In 2020, the forest areas in Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province were reported to have reached 1.855 million hectares, ranking among the top in the country. In addition to absorbing carbon dioxide, conserving water sources, and maintaining water and soil, these ancient forests also shelter a large number of rare wild animals and plants. These natural wonders are a risk if a forest fire breaks out, causing drastic damage and endangering the inhabitants of the forest. Wireless transmission systems Since 2020, Dahua has been assisting Dali Prefecture in building front-end systems and installing wireless transmission systems in key protected zones as well as areas prone to forest fires. More than 500 cases of illegal use of fire in the wild and 7 cases of forest fires have been detected since then. 24/7 real-time monitoring  Dali Prefecture's forest coverage rate reached 65.51% in 2020. Twenty-eight nature reserves of various types and levels were established throughout the prefecture, with a total area of 181,000 hectares. The vast forest constitutes an ecological security barrier, but its massive area makes it difficult to monitor forest fires. "Burning straws, cooking fires, etc. are all common wildfires, but even seemingly insignificant areas can become the source of forest fires," a local forest ranger said. Visible light and thermal imaging technology The dual-spectrum thermal imaging cameras deployed in the forest enable the fire prevention video monitoring system Multiple round-the-clock patrol points were set up to monitor and observe the surrounding forest areas 24/7, with 3 people in each shift (changes every three days). The mountains are high and the slopes are steep, and sometimes thorns are everywhere, especially at night. Nevertheless, with the help of modern technology, these diligent forest rangers always persevere in accomplishing their tasks and duties. The dual-spectrum thermal imaging cameras deployed in the forest enable the fire prevention video monitoring system to complete an automatic cruising round in just 15 minutes. Based on visible light and thermal imaging technology, it can detect a fire source of about 2 square metres within a range of 5-10 kilometers. Accurate multi-dimensional positioning of fire source Flammable coniferous trees such as Yunnan pine and Huashan pine are widely spread in the forest areas of Dali Prefecture. Large-scale and high-intensity forest fires could start in these areas in a short period. In case of a sudden fire, quickly locating the source of the fire can add more significant time for firefighting.  Smart fire detection system  Technologies such as dual-spectrum video monitoring, intelligent image analysis and recognition, and three-dimensional positioning enable the smart system to detect a fire, quickly locate the fire source and automatically send an alarm to on-duty personnel. In forests with hundreds of hectares (or even thousands of hectares), the source of the fire can be accurately located within 50 metres, allowing the firefighting team to quickly reach the location and providing more time to control the fire.  The efficient investigation, assessment, and handling of the fire situation Extinguishing forest fires requires the full cooperation of the frontline and the command centre. The command centre quickly communicates with the frontline about firefighting strategies based on the actual fire situation. But how can they understand the situation at the scene if they are far away?  It enables operators to check and assess the situation in time, and quickly deal with the fire This particular job is handed over to the visual forest fire prevention video monitoring system. This smart security system synchronously displays real-time images in the monitoring centre, combined with other corresponding data such as space, time, fire type, etc. It enables operators to check and assess the situation in time, and quickly deal with the fire according to the corresponding plan.  Full coverage of network transmission in forest areas  Considering its vast areas, transmitting valuable information from the forest could be a daunting task. "The mountain area is large and widely spread. Sometimes, there’s even no mobile phone signal. To allow the command centre to see the scene in time, we also built a wireless transmission with front-end equipment." "The smart system covers all the video points in the forest and sends forest fire information back to the command centre in real-time," a Dahua technical engineer explained.  Early detection, reporting, and handling The forest fire prevention video monitoring system that Dahua helped build in Dali Prefecture offers wide-coverage, all-weather, high-precision, and intelligent 24/7 monitoring that can automatically detect fire and locate its source in time. Early detection, reporting, and handling of the fire situation using digital intelligence can effectively safeguard the safety of these local ecological barriers. With abundant experience in developing smart fire prevention systems, Dahua will continue to innovate and create technological breakthroughs to protect the environment and natural resources. 

