Cias: Spotlight on an Italian Perimeter Security Equipment Manufacturer

GIT SECURITY: Sig. Leonardi, has the current pandemic had a severe effect on your company and have there been any positive aspects coming from it?

Fabrizio Leonardi: I believe that the obligatory and necessary ‘Stop’ of the past months has given a unique opportunity to all operators in our sector, and not only to review and improve many corporate organizational aspects. Smart working has certainly undergone a significant acceleration, but I also think of the possibility of reviewing our company organizations by implementing new management software and digitizing various processes that were still managed on a paper level.

In our specific case, towards the end of February, when the problem in northern Italy began to clearly define the risks we were running and the lifestyle that we would necessarily have to adopt, we immediately activated a 100% smart-working mode for all departments except production, because they were still able to operate, even if under strict safety and security rules.

At that point our priority goal was to not stop and not to waste precious time but to transform the time available into something that could be useful to the market and to our customers. It was clear that the pandemic crisis we were living was going to transform very quickly in an economic crisis. For this reason, we first created an E-learning program in four chapters that then evolved into a T-learning program with technical tests on real devices. The results have been incredible and still continue to give us satisfaction with the wide participation of distributors, installers, end-users, designers, and consultants.

That is certainly one positive outcome. What about product development?

Fabrizio Leonardi: Also in the R&D department, we fortunately managed not to suffer any particular delays compared to our roadmap. Many products, are taking shape; some were presented at the last edition of Sicurezza in Milan as absolute previews. The first of those was Micro-Ray, released for the first time onto the market in July 2019 and already with excellent sales results as well as a nomination for a GIT SECURITY Award in the Intruder Alarm Perimeter Protection category. Some useful accessories and setting software will be added that will make the use of this product even easier. 

Then came Synapses, the new technology that introduces the concept of neural connectivity between perimeter sensors. It integrates up to four different sensors for each of the eight freely configurable areas, performing a video analysis using Deep Learning criteria. By distinguishing the presence of different typical targets of anti-intrusion systems (man, car, truck, train etc.) in the video stream, it can increase or decrease the threshold of the sensors combined with each individual area, significantly reducing the NaR (nuisance alarm rate) and increasing the PoD (probability of detection) in perimeter protection.

Sig. De Astis, where do you think this strange period has left your company and the broader security industry?

Raffaele De Astis: Looking to the future, it is foreseeable that sectors that have remained firmer so far will begin a slow but continuous recovery of security business from now on. It is precisely here that the opportunities for national manufacturing companies could arise. Export will be a potential relief valve for these as it has been in the past, but not for everyone however. It will be much more difficult to start exporting from scratch in this unpredictable period in which travel is not allowed, or will be severely limited for some time to come. 

So remotely working together with ­other specialists could be beneficial?

Raffaele De Astis: In this historical moment, we think even more so than in the past that the common difficulties can lead to alliances and collaborations between companies, both at a technological and at a strategic or commercial level, and that these synergies can lead to important added value for the benefit of the whole production chain. Some technological trends can be guessed. Already for the present, but also in the near future, access controls will increasingly be linked to the scanning of body temperatures, and in any case to touchless systems. Transport safety must be reinvented hand-in-hand, so to speak, with safety control measures. 

Where do you see the most potential for the introduction of contemporary security solutions now?

Raffaele De Astis: The security of critical infrastructures will remain a priority and, in some verticals, such as energy, telecommunications, data centers, it will be even more focused. And it is clear to everyone that the sudden acceleration of digitization, which has been a huge game for many people, also brings with it a potential increase in cyber threats that will have to be taken into serious consideration, both by companies and by individuals.

Cias Integrates with Genetec RSA 3.5 Security Center Add-On

This new integration allows for better intertwined perimeter security systems and seamless alarm management. The add-on uses manufacturers’ efficient detection algorithms and merges monitoring across multiple technologies, such as microwave barriers, radars, and accelerometer-based fence detection systems for high security. The IB-System IP integration gives Genetec customers all the features available in Cias data-collection software to provide enhanced perimeter protection monitoring on the graphical user interface.

Murena Radar Knows the Difference

On some sites, it is of utmost importance to distinguish if a real human intrusion is occurring or something else is going on. Cias labs worked out how to cleverly discriminate between targets, thanks to digital analysis given by fuzzy logic algorithms. It can understand if it’s a small animal moving around or a man intruding or a car passing by.