Introduction
Century City, widely regarded as South Africa’s leading smart city, has consistently embraced technological innovation to deliver world-class urban living. From its robust broadband infrastructure to its intelligent surveillance systems, the precinct exemplifies the transformative potential of smart connectivity. In its latest leap forward, the Century City Property Owners’ Association (CCPOA) has implemented the FaceCamAlert multi-tenant facial recognition CCTV platform, adding a new layer of intelligence and efficiency to its already sophisticated security infrastructure.
Challenge: Enhancing security without escalating costs
In any smart urban environment, physical safety remains a top priority. For Century City, this means maintaining a high level of situational awareness while managing the growing costs associated with physical guarding, the largest operational expense, and CCTV systems, the largest capital outlay.
Additionally, effective safety operations require seamless collaboration between multiple stakeholders, including building owners, security providers and public safety agencies. Intelligence sharing has traditionally been fragmented and manual, limiting the potential of surveillance and emergency response capabilities.
At the core of the challenge was a need to:
- Strengthen the existing surveillance ecosystem.
- Reduce long-term security costs.
- Optimise the use of existing broadband and CCTV infrastructure.
- Ensure full compliance with South Africa’s POPIA data privacy regulations.
Solution: FaceCamAlert’s intelligent facial recognition system
To address these challenges, the CCPOA partnered with FaceCamAlert (FCA), a facial recognition CCTV platform developed by Solution House Software, a trusted technology provider already providing Century City with its incident and services platform My Incident Desk since 2015.
The implementation began with a proof of concept (POC) in 2021, founded on four core principles:
- Accurate facial matching using a world-class engine deployed in global airports and city centres.
- POPIA compliance, including legal reviews, signage, privacy statements and a full data management framework.
- Multi-tenant architecture that supports real-time, secure sharing across properties and service providers.
- Affordability and scalability, leveraging existing infrastructure and open-platform integrations.
The FaceCamAlert system was tightly integrated with Century City’s broadband network and CCTV infrastructure. The latest CCTV Open Platform Framework capabilities enabled seamless API onboarding on supported cameras, while the My Incident Desk platform handled device and IOT management, and incident and facial match alerting, creating a cohesive, scalable surveillance solution.
Results: Tangible security improvements and cost efficiency
The results of the pilot exceeded expectations. More than 200 positive matches on SAPS wanted lists were recorded, with escalation protocols now in place with SAPS Western Cape Province. The successful POC led to full-scale deployment across the precinct and adoption by individual properties within Century City.
“Implementing facial recognition technology is a big step forward in making our city safer,” says Marinus Boshoff, CEO of the Century City Property Owners’ Association. “It’s not just about security for its own sake. It’s about creating an environment where residents, workers and visitors feel safe, and where our emergency services can respond faster and more effectively.”
By enabling swift identification of persons of interest and integrating intelligence sharing into the security workflow, FaceCamAlert has become a key element of Century City’s smart safety framework.
Conclusion: A new standard in smart urban security
The successful deployment of FaceCamAlert demonstrates how facial recognition, when implemented responsibly and collaboratively, can significantly enhance urban safety. By combining POPIA-compliant data handling, real-time intelligence and seamless integration with existing systems, Century City has raised the bar for what it means to be a smart and secure city in South Africa.
As urban centres nationwide seek to balance safety, cost and innovation, Century City’s example provides a powerful case study of how technology and strategic partnerships can transform urban security.
Share