Please note: This post was written by Highlander prior to their rebrand to FluidOne Business IT - Sheffield.
Imagine an engineer arriving at work in the morning. They are checked for safety goggles and a hi-vis jacket and allowed onto the factory floor. There, they are issued a ruggedised ATEX-rated smart device and informed there is a water leak in a secure sector. On arrival, they are verified and permitted entry to make the repair. However, no other person has been required to make any of this happen. It’s all been enabled by smart IoT cameras, sensors, AI, and computer vision.
Cameras have come a long way
The all-seeing eyes of this ‘smart factory’ are Cisco Meraki MV cameras – leading edge IoT sensors that are able to watch, learn and automate actions based on what they see in real-time. It’s a huge leap from traditional CCTV or IP-based cameras, redefining the role cameras will play in working environments and opening up new capabilities. So, how does this transformative technology work and what can it do for businesses?
Smarter views across the working environment
Meraki MV cameras are powerful AI computers. They are able to recognise objects, people, and vehicles in real-time, providing oversight across facilities that simply can’t be matched by manual methods.
We’ve already touched on the potential applications for MV smart cameras in areas such as manufacturing or education in a previous blog. Whether watching a factory floor, a warehouse or an office, MV cameras can continuously check that people are complying with safety equipment rules (such as PPE, goggles and gloves) and maintaining safe distancing. Smart technology bypasses the need for a person to watch the footage. Instead, AI provides automated alerting and actions, based on what the cameras can see and hear. For example, a supervisor could be alerted when an unauthorized person enters a restricted area. With MV cameras keeping watch, you have fewer blind spots and faster response times in the event of an accident. Add low-cost BLE tags and can also track movement flows of employees and assets in real-time across the site.
Insights that empower
But the benefits of these IoT cameras don’t stop there. All the visual and audio information captured by MV cameras can be used to power insightful, personalised dashboards that reveal new, valuable business information. It could be simple stats, such as footfall, busy times, popular zones, or meeting room utilization. Alternatively, you could go much deeper and analyse the age, gender, and emotional state of people moving through your environment. It’s actually astonishing just how much information it’s possible to extract from Meraki MV cameras. And because it’s all cloud-based, you’re able to monitor discreetly from a remote location and react without having to leave your desk.
Partners make this possible
The Meraki MV cameras have a lot of in-built capabilities, but to truly unlock their full potential to transform your business, you can tap into a whole world of Meraki Partner Technology Services. A comprehensive API platform makes it simple to connect to third-party software and hardware, giving you the freedom to create an integrated solution that’s tailored to your business. For example, everyangle.ie is a partner that offers computer vision applications for manufacturing, retail, modern workplace and beyond. EVERYANGLE’s technology enables MV Smart cameras to recognize the world they are sensing and act accordingly – feeding data to your dashboard and triggering alerts and actions. You can also take advantage of the EVERYANGLE virtual assistant, EVA, for fast searches – no more scrolling through hours of footage manually. There’s also V-App for IoT that integrates with Meraki sensors to provide real-time visibility of your business-critical physical environment. You can use V-App in many different situations – warehouse depots, datacenters, cold stores and offices to name a few. To see just all the different visualisations made possible by V-App and MV cameras, go to https://www.v-app.io/ and click on ‘DEMO’.
Affordable and efficient
With the MV family, Meraki has simplified the deployment of smart cameras, reducing the need for video storage, video monitoring and costly bandwidth associated with searching and sharing of large video files. The cameras are also super secure, with all Meraki management data encrypted by default. This puts IoT cameras, and the valuable insight they can provide, within the reach of more businesses.
Our team is ready to help
If this has made you think about what MV cameras could do within your business, why not talk to us about it? We’d love to discuss your business goals and showcase the extended ready-to-use and custom MV camera-based solutions that would address them. To see what’s possible with Meraki IoT, get in touch with a member of the team.
