From oil and gas to mining and energy generation, the Middle East is home to a variety of industries that pose significant challenges from a health and safety standpoint. These industries can be classified as critical infrastructure, meaning they are critical for the social and economic function of respective nations. At the same time, their working environments can be deemed hazardous, posing a challenge to firms in terms of sufficiently protecting their resources, both human and otherwise.
Firms need to maintain business continuity at the same time they prioritise workplace and employee safety. No solution can fully eliminate the risk of an accident. Still, by taking a proactive approach to on-site safety using intelligent, cost-effective surveillance solutions, operators can reduce the risk of an accident, create a safer working environment, and ultimately reinforce business continuity by minimising potential downtime.
Improving situational awareness
Fire and smoke alarms have long underpinned basic workplace safety but traditional systems, combined with in-person monitoring, can only go so far in creating and sustaining a safe working environment. Operators cannot respond to an incident if they don’t know if it’s taking place and, in the case of hazardous environments, delayed response times can be the difference between life and death. In light of this, operators need to complement existing solutions with others that enhance their situational awareness.
Network surveillance solutions, including thermal cameras and those equipped with analytics, can increase operators’ field of scope and accuracy in identifying incidents. The goal is to offer support in real-time. For example, should a device detect that a person has fallen over or suffered an injury, personnel can be immediately notified to assist them. Meanwhile, audio solutions such as network-connected speakers let operators communicate directly with affected parties and issue directives such as evacuation orders. The addition of analytics further enhances these capabilities, enabling operators to set parameters to best first their operating conditions and reduce the potential for false alarms.
Getting proactive
The introduction and availability of intelligent video solutions have wholly changed how entire industries can go about reducing on-site accidents. Today’s network surveillance systems let operators configure them based on their individual operating needs. For example, using analytics, a camera operator can pick up when an employee is not wearing the required personal protective equipment (PPE) or has entered a restricted or hazardous area.
This is how industry and critical infrastructure firms can take a proactive stance when it comes to workplace safety. The benefits thereof are not related to health and safety. It’s also a question of business continuity, as by minimising the potential for workplace incidents, operators can minimise potential downtime. There is also a question of privacy, as advanced surveillance systems can pick up details such as people’s faces. Using dynamic masking, operators can intentionally obscure details like that while still ensuring worker safety and protection, with footage masked and processed directly on the camera device rather than on a server, thus preventing a potential leak of raw footage.
Improving policies and taking an open approach
Being proactive when it comes to workplace safety is not just looking for accidents before they occur, it’s about identifying the variables and conditions that may ultimately be the cause of an accident. On top of providing real-time monitoring capabilities, today’s surveillance solutions can provide operators with insights that help them improve their safety policies, using recorded materials to determine and devise new safety protocols and enhance existing ones. Body worn cameras are an ideal example of this in action, providing footage that supports the continual improvement of safety policies through accuracy and a lack of bias.
Industries also need to act with expediency when it comes to safety, which is why any surveillance implementations should be on an open platform that enables easy integrations and system expansion, enabling firms to get the most out of their network surveillance investments. Combined with end-to-end solutions with built-in cybersecurity features, critical infrastructure firms and industrial operators in the Middle East can maximise the safety of their employees and set a new standard in workplace safety.
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