Shiraz Kapadia, the CEO and President of Invixium speaks to Security Review about his company’s participation at Intersec 2023 (more…)

The International Homeland Security Market witnessed a colossal technological disruption as the “world’s first” AI EagleEye Intelligent Patrol, developed by Zenith Technologies marked its ground-breaking debut at Intersec Dubai 2023. “Launching its 3rd Generation Intelligent Lightbar device, Zenith continues to lead the market and disrupt its own technologies with reiterations of further technology firsts in its AI EagleEye Intelligent Patrol Policing release. The world pioneering, 1st Generation of mobile ANPR platforms was deployed by Zenith in 2008 for Dubai Police,” the company said.

Russell Hammad, Founder and CEO of Zenith Technologies

The company showcased its next-generation AI platforms at Intersec in association with its partner, The National Security Services Company (SAFE)of Saudi Arabia. “SAFE and Zenith have formed a strategic alliance to amplify the reach of their respective offerings to the various sectors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the GCC region, and beyond,” the company said.

Zenith claimed the AI EagleEye Intelligent Patrol embeds within the cavity of the Policing Lightbar. This is a fully functional AI Drone that can take flight autonomously or as manually controlled by its Law Enforcement personnel, whilst on city patrols. At the press of a button, the top of the lightbar’s cavity slides away allowing the AI-empowered drone to rise and take immediate flight.

Zenith AI EagleEye leverages technologies developed in-house to offer features such as 360 degrees Situational Awareness, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), Make Model Color (MMC), Face Recognition (FR), LIDAR Speed enforcement, Automated Traffic Infringements including real-time detection of fastened Seatbelt and Mobile Phones usage whilst driving.

Additionally, the AI Platform’s expansive capabilities allow for various data training for Visual Pollution detection, Traffic, and Crowd analysis, Detection of objects in the dark, and 3D mapping of the surrounding environment. Disparate data is relayed in real-time to the police control centre wirelessly through Zenith’s AI-powered Traffic Enforcement Management (TEM) Command and Control secured protocols.

Russell Hammad, Founder and CEO of Zenith Technologies, said, “Zenith prides itself in being innovators, patent and expansive IP holders in a number of disrupter platforms, incorporating advancements in both the software and hardware componentry of these niche HMS technological suites. In fact, Wikipedia features Zenith’s Mobile ANPR as the first such global deployment in early 2008, in its definition of the technology. The target market for Zenith’s technologies is predominantly Governmental, and Security, Health, and Safety conscious operators within the community. Our AI technologies have had a positive ROI impact and have built efficiencies in law enforcement agencies and traffic departments.”

Commenting on their partnership with the UAE Government and neighbouring GCC and Middle East region, Hammad commented, “We began our engagements with Dubai Police as far back as 2008 when we introduced a mobile ANPR solution- a world first. Due to the success and simplicity of that ANPR offering, Dubai Police has since then expanded its appointments with Zenith into numerous other technologies. Apart from Dubai Police, Zenith has partnered with a number of governmental security apparatus in the region, some of whom are classified regional deployments, but others include Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, and KSA Governments, Ajman Police, Emaar, Meraas, Dubai Holding, Nakheel in the UAE.”

On the future plans of Zenith, Hammad, explained, “We are currently working on the 2nd generation of our Media Monitoring System (MMS), which will be a strictly AI-based technological platform, supporting a most expansive language agnostic search (including Arabic dialects) into rich media, where that be video, audio or text, in addition to the modern mode of communication, as emojis. Highlighting sentiment analysis of that content is equally crucial and a core focus. Making meaning out of the rich and unstructured World Wide Web content is our mantra. Concurrently, continued advancements into the AI EagleEye Intelligent Patrol’s roadmap are forever alive and momentous.”

Gustavo Gassmann, the Vice President and Head of Emerging Markets at HID, speaks about his company’s participation at Intersec 2023

Tell us about your participation in Intersec.
HID has been participating in Intersec for many years now, and the event provides us with a unique opportunity to exchange knowledge and connect with security professionals across the region. This year, we are focusing on helping customers to understand the benefits of merging security and convenience through HID Mobile Access. Today, identity authentication and access can be granted via smartphones and smartwatches safely and conveniently. And as this technology evolves, it can play a far greater part to enhance the operational engineering, maintenance, and functioning of buildings.

Which products and solutions did you showcase at the event?
This year, our key focus is HID Mobile Access and readers, our premium solution that addresses protection, disruption, and sustainability. We also showcased other access control innovations like the cloud-based physical access control system HID Origo—a cloud-based mobile credential lifecycle management platform that’s integrated with an access control system and leverages HID’s Seos credential technology—and visitor management systems.

With many companies now adopting a hybrid work environment, what has changed in terms of security requirements and policies?
Today’s hybrid workplace is more complex, and the security of workspaces, people, and data is even more demanding. Security isn’t just a technical problem—and businesses face challenges in limiting and securing access to sensitive information and systems, adopting technologies to maintain employee productivity and ensure security, and enforcing security policies among other things.

But managing this risk is more about a change in the security mindset rather than trying to change systems, policies, and organizational behavior. There is often a misconception that security systems must be upgraded to meet the changes in policies and that upgrading to modern systems is complex and expensive. It is important to highlight that modern physical access control solutions today make the migration from older systems to digital IDs easy.

There are millions of HID readers installed already that are capable of using HID Mobile Access—either instantly or via a simple on-site upgrade. We can work with end users and partners to provide a free trial of HID Mobile Access to help them better understand the value it brings across an organization.

What sort of major trends have you seen in the Physical Access Control business area?
Key mobile access trends include the continued and growing need for future-proof solutions that provide contactless experiences and optimize flexibility through a greater choice of credential technologies. One example of what’s ahead in terms of technological trends can be seen in the growing popularity of digital wallets from major players such as Google, Apple, and Amazon. Expanded capabilities allow smartphone users, for example, to add keys, IDs, and digital documents directly in the wallet app. These include, but are not limited to, driver’s licenses, verifiable COVID-19 vaccination information, employee badges, student IDs, and hotel room keys.

Tell us about your presence and channel community in the region.
The Middle East and North Africa regions are culturally and economically diverse. Businesses in countries within the same region can have different budgetary constraints and technology demands. The good news for security professionals is that security is essential to every successful business.

HID counts on a close relationship with regional channel partners. We continue to focus on having a strong presence in the region, and thanks to our Advantage Partner Program, we’ve successfully accomplished that. Through our elite Advantage Partner Program, our channel marketing teams are closely aligned with our channel partners to support them with marketing and sales enablement materials, training, and resources.