Features In the Field Security
2017 Horizons: From drones to smart cities to cyber security and more

As is tradition, SP&T News is once again cracking open the year ahead and shining the light on upcoming trends in the industry. This time we pegged a number of experts in the field to see which directions CCTV, drones, cyber security, smart cities and the integration services business are all headed. If we can be certain of anything, analytics, cyber threats and hardware price erosion are all here to stay.

Drone-ing on
David Cooke, a former military pilot, was flying one of his drones along the harbour in Sarnia, Ont. one evening to get a shot of Chemical Valley’s flares and lights — for artistic purposes — when he had a run-in with security.

“The security company from one of the refineries came by and asked what I was doing,” he says. “They said you can’t fly over the industrial plants and I said I wasn’t and showed them on my display exactly where I’d been flying… And a few weeks later the head of that company, Lyndon Security, called me and asked for a meeting. Then, we began working together.”

For Cooke, founder and chief pilot at Canda, which provides drone video and photos services, and is a holder of the Special Flight Operations Certificate from Transport Canada, drones hold numerous possibilities for security, from monitoring fence lines, roofs and solar farm equipment, to tracking materials in storage bins. | READ MORE