chain. It’s that ongoing work—along with boosted efforts and innovative initiatives implemented during the global supply chain crisis—that has helped the company excel and solidly position themselves to meet future market needs.

“Continuous improvement is a part of our DNA, and adversity often sparks innovation, so the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting supply chain crisis really put us into overdrive... Diversifying, and solidifying, our supply chain will have a lasting positive impact for our partners and customers—providing greater resiliency to navigate any future challenges. We are grateful to our partners and customers for not only standing by us through challenging times, but also for working with us to help identify ways to improve our approach toward customer service and supply chain management. Those relationships have played a crucial role in helping us craft a stronger, more sustainable vision for the future.”

07/04/2023

The Benefits of Utilizing Cloud Services for Remote Access and Management.

For many businesses, remotely accessing, monitoring, and managing their video management system (VMS) deployments can be a daunting task. Often, there is complicated networking involved, or specialized hardware that must be deployed. Salient Cloud Services provides a simple, secure, and easy-to-adopt solution for remote access and management. Salient’s solution layers onto an existing CompleteView deployment with no disruption or change to the hardware or networking, making it easy to try and buy with no risk to the proper functioning of the on-premise VMS.

The secure remote access and management capabilities are valuable to both end users and security integrators. End users can easily keep tabs on their deployment after hours, or quickly equip first responders, or enable non-security personnel to more easily tap into insight and intelligence from their CompleteView VMS.

Security integrators benefit from significant savings in operational costs. They can provide rapid support to customers with Salient Cloud Services without having to incur the overhead and costs of dispatching technicians to customer sites for every single issue. Best of all, Salient Cloud Services enables integrators to proactively monitor customer deployments remotely and prevent issues before they ever occur.

In this article, we will discuss the benefits of utilizing cloud services for remote access and management, and how they can enhance the overall customer experience.

1. Simple, Secure Remote Access
2. Better Maintenance at Lower Cost
3. Increased System Stability and Reduced Downtime
4. Improved Customer Experience and Business Operations

06/29/2023

IDSA finds ‘almost a fifth’ of businesses see managing digital identity as a top security priority.
The Identity Security Alliance (IDSA), a non-profit group of identity and security vendors, solution providers, and practitioners, has found that almost a fifth of businesses – 17% – see managing digital identity as a top priority in their security program.

The top two reasons were identity frameworks being complicated by multiple vendors and different architectures, cited by 40%, followed by complex technology environments, which were cited by 39%.

The research also called on respondents to try and identify security outcomes that they feel could have prevented these identity security incidents, 96% of these felt that security measures could have lessened the business impact of the incidents.

The research also found that identity stakeholders identified the use of authentication and discovering user access rights and behavior as critical to addressing identity threats.

Many of the identity professionals surveyed show faith in the idea of passwordless identification, with roughly 79% calling it a great or solid technology.

“As cloud adoption, remote work, mobile device usage, and third-party relationships drive up the number of identities, more and more organizations are suffering from identity-related incidents... Protecting digital identities has never been more important in the fight against increasingly savvy cyberattacks. And while managing and securing identities continues to be called out as a top priority by organizations, meaningful shifts in proactive investment and leadership are necessary to reduce risk.”

The findings came as part of 2023 Trends in Securing Digital Identities, an annual whitepaper on identity security released by the organization.

06/27/2023

Idex Biometrics and AuthenTrend partner on biometric access cards. Norwegian fingerprint biometric solutions provider Idex has entered a new collaboration with Taiwan-based, FIDO2-certified firm AuthenTrend.

In particular, the companies have joined forces to produce and market new multi-application biometric smart cards with digital authentication capabilities.

“We are very excited to launch our next-generation ATKey series product of battery-less biometric smart cards,” says Zake Huang, vice president of AuthenTrend.

“This new product will provide our customers with the most secure and convenient way to access their devices and services. We believe that this solution will play a critical role in the global identity and authentication industry.”

Based on Idex Biometrics TrustedBio technology, the new bioometric cards specifically target identity access and cryptocurrency wallet applications.

“AuthenTrend brings extensive experience in smart cards for consumer applications in authentication, identity access and cryptocurrency wallets,” explains Catharina Eklof, CCO of Idex Biometrics.

“Together, we will bring these ground-breaking solutions to market and unlock new opportunities for biometric smart cards addressing high-margin products.”

The companies have joined forces to produce and market new multi-application biometric smart cards with digital authentication capabilities.

06/22/2023

Face it: deepfakes are better and riskier than we think, says Jumi. Never at a loss for hubris, humans tend to overestimate their ability to detect deepfakes, says new research from Jumio. For the identity verification firm’s 2023 Online Identity Study, they looked at data from 8,055 consumers.

