Much press attention lately has focused on the “cyber” side of industrial security—protecting control systems and networks from computer viruses, worms, hacker attacks and other forms of electronic maliciousness.
But at the same time, companies can ill-afford to neglect their physical perimeters. And when the topic turns to the best ways to lock down a facility to keep the bad guys out—and to protect employees, assets and the environment, as well—manufacturers these days are turning to a range of emerging technology solutions.
Among the latest trends is a growing use of microprocessor-enabled smart cards, which are beginning to replace the basic photo identification cards used in traditional card access systems. Companies are also moving toward wider use of digital video and Internet Protocol (IP) technology for video surveillance networking, while use of biometrics identification technology is also on the rise, particularly for access to critical or high security areas.
More bang
One watchword increasingly is integration, as industrial users look to get more bang for their buck from their security technology investments. A convergence of information technology (IT) with physical security products is fueling a move toward more capable, multi-functional systems that can serve multiple security purposes—and often, non-security functions as well.
One example is the so-called smart badges now in use at aircraft maker The Boeing Co. These cards not only enable physical access to company buildings and garages worldwide, but they also provide employees with personal computer (PC) and network log-on rights, and additional functions are in the works, says Steve Yanagimachi, a security advisor with Boeing Security and Fire Protection, in Seattle.
In a growing number of instances, building access cards based on smart card technology are also being used for functions such as time and attendance tracking, production control and other business applications, points out Mark Peterson, director, iTechnology Design Resource Group, for HID Corp., an Irvine, Calif.-based maker of access control cards and readers.
“Today, the same smart card readers that are used for access to a building can be fitted to different machines and devices within the factory, so that operators can log on and start a machine only if their training and qualifications are up to date. And that information would be housed on their cards,” notes Peterson. What’s more, by recording the unit output when an employee logs off the machine, the same card-based system can be used for operator productivity tracking, Peterson points out.
The convergence of IT with security means that previously separate systems can now communicate over the same IP-based networks. And some companies are integrating functions such as access control and intrusion detection with IP-based video surveillance, all under the control of a single security management system, says Peterson. Advantages include more highly coordinated security activities. If a back door to a building is forced open, for example, it can not only trigger an access control system alarm, but it can automatically activate a digital video camera to zoom in on the door in question and send the video feed to a control room monitor.
The integration also facilitates easier access to the video for later viewing by security personnel. “Because today’s systems actually talk to each other, I can set flags on certain video events and alarm events and associate them in my database, which makes my post-alarm investigative activities a lot more efficient,” Peterson explains. “I no longer have to scroll through a lot of videotape to find the event.”
Compared to traditional analog closed circuit television (CCTV) systems, which rely on videotape recording, IP surveillance systems store data in digital format, making the video much more accessible. Most IP-based systems allow multiple users in different locations to access the same video simultaneously, for example. This capability could prove valuable during a security emergency in a process facility, for instance, by enabling the security command center and the control room to share the same digital video feed, notes Leslie Arnold, marketing and business development manager for industrial security solutions, at Honeywell Process Solutions, in Phoenix.
“If an intruder breaches access and gets into a restricted zone, and the digital video management system has got a lock on the intruder, the control room can get a view of what’s happening, together with site security, so they can really assess the risk level to the entire plant,” Arnold notes. In the past, control room personnel knowledge of the incident may have been limited to telephone or walkie-talkie communication with the security staff. “But now, everyone can actually get a visual lock on what’s happening.”
Video intelligence
Additional advantages of digital video and IP networking include the ability to build rules-based software “intelligence” into the system that can generate real-time alarms when predetermined, user-defined rules are violated, says Ray Bernard, principal consultant for Ray Bernard Consulting Services, a security consulting firm based in Lake Forest, Calif.
