Next-gen body worn camera comes to disrupt the market
If we had to handpick the defining technological trends of the past two or three years, cameras would probably be flirting with the top of our list. They have become the key selling point for smartphones, are now an integral part of our homes, and people increasingly use them in their car for security and safety purposes. In the meantime, the market for another type of camera device has been quietly and steadily growing: that of body-worn cameras, which are primarily used by police and special law enforcement agencies. British SME Audax is well aware of this trend. The company envisions its BIO-AX camera as the future benchmark of the market. And it’s not alone in doing so, if their award for the best communication system at the Counter Terror Awards 2018 is any indication. BIO-AX is the next-generation of complete Body Worn Video (BWV) camera ecosystem. It offers secure evidential video gathering together with active user protection and can transfer a live stream of video and audio footage (via 4G or Wi-Fi) to a command centre. The camera was designed to meet the New British Standard 8593:2017 on the deployment and use of BWV and is in full compliance with the New EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It packs high security, AES 256 encryption, GPS mapping and lone worker safety features into a rugged and lightweight product. It contains an enhanced staff ‘safety blanket’ alarm feature, with capability for remote access, remote memory wipe and even a ‘man down’ function. “Let’s face it: most BWV cameras are just that – they are cameras. They capture evidence in a secure manner, and there is very little difference between products. This has encouraged a ‘race to the bottom’ on pricing and, as a result, some manufacturers are now compromising on product quality,” says Adam Liardet, CEO of Audax. BIO-AX is the opposite of this levelling down approach. Let’s take a practical example: whilst most BWV cameras use an insecure tethered connection to a mobile phone that drains the phone battery in about an hour, providing a slow stream with a huge latency and often prevents the phone from using other functions, BIO-AX connects directly to WiFi or 4G thanks to SIM card that freely chosen by the user. The camera also features text-to-speech (TTS) technology: users can type a message, send it to a camera or all cameras in a registered group, and the message is then played on the cameras’ integrated speaker via Google Voice. Last but not least, BIO-AX it is designed and developed in the EU. “Customers are very excited about our live streaming camera because of the high level of functionality for the same price you’d get for a far lower spec camera that can’t stream. They are also highly surprised that we are providing such a feature-rich back office software for no additional annual licence fee. This is a complete “step change” in the market and completely calls competitors’ business model into question,” Liardet explains. EU funding has been instrumental in the development of BIO-AX ®. Audax is now in a better position to liaise with EU customers and partners, and the project helped build the technology from the ground up. “This development project required us to deal with both software and hardware challenges and has taken us from a piece of paper through to product launch. So, while being an exciting challenge, it has also pushed us to focus on having the capability and skills in place to improve our business performance and be capable of ‘scaling up’,” says Liardet. Thanks to a partnership between Audax and the City of Westminster College, the company is also involved in the running of the first accredited Body Worn Video (BWV) course, teaching students how to use BWV appropriately and proportionately to ensure safety, security and the privacy of people being recorded. Liardet is hopeful that the course will help enhance both public and private sector guidelines and management structure.
Keywords
BIO-AX, Audax, body-worn camera, security, police, live stream
