Thermal News
Why Today’s Top Security Pros Are
Measuring Temperature.
Temperature-Based Alarms Bring an Added Dimension to
Thermal Cameras.
The World’s Sixth Sense™
Why Today’s Top Security Pros Are
Measuring Temperature.
Temperature-Based Alarms Bring an Added Dimension to
Thermal Cameras.
of their routine predictive maintenance
program. Because these cameras are
precisely calibrated, they can measure
and record the temperature of objects all
over the facility.
Thermal cameras coupled with video
analytics optimized for thermal video
have gained widespread acceptance
among security professionals for their
ability to detect, alarm on, and assess
faint heat signatures around the clock,
and in conditions that would blind
typical video cameras.
Using thermal technology in a
coordinated, multi-role scheme can
take advantage of its additive strengths
beyond security, and adding value
for the entire facility. At an electrical
substation, for example, security
personnel don’t want someone going
over or through the fence to steal the
copper or otherwise damage equipment.
An unplanned service interruption can
cost the utility hundreds of thousands of
dollars in lost revenue and repair costs.
This makes them invaluable for guarding
physical perimeters – and establishing
virtual perimeters – around power
plants, petrochemical facilities, or
remote, unmanned substations.
Maintenance and operations personnel
are also trying to prevent unplanned
outages by inspecting the thousands of
components inside the fence to see if
any of them are giving off excess heat,
which could betray an impending failure.
If they can reroute power around the
failing component and repair it without
any loss of service to their customers,
that’s a good day at work.
Thermal security cameras provide reliable intrusion
detection and threat assessment, even in no-light
conditions.
But what, you may well ask, does that
have to do with security?
What many security pros may not know
is that the same thermal technology
has been the industry standard for
monitoring what happens inside the
same fence for decades.
Maintenance and operations personnel
use small, handheld thermal cameras
to monitor heat-related conditions and
trends of critical components as part
The Thermal Advantage
Thermal cameras for industrial inspections
provide safe, accurate, non-contact temperature
measurements for condition monitoring and
predictive maintenance.
Thermal security cameras have been the
best nighttime security imaging solution
for years, but their comparatively high
acquisition cost has kept many from
experiencing their advantages over
other detection technologies.
Auxiliary lighting and other illumination sources create paths intruders can follow undetected without
thermal imaging.
Cameras like the FLIR FC-Series R can provide both
perimeter intrusion detection and temperature
measurement.
fence. As an additional deterrent, fences
can be electrified and posted as such.
Even with ample lighting, a lack of color contrast can render an intruder invisible to a visible camera.
Acquisition cost is only part of the story,
however; so let’s explore the plusses
and minuses of different intrusion
detection sensors.
Visible-Light Imaging
Cameras that create images based on
visible light, like conventional CCTV
and illuminated cameras, have the
advantage of creating images that
are familiar and easy to interpret.
Unfortunately, their ability to create
images is directly related to the amount
of light available.
Because conventional CCTV cameras
– even ones claiming to be “low light” –
need an outside source of illumination
to create an image in the dark, their
practical utility is limited to the range of
their illumination source.
This can be as little as a few hundred
feet, while the tactical situation may
require surveillance capability that
stretches for miles. With roughly half
of every day happening after the sun
drops below the horizon, facilities are
left severely under-secured for large
portions of every day.
Another limitation of visible light
cameras is contrast. If there isn’t enough
contrast between an object and its
surroundings, the camera won’t be
able to see it. Think of camouflage – by
reducing the color contrast between
a person and its surroundings, the
person is made more difficult to see.
Their dependence on light and contrast
also degrade the performance of video
analytics when used with visible-light
cameras in many conditions. Simple
motion detection can often generate
false or nuisance alarms by triggering on
wind effects or animals, while they can
miss many actual events based on the
lighting conditions or sun angle.
Thermal cameras don’t suffer from
these limitations. First, thermal cameras
make pictures from heat, not light, so
they’re able to detect objects regardless
of how much light is available. They
see the heat given off by everything we
encounter in daily life. This heat energy
is called a “heat signature,” and thermal
cameras can see it clearly.
Not only does everything have a heat
signature, but these heat signatures
create their own contrast, so the thermal
energy seen by thermal cameras
generally creates a better image at night
than during the day. They work just
fine during the day – as long as there is
the tiniest bit of temperature contrast
between an object and its background
you can see it – but they work best
at night.
Support Infrastructure
Economically, the costs involved in
the design, installation, operation, and
upkeep of a support infrastructure of
lighting towers and illuminators quickly
outstrips the acquisition cost of a
network of thermal security cameras.
Because they’re not dependent on any
visible light, thermal security cameras
need no auxiliary lighting to work so
they can provide effective perimeters
protection for a fraction of the cost of a
system based on visible-light imagers.
Fence Sensors
Fence lines are often equipped with
sensors that generate an automatic
alarm when something touches the
Either way, fences need to be
complemented by some sort of
imaging technology to assess the
alarms generated by fence sensors.
Thermal cameras provide this threat
assessment without additional lighting
infrastructure, and can provide effective
detection beyond the fence line when
coupled with thermal analytics.
