Ben Hero

In 2017, Senstar, a world leader in perimeter intrusion detection (PIDS) products, merged with Aimetis, a Canada-based video management software (VMS) and video analytics company located in Waterloo. Along with the company itself, Senstar also acquired some visionary minds whose ideas and innovations continue to help Senstar excel in the security market.

As a new grad in Waterloo, a town full of high-tech companies, Ben Hero chose Senstar because the work was out of his comfort zone. “The company was doing computer vision analytics, which was quite a leading-edge technology in 2007,” said Ben. “I like a challenge, so the job was quite attractive to me.”

Computer vision looks at how computers read digital images or videos, seeking to understand and automate tasks usually done by the human eye, including acquiring, processing and analyzing data. Examples include face recognition, automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), crowd detection, indoor people tracking, left and removed item detection, outdoor vehicle and people tracking, and PTZ auto-tracking.

As computer vision technologies advanced over the following decade, their benefit for enhancing outdoor perimeter security applications became clear. That’s why Senstar’s merger with Aimetis, marrying perimeter intrusion detection with video management and analytics, made a lot of sense to Ben.

“I felt positive,” he said. “I believe PIDS and VMS definitely complement each other.”

Since that time, Senstar has worked to create a comprehensive common operating platform that integrates functionalities. The recently introduced Senstar Symphony™ Common Operating Platform is a modular solution for security management and data intelligence, as well as an open, highly scalable video management system with built-in video analytics. It also includes full-featured access control and perimeter intrusion detection modules.

But what truly sets Senstar Symphony apart from other systems is its sensor fusion engine. By intelligently combining low-level sensor data with video analytics, the sensor fusion engine achieves the highest levels of performance, far beyond that of the individual devices. Senstar Symphony seamlessly incorporates sensor fusion, event algorithms, and rule-based actions to provide unmatched capabilities, flexibility, and performance.

“PIDS and VMS are mature and competitive in their own rights,” said Ben. “Integrating the two is what differentiates us from our competitors.”

Having been with Senstar for 14 years, Ben continues to enjoy the challenging work and friendly culture.

“I work with very talented colleagues,” said Ben. “I feel valued and appreciated for what I do. The management team cares about my career path and provides me with opportunities to learn and grow.”

Ben Hero is currently a Senior Software Developer/Team Lead at Senstar. He has a Bachelor of Computer Science and a Master of Science from University of Waterloo. In 2018, Ben won the ONVIF Open Source Spotlight Challenge. His submission, cam X, is a proof of concept iOS project written in Swift that demonstrates how Deep Learning, IPFS and Ethereum Blockchain technologies can be applied together in practice to equip normal IP cameras with superpowers. Learn more.