Body Cameras – Not just for the police anymore.

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By David Strickland, Vice President of Kenton Brothers

In the news lately, there is a lot of talk about body cameras for police. There are a lot of positive reasons people are having these discussions.

  • 90% reduction in complaints against officers
  • 50% higher conviction rate when used in arrests
  • Higher evidence capture rate at crime and accident scenes
  • Passive documentation of real time events

These are very powerful reasons why body cameras work. Have you ever thought about how they can be used effectively in other types of businesses and security scenarios?

Kenton Brothers: Body Cameras

Improved safety in warehouse and logistic environments

Some companies are requiring Fork lift drivers and stacker drivers to wear cameras. And they have had great success:

  • Reduced accidents
  • Identifying Training opportunities
  • Recognition of safety enhancements needed such as lights or pathways marked on ground
  • Identification of Pallet Construction flaws
  • GEO location of Operators in large spaces

Technician / Electrician apprentice training

Some companies are utilizing body cameras to review technician work in the field to ensure accuracy of work compared to company specs.

This has improved output in the following ways:

  • Reduced call backs on new technicians
  • Increase in Productivity
  • Clearly identifies training opportunities
  • Ensures compliance with lock out tag out procedures

Increased safety and production in Manufacturing facilities

  • Passively captures evidence from the workers perspective of the manufacturing process
  • Identifies hidden areas of safety concern
  • Facilitates training opportunities
  • Identifies inefficiencies in the current processes

At Kenton Brothers Systems for Security, we are proud to offer body worn cameras manufactured by our premier commercial video surveillance manufacturer Axis Communications.

Kenton Brothers: Body CamerasThe Axis camera solution offers several benefits:

  • Easy integration with any VMS, EMS
  • Flexible and scalable
  • Fast reliable video and data offloading
  • Meets the highest government cybersecurity standards
  • End-to-end encryption

 “The same level of thoroughness has been applied throughout the solution, not just the camera unit. We took a holistic view of the customer requirement, from video capture in the field to presentation of evidence in the courtroom. This is where the openness became imperative – customers didn’t want to be forced into a specific VMS and EMS – and also drove key aspects related to security and ensuring the integrity of evidence.”

Axis Body Worn Camera System

The new Axis body worn camera system features three main hardware components: the camera itself; the camera docking station (8-bay or 1-bay); and the system controller.

This camera captures video up to 1080p @30fps and audio through dual microphones for noise suppression capabilities. Wide dynamic range technology is employed to guarantee image quality in even the most challenging light conditions, while Axis Zipstream for body worn reduces the demands for storage. Battery power is designed to cover a ‘full shift’, with 12 hours of normal usage and the capability for charging in-car or from a power bank.

The docking station and the system controller are separate units. The system is scalable for large and cost-efficient body worn systems. The system controller provides a single integration and management point, and allows for fast and reliable video offloading (100Mbit per camera). All data is encrypted both at rest and in transfer using AES256 and TLS. In addition, video data can be fully end-to-end encrypted with specific integrations.

The camera also features built-in:

  • GPS/GNSS receiver for location tracking
  • Bluetooth Low Energy 4.1
  • IEEE 802.11b/g/n
  • 6-axis gyro and accelerometer

The Axis Body Worn Assistant mobile application allows users to review footage and add categories, descriptions and notes. The applications for this technology are endless.

We are very excited to offer this solution to our customers! Would you like to know more about the Axis Body Worn Camera Solution? Give us a call!

Connecting five buildings with line-of-sight radios. Who Needs Wires?

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By Ryan Kaullen, Field Services Manager at Kenton Brothers

At Kenton Brothers, we get many types of requests for different scenarios and applications. We recently received a request from a customer in the Westport area of Kansas City, MO. The wanted to install video cameras at five separate buildings. And they wanted all of those video feeds to go into a video management system at one of the five locations. This can be a fairly challenging technical request. Our solution was to use Ubiquiti line-of-sight radios to communicate between the buildings. That way, we could stream the camera feeds to the centrally located recording server because they would all be on the same network.

The Ubiquiti radios are mounted on the roofs of the buildings and aimed at the main building where the recording service is housed. (All camera systems have to have a network path back to where the video is recorded.) When you’re physically located in a single building, this is a relatively easy task. In situations where there are two buildings, fiber is often in place between the buildings making a single network possible.

Kenton Brothers: Who Needs Wires? Connecting Buildings with Line of Sight Ubiquiti Radios

Fiber connections weren’t an option between all five buildings, so wireless became the solution.

 

The picture above shows one of the Ubiquiti radios. As you can see, the buildings are several blocks apart. This physical challenge made a wireless connection the ideal solution. And at the same time, it’s the most cost effective for the customer while meeting their business needs and plans for future growth.