More than two thirds of respondents knew about the capabilities of generative AI tools, and more than half were confident that they could spot a deepfake video created by a large language model, or AI. However, advances in generative AI tools (of which ChatGPT is currently the most publicized and well-known) have complicated the picture, and fraud remains an expensive problem. According to Jumio, in 2022, impersonation scams cost the UK 177 million and U.S. consumers $2.6 billion. Clearly, we aren’t as smart as we think we are when it comes to AI – nor as careful as we should be.

“A lot of people seem to think they can spot a deepfake,” said Stuart Wells, Jumio’s chief technology officer, in a news release. “While there are certainly tell-tale signs to look for, deepfakes are getting exponentially better all the time and are becoming increasingly difficult to detect without the aid of AI.”

“While AI-powered technology will increasingly be required by businesses to spot and protect their networks and customers from deepfakes, consumers can protect themselves by treating provocative images, videos and audio with skepticism,” said Wells.

Never at a loss for hubris, humans tend to overestimate their ability to detect deepfakes, says new research from the identity verification firm.

06/20/2023

Making Your Security and Surveillance “Smarter" Many vehicles, homes and businesses already have some level of “smart” technology and automation currently in use. That trend will only accelerate through increased use of more sophisticated mobile and connected devices, combined with AI, for more consumer and professional applications.

The key to enabling – and securing -- these “smart” technology applications transformation is a reliable and fully integrated IoT infrastructure.

IoT offers a range of mobile and connected devices and technologies in use every day in our work and personal lives. The “things” can be physical objects that feature a sensor, some type of processing ability, are software-centric and can store and send data to and from other connected devices.

It is a growing space, with the IoT device market forecast to reach $1.4 trillion by 2027, according to Fortune Business Insights.

06/15/2023

Harnessing Data-driven Video Technology. From Atlantic City to Las Vegas, casinos, gaming hotels and resorts are always looking for new ways to enhance the customer experience and differentiate themselves from their competitors. With more than 1,000 casinos across the United States, the challenge to foster customer loyalty and create positive brand preference is fierce.

Video surveillance has long been a cornerstone of casino security, but recent advancements in digital video technologies have enabled a range of new applications beyond traditional security purposes. By leveraging open platform, data-driven video management solutions, casinos can elevate their brand and create secure, efficient and pleasant gaming experiences that will attract new customers and keep existing patrons loyal.

New Horizons for Video Management
Casinos typically deploy large video systems that often serve two main functions. The first is to monitor gaming activities and ensuring regulatory compliance. Second, to provide for facility-wide safety, security and situational awareness, which can include operations management, parking management and other applications. With the integration of open platform VMS, and AI-driven analytics software, smart cameras, and sensors, video technology is amplified to improve the overall casino experience....

Parking Peace of Mind
A casino's parking lot is an initial touchpoint for many customers, and the experience sets the tone for the entire visit. Monitoring parking lots with video cameras is standard practice, but new video analytic software takes this process further, ensuring that customers and their vehicles are safe and secure from the moment they arrive.

06/13/2023

Rethink Credentials...Access control readers have been around commercially since the 1980s, along with physical badge credentials to open doors. Initially, these were magstripes, then proximity cards, then smart cards. The problem is, however is, these are still cards. Plastic cards that identify who you are, and where you work. In a world where technology is being innovated faster than ever before more sustainable alternatives are required.

The smartphone has provided the ultimate handheld user experience without which no one can leave their home. Now holding the ability to store keys and access buildings, businesses and university campuses have no choice but to keep up with the times and implement mobile access credentials instead of the traditional plastic credentials that face the risk of being lost and stolen and cost organizations time and money.

Many companies have shifted to incorporate multi-technology readers into their product mix to provide a migration pathway from cards to mobile access, this solution adds further ‘upgrade’ cost. Up until now, mobile access has still required an access control reader. 1. Turning Access Control on its Head with Readerless Technology 2. Do You Still Need a Badge and Reader to Open a Door? .

06/08/2023

Renkus-Heinz brings clarity to St. Mark’s Church... Deep in the heart of Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood lies St. Mark’s Church. Considered one of the best concert venues in the city, the church nave is quite large, with seating for more than 450 people. Parishioners celebrated the church's first service in 1849, under the overarching timber fretwork of the great roof. The Decorated Gothic style of the church, replete with vaulted ceilings, solid wood pews and stone masonry throughout, contributed to an unsatisfactory reverberation time of three seconds.

Church staff reached out to Joe DiSabatino, lead design engineer at JD Sound & Video, to design a new audio system for the sanctuary. DiSabatino partnered with local acoustical engineer, Hadi Sumoro of HX Audio Lab, to model the acoustics using EASE to design the system and SysTune to tune and optimise. Additionally, JD Sound & Video contacted Renkus Heinz’s regional manufacturer representatives, Audio Associates, to assist with the installation.

“We have an extensive history working with Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers, and the EASE model showed great performance in the nave,” said DiSabatino. “Their beam steering arrays eliminated the need for delay speakers which would have required mounting to columns, something the church would not approve.”