A manufacturing facility is a tough testing ground for any access control solution. By their nature, premises usually require multiple types of locks, including a range of cylinder types and sizes, as well as padlocks.  They often need locks that work both inside and outdoors. For this reason, many manufacturing plants retain outdated mechanical locking solutions, sacrificing the added control of an electronic solution. Programmable key solution criteria The right programmable key solution offers a flexible, powerful alternative. Key-based access control retains many advantages of mechanical security, notably the range of cylinders that manufacturing facilities need. It supplements this with added convenience for users: Instead of wasting time looking for the right key, or carrying large bunches, a user’s electronic key is programmed to unlock every opening for which they have authorisation, doors, and cabinets, indoors or outside. RheinfelsQuellen H. Hövelmann This beverage group has been run by the Hövelmann family since 1905 and is in its fourth generation Headquartered in Duisburg, RheinfelsQuellen H. Hövelmann is a family-owned company with a long history. This beverage group has been run by the Hövelmann family since 1905 and is currently in its fourth generation. Its product range includes nationally distributed brands Sinalco, Aquintéll, and Staatl. Fachingen, as well as others distributed within North Rhine-Westphalia such as Rheinfels Quelle, Römerwall, Burgwall­bronn, Ardey Quelle, Urquell, and Rheinperle. Challenge A company like RheinfelsQuellen is always on the move: New divisions are established, employees relocate or processes change. Suppliers, contractors, and the company’s own 650 personnel come and go. This means that access authorisations must change regularly. At the same time, areas and locations to be protected require different security levels, and access control devices need reliable weather resistance in outdoor areas. All-in-one solution For its Duisburg HQ and other locations around North Rhine–Westphalia, RheinfelsQuellen opted for an eCLIQ key-operated electronic access control system. In addition to administrative buildings, production facilities, and outdoor areas are also secured with around 530 eCLIQ devices. eCLIQ Cylinders offer a high level of protection against tampering and intelligent attacks ASSA ABLOY’s eCLIQ is a fully electronic version of the CLIQ® programmable key access control solution. Cylinders offer a high level of protection against tampering and intelligent attacks. All eCLIQ keys are extremely robust, with a waterproof casing and thus meet the high demands placed on outdoor access control by challenging environmental conditions.  CLIQ Web Manager This key-based access control system is managed independently by the CLIQ Web Manager (CWM), a flexible, easily scalable, cloud-based platform. System data may be accessed at any time, and from any location, via the CWM interface. The software's flexibility makes it especially suited to large access systems and/or for administering multiple locations which are geographically dispersed. “We are very satisfied with eCLIQ and would choose this secure and flexible locking solution time and time again,” says Marcus Schlötels, Project Manager at RheinfelsQuellen H. Hövelmann.

