While the demand for safety and security systems is stable, future-oriented, modern, digital technologies in this space are seeing good opportunities, according to Prabal Bose, Vice- President - Regional Solutions & Services, Smart Infrastructure, Siemens India. “For instance, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are gaining importance in the context of security, legal, compliance, and reputation; as any unmanaged threat can be financially crippling and negatively impact business continuity.” Demand for safety and security systems is moderate to high, he reckons. “In Q3, we saw a slight improvement in business and are hopeful that business will further improve in Q4, says Pramoud Rao, Managing Director, Zicom. Demand drivers by sector Activity in the real-estate sector is very slow and the infrastructure sector is also not expressing any major enquiries, observes Rao. “However, segments like BFSI, logistics and, to some extent, manufacturing have been less affected and are driving demand.” “We see a positive trend in sectors like data centres, financial, life sciences, metros and airports,” says Bose. Pandemic impact on residences Residential real-estate projects have largely seen an increase in demand for security products and solutions existing in the market (prior to the pandemic) as awareness among home owners has significantly risen, says Mehernosh Pithawalla, Vice-President, Godrej Security Solutions. “Townships and multi-building gated communities opt for multi-apartment video door phones, fire alarm systems, CCTV systems, boom barriers, access control, and others. Single buildings largely opt for standalone video door phones. Developers also provide personal lockers, home lockers and community lockers to apartment owners.” Smart integrated IoT device-based home solutions saw increased acceptance during the pandemic, fuelled by the wider availability of Wi-Fi, says Vishnu Choudhary, Managing Director, Athena Security Solutions. “Puravankara offers homebuyers touchless technology to reduce their dependence on switches and other areas with common touch points inside a home,” shares Ashish R Puravankara, Managing Director, Puravankara. Such offerings may have more value now. “We brought out our patented touchless solution ‘BluNex’ before the pandemic and are implementing it in projects like Purva Zenium and Purva Atmosphere.” Pandemic impact on offices The impact of the pandemic on the commercial sector started during the lockdown phase, when the surge in the number of connected devices across various sectors led to a consequent surge in the creation of new data, most of which is extremely sensitive, according to Bose. “This risk of exposure forced organisations to look at safety and security upgradations. Digital transformation in the safety and security space is becoming imperative to keep employees safe as they work remotely.” Once India Inc started to get back to work after lockdown, a number of health security products saw industry-wide application. Pithawalla lists these as body temperature systems, face recognition-based attendance systems, AI-based, non-touch video door phones, and thermal cameras, saying that legal recommendations such as checking the temperature of every individual entering a building helped drive this demand. Video surveillance and access control systems with face recognition at the entry points of facilities are now complemented with body temperature scanning, continues Bose. “IP cameras with temperature screening and analytics are becoming the norm and mobile-based access control solutions for corporate offices have also gained much interest for promoting hygiene standards. Solutions incorporating real-time location services help to locate people and equipment, monitor visitors, and facilitate sanitisation trigger and tracking. IoT sensors enabled within a building allow more accurate and efficient contact tracing.” “In the Hiranandani corporate office, we have replaced our biometric attendance system with mobile-based access control to avoid overcrowding at entrances,” shares Dr Niranjan Hiranandani, Founder & Managing Director, Hiranandani Group. “Contactless body temperature systems are being used across all our offices and sites.” While the demand for security solutions seems to be tilting towards entrance control and scanning systems such as turnstiles, flap barriers and doorframe metal detectors, demand is also emerging for variants of those integrating biosafety devices like thermal cameras and temperature monitors for superior information gathering and better vigilance, observes Raj Mehra, CEO, Capricorn Security Solutions. Role of automation With manpower being short or numbers being curtailed, demand for automation and analytic features to optimise resources is on the rise, says Bose. “These include the deployment of new, modern and AI systems, operational logic, etc.” AI has facilitated social distancing, checking for the wearing of masks and other tasks, Choudhary points out. “A few cameras with AI are all that are needed to monitor corporate towers,” he says. “Time and attendance are also moving to AI-based cloud offerings. However, I don’t see those becoming a huge growth segment in India.” Siemens’s data-driven offerings for Infra 4.0, like the Comfy app, Enlighted, Mindsphere and Navigator, enable the easy analysis of system issues and have advanced features to help optimise resources. Comfy supports employees’ safe return to the workplace and lays the foundation for more agile and future-oriented working. Its IOT and workspace applications can be tailor-made to fit customer needs. Product innovation The pandemic spurred a new product category, health security, comprising UV-based sanitisers to sanitise daily use objects, shares Pithawalla. “Home cameras and video door phones connected to cellular devices help check on who enters a home or office and what objects are brought inside so that the same can be sanitised immediately.” However, he cautions against purchasing products without proper certification. “Laboratories such as CSIR are approved by ICMR to provide certification for UV-based sanitisers.” In general, because of the pandemic, security solutions have transformed from manual systems to digital ones with minimal human intervention, he adds. In another category—contactless temperature guns—“easily available, low-priced Chinese guns saw the maximum sales whereas ‘Made in India’ products designed painstakingly for the Indian environment failed to take off on account of being higher priced,” observes Rao. Incidentally, his on-ground experience has been contrary to others in the industry. “Customers are not seeking any new technology or manpower because the fear of COVID-19 is decreasing,” says Rao. “In response to the pandemic, businesses are cutting expenses, cutting manpower, cutting salaries and cutting expenditure; essentially, they are running in survival mode. The purchase of safety products to fight the pandemic has been a huge disappointment for every company selling solutions to protect against the virus.” Future opportunities “We see the gradual opening of the markets and foresee better results February-March 2021 onwards, says Mehra. “The Government is playing a crucial role in boosting infrastructure.” Safety and security used to account for 45-50 per cent of the extra low voltage/integrated building management system (ELV/IBMS) package for a typical building pre-COVID, says Bose. He expects this to gradually increase and generate retrofit opportunities. Assuming that workplaces of the future are likely to embrace a mix of remote and onsite work, organisations will have to adapt accordingly, leading to demand for solutions used for both those scenarios. The need for an integrated command-and-control centre to safeguard data under threat is being increasingly felt. Systems connected to the Internet are vulnerable to cyberattacks, which is especially alarming in the context of smart cities, adds Bose. “The need to safeguard these ecosystems from threats is propelling with the use of modern IoT security frameworks and cyber-planning.” Choudhary anticipates that increased infrastructure spending from the Government will generate new demand. “There is a need to implement smart, cost-effective technology for predicting events like fires,” he says. “Heat in tunnels, parking structures, tall buildings and power transmission lines, and stress on columns and buildings, can be very accurately and cost- effectively detected with intelligent distributed fibre-sensing technologies, performing highly accurate predictive analytics of possible events and enabling operators to take appropriate action in a timely manner.” Welcome to the future! Perimeter protection Fibreoptics has become a commonly used technology for the protection of perimeters/facilities, whether on top of fences, wall or even underground, observes Vishnu Choudhary, Managing Director, Athena Security Solutions. “It scores for having an extremely long mean time between failure, and being intrinsically safe and immune to electromagnetic interference and radio-frequency interference and not affected by natural elements, and a most cost-effective solution with highly accurate location sensing, unmatched by old electric/solar fence systems.” LiDARs are an emerging technology increasingly finding use in the perimeter protection of sites, with automatic classification of the threat, facilitating an accurate and fast response as needed, continues Choudhary. “LiDARs help in inspections and volumetric analysis, while reducing the need for manpower, and provide accurate and timely monitoring of assets.” - CHARU BAHRI