Commission radar as a perimeter sensor, not a magic field

Source facts: radar complements visual detection

Axis Communications’ July 2026 Radar in surveillance white paper explains that security radar uses reflected radio waves to estimate properties such as an object’s location, speed, direction, and size. Unlike a visual camera, radar is not dependent on visible light and is less affected by conditions such as darkness, backlight, moving shadows, and fog. It can also support non-visual detection where identifying imagery is not desired.

The source describes combinations with visual or thermal cameras, PTZ autotracking, speakers, lighting, recording, maps, and alerts. These integrations can let one sensor detect and locate movement while another supplies identification detail or an operator-facing view. Radar therefore provides a different layer; it does not make every other sensor unnecessary.

Axis also documents practical limitations. Reflective materials and complex environments can create unwanted detections. Swaying objects, very slow movement, closely spaced people or vehicles, mounting geometry, terrain, profile selection, neighboring radar interference, and device speed limits can affect tracking or classification. Include and exclude zones can reduce nuisance events, but an exclusion also creates an area where movement is intentionally ignored.

DSE recommendation: prove the detection-to-response chain

Give each radar a written job. Identify the protected boundary or area, target classes, direction and speed of concern, schedule, expected response, and conditions in which the sensor must work. Put those requirements on a site map. “Cover the yard” is not testable; “detect a walking person crossing this line after hours and present the correct camera to the guard” is.

Survey the radio scene. Record fences, walls, metal structures, parked vehicles, vegetation, slopes, roofs, adjacent roads, moving machinery, water, neighboring radars, and paths that targets can use. Compare the installation to the exact device manual and supported profile.

Validate geometry. Confirm mounting height, tilt, bearing, geolocation, detection zones, crossing lines, and exclusions. Walk the near and far boundaries and the seams between sensors. Test paths that approach, cross, and move parallel to the boundary.

Use representative targets. Exercise authorized people and vehicles at expected sizes, speeds, spacing, and directions. Include slow movement, short appearances, groups, stopped-and-started motion, and partial obstruction where those conditions matter.

Challenge nuisance conditions. Observe wind-driven foliage, gates, flags, rain or snow where practical, traffic outside the perimeter, maintenance activity, moving equipment, and changes in parked vehicles. Tune supported filters deliberately and record every exclusion.

Test sensor coexistence. Where several radars share an area, follow manufacturer limits and coexistence instructions. Prove the final arrangement with all devices operating, not one at a time on an otherwise quiet site.

Verify every response. Confirm the correct event, target classification, map location, camera preset or track, recording bookmark, speaker or light rule, notification, and operator instruction. Measure time from crossing to a usable operator view.

Review misses and unwanted alarms separately. A lower event count is not an improvement if a broad exclude zone hides a valid approach. Likewise, a classification label should assist a response, not serve as unquestioned proof of identity or intent. Where a decision has serious consequences, require the approved corroboration and human review.

Preserve the accepted map, device and firmware, profile, zones, filters, target matrix, weather and scene notes, test results, integration versions, and known limitations. Revalidate after construction, fence or vegetation changes, radar movement, firmware or analytics changes, a new neighboring sensor, or repeated unexplained events. Radar is valuable precisely because it observes different physical properties from video; it earns trust when those properties are tested in the actual perimeter rather than inferred from a demonstration.

After handoff, trend verified detections, misses, and nuisance causes by zone. That history helps the team distinguish seasonal scene changes from configuration drift before repeated alarms weaken operator confidence.

Official reference

Axis Communications, Radar in surveillance, July 2026.