JD Sound & Video installed IC Live Gen5 ICL-F-DUAL-RN arrays in the nave to improve speech intelligibility and provide even front-to-back coverage. Renkus-Heinz’s RHAON II System Manager software lets the installer define the opening angles for as many as eight sonic beams from each ICL-F-DUAL-RN array module and aim them up or down. Meanwhile, the slim enclosure remains inconspicuous. For St. Mark’s installation, an artist custom-painted the cabinets in a complimentary stone motif to help them further blend into the space.

USA: Deep in the heart of Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood lies St. Mark’s Church. Considered one of the best concert venues in the city,...

06/06/2023

3Ci partners with Stage Audio Works for second phase of upgrades. Located in Pretoria, Capital City Church International, also known as 3Ci, has enlisted Stage Audio Works for the second phase of its audiovisual upgrade. Stage Audio Works (SAW) previously collaborated with 3Ci to deliver an AV solution for the church's new building in 2021. This successful partnership has prompted 3Ci to once again turn to SAW, this time to equip “the Cube,” a smaller 300-capacity hall, with a Plus Audio system

The collaboration between 3Ci and SAW marks the installation of the sixth Plus Audio system since its launch 18 months ago. The first phase of the project involved the construction of a main auditorium with a seating capacity of 2,500. For this phase, SAW designed and integrated a complete PA and control system, utilising the d&b Y-Series and Yamaha consoles. The company also recommended engaging an acoustician to ensure proper acoustic treatment of the space before the installation, ensuring optimal audio results. SAW also provided a turnkey house lighting system and a comprehensive building-wide background music and control system.

“Whilst the brief for the main auditorium was for an absolutely top-drawer system that is an essential part of the immersive experience in what is a really special space, the smaller hall doesn’t need that level of sophistication,” explained SAW CTO, Nathan Ihlenfeldt. “3Ci were looking for a robust, reliable system that represents great value for money and still maintains excellent quality and performance standards. Our Plus Audio system was the ideal solution. The other major bonus is that we’re not experiencing the supply chain problems that other brands are currently facing, so availability wasn’t a problem.”

SOUTH AFRICA: Located in Pretoria, Capital City Church International, also known as 3Ci, has enlisted Stage Audio Works for the second phase of its audiovisual...

06/01/2023

NRF Report Shows Organized Retail Crime a Growing Threat for Retailers.

Organized retail crime (ORC) is a perpetual and burgeoning problem for the U.S. retail industry, and evidence suggests it is growing in both scope and complexity, according to a new report released today by the National Retail Federation. The report, Organized Retail Crime: An Assessment of a Persistent and Growing Threat, was conducted in partnership with K2 Integrity, a global risk advisory firm.

“Organized retail crime has been a major concern for the retail industry for decades, endangering store employees and customers, disrupting store operations and inflicting billions in financial loss for retailers and the communities they serve... These concerns have grown in recent years, as criminal groups have become more brazen and violent in their tactics and are using new channels to resell stolen goods...

1. ORC groups largely target everyday consumer goods — which offer a favorable balance between ease of theft, monetary value and ease of resale. Only 11% of the ORC groups examined in the report targeted luxury goods.

2. The median ORC fencing operation handled about $250,000 in stolen merchandise prior to being apprehended by law enforcement.

3. ORC fencing operations rely on online marketplaces as one resale channel. About 45% of ORC groups for which fencing information was available used online marketplaces for resale operations...
..“Organized retail crime is growing as a real threat to the safety, operations and bottom line of retailers across the nation and now forms a part of the criminal and illicit financing landscape... “The ORC industry will grow more dangerous, complex and profitable, and its illicit proceeds will fuel more organized criminal networks and operations in the United States, globally and virtually, if more concerted action is not taken to disrupt these trends.

05/30/2023

How Data-Driven Video is Helping Keep K–12 Students Safe.

Faced with a near-overwhelming range of daunting issues in education today, school districts across the U.S. are challenged with creating optimal learning environments. And unfortunately, administrators must first work to provide their students with nutrition and a comfortable, secure, and safe environment.

Students have a tough time engaging with classroom learning if they are hungry or if the school lacks basic furnishings and utilities—and students will undoubtedly have trouble learning if they are fearful of being at school and are worried about their safety and security. The rise in school shootings, vandalism, bullying, and other violent incidents has caused district administrators to look for innovative solutions to help secure their schools and proactively protect their students and staff.

As school districts work to rise to the challenge while simultaneously being asked to do more with less, data-driven video has emerged as a viable and effective solution for helping secure the learning environment. Data-driven video management systems, along with today's smart cameras, sensors, and video analytic software, provide insights that can help schools identify and address potential safety and security threats. As technology has advanced, the costs of these devices and technologies have dropped significantly, and system usability has become easily manageable for non-security and non-technical users.

Real-Time Decision-Making Assistance
While almost every school today has some form of on-site video surveillance, these systems are often used to record video with the intent that if something happens, school administrators can go back and review the event..