Patient falls in nursing homes are a serious problem. In the United States, for example, around 1,800 elderly people living in nursing facilities die each year from injuries related to falls, according to the Nursing Home Abuse Center. Those who survive their injuries often have a reduced quality of life and suffer some form of permanent disability. Challenge Figures show that between 50% and 75% of nursing home residents suffer falls each year, twice the chances of falling compared to seniors who live in a regular residential community. It has been a prevalent challenge to detect falls quickly and effectively, especially when these occur in residents’ bedrooms. In the UK, the Care Quality Commission has recognised that the use of CCTV may be one of the best ways to ensure safety and quality of care. However, using video surveillance also brings into question issues such as privacy and data protection. This is where Dahua’s WizMind technologies come into play. Human-based AI Specific to health and social care are deep-learning algorithms to protect the privacy of the face and body WizMind embraces human-based AI for a whole host of applications across verticals such as retail, energy, finance, transportation, and, of course, health and social care. Specific to the health and social care sector are deep-learning algorithms to protect the privacy of the face and body in real-time, and stereo analysis, which combines dual-lens cameras with three-dimensional scene analysis to detect sudden physical movement, such as falls. Stereo Video Analysis The growth of AI applications has enabled the greater availability of 3D scene analysis solutions, enabling objects and people to be analysed in three dimensions. Dahua’s stereo analysis uses two lenses to capture separate images of the same scene. It then computes the “optical parallax” of spatial points in the two images, providing 3D information about the scene. Stereo vision mimics the depth of view that comes from humans having two eyes, known as binocular vision. Deep-learning algorithm Combined with a deep-learning algorithm, stereo analysis can recognise event patterns such as falls, and other movement-based behaviours such as people approaching, the detection of an abnormal number of people in an area, and violent behavior. In nursing homes, stereo analysis cameras can help staff monitor residents in case of emergency and respond to residents’ problems, such as tripping and falls. The cameras can view all three dimensions of subjects, and together with its deep-learning algorithm can immediately alert staff to any unusual or sudden movement, such as would be evident in a fall. Intelligent fall detection technology The staff can respond quickly to incidents, which may otherwise stay undiscovered for hours With cameras situated both in communal areas and in bedrooms, the staff can respond quickly to incidents, which may otherwise stay undiscovered for hours. An example of such a scenario is a nursing home in Singapore, which has a capacity of around 400 beds and is divided into 14 separate living environments, each designed to be a home-like living area. Dahua cameras like IPC-HDW8341X-BV-3D with intelligent fall detection technology were installed, including the provision of 167 stereo analysis cameras inside each bedroom. These trigger an alarm in the case of incidents such as a fall, allowing immediate response by staff. Other applications Not only does this enhance the well-being and safety of residents, but it also can reduce the nursing home’s labour costs. In addition, Stereo Analysis can also be applied in other application scenarios. An underground unmanned bicycle parking garage in Amsterdam, for instance, has installed Dahua behavior analysis cameras to detect abnormal events and prevent accidents, such as people tripping and falling or suspicious individuals wandering around the area. Privacy protection While monitoring their situation inside the nursing home, Dahua also adopts Privacy Protection 2.0 technology that features the masking of human faces and bodies to protect the residents’ privacy. It involves the restriction of what can be seen in video images and applies equally to live and recorded images. Digital masking takes place on the front-end device (e.g. network camera). Dahua’s Privacy Protection 2.0 provides real-time occlusion of the body and face and enables users to access recorded videos, without having to overlay faces with mosaic masks. Occlusion options The technology also allows for face and human attributes analysis, without breaching people’s privacy It also offers additional occlusion options, such as irregular polygons, mosaics, and coloured blocks, and allows code exporting based on specified targets, ensuring the privacy of subjects. Benefits include non-pixelated human targets, allowing for privacy and security in evidence collection. The technology also allows for face and human attributes analysis, without breaching people’s privacy, making it ideal for nursing homes. Conclusion Stereo video analysis and privacy protection come into their own in nursing homes and healthcare facilities. It allows the close monitoring of residents or patients to help ensure their well-being and safety, while at the same time protecting the privacy of often vulnerable individuals.

