While the demand for safety and security systems is stable, future-oriented, modern, digital technologies in this space are seeing good opportunities, according to Prabal Bose, Vice- President - Regional Solutions & Services, Smart Infrastructure, Siemens India. “For instance, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are gaining importance in the context of security, legal, compliance, and reputation; as any unmanaged threat can be financially crippling and negatively impact business continuity.” Demand for safety and security systems is moderate to high, he reckons.
“In Q3, we saw a slight improvement in business and are hopeful that business will further improve in Q4, says Pramoud Rao, Managing Director, Zicom.
“We see a positive trend in sectors like data centres, financial, life sciences, metros and airports,” says Bose.
Smart integrated IoT device-based home solutions saw increased acceptance during the pandemic, fuelled by the wider availability of Wi-Fi, says Vishnu Choudhary, Managing Director, Athena Security Solutions.
“Puravankara offers homebuyers touchless technology to reduce their dependence on switches and other areas with common touch points inside a home,” shares Ashish R Puravankara, Managing Director, Puravankara. Such offerings may have more value now. “We brought out our patented touchless solution ‘BluNex’ before the pandemic and are implementing it in projects like Purva Zenium and Purva Atmosphere.”
Pandemic impact on offices
The impact of the pandemic on the commercial sector started during the lockdown phase, when
the surge in the number of connected devices across various sectors led to a consequent surge in
the creation of new data, most of which is extremely sensitive, according to Bose. “This risk of
exposure forced organisations to look at safety and security upgradations. Digital transformation
in the safety and security space is becoming imperative to keep employees safe as they work
remotely.”
Once India Inc started to get back to work after lockdown, a number of health security products saw industry-wide application. Pithawalla lists these as body temperature systems, face recognition-based attendance systems, AI-based, non-touch video door phones, and thermal cameras, saying that legal recommendations such as checking the temperature of every individual entering a building helped drive this demand.
Video surveillance and access control systems with face recognition at the entry points of facilities are now complemented with body temperature scanning, continues Bose. “IP cameras with temperature screening and analytics are becoming the norm and mobile-based access control solutions for corporate offices have also gained much interest for promoting hygiene standards. Solutions incorporating real-time location services help to locate people and equipment, monitor visitors, and facilitate sanitisation trigger and tracking. IoT sensors enabled within a building allow more accurate and efficient contact tracing.”
“In the Hiranandani corporate office, we have replaced our biometric attendance system with mobile-based access control to avoid overcrowding at entrances,” shares Dr Niranjan Hiranandani, Founder & Managing Director, Hiranandani Group. “Contactless body temperature systems are being used across all our offices and sites.”
While the demand for security solutions seems to be tilting towards entrance control and scanning systems such as turnstiles, flap barriers and doorframe metal detectors, demand is also emerging for variants of those integrating biosafety devices like thermal cameras and temperature monitors for superior information gathering and better vigilance, observes Raj Mehra, CEO, Capricorn Security Solutions.
Role of automation
With manpower being short or numbers being curtailed, demand for automation and analytic
features to optimise resources is on the rise, says Bose. “These include the deployment of new,
modern and AI systems, operational logic, etc.”
AI has facilitated social distancing, checking for the wearing of masks and other tasks, Choudhary points out. “A few cameras with AI are all that are needed to monitor corporate towers,” he says. “Time and attendance are also moving to AI-based cloud offerings. However, I don’t see those becoming a huge growth segment in India.”
Siemens’s data-driven offerings for Infra 4.0, like the Comfy app, Enlighted, Mindsphere and Navigator, enable the easy analysis of system issues and have advanced features to help optimise resources. Comfy supports employees’ safe return to the workplace and lays the foundation for more agile and future-oriented working. Its IOT and workspace applications can be tailor-made to fit customer needs.
In general, because of the pandemic, security solutions have transformed from manual systems to digital ones with minimal human intervention, he adds.
In another category—contactless temperature guns—“easily available, low-priced Chinese guns saw the maximum sales whereas ‘Made in India’ products designed painstakingly for the Indian environment failed to take off on account of being higher priced,” observes Rao.
Incidentally, his on-ground experience has been contrary to others in the industry. “Customers are not seeking any new technology or manpower because the fear of COVID-19 is decreasing,” says Rao. “In response to the pandemic, businesses are cutting expenses, cutting manpower, cutting salaries and cutting expenditure; essentially, they are running in survival mode. The purchase of safety products to fight the pandemic has been a huge disappointment for every company selling solutions to protect against the virus.”
Future opportunities
“We see the gradual opening of the markets and foresee better results February-March 2021
onwards, says Mehra. “The Government is playing a crucial role in boosting infrastructure.”
Safety and security used to account for 45-50 per cent of the extra low voltage/integrated building management system (ELV/IBMS) package for a typical building pre-COVID, says Bose. He expects this to gradually increase and generate retrofit opportunities. Assuming that workplaces of the future are likely to embrace a mix of remote and onsite work, organisations will have to adapt accordingly, leading to demand for solutions used for both those scenarios. The need for an integrated command-and-control centre to safeguard data under threat is being increasingly felt.
Systems connected to the Internet are vulnerable to cyberattacks, which is especially alarming in the context of smart cities, adds Bose. “The need to safeguard these ecosystems from threats is propelling with the use of modern IoT security frameworks and cyber-planning.”
Choudhary anticipates that increased infrastructure spending from the Government will generate
new demand. “There is a need to implement smart, cost-effective technology for predicting
events like fires,” he says. “Heat in tunnels, parking structures, tall buildings and power
transmission lines, and stress on columns and buildings, can be very accurately and cost-
effectively detected with intelligent distributed fibre-sensing technologies, performing highly
accurate predictive analytics of possible events and enabling operators to take appropriate action
in a timely manner.”
Welcome to the future!
- CHARU BAHRI