Acquired Business Solutions (ABS)

In 2008 the CSRF noticed several suburbs located around Sandton were starting to deploy surveillance cameras at the main entry points to their neighbourhoods and decided to investigation a solution that would be best suited to Sharonlea.

Various providers and companies were approached, all with substantially different ideas on how such a system would work. At a residents meeting, where the solution was being discussed, one of the CSRF contributors mentioned, ”He knew a guy” and so our relationship with Acquired Business Solutions (Pty) Ltd began.

Pieter van der Linde, who we later learned was the managing director, spent many evenings discussing, surveying and formulating plans about how to provide the connectivity within the suburbs, chosen locations for cameras and how to stream the cameras back to a chosen control room.

The final solution was presented a year after the initial discussions, which led to a new challenge, how to pay for the solution? A contributors meeting was held where the solution was presented. Two members of Sharonlea contributed a total of R300, 000 to be paid back over a specific period, this left the rest of Sharonlea's residents to contribute a similar amount, until Pieter stepped in again.

This system would be his companies first such solution, previously having installed systems in schools, offices and the like. He had never done a system with this scope. Pieter, on behalf of ABS, committed to fund the remainder of the money, to be paid back by the CSRF as our contributors grew, over no specific period and with no interest.

During the last 7 years, the system has scaled from the initial 6 cameras to the current 60. The systems coverage has also expanded from just Central Sharonlea and now includes areas adjacent to Sharonlea Central, with plans to expand coverage to the Greater Sharonlea area. Our system also forms part of the Network of cameras installed by ABS which stretches to Edenvale, Midrand and includes multiple suburbs, complexes and residential estates, all from the initial 6 cameras installed in Sharonlea at inception.

The CSRF system has not only increased in camera numbers and coverage area, but in functionality and effectiveness as well. Initially the control room, located at the RSS offices in Broadacres, streamed the cameras in a live view, meaning all cameras were constantly on display. As the system grew in size and the camera quality increased to 2MP, 4MP and then full HD, the system became less effective. Again our partnership with ABS proved to be vital. As the technical supporter to the system, ABS had unbeknown to us, approached our monitoring and security company RSS and provided an improved solution.

The recording platform ABS installed, was based on the Nuuo VMS software. As the software increased in functionality, so did the options available to CSRF. This improved solution, now allowed for “black screen monitoring”, so a camera is only displayed on screen once motion is detected in its field of view. This greatly reduced the amount of cameras displaying on the screen at the same time (We already had 30 cameras installed at this point) and allowed the persons monitoring the cameras to actually focus on the displayed data. The next action taken by ABS was to install analytics on the server software working with the recording software. This was done with minimal interruption to the system operation, as the analytics software chosen was again provided by Nuuo, meaning a complete software solution from recording, to analytics, to control room.

The analytics provided detects specific events per location meaning every camera within Sharonlea learns its environment and provides information according to the presence zone and tripwire settings for that specific camera. Additional analytics include speed monitoring, object direction, counting, dwelling and loitering to name but a few.

Again the equipment and software provided by ABS was payable over no specific period, with no interest.

Our latest evolution in the steps to ensuring the safety of our community is the installation of thermal cameras that operate on body heat to cover our border with Malibongwe and President Fouche. This together with the newly installed LPR software that focuses specifically on the number plate recognition which then compares to a database of wanted vehicles, will ensure we are able to track any vehicle entering our area.

CSRF & ABS have walked this road together since inception, technical staff are dispatched at all hours of the day to ensure the continuous operation of the network within Sharonlea. With the advent of FTTH (Fibre to the Home), ABS again led the way and introduced the committee to Vumatel. This allowed Vumatel to gain a footprint for their network relatively quickly in this section of Johannesburg due to the interest shown by our neighbourhood. The new connection also allowed ABS to change from a previous microwave link to the control room to a dedicated static fibre connection. This increased connection speed allows for even less false alarms and ensures that the video data reaches the end point without competing with other data from other neighbourhoods.

This is the history of our two entities and how we assisted each other to achieve new heights, ABS, by providing the technology and funding when required by CSRF and ensuring that the technical component remains above reproach and the CSRF for having the faith and trust in start-up, and their ability to assist in providing a system of the highest quality. We are not saying ABS are perfect, few providers are, but when an issue requires attention, we still communicate directly with Pieter van der Linde and he still visits our site weekly to test and ensure all is operational.

CSRF and the community have assisted in the growth of ABS. From a company with 2 full time employees, with no technical staff, to having 22 technical staff members and dedicated technical office staff that monitor our system health 24/7 365 days a year. Professional and employed sales and accounting departments and partnerships with all leading manufacturers, ABS is no longer just a camera installer. Their staff compliment, now numbering 40+, believe in the same principles as their founder and deliver accordingly. The ABS network includes 7 control rooms protecting shopping centres, fuel depots, residential estates, suburbs, business parks and individual homes

They have incorporated access control from leading vendors in the industry, visitor management solutions, building management and home automation. This expansion occurred along the installation of more than 5000 cameras to monitor their expanding client base.

All of this from 6 cameras and the belief from the community that a start-up company with no experience in this industry was better suited to provide for our needs than a large corporate. A true South African success story based on trust, mutual respect and a commitment to get the job done.

Contact Info

Website: www.acquired.co.za

Email: pieter@acquired.co.za

Tel: 0861 287 765

Mobile: 082 877 2880

Sample images from the Camera System