Thermal doesn't care about the dark.
This is real footage from live deployments, supplied by our flight operations partner. It is not a product demonstration and it is not stock. Location data and identifying detail have been removed before publication.
Video only. No audio is captured, recorded or transmitted from any site. No facial recognition or biometric identification is performed at any point. Every automated detection is verified by a human controller before escalation.
Three jobs a camera on a pole can't do.
Aerial verification
Your cameras and SARA flag something at the perimeter. Instead of guessing from one angle, a controller gets an overhead thermal view of the same spot — and can tell you whether it is a person, an animal or a branch moving in the wind before anyone is dispatched.
Scheduled aerial patrol
A planned sweep of ground your cameras don't reach: field boundaries, servitudes, bush lines, roof areas, stockpiles and laydown yards. Flown to a schedule agreed with you, with the footage reviewed the same way any other detection is.
Support to your response team
When your armed response or your own team is moving on a property at night, an overhead thermal picture tells them where the person actually is, and whether there is more than one. Nobody walks into a bush line blind.
Observe. Orient. Decide. Act.
Observe
Your fixed cameras stream to our monitoring platform. SARA reads movement, body language and speed of movement, and classifies behaviour that may be worth a closer look.
Orient
Where a site has aerial cover, the drone gives an overhead thermal view of the same location — through darkness, through grass, through partial canopy.
Decide
A human controller looks at both pictures and decides whether it is real. This step is not optional and it is not automated. SARA classifies behaviour; it does not determine intent.
Act
Verified events are escalated to you and to your response provider on the escalation path agreed for your site, with the footage attached.
What drone monitoring does not do.
Aerial security is sold with a lot of noise attached. Here is the part most people won't put on a website.
- It does not intervene. A drone observes and records. It is not armed, it does not detain anyone, and it is not a replacement for armed response or for a guard on the ground.
- It does not fly in all weather. Heavy rain and high wind ground the aircraft. Any honest aerial service has days it cannot fly.
- It does not fly anywhere unconditionally. What can be flown at a site depends on that site's airspace, its surroundings and the approvals held for that type of operation. It is assessed per site, before anything is quoted.
- It does not identify faces. No facial recognition, no biometrics, and thermal imagery does not resolve facial detail at operating altitude in any case.
- It does not listen. No audio, from the aircraft or from any camera on any of our services.
- It does not replace your cameras. Fixed cameras are cheaper per hour of watching and cover fixed points constantly. The drone adds reach, not redundancy.
The regulatory position, plainly.
Aviation
Flight operations are carried out by a specialist partner certificated by the South African Civil Aviation Authority. The aviation responsibility sits with the certificated operator. Kevlar Monitoring does not operate aircraft.
POPIA
Monitoring is planned around the boundary of your site. Retention is set to a schedule agreed with you in advance. Because we run video only with no biometrics, the personal information involved is narrower than most aerial services.
RICA
All Kevlar Monitoring services are video only. No audio is captured, transmitted or stored from any site, by any camera or any aerial platform. This is a fixed rule, not a configurable option.
Drone monitoring, answered.
What is drone monitoring?
Drone monitoring uses an aerial camera platform, usually carrying a thermal payload, to observe a site from above. At Kevlar Monitoring it is not a standalone service. It works alongside your fixed cameras: the cameras and our SARA platform pick up something worth looking at, and the drone is used to get an aerial view of it that a wall-mounted camera cannot give.
Why thermal rather than a normal camera?
A thermal payload reads heat, not light. That means it keeps working in complete darkness, and it picks up body heat through long grass, scrub and partial tree cover where an ordinary camera sees nothing. It is the single biggest practical advantage of putting a camera in the air rather than on a pole.
Does the drone replace my existing cameras?
No. Fixed cameras give you constant coverage of fixed points and they are far cheaper per hour of watching. The drone adds a view your cameras cannot reach: over the back of the property, into the bush line, across a field, above a roof. The two are complementary, and we would not recommend removing cameras to pay for drone cover.
Who flies the aircraft?
We do not. Flight operations are carried out by a specialist flight operations partner that holds certification from the South African Civil Aviation Authority. Kevlar Monitoring handles the monitoring, the AI analysis and the human verification. The aviation side sits with the certificated operator, which is where the regulatory responsibility properly belongs.
Is the footage watched by a person or only by AI?
Both, in that order. SARA classifies what it sees in the video and flags what looks like it may matter. A human controller then looks at the flag and decides whether it is real before anything is escalated to you. No detection reaches you without a person having looked at it first. SARA classifies behaviour; it does not determine intent, and it never acts on its own.
Is audio recorded?
No. Every Kevlar Monitoring service is video only. No audio is captured, recorded, transmitted or stored from any site, from any camera or from any aerial platform. This is a fixed rule across the business, not an option you have to ask for.
Do you use facial recognition?
No. We do not perform facial recognition, biometric identification, biometric matching or biometric template generation anywhere in the service. Thermal imagery in particular does not resolve facial detail at operating altitude.
What about POPIA and my neighbours' privacy?
Aerial monitoring is planned around the boundary of the site being monitored, and retention is set to a schedule agreed with you in advance. Because we run video only and no biometrics, the personal information involved is narrower than most people assume. We will take you through the POPIA position for your specific site as part of the assessment.
Can the drone fly at any time, anywhere on my property?
Not automatically. What can be flown at a given site depends on the airspace it sits under, the surrounding area, and the approvals held for that type of operation. That is assessed per site before anything is quoted or promised, and it is confirmed in writing before a contract starts. Weather also stops flights: heavy rain and high wind ground the aircraft.
Does the drone respond to an intruder or intervene?
No. A drone observes, records and gives your response team a picture from above. It does not intervene, it is not armed, and it is not a substitute for an armed response provider or for a guard on the ground. Its value is that it tells the people who do respond what they are walking into.
Where do you operate?
Drone-assisted monitoring is offered across KwaZulu-Natal. Our standard offsite monitoring services are available more widely.
What does it cost?
Drone-assisted monitoring is priced per site. The cost depends on the size of the property, the terrain, how it is to be used and what the site assessment finds. We do not publish a per-camera figure for it because, unlike our fixed-camera plans, there is no honest single number to publish.