Fike solution: Security and fire detection in one camera

SPARKS, Md.— Fike's SigniFire Server recently received ONVIF certification, making that cost-effective NVR-based early warning detection solution more broadly available, according to Rick Jeffress, sales manager, Americas, for Fike Video Image Detection.

The SigniFire Server-based solution enables CCTV cameras to do double duty as security and fire detection cameras, and can be an upsell RMR opportunity for security dealers, according to Jeffress.

“We recently got ONVIF certification for the server so now it's compatible with just about any new camera out there,” Jeffress told Security Systems News. He said that now opens up “the market for video smoke and fire detection for end users who thought they couldn't afford it—and they now can put it in places where they didn't think they could.”

For video smoke and fire detection, Fike Video Image Detection, which is based here and is a business division of Fike, offers two options. One is SigniFire's IP UL/FM approved cameras.

But another solution that end users can turn to is simply connecting their existing, off-the-shelf ONVIF IP cameras to the SigniFire Server, which Jeffress said uses the same algorithms as the SigniFire IP camera in detecting flame and smoke.

That is more cost-effective, the company says, because it enables the cameras to “play a dual role providing both fire protection and facility security.” The SigniFire Server solution is ideal in retrofit and existing security applications, the company said.

“The cameras are there for security reasons, but you can turn them into smoke and flame detection cameras,” Jeffress explained.

The solution also is a business opportunity for the security companies that have CCTV contracts with those end users, who can upsell the SigniFire Server flame and smoke solution to their customers, increasing their monitoring fees and also doing the after-market maintenance, Jeffress said.

Unlike the SigniFire IP camera, which is NFPA compliant, the server-based solution may not be NFPA-approved, so it's not suitable for all applications, Jeffress said.

But he said it's ideal for the many customers that have minimal or no code requirements for their large, high-ceilinged buildings but want to protect high-value products in those buildings from a fire or ensure that it doesn't cause costly work interruptions.

“We've got customers who could lose a million dollars a day in downtime,” Jeffress said.

One example of a customer that could benefit from the SigniFire Server solution, he said, is a large manufacturing facility may be required to have sprinklers and perhaps pull stations at the doors but isn't required to have flame or smoke detectors. But the owners still may want to use the existing security cameras to add on an early warning detection system that will help ensure that a fire never shuts the business down or harm the products made there.

The SigniFire Server could save an end user thousands of dollars over new smoke and flame detection cameras, Jeffress said.

“Say they're a manufacturer and they've got a 100,000-square-foot facility and they have CCTV cameras in that location, rather than having to install new cameras or smoke detectors or run new conduit and power and power supplies all they have to do is install our server in their rack,” Jeffress said.

And he said the quality of the detection is excellent. “Because of the optics of the new camera, the information the server has to use is so good that the analytics really pop. … You can clearly see the defined area of smoke,” Jeffress said.

Fike's SpyderGuard video flame and smoke detection monitoring software also is ONVIF certified to be able to discover, connect and record ONVIF Profile S devices, such as cameras and encoders, according to the company.

Jeffress added that the server-based solution is a rapidly growing part of Fike's business and is “very flexible and used in a lot of different applications.”