Who this is for
This is written for risk-aware operations and security leaders responsible for large, multi-site or high-traffic properties, including shopping centres, government facilities, university campuses, health precincts and critical infrastructure, who want to move their surveillance capability from passive monitoring to genuine incident readiness.
The unseen truth
Over the last 15+ years, we have reviewed more than 800 surveillance systems across retail, government, health, education and critical infrastructure sites, including 112 major shopping centres.
Not one was “critical incident ready”. Despite significant investment in surveillance systems and video walls, most remain unintelligent and offer little or no value when it comes to supporting time-critical events.
Sit in any control room for a few hours and watch the operators work, and you will see that video walls are rarely used for daily operations. Video walls can and should aid critical incident responses, but only when the video management system (VMS) has been optimally configured.
Of the systems reviewed, 28% were considered enterprise grade, with a camera count of 300 or more. The largest single surveillance system reviewed had over 1,700 cameras. A typical enterprise-grade deployment comprises a VMS, a video wall and at least one operator.
Video walls: no one is watching
Video walls often go unnoticed until a critical incident occurs, which is exactly when injury prevention, business impact and loss of life become the top priorities in the room.
They allow multiple people to observe activity across a site without crowding around a single workstation. Yet even in the best control rooms, operators rarely reference them.
One of the largest video walls we’ve reviewed displayed 256 cameras simultaneously. Impressive, but visually overwhelming and impossible to actively monitor.
Why they’re ignored
- They aren’t displaying what is relevant. Video walls should be dynamic and adapt to different risk levels. A high-traffic property’s risk profile at 2:00pm differs vastly from 2:00am, yet video wall layouts often remain unchanged.
- They don’t provide the insights they should. Logical grouping of cameras dramatically improves situational awareness. When one camera is selected, the next logical cameras should display alongside it.
- They are rarely used for alarms. Control rooms need immediate knowledge of extraordinary events, not the ordinary. Who’s coming and going through the main entry is irrelevant when there’s a major incident elsewhere on site. Alarms should bring key camera views to screen automatically.
- Operators can’t focus on more than a handful of camera views at any one time. It’s a limitation of human capability, not training.
- Not all users harness the full capability of the system. Operator knowledge is a strength in experienced hands and a vulnerability in inexperienced ones.
- Workflows and surveillance tasks are simpler to execute from a workstation than from a wall.
Enterprise VMS: features we look for
“A well configured VMS can mean the difference between positively influencing an incident and being a bystander. It can be that stark.”
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Extensive third-party integrations | Removes reliance on individual operator knowledge. Integrations automate basic tasks such as broadcast alerts, improving response times regardless of operator experience level. |
| Scenario-based events | Realistic scenarios are mapped and pre-programmed so the system is incident-ready and operators can execute with as few commands as possible. Incident-specific SOPs are surfaced automatically rather than relying on operator memory. |
| Workflows | Guide operators through set sequential steps so incident response follows a consistent, compliant sequence. This frees operators to prioritise human tasks such as phone and radio communication. |
| Visual tracking | Dynamic overlays link cameras so operators move between views with a click rather than entering camera numbers, and can display logical camera groups for better situational awareness. |
| Maps and graphics | Graphically driven displays make camera selection faster and reduce the gap between experienced and less experienced operators, particularly on larger systems. |
| Escalation and failover | Supports remote monitoring when a control room becomes unusable or when an incident’s severity requires additional support from another location. |
| Alarm screens | Screens reserved for alarm events only, using video motion detection, tripwires or more advanced detection such as gunshot or running-person detection, so operators notice what matters. |
| Situational awareness | Cameras are logically grouped so operators understand what is happening and where, regardless of which part of the site is involved. |
| Training | Operators are trained and retrained. Technology alone does not close the capability gap without a maintained training cycle. |
Closing
The key outcome for a property achieving this level of capability is the ability to minimise injury and loss of life.
Matryx has reviewed more than 800 surveillance systems across Australia over 15+ years, working with organisations including Vicinity Centres, Mirvac, Lendlease
