Capability
False-alarm filtering — the feature that makes every other feature usable
CCTV false alarm reduction sounds like a minor optimisation until you realise it is the reason most security systems end up switched off. A system that sends forty alerts a night trains you to ignore it within a fortnight, and an ignored system protects nothing. The approach is to classify what the camera sees before deciding to interrupt you, and how well that works on your cameras is tested at your site.
How cctv false alarm reduction works
Classify before alerting
Moving objects are classified as a person, vehicle, animal or environmental noise. Only classes you've asked about can raise an alert.
Apply zone and schedule
A person in the yard at 2am matters. The same person in the same yard at 2pm during dispatch does not. Time and place are part of the decision, not an afterthought.
Suppress known people
Where face recognition is configured and tested, enrolled people can be exempted, which can reduce daytime alerts at sites with staff.
Tune against your footage
Every site has its own quirks — a streetlight, a neighbour's dog, a flapping tarpaulin. Thresholds are tuned against your real footage rather than left at a generic default.
Where it earns its keep
- Perimeter alarms that were disabled because they fired all night
- Home camera apps whose notifications were muted months ago
- Warehouse yards with stray animals and constant vehicle movement
- Any site where a guard has learned to ignore the buzzer
What it won’t do
Every AI vendor lists strengths. These are the limits, so you can plan around them instead of discovering them.
- Filtering trades a small amount of recall for a large amount of precision. Tuned aggressively, it will occasionally suppress a genuine but ambiguous event — we set that balance with you rather than for you.
- Cameras pointed at a public road will always see more legitimate movement; the fix is framing, not filtering.
- Insects on the lens at night are the hardest single case, and are handled better by an IR housing than by software.
False-alarm filtering — common questions
How much can false alerts actually be reduced?
PGAK has published no measured reduction figure. It depends on the site — framing, lighting, animals, traffic — and is measured on your own footage by comparing alerts before and after tuning. The aim is qualitative as much as numerical: alerts you look at rather than swipe away.
Why does my current system alert for shadows and rain?
Because conventional motion detection compares pixel changes between frames and has no concept of what an object is. Rain, shadows, headlights and swaying branches all change pixels. Object classification is a fundamentally different approach.
Could filtering cause me to miss a real intrusion?
It's a real trade-off and we won't pretend otherwise. Filtering set too aggressively can suppress an ambiguous event. We start conservative, review the first weeks of events with you, and tighten only where the footage justifies it.
Sectors that lean on this: Cold storage — see every industry PGAK serves.
Calculator · C26
False-alarm filtering: estimate it for your site
Use your own measurements. The result is the staff time released, shown separately from any cash, using the formula below. It runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.
Result
Enter your own figures, or load the worked example, to see the result.
How it is calculated
hours = alerts × reduction × handling minutes ÷ 60 − administration hours
Worked example (illustrative inputs)
1,000 alerts; 0.6 reduction; 1 minute; 2 admin hours.
staff time released: 8 hours a month.
Formula version 1.0.0. The full standalone tool: false alarm cost.
What this does not tell you
- Hours released are capacity, not cash. They become cash only through a mechanism you state — overtime that stops, a post that is not refilled — entered as the realisation fraction.
- The 'after' values are your assumptions or pilot measurements. PGAK publishes no effectiveness figure for this feature.
Evidence status: Supplier/integration or marketed capability; PGAK availability and site performance require verification.
Discuss your camera setup
Share your phone number, city and camera count. We will clarify the intended use case and agree assessment scope and timing with you. Do not submit camera credentials or footage.