New Surveillance Tech Gives Security Pros a 360-Degree View of the Threat

As threats to physical security become more complex, staying ahead of them requires cutting-edge technologies that offer greater situational awareness. One technology seeking to outpace the adversary is the 360-degree camera system. These omni-directional surveillance tools provide expansive coverage and valuable insights for security analysts and decision-makers.

Understanding 360-Degree Cameras

Traditional security cameras often have limited fields of view, necessitating multiple units to cover a broad area. Even in facilities with dozens of cameras, there are too often too many blind sports. Conversely, 360-degree cameras use multiple fisheye lenses in a single unit to capture a full panoramic view from a single vantage point. This design ensures that no area within the camera's range is left unmonitored, effectively eliminating blind spots and enhancing overall security coverage.

Key Benefits of 360-Degree Cameras

Full range – or 360-degree – camera systems have a lot going for them. Beyond the obvious, their value to physical security professionals is substantial, providing a reduction in equipment, lowering operating costs, increasing the quality of situational awareness, and streamlining the surveillance process for those in charge of monitoring feeds.

Minimal Equipment and a Lower Cost

With their wide field of view, 360-degree cameras are an effective replacement for traditional surveillance arrays. Consolidating multiple, linear cameras into a single, omni-directional one reduces upfront and maintenance costs.

Enhanced Situational Awareness

With 360-degree cameras, security personnel get a more holistic perspective of monitored areas, allowing them to more quickly and efficiently identify suspicious or threatening activities. They also gain the ability to zoom in on specific areas for greater fidelity, improving the quality of their investigations and decreasing response times. 360-degree cameras also offer a better operating picture in areas with odd shapes, obstructions, or layouts.

Simplified System Management

With a reduced number of cameras in play, monitoring for threats is more for security professionals. Fewer points of view mean fewer monitors, which helps those in charge of surveillance reduce the potential for missing something important, decreases their fatigue, and focuses their attention. In other words, 360-degree cameras can help decrease the chances of cognitive overload for the people using them. 

Real-World Applications of 360-Degree Cameras

Highly guarded facilities aren’t the only types of users for whom 360-degree camera technology has benefits. Nearly all industries can attest to at least a few use cases, including those not typically thought of as high security environments. 

• Education: Educational institutions have implemented 360-degree cameras to monitor campuses comprehensively, enhancing student safety and aiding in the prevention of incidents.​ They are particularly useful to deter, monitor, or respond to active shooters.

• Transportation: Airports and transit hubs utilize these cameras to oversee vast terminal areas, improving passenger security and operational efficiency.​ They also aid in documenting infractions and incidents that might require a presentation of camera feeds to courts as evidence.

• Healthcare: Hospitals employ 360-degree cameras to safeguard patients and staff, ensuring that critical areas are under constant surveillance. Assaults on medical staff continue to rise, especially in the United States, and this technology can help to keep health care practitioners safe.  

Beyond 360 Degrees 

While a panoramic view alone is enough to warrant adopting the latest surveillance tools, some companies are taking it a step further.

Liquid360 is one such company. They offer real-time, 3D visualizations of entire sites, enabling security personnel to assess risks rapidly and respond proactively. Features such as mobile command and control, as well as the ability to see through walls and around corners, provide tactical advantages in both everyday operations and emergency situations. 

What sets companies like Liquid360 apart from the pack is their advanced layering technology that not only provides a full, 3D layout of a facility, but also allows users to see through walls, zoom out for a better operational picture, and integration with fences, jammers, radars, and more. Many prominent organizations have relied on Liquid360 for their high-profile surveillance needs, including the Israeli Special Forces.

Last year, Chameleon Associates had the pleasure of interviewing Liquid360’s Founder and CEO, Alisa Givertz. She shared the personal experience that led her to start the company, reflecting on a time when she had lost her son inside of a Walmart. Givertz was moved by the quickness and smoothness with which the retailer was able to help locate her child, sending her down a pathway toward better understanding what could cause some physical security teams to come up short, while others exceeded expectations. The answer, she determined? Unparalleled situational awareness and coordination.

Liquid360 is a situational awareness tool at its heart – one that arms human security personnel with the benefits of advanced technology. In concert with one another, man and machine are able to achieve a level of coordination neither can possibly reach alone.

Conclusion

Integrating 360-degree camera technology into security operations is a commonsense growth opportunity for organizations serious about preventing, mitigating, or responding to physical security threats. Even so, it’s not the only technology advantage out there. To learn more about what options are available and how to better protect your facilities and people with cutting-edge tools, check out any one of our many security trainings here: https://chameleonassociates.com/services-chameleon-associates/.