In the past, high speed wireless systems used to be expensive, unstable, and slow. New technology like Ubiquiti’s line of products has lowered the cost, improved the stability dramatically and allows dozens of cameras to be streamed at the same time. This technology has allowed customers to cover areas of their business with commercial video surveillance that wouldn’t have been an option financially a few years ago.

Kenton Brothers has deployed dozens of wireless commercial video surveillance systems over the past 7+ years. These have been successful projects resulting in happy customers. Why? Because we’re fixing pain points in their business and making them more secure.

At Kenton Brothers, it is our mission to Protect People, Property, & Possessions. Would you like to learn more about commercial video surveillance? Give us a call!

 

Kenton Brothers: Who Needs Wires? Connecting Buildings with Line of Sight Ubiquiti Radios

COVID-19 Fighter Security Solutions – Avigilon Mask Detection

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Avigilon’s face mask detection technology can determine if a person appears on camera without face protection… and alert your team.

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Strong Passwords and Multi-Factor Authentication are no joke.

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By Neal Bellamy, IT Director at Kenton Brothers

If you’ve been following us for any length of time, you know that Kenton Brothers is all about your physical security. Today, I’d like to talk a little about a different kind of security… your digital security.

Strong Passwords

Over the past decade you should have got the message to use strong passwords. (Probably too many reminders… but are you still using the same, easy to remember password for all your accounts?)

Passwords like “JackAndJill” and “123456” are fairly easy to hack with brute force methods. Also, as more and more data breaches occur, hackers gets access to lists of usernames and passwords. So even if you did come up with the “un-hackable” password and it got leaked, it’s now compromised.

Is your password on a list somewhere?

Kenton Brothers: Strong Passwords and Multi-Factor AuthenticationDid you know there is a website that can show you how many times your password has been recorded in data breaches? The website is haveibeenpwned.com. You can go there to see if your email or password has shown up on hacked lists. By the way, there is no such thing as an unhackable password. Given enough time, with enough resources, any password can be cracked. It seems pretty dire, doesn’t it? However, there are even better ways to protect yourself.

Passphrases

One way to help protect yourself is to use stronger passwords. Better yet, use passphrases. A passphrase is generally longer than a password, which makes it harder to guess, but easier for you to remember. Think of phrases that you use around your family and work-family and use those phrases as passwords.

For example, my family is pretty sarcastic. So when talking to my daughters about getting asked out on a date, my suggested response for them is “HaHaHaYouInsignificantFool”. Throw in a couple of numbers and special characters and you’ve got an easy to remember, secure password. Just remember… not only is it important to have strong passwords, but you’ve got to change them somewhat frequently.

Password Managers: A Unique Password for Every Website

Another way to protect yourself is to use a unique password for each system or website that you use. Unfortunately, this strategy is harder to implement than it seems. I probably have 100+ unique systems and websites that I would need to remember the unique password for. My brain just doesn’t have that kind of storage. That’s where password managers come into play.

A password manager can remember the passwords for you. You just have to remember the master password for the password manager software. There are lots of options out there. Just Google “password manager” to get started. Some of the most common are LastPass, Roboform and Dashlane.

Password managers can be a little cumbersome, like when I’m browsing from my phone rather than my laptop. However, for important accounts with stored credit cards or other personal information, it’s worth the minor inconvenience.

So far, we have just been talking about passwords. An inherent weakness of a password, besides a weak password, is that they’re a single “key” you need to know to gain access to an account. Even better than a strong, unique password is to pair that password with another form of authentication.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Kenton Brothers: Strong Passwords and Multi-Factor AuthenticationA lot of websites, including Facebook, Google, and Office365, allow Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Multi-Factor Authentication makes sure you are who you say you are by asking for an additional “key” in tandem with your password. MFA can be PIN texted to your phone, an app on your phone that has a PIN that changes every 30 seconds, or a notification on your phone that verifies asks you to confirm you’re trying to log into your account. MFA is easier to use, easier to set up, and more secure than a solitary password.

MFA can be required every time you log in, or only when you’re logging in from a new device. When you log into a site or service, you’re asked for your username and password, but then you’re asked for your second form of authentication. After your MFA is confirmed, you can use the site or service as normal. Since your phone is often the method that your MFA uses, a hacker would need to have your password and your phone to gain access to your account.

Next time you’re given the chance to provide your cell phone number for Multi-Factor Authentication, I recommend you do so! It’s easy to set up and easier to use than a password manager. It’s also more secure than using just a password. For a website that has personal information, but doesn’t have MFA, please make sure your password is unique and strong! This will go a long way towards avoiding the pain of identity theft or other challenging situations if someone were to get into your account.

Access Control Tech Update: Identifying Exposure Through Contact Tracing

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Contact Tracing is the process of identifying people who may have come into contact with an infected person, and collection of information about these contacts.

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