Finland’s Osuuskauppa PeeÄssä retail co-operative, a nationwide S-Group co-operative federation member, has deployed March Networks video surveillance systems across its footprint of 73 retail and service establishments. The co-op boasts 121,000 customer-owners in Finland’s Northern Savonia region, whose capital and largest city, Kuopio, is 384 kilometres north of Helsinki. The 73 retail and service locations include three Prisma Hypermarkets, 29 S-Market grocery stores, 15 convenience stores, 15 restaurants, six ABC gas stations, three hotels, a SOKOS department store, and a Kodin Terra hardware store. March Networks video surveillance systems The rollout began in September 2019 and currently includes 85 March Networks recorders, a mix of 8000 Series Hybrid NVRs and 9000 Series IP Recorders, and more than 1,500 March Networks cameras. A new hotel and supermarket currently under construction will bring the camera count close to 2,000. “We used to have several different video surveillance systems and 10 different camera models from six manufacturers,” said Kimmo Keränen, IT Manager for PeeÄssä retail co-operative. “Maintenance was almost impossible and the picture quality in some cases was very poor.” Time management challenge Central management was a key feature for PeeÄssä retail while looking for in its new surveillance system “On top of that, there was no synchronised timekeeping, so one system could be five minutes off and another one could be an hour off. That was a real problem because correct timekeeping is everything when you’re looking for evidence.” For this reason, central management was a key feature PeeÄssä retail co-operative was looking for in its new surveillance system. “A majority of the 19 S-Group regional co-ops were already using March Networks systems, so the decision was easy to make,” said Jan Österlund, ICT Manager with SafeIT, a systems integrator and March Networks Certified Solution Provider serving the S-Group and PeeÄssä accounts. Central monitoring and management With more than 1,000 NVRs and tens of thousands of cameras across the larger S-Group co-ops, central management is a huge timesaver. Österlund can push out firmware upgrades and device settings with a few simple mouse clicks using March Networks Command Enterprise Software. The advanced system management software is ideal for managing large distributed video surveillance architecture. Its health monitoring and mass management capabilities make it easy to look after thousands of recorders and cameras from one central location. “We can schedule upgrades by location type and opening hours to minimise any interference with recording during business hours,” explained Osterlund. Recorders and cameras in use The 8000 and 9000 Series recorders are 32-channel or 64-channel devices with either 20 TB or 40 TB of onboard storage, sufficient to capture 30 days of archived video. The majority of the 1,500 cameras are March Networks SE2 Indoor and Outdoor IR Domes, but SE2 IR MicroBullets, SE2 Pendant PTZ Domes, and legacy analogue cameras are also used for specific applications. Searchlight software integration  Searchlight helps organisations gather business intelligence, which can help retailers with customer service S-Group is transitioning to a new point-of-sale system and has plans to integrate it with March Networks’ Searchlight for Retail software, which will allow the co-ops, including PeeÄssä, to identify suspicious transactions and instantly link to the associated video. Searchlight also helps organisations gather business intelligence, which can help retailers with operations, marketing, and customer service. “We are looking forward to acquiring the Brickstream 3D Gen2 sensors for queue management and people counting, and March Networks ME6 IR Domes for AI-powered analytics,” said Keränen. GDPR Compliance The March Networks system in place at PeeÄssä complies with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect in 2018 and aims to protect the personal data and privacy of EU citizens. System features like privacy masks, which allow users to block out specific parts of a camera’s field of view, are important for meeting the regulation. “GDPR compliance is one of the reasons why we recommended March Networks,” said Österlund. Video access, training, and monitoring Video is currently monitored by guards in three control rooms, but managers also have access to live and recorded video from their locations. Altogether, approximately 100 PeeÄssä staff have access to the video. “Training everyone to use the system was very easy,” remarked Österlund. “The March Networks system is very user-friendly, so we supplied step-by-step instructions on how to log in, pick a camera, play the video, and export it.” Crime management Video is regularly used to supply evidence for shoplifting and internal fraud investigations Video is regularly used to supply evidence for shoplifting and internal fraud investigations, but the much-improved video quality from the March Networks system was also welcomed by local law enforcement. The Eastern Finland Police Department has mapped the location of PeeÄssä’s publicly facing cameras in the National Police Board’s database of surveillance cameras to help access video for criminal investigation purposes. “Almost every week, we are asked for video from the police department,” said Keränen. Installation, time, and cost savings SafeIT’s experience with the March Networks deployments at other S-Group co-ops helped to streamline the installation at PeeÄssä. “We supplied local integrators with clear guidance on how to set up the cameras and NVRs,” said Österlund. Standardising on March Networks allows the PeeÄssä co-op to save time and reduce costs for system maintenance. The state-of-the-art video surveillance system is also much easier to use. “We are very satisfied with March Networks,” said Keränen. “It was a big project, but well worth doing.”