synectics

In November, global surveillance solutions expert Synectics celebrates 30 years in business. During this time, the Sheffield-based company has dramatically expanded its operation, both in terms of the sectors it serves and the global reach of its customer base. To find out more about this journey, the changes Synectics has seen over the past three decades, and to discover what’s next for the company, we caught up with Paul Webb, Chief Executive, Synectics plc.   Q) How has the security business changed since Synectics was established 30 years ago? The industry has changed significantly since 1987, which is to be expected when technology is the foundation on which it operates. The advent, and subsequent widespread adoption, of IP-based solutions, has been the most significant driver of change from this perspective in recent years. This, of course, doesn’t just refer to camera improvements and changes in network infrastructure; migration to IP-based technology has changed the playing field considerably from the traditional perception of surveillance solutions, or CCTV as it was once known. The level of integration made possible by IP has resulted in organisations thinking about their security and safety needs very differently. Protecting people, places, and assets is no longer simply a case of robust physical security and constant surveillance coverage. It’s about organisations achieving a 360-degree view of all aspects of their operations. This level of situational awareness requires comprehensive systems integration, and IP-based solutions have made this possible. Today, organisations need a platform capable of managing and understanding the wealth of data that is available with these systems and a mechanism that allows quick distillation and responses to that data.   What has that meant for you as a business? It’s meant we’ve had to evolve too. But when evolution is a fundamental part of your business model it makes life much easier. In the early days, Synectics was established as a surveillance technology R&D house with one aim – to develop technologies, that either didn’t exist or that needed enhancing, to meet the requirements of specific projects we were working on. Back in the 80s and early 90s, these were largely public space contracts – supporting UK town and city centre surveillance teams, helping them to better monitor, manage and store video footage. Of course a lot has changed since then, but the one thing that has remained the same is our philosophy towards product development. Our approach is to work with customers to understand their needs and challenges, and then use that insight to evolve solutions which fit their requirements. This mind set is embedded throughout the business and means we were ideally positioned to meet the changing needs of an ‘IP generation.’ An example of this customer-driven technology approach is reflected in Synergy, a user-friendly GUI that was developed in response to customers wanting quick access to footage, without the need for a complex search process. Since that initial development, we launched Synergy 3 in 2014. This latest evolution of our original software is an open architecture command and control platform that allows alarms and events, third-party sub-systems, video, and transactional data, to be monitored, managed, and recorded from a single unified interface. What started as a simple graphical user interface has now become a powerful integration platform that, among its many capabilities, can help our customers achieve full situational awareness.   Q) You work across some diverse markets, have trends differed significantly from sector to sector? Yes, there are distinct trends – or perhaps more specifically, different priorities. In gaming, for example, a huge emphasis is placed on redundancy and system resilience because, in many cases, even a momentary drop in coverage can result in enforced closure and regulatory fines. In transport, the need to balance passenger experience with robust security focusses attention on efficiency and effective collaborative working between departments and agencies. With the high-security projects we work on, centralised/remote process and security check validation are crucial. The surveillance and security needs of each project are unique, but there are consistencies across the sectors in which we operate. These core requirements – ease of use, open architecture, instant access and availability of 100’s to 1000’s of cameras to name just a few – are universal. That said, there is an increasingly common denominator throughout ‒ system convergence. Our solutions are, and have always been, ideally suited to large-scale projects with a clearly defined critical and/or legislative need for security; public space and high security, transport and infrastructure, oil and gas, and gaming – these sectors all fit this descriptor. But organisations are also realising the benefit of removing the dividers that previously kept the separate systems they use isolated. The result is systems convergence, which unifies different aspects of operations to achieve specific business goals. Interoperability is hugely important in this respect. It isn’t enough that operators are able to integrate and view information from multiple systems using a single solution. They also need to be able to action and, increasingly, automate responses. The data received from one system results in commands for another. These responses can include ‘shut down’ enforcements, public information messaging, or maintenance dispatch. The specifics will vary from sector to sector, but the overarching trend is universal.   Q) The business has also expanded globally, what were the biggest challenges you faced when targeting new regions? Indeed we have grown our global reach. While Synectics was ‘born’ in the UK, we now operate around the world with offices in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. That expansion has happened during some tough times, from the global economic crisis to more sector-specific turbulence – the oil and gas market downturn for one. Operating in those conditions, where bottom lines are squeezed and budgets are closely scrutinised, is hard. However, staying true to our core principle allowed Synectics to focus on helping businesses maximise and gradually upgrade their security, safety and operational infrastructure and technology via a cost-effective, scalable approach. Integration through Synergy offered a great opportunity to