4 ways to enforce social distancing using video security

At no other time in history has there been a worldwide call to action like we are experiencing today. Governments around the globe have mandated businesses and citizens alike to adopt social distancing as a rule—as a way of life.

As a company, we too are helping our employees, customers, and partners navigate during these unprecedented times with the goal to protect people and prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The cost? Minimizing social interactions means most businesses have unfortunately closed or shifted to a 100% remote workforce. All but essential businesses like grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, post offices, hardware stores, and banks continue to stay open. First responders, healthcare providers, and utility companies also continue to operate. So how do these essential businesses keep safe and follow the mandate for social distancing while also serving the public?

Intelligent video security has come to the forefront as the answer to this question. It provides a solution that can be implemented quickly and simply today.

If your organization was forced to shut its doors, you are facing a very different challenge of protecting buildings, structures, and campuses with no clear open date in mind. This additional blog is for you.

The following are four specific ways video security is playing a pivotal role in helping businesses enforce social distancing. These are capabilities you can implement today using your current video security solution.

Businesses need a full picture of the people and vehicles inside a facility at any given point in time. Now more than ever it is critical to have a real-time view. A video management system (VMS) like Ava Aware (formerly Vaion vcore) provides intelligent maps and computer vision to accurately identify the presence of individuals and vehicles. It can also track and locate equipment, products, and other assets.

Imagine being able to see every person and vehicle in motion. People and vehicles can now be highlighted on site maps allowing businesses to carefully monitor and prevent congestion to maintain social distance. And maps can be linked making it easy for security operators to follow people and/or customers as they move throughout a facility. You can learn more here.

Grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, and other essential service providers need to limit the number of people on their premises to allow for social distancing. The same goes for playgrounds or soccer fields where they remain open. Security operators can set object counting rules to receive notifications in real-time when there’s a larger number of people than allowed in a particular location. For tight spaces and hallways, operators can proactively monitor and identify potential crowding in real-time. You can learn more here.

Security and operations teams must also adhere to social distancing rules. An agile, collaborative video security solution provides these employees with full visibility into essential alerts while allowing them to maintain a social distance. This is accomplished through the use of webhooks that connect to an organization’s communications tool of choice e.g. applications like, Slack or Google Hangouts.

For example, authorized staff might be notified about an alert via Slack. By notifying and providing authorized staff with immediate access to critical video on their desktop or mobile device, the response time is almost instantaneous. Bottlenecks are removed. Today this is particularly important during the current health crisis.

Continuous collaboration requires the ability to securely share relevant video links internally and even externally with law enforcement via the cloud. Imagine viewing a video of a congested area from a control room and needing to relay the information to the security team on the ground. Being able to share video clips via the cloud saves time and delivers accuracy of information directly to the source to facilitate immediate action. You can learn more here.

While the immediate future is a bit uncertain, intelligent video security is helping organizations globally and across industries gain peace-of-mind knowing they are effectively protecting and maintaining the safety of their employees and customers. It may not be easy but it has been proven social distancing is the best solution to fight COVID-19.

I’d welcome the opportunity to talk with you directly about your organization’s unique video security needs. We have an immediate solution which we are offering a no-obligation proof-of-concept so businesses can start using Aware immediately to get through this challenging time.

Originally published Apr 1, 2020, updated Sept 01, 2020.