PC Everywhere in Different Dresses (T04)

Compucon Physical Security Project Team

The PC is not dead and has evolved. A smart phone is a PC in the palm. An EV is a computer server on 4 wheels. A data centre in the cloud consists of thousands of PC under one roof. A safety and security system for an organization is a PC. Who says PC is dead? Many people said so as they did not use a PC anymore. In reality, they use PCs not looking like a PC without knowing!

Many homes and small companies have installed surveillance cameras with a recorder. The truth is that the recorder is a PC, and each camera is a PC. These people may have installed remote door lock access control. These locks are either standalone or they are connected to the cloud. The truth is that modern door locks involve a PC, and the cloud is definitely formed from PCs.

A newish and upmarket apartment building in Auckland was equipped with surveillance cameras and access control door locks when the building was constructed. It did have a PC in its manager’s office for viewing security information. Owners and residents found after two years of living there that the installed equipment had gaps. They called for extensions of capacity. PC is extensible although there is a limit which is normally far beyond the needs of a small and medium company. To the surprise of the building owners, offers of extension from their existing suppliers and installers were not economical at all. At last, the building owners took a big risk of trusting a new chap on the block called Compucon to provide a separate system based on PC for 17 more cameras, 2 access control door locks, and 1 carpark gate controller to work in parallel (unrelated) with the existing equipment. Just over 12 months have elapsed. Time so far has proven that this PC system has a higher level of quality than the previously installed equipment, easier to manage, and cheaper to operate and maintain. An example is that a vehicle RFID (radio frequency identity) tag to be affixed to the windscreen from Compucon is about 1/7 of the cost of a thumb controller from an experienced installer. The building committee members have been extremely pleased with the entire process and outcomes of involving this new chap on the block.