Radio Frequency Intruder Detection
(RAFID)
RAFID sensors use the disruption of
radio waves sent between two cables to
detect a potential intruder. If the amount
of signal changes, someone or some
thing is between the two cables and an
alarm will go off.
Just like fence sensors however, RAFID
sensors still need some kind of imaging
for threat assessment.
Security and Predictive Maintenance
Together
As we have seen, thermal cameras are
actually more affordable for 24-hour
threat detection and assessment than
visible-light cameras, and are a more
effective all-in-one solution than sensors
that don’t provide video assessment
capabilities.
Recent developments in thermal
imaging technology have allowed
manufacturers to combine its detection
capability with the power of temperature
measurement to create a multidimensional tool that covers perimeter
security and operational predictive
maintenance.
By calibrating thermal security cameras
to measure and display accurate, noncontact temperature measurements, this
new generation of cameras can provide
an even greater return on investment
than ever before.
Use Case: Electrical Substations
Copper theft from remote power
substations has reached epidemic
proportions, creating multi-faceted
component for temperature-related
problems.
Being able to do these inspections
remotely from a central control station
– or even just getting a little advanced
warning of a problem so that they can
do more targeted in-person inspections
– can save utility companies big money
just in inspection costs.
Strategic placement of thermal cameras make them true multi-role devices that work for both security and
predictive maintenance personnel.
challenges for utility companies, and
those in charge of their security.
In fact, a recent US Department of
Energy study reports that thefts of
copper wire costs American industries
over $1 billion every year. This same
report found that thieves hit everything
from utility poles to service trucks;
substations, however, are especially
vulnerable.
Many local utilities have determined
that thermal security cameras provide
a proven solution that helps them keep
their vital facilities secure night and day.
Even essential substations – those
providing power to vital infrastructure
assets and local military bases – are
typically unmanned; their network of
fence sensors and CCTV cameras are
monitored remotely from a central
security facility or dispatch center.
A typical substation will install a
network of thermal cameras, coupled
with video analytics. This combination
has proven itself time and again,
resulting in vastly improved situational
awareness and dramatic reductions in
theft-related losses.
Thermal security cameras provide
clear imagery in total darkness so
operators can monitor the substation’s
fence lines and the surrounding area
for approaching people and vehicles.
Thermal video is naturally high in
contrast, so it works well with video
analytics packages used in the typical
central monitoring facility.
Thermal cameras positioned at the
corners of the perimeter provide
complete coverage of the entire
property. The thermal cameras are
designed to produce the appropriate
pixels on target for integration with
the video analytic equipment. Alarms
are generated based on rule violations
and the supporting video is sent to
the central security control room for
processing.
This combination has proven superior to
using the traditional perimeter motion
detection and fence alarm equipment,
in some cases completely eliminating
false alarms while eliminating nuisance
dispatches.
A combination of camera configurations
provides overlapping coverage and
enhances the installation’s multi-role
functionality. Pole-mounted fixed
cameras using optimized thermal
analytics provide automated alarming of
intruders, while cueing pan/tilt cameras
to interrogate alarms for a more detailed
threat assessment.
When no intrusion alarms are present,
the pan/tilt cameras can examine
substation components for heat
signatures that signify efficiency loss
or impending failure and generate
temperature alarms. Thermal cameras
that are precisely thermally calibrated
do more than just detect differences
in heat: they can accurately measure
temperatures of distant objects,
measure and track those temperature
changes over time, and be set to create
alarms when temperatures meet or
exceed predetermined thresholds.
Substation alarms can be triggered
by temperature rises at any electrical
connection, insulator, cooling
regulator, switch, or anything else.
Temperature increases can be cause
by mechanical damage, corrosion,
or myriad other causes. That’s why
most utility companies have strict
predictive maintenance programs in
place, in which operations personnel
use handheld thermal cameras to
methodically inspect each individual
On top of that, the unscheduled failure
of any of the thousands of components
in an average substation can potentially
cost the utility millions of dollars in
revenue. Proactively fixing these faults
saves utility companies from losing
millions of dollars in revenue due to
unplanned service interruptions
every year.
Conclusion
Thermal cameras are known quantities
and of proven benefit in both security
and condition monitoring/predictive
maintenance. Recent technological
advancements have allowed
manufacturers to combine the functions
into a single camera platform.
By sharing acquisition costs between
Security and Operations, the entire
facility can have these next-generation
benefits.
BOSTON
Thermography Headquarters
FLIR Systems, Inc.
9 Townsend West
Nashua, NH 03063
USA
PH: +1 866.477.3687
PH: +1 603.324.7611
PORTLAND
Corporate Headquarters
FLIR Systems, Inc.
27700 SW Parkway Avenue
Wilsonville, OR 97070
USA
PH: +1 877.773.3547
FX: +1 503.498.3153
CANADA
FLIR Systems Limited
920 Sheldon Court
Burlington, ON
L7L 5L6
CANADA
PH: +1 800.613.0507
www.flir.com
©2014 FLIR Systems, Inc. Specifications are subject to change without notice, check our website: www.flir.com.
The thermal images shown are for illustrative purposes only, and may not have been taken by the camera series depicted.