Expert opinion. Physical or digital security? Bohdan Savchenko, head of presales, Ajax Systems, answers

/ Opinions /

PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA: Physical fences are gradually becoming an archaic element of security, undesirable from the point of view of modern architects, as they are perceived as a marker of an unsafe environment. Do today's modern security systems allow us to abandon the use of physical barriers?

Bohdan Savchenko: In the context of security, a physical barrier is one of the elements of deterring an intrusion and helps to detect movement in advance - before an intruder approaches directly to the door of your home. Protection of the entrance group is also good, but it is important to understand that in this case the alarm notification will arrive when the threat is already at the entrance or in the premises itself.

City of strangers: watch yourself, be careful!

Street motion sensors equipped with new technologies are already used to protect the perimeter of private houses. For example, with sensors with photo verification, you don't need to endlessly hold back the yard — you can react only to real threats and monitor all events through an application on a smartphone. The advanced anti-sabotage system helps to monitor any changes in the state of the sensors: protection from the floor, notification of jamming, removal of the tamper, anti-masking (when an alarm is triggered when you try to close the lens). And each sensor can be adjusted as precisely as possible, regardless of the construction of the house.

Nevertheless, in an open space, the area of ​​action of street sensors is limited only to the detection range, which can reach 30 m. Meanwhile, physical barriers in the form of a fence work in conjunction with the sensors, helping them to clearly limit the area of ​​​​action and minimize false positives almost to zero.

Bohdan Savchenko, head of presales, Ajax Systems

PM: One of the most sensitive spaces for which safety is important is schools and kindergartens. How effective are security systems in such establishments?

BS: Schools and kindergartens are municipal institutions, the physical protection of which usually costs the city millions of hryvnias annually. A security guard at a school, most likely, will only be able to ward off a random hooligan, but he is not capable of resisting a planned theft or attack. In contrast to a professional security system, on the signal of which an armed patrol can leave immediately.

Moreover, modern security systems at such facilities are an economically attractive solution. Thus, investments in the installation of new systems are significantly lower than the costs incurred by the city for the maintenance, training and control of physical security. We at Ajax Systems have already implemented a similar project in Mariupol, where all 114 schools and kindergartens came under the protection of Ajax. According to the city authorities, thanks to this, they will be able to save UAH 38 million in the next year. The institutions of Uman and other cities are next in line.

PM: People are conservative and often reject modern technologies, not trusting their reliability. "What will happen if the electricity or the Internet goes out?" - they think. Or: "No, it's too complicated and expensive." What can be objected?

BS: The main task of the security system is to always be in touch, to work autonomously without electricity and to notify every time if someone tries to disable the connection between the sensors and the user / security company. Therefore, in modern security systems, communication is made absolute.

To guarantee uninterrupted communication, today not even two, but four standard communication channels are used: Wi-Fi, Ethernet and two 2G / 3G / LTE SIM card slots. Communication channels work in parallel and replace each other in emergency situations. That is, if the Internet suddenly disappears, the system itself will instantly switch to an alternative communication channel - for example, cellular.

The situation is the same with jamming. If one of the requested channels is silenced, the central system will immediately switch to an alternative communication channel and simultaneously notify the user and the security company about the request for silence.

In the event of a power outage, for example, Ajax centrals have a backup battery that can support autonomous operation of the hub for up to 15 hours. We develop and implement such technologies in Ajax systems, and this is the level of stability and autonomy that is beyond the power of any old wired system.

Despite the ease of installation and management of the Ajax system, we always recommend contacting professional installation engineers. This guarantees the correctness of the installation and will reduce the number of false positives to a minimum.

Installation consists of a series of mandatory stages: study of the location and radio reconnaissance, creation of a plan with the arrangement of devices, installation of equipment and testing of detection zones, adjustment, system test, connection to the monitoring panel, transfer of the object with documentation to the client. Only a professional can perform all these works quickly and correctly.