This kind of intelligence could be used to alert security personnel to unusual activity around a plant perimeter, for example. Or it might be deployed to improve plant safety. “If you’ve got zones in a factory or warehouse that should always be kept clear for safety reasons, you can use the intelligence in a video camera to monitor those areas, so if someone drops a pallet or a box and leaves it there for a certain number of minutes, it can generate an alarm. Or it can generate an alarm instantly, and bring it to the operator’s attention,” Bernard explains. “In the past, this kind of capability actually required a person just sitting and staring at a monitor.”
The use of IP video can also enable video surveillance of remote facilities, not only for security purposes, but for production and quality control as well. This can be accomplished either through a corporate network with dedicated lines, or even over the Internet.
One company getting a big productivity boost from remote IP video surveillance is Pioneer Snacks Inc., a Farmington Hills, Mich.-based maker of meat snacks such as beef jerky and smoked sausage. The company recently replaced its analog CCTV security surveillance system at its main production plant in Mankato, Minn., with a new system based on digital video cameras and IP video networking technology provided by Sam Security and Monitoring, of Warren, Mich. The Sam software runs on Microsoft Corp.’s .Net platform and Windows Server 2003.
Unlike Pioneer Snack’s previous tape-based system that was difficult to search and access remotely, the new system is “intelligent” and easily accessible over the Internet, says Pioneer Snacks President Robert George. “Not only do we monitor the security of our building, all of our doors and all of our processing areas, but we are also able to see, from here in the Detroit area, how our Minnesota plant is being operated,” George notes. “I can sit right here at my desk, and with the cameras that we’ve installed, I can actually zoom in and read documents on somebody’s note pad. And this is all done over the Internet.”
Pioneer Snacks installed 30 IP-enabled digital cameras at the Mankato plant, including seven PTZ cameras (for pan, tilt, zoom) in critical processing locations and over doors. And since the system was installed early this year, the company has seen a significant increase in productivity, simply through the elimination of time-wasting activity by some of the plant’s 200 employees, George says. “The word gets out that someone is watching, it spreads through the plant and the next thing you know, people are straightening themselves out,” he notes.
In one case, the company caught some employees who were routinely sneaking out a back door to smoke. In another case, a worker who claimed to have slipped on a wet floor and sustained an injury was forced to back off from the claim when a review of the video showed that no such incident had occurred.
Pioneer Snacks has also used the system to streamline its processes, George adds. By repeated viewing of video taken of packing and quality inspection activities at the end of its production lines, management was able to determine that a single employee would have time both to perform quality inspections and also to pack product into boxes. That finding—confirmed by a time and motion study done by an industrial engineer—led to the elimination of three quality inspector positions on each of several production lines at the plant, says George.
The usefulness of the system is enhanced by the fact that multiple users both in Michigan and Minnesota can simultaneously view the same video feed, George points out. “My plant manager, my general manager and I can literally look at the same picture at the same time and talk about it over the phone.”
Lower bandwidth
One primary reason that Pioneer Snacks selected the Sam Security and Monitoring technology is its lower video bandwidth requirements compared to other IP video systems on the market, George confirms. According to Gene Thomas, Sam Security and Monitoring president and chief executive officer, the company has patents pending on two video bandwidth reducing techniques deployed in its system.
One, called network video tunneling, enables multiple users viewing the same video scene simultaneously to share a single video stream. This contrasts to competitive systems that open a separate instance of the same video stream—with its associated bandwidth—each time a new user requests it, Thomas says. The second technique, called adaptive resolution, automatically scales a live video stream to send only the necessary image size and resolution. This can reduce bandwidth considerably compared to other systems, which typically send a full-resolution image from a camera, even when a user is viewing only a thumbnail size image, Thomas says.
These techniques, combined with use of Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series compression, can reduce bandwidth needs by up to 90 percent compared to competitive systems, Thomas claims. “So the cost savings can be tremendous,” he says, “particularly if you’ve got many locations around the world.”
Pioneer Snacks, for one, is pleased with its system. “We calculated that our return on investment would be about a year and a half, but I think now, it’s going to be closer to a year, just on productivity improvements alone,” says George.
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See sidebar to this article: Industrial Use of Biometrics Set to Grow
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