Steve Norman, the Sales Director of Dahua UK and Ireland, invited Roy Cooper, Professional Security MD (pictured courtesy of a thermal camera), to visit their UK offices in Maidenhead.
I thought why not, and let’s get straight into it as we return to work on January 2. The first thing of course is that it’s a secure building so before you even enter their offices you are confronted with an access control system. This is of course made by the company themselves and has three levels of security. First, card access. It’s also a fingerprint reader; and it has a camera, which has facial recognition built into it. As it happens, right outside their front door is a lovely little cafe where I had met Steve, so he just used his identity to get us in to the offices.
Showroom
Having gained access, the offices are bright and modern in style as you would expect. It’s an open plan layout broken down into pre-sales areas; tech support and so on, with offices around the perimeter for the likes of Lilia Zhang the UK General Manager. However I am not there to count desks of course. As you turn into the offices you see for the first time the entrance to the showroom. This time to gain access you have to pass through a barrier as when you are entering a Tube station or secure area at the airport. I’m given a fob and notice that is also made by Dahua. Not sure if you are the same as me but I was unaware the company made all these types of security products, besides CCTV.
Connected
The room is around 1500 square metres and very open. The end wall is just one massive display wall. Very impressive to be honest and upon closer examination it’s a free-standing wall made up of small modules the size of an iPad. These just slide in and out and are all connected together, via a bit of free software that is just like a matrix. You can change the display to whatever layout you can think of. You can make it display live cameras, and thermal imaging cameras, play back recordings, and if you so desired you could put live TV onto it and so be watching your favourite TV show with all your CCTV cameras around it. Needless to say one wall is covered with CCTV cameras and I asked Steve how many cameras he had in the range. I was amused that he could not answer the question and had to ask others and likewise no one had the answer because they have thousands, literally thousands, so an exact number was a stupid question and even if they did give an exact answer that day it would not be the same the next day. But needless to say they have something for everyone. IP cameras, HDCVI, laser detection cameras that can detect movement from four kilometres away; you, you did read that right.
Their thermal imaging cameras seem to display more details than others I’ve seen. They have 360-degree cameras. Multi-sensor cameras that pan and tilt. Anti vandalism cameras. HDCVI (High Definition Composite Video Interface, in case you were wondering) is something I understand they produced themselves. And I’m not even going to get into the recording solutions they can offer or their very integrated video management software. They also make video door entry systems, access control, networking switches, and their own display units and many accessories to support all these products. The company is focusing on artificial intelligence, as are most in the surveillance sector these days. You may remember that at IFSEC 2018 Dahua put on with partners a debate off the showroom floor on the then new European Union-wide general data protection regulation (GDPR) and cyber-security. We featured it in our August issue. So, their cameras can track objects or people, read number plates from miles away, give facial recognition, offer panoramic views, ultra-zoom facilities, and od thermal detection. They are able to predict what is going to happen and inform whoever you want to. They even showed me the first facial recognition system that I’ve seen that works on analogue cameras which is being launched this month.
Smart city projects
They have been involved with some smart city projects here in the UK. In north London they are monitoring seven towns centres around Uxbridge from the one control room. Lincoln’s another city, featured again in our August issue; where they have integrated the traffic cameras, CCTV in blocks of flats and the town centre public space surveillance system into a smart system. In another case, they have installed the smart motorway system on the M6 and M4; again the signage is something else they manufacture. They can offer a ‘smart transportation solution’ that caters for parking, entrances and exits, special arrangements for buses, airports, and even seaports. I have in fact a brochure covering each of these topics so if you want one just ask.
Concierge system
In the demonstration room they have on display their concierge system for blocks of apartments and flats, and a full range of door entry systems including vandal resistant and a fully integrated access control system. Having left the demo room I was then taken next door, to the training room. There they can seat up to 24 for free training at any time. These are by the way certified training courses as long as the trainees past the tests. If I was to conclude it would be to say that these guys are more than just CCTV. They can offer a turnkey solution and seems there is nothing in the security sector they don’t manufacture. Check them out; you might be impressed; I was.
