Physical Security — The Key To Unlocking Smart Building Success
By Mark Green, Physical Security Specialist at LMG
Physical security features have emerged as the most important source of data for the archetypal smart building, with CCTV analytics, location sensors and access control all producing vital information to allow facilities managers to make more effective decisions.
The data derived from these sources can help improve visitor management, uphold health and safety guidelines and improve the overall tenant/employee experience and well‑being – all of which contribute significantly to building performance and, most importantly, the occupant experience.
And as we assess how best to use our buildings and workspaces post‑COVID, I would go as far as to say that physical security is the key to smart building success as we return to the office. Here’s why.
Visitor Management And Health And Safety
Thousands of people pass through commercial buildings daily. Due to new regulations regarding social distancing as a result of the COVID pandemic, facility owners and managers have found themselves with new responsibilities. Among the most pressing of these is upholding limits on space occupancy, reducing physical contact and remaining accountable for building occupants, their whereabouts and their health status.
While this pandemic will eventually run its course, the expectations of visitors and occupants will remain irrevocably changed as we return to the workplace. And as this new attitude towards hybrid working will involve employees spending less time in commercial buildings such as offices, priorities will inevitably shift when it comes to occupancy levels. A consistently lower occupancy level across a building, compared with pre‑pandemic levels, means greater priority given to high quality experiences in lower occupancy areas. Put simply — workers expect a little more room to breathe.
Physical security devices serve to make this new paradigm as simple as possible. As a starting point, CCTV cameras allow for a smart building to track the number of people entering, occupying and exiting the building in real time. Whilst COVID restrictions remain in place, CCTV analytics can also be used to detect the usage of face coverings
Providing Super Tenant And Employee Experiences
More generally, the use of facial recognition and mobile phone credential applications for access control will soon be fundamental to creating a frictionless experience for visitors and employees. This allows facilities managers to create a minimally intrusive security environment.
Ultimately, barrierless turnstiles could be used with facial recognition or mobile credentials for a truly frictionless experience, whilst still maintaining the level of security and occupancy data.
The prospect of facial recognition can be a little controversial with regard to privacy and might be a cause of concern to some who feel the use of their facial image is being assessed to decide if they should have access or not. But they should be assured that all the system is doing is using an algorithm created by the unique features of their face, as a credential.
The benefits of this technology are enormous. Aside from the obvious boost in safety and security, the overall experience of the building is vastly improved as a seamless flow of foot traffic becomes the norm. Employees in a building could access the areas they need to, entirely unhindered by traditional access control. And most importantly, they don’t need to touch anything along the way.
Integrating Security Into IT Infrastructure
Traditionally, physical security has been somewhat siloed from the other facets of ICT or smart building infrastructure. So occasionally it falls victim to an image‑problem as being a little behind the technological curve. As described above, this is certainly no longer the case — quite the opposite — the data arising from these systems is the engine powering the development of modern smart buildings.
In order to take maximum advantage of this, it’s imperative that physical security systems are integrated properly with the rest of the smart building infrastructure. This ensures that all data is centralised. The security systems you install can be as advanced as you like, but without a way to aggregate the data produced with other sources, there won’t be anything ‘smart’ about it.
That’s why it’s so important to maintain a robust IP‑based network, creating a backbone of connectivity that ties all of a building’s technology together, physical security systems included. This surpasses what is conventionally possible with traditional building management systems (BMS) and allows facilities managers to cross reference the incredibly valuable security data with other data sources — to gain maximum insight.
In this respect, the impact of good physical security and access control has scope far beyond its core purpose. At the cutting edge of the technology, it underpins many of the best experiences a smart building can deliver.
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