Security Digest

Beyond Security: The Operational and Manufacturing Benefits of a Common Operating Platform

The-Operational-and-Manufacturing-Benefits-of-a-Common-Operating-Platform

Physical security is about situational awareness – knowing what is happening where, at any given moment. With the Senstar Symphony Common Operating Platform, operators are immediately notified of potential security threats via a network of perimeter sensors, access control devices, and building sensors, enabling them to see what is going on and take the necessary actions, be they in the form of automatically triggered rule-based actions or standard operator procedures (SOP).

Being an open system with industry-standard interfaces, Senstar Symphony enables its situational awareness capabilities to be extended into the operational realm. With its TCP/IP Listener module, Symphony can receive metadata from any IP-enabled device, invoke rules and actions, trigger messages and commands to third-party devices and other software systems, and link the events with captured video for visual record keeping. For industries like data centers, manufacturing, and industrial processes, the ability to collect, search, and retrieve metadata alongside video images, as well as using this metadata to trigger other systems, can have substantial benefits.

How can Senstar Symphony’s Common Operating Platform help you? Let’s look at two examples.

Example: Data Centers

From an operational perspective, data centers need to ensure their services remain online and free from interruptions while controlling equipment, maintenance, and staffing costs. To assist in managing large mission-critical server farms, Senstar Symphony can notify staff of HVAC alarms (temperature events in particular), door and cabinet activity, and any IP-based warning messages. This information can be linked to video and/or thermal cameras for remote physical assessment, as well as trigger events in third-party maintenance and tracking software.

Example-Data-Centers

Example: Manufacturing, Distribution, and Fulfillment QA 

In manufacturing, distribution, and fulfillment facilities, it is critical that any stoppages, defects, and non-conformance be quickly communicated and resolved, ideally remotely so that time is not wasted by quality assurance (QA) staff having to physically visit the floor. Senstar Symphony can use the information collected by barcode scanners, microcontrollers, and high-speed cameras to generate a searchable record of production activity for use in QA investigations. This information can be used in root cause identification and resolution procedures to help avoid future interruptions.  

Enhancing Existing Systems 

If the site already has a security surveillance system, Senstar Symphony can not only share video with it via its ONVIF Server but also enhance it with additional capabilities, including reducing nuisance alarms via its Sensor Fusion Engine, triggering ONVIF alerts via Symphony’s high-performance video analytics, and using its RESTful API to share collected metadata. 

A Common Operating Platform Enables New Opportunities 

Integrating data from separate devices, systems and even operational groups within an organization and using it to create actionable information provides organizations with both the insight and tools needed to streamline operations, respond quicker to events, and make better decisions. The Senstar Symphony Common Operating Platform, with its open, system-agnostic interfaces, brings situational awareness into the operational realm, empowering individuals and assisting in the automation of business processes.