2 4 · d e t e k t o r i n t e r n a t i o n a l
the
interview
V I D E O S E C U R I T Y
P R O D U C T S
w w w . v i d e o t e c . c o m
i n f o @ v i d e o t e c . c o m
Made in Italy since 1986
COLOURS
IN THE DARK
New Imaging and Encoding
Technology by Videotec for
day/night vision with
exceptional night brightness.
Superior low-light
colour camera to
0.006 lux
Improved PTZ
performance
Better image,
Better price
"The combination of video and critical
communications together is very powerful"
2018 has been an intense year for Avigilon. Motorola
Solutions completed its 1 billion dollar acquisition of
Avigilon in March and Alexander Fernandes found-
er, CEO and Chairman of the board has retired.
"what Motorola and Avigilon really offer is the op-
portunity of growth into new markets", says willem
Ryan, Avigilon Vice President, Global Marketing and
Communications.
Founded in 2004 in Vancouver,
Avigilon has been growing rapidly.
The company designs, develops,
and manufactures video analytics,
network video management soft-
ware and hardware, surveillance
cameras and access control solu-
tions, and in 2017, the revenue
was more than 400 million dollars.
Willem Ryan is excited about the
completion of the acquisition.
"Motorola is an industry
leader in critical communications,
especially in industries around
public safety, federal law enforce-
ment, where communication is
key. In some of the most criti-
cal moments, whether it be a an
emergency disaster, or even just
day to day operations for business,
communications provide that
connection, and video provides
eyes that can verify information
on what is happening in real time,
so the combination of video and
critical communications together
is very powerful", he says.
What is the biggest trend in the
market right now?
"We see the growth of AI. It
is the disrupting technology that
is going to continue to change
and shape the industry both near
term and long term. We have
been developing AI for a num-
ber of years now and a year ago
we launched our first AI based
technology called Avigilon Appear-
ance Search technology. It is all
about searching video very quickly,
using AI to aggregate data, so that
you can find a person or a vehicle
across an entire site very fast. We
have been continuing to develop
and enhance that feature. AI will
continue to evolve over time and
really enhance the way people use
and interact with their security
system."
How interested are the end cus-
tomers in AI?
"One of the things that we
have seen is that people love the
way that Appearance Search helps
them find things a lot faster. Peo-
ple may not necessarily understand
all that is behind the AI technol-
ogy, but we help to explain how it
works. We know AI is going to be
practical to people if it solves real
problems; that is the key. And we
know video searching is one of the
main items that a security operator
does on a day-to-day basis look-
ing through video to find the
things that they need to find. So
they are really excited, and the de-
mand is quite high. So now, based
on that, there is a healthy curiosity
of what could happen next. What
could AI also solve?"
Is there a difference between how
AI is used in North America and
in Europe?
"Not that I have seen up to
date. It would be interesting
to see over time how it can be
applied. Now, each country in
Europe has its own regulations
in terms of use of video surveil-
lance. So that may dictate how
AI can be used in those countries.
Different regulations may influ-
ence the way that you use it. The
implementation of GDPR in the
EU has required an adjustment
of how people will manage their
video surveillance system, and AI
actually has a role to play in that.
AI can help to find, for example,
if someone requests to see the
video that was recorded in the
system. A great thing about AI is
that it can quickly and accurately
find that information."
How do you work with cyber
security?
"Cyber security is key. As our
data becomes more rich and power-
ful in terms of what we are describ-
ing, securing that data is key. For us
it is about allowing our customers
to apply their processes around
data protection and our system to
be able to enable that, and so we
have a number of tools within our
system that supports cyber security.
We also have processes within our
own development cycle that allow
us to address vulnerabilities as they
come in to the market and be able
to quickly address that, and allow
our customers to update as they go
along. Keeping your system current
and up to date is very important.
We create packages for our firm-
ware and software updates that will
at the same time update your soft-
ware, update firmware for cameras,
and keep them at the most current,
which includes security patches. We
are also excited about cloud tech-
nology because it allows deploying
the latest updates as well."
You also manufacture access
control solutions.
"Access control is one of the
fastest growing segments of our
product portfolio and for us, access
control, independently continues to
grow, but we also see the unifica-
tion of access control and video as
the key philosophy and strategy.
We are continuing to bring more
access control information into our
video surveillance range, for exam-
ple being able to verify and identify
people's credentials as they go in
and out of a door. We can also
grant access to a door through our
video system. So we are continu-
ing to evolve that, so people can
have one unified system for their
security, access control and video,
all together in a very powerful way."
By Henrik Söderlund
Willem Ryan, Avigilon on being a part of Motorola:
Cyber security is key. As our data
becomes more rich and powerful
in terms of what we are describing,
securing that data is key.
Willem Ryan, Avigilon Vice President, Global Marketing and Communications.
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