In 2020, Watcher Surveillance Solutions was approached by Plantation Farms, a third-generation family farming operation in the south of Boksburg, to provide a farm security solution to assist in reducing crop losses due to theft.

Estate upgrades and enhances its security through a partnership between surveillance specialist Watcher and the incumbent guarding company.

Looking beyond the hype and all the marketing optimism about AI and cloud services in the security market, there are significant benefits to incorporating the two into an estate’s security operation.

Watcher Surveillance Solutions provides an off-site Surveillance Operating Centre (SOC), offering a cloud-based video management system that manages customers’ video feeds using the latest in-video analytics and artificial intelligence.

Organisations need security systems that are reliable, intelligent, efficient and aimed at optimising the guarding component in order to adapt to their environments.

Caveat Emptor: South Africans rely on private security more than almost any other country, and many are exposing themselves to significant legal and financial risks by using non-compliant security providers (and many do not even know it!).

The Information Regulator is not trying to end estate security processes, but to ensure everybody’s right to privacy and security, forcing estates to prove these systems improve security and that the personal information they collect is managed responsibly.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of everyday estate security, promising faster response times, better situational awareness and more efficient use of resources. It also introduces risk: the integrity of the people using these tools.

What an access control system does in year one is not what you will need it to do in year eight. A system that can evolve protects the value of what you already own; a static one becomes harder and more expensive to sustain.