# How G4S Is Modernizing Security Operations Using Docked Drones with DroneDivision - Event: NestGen ’26 - Published: October 2, 2026 - Length: 32:22 - Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/_r42wKHVBXM/ > The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's > captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms. ## About this session Commercial security providers face pressure to cover more ground with fewer guards, verify incidents faster, and reduce response times without expanding headcount. In this NestGen session, G4S and DroneDivision will share how docked drones are modernizing security operations, and what security providers should think through when integrating autonomous drone response into existing patrol and monitoring programs. ## Transcript **[0:00]** Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting session. So, just for a quick intro I'm so sorry. Yeah. So, yeah, just for a quick introduction, today we'll be talking about how G4S is modernizing security ops using dog drones. And along with G4S, we also have Stefan who is joining us from Drone Division. So, without any further ado, I would just love to quickly introduce everyone on the stage. So, Stefan, he's a general manager for Drone Division. Again, quite active in AI, robotics, and automation since 2012. Uh he founded Drone Division in 2017 with a clear vision of using technology for automating different types of challenges. And yeah, by the rapid demand of the evolution that has happened, uh he has been at the forefront of the technology and especially the autonomous drone industry. And since 2019, uh Drone Division has been closely working uh in Belgium for one of the first proofs of concept for remote dog drones uh for one of the biggest uh **[1:05]** high-voltage infrastructure customers, Elia. And yeah, that's how uh today Drone Division is not just recognized as a leader, but also as a very key technology partner for someone who wants to deploy dog drones in the security industry. And yes, the company has now more than 70 remotely deployed docking stations across Belgium. And today, uh along with Stefan, we also have Mark. So, a quick introduction about Mark as well. So, he's the head of solutions uh at G4S Security Systems in Belgium. Uh he has been with G4S for over uh 5 to 6 years now, right? Since 2019. And uh he has been again in the forefront of software development as well as stepped in as a program manager, wherein he brings his experience integrating drone support into the traditional security stack. And that's exactly where uh the physical guarding and the technology blending is happening. So, just some housekeeping rules before I hand it over to **[2:07]** Stefan and So, the session is getting recorded. So, feel free to catch up the recordings later on on our social media handles. And additionally, if you find anything valuable, anything insightful, please feel free to take a screenshot, add up your comments on LinkedIn, and just tag #nextgen. And yes, just a quick note on the questions that you might come up during this insightful session. So, please feel free to drop all of your questions in the Q&A section, and we'll be taking it up later on. But yeah, without any further ado, I would like to hand over the stage to Mark and Stefan. So, guys, over to you. >> Thank you very much, Ruben, to introduce us. Stefan de Greef is from Drone Division. And I'm happy to share here my insights from Drone Division to how G4S is modernizing security operations using drones with Drone Division. **[3:10]** So, we are at Drone Division a very small team. We are with five persons today, and we are introducing drones in a box in Belgium. Why five five persons? Because we want to make it as easy as it is, and we are making it as much as possible by AI. So, Drone Division is established in 2017. Drone Division was founded with a clear mission to set new standards in security, safety, and construction through innovative drone technology. In 2019, we launched Asset Inspect. It was an inspection purpose platform for grid inspections especially designed for Elia DSO in Belgium. So there was a development of next generation remote drone operations by the start of 2019. **[4:10]** 2021 was a milestone as we were the first company in Belgium to launch remote drone operations with the drone in a box. So the drone in the box implemented for incident and accidents reporting for the DSO Elia and we were the first remote drone flights we have conducted in Belgium over 4G and 5G not the C2 link but over four and 5G. It was very very early because we were 2019 and 21. In 2023 we have started to deploy 70 drones in a box for DFR first responders and we wanted to strengthen emergency response to real-time situation awareness. 2025 now we want to scale drone in a box services as a dual use application **[5:14]** because now we want to integrate everything in one platform for safety, security and construction. In 2026 we started partnership with G4S. So if we are talking about drones as a service because drone division is a service level model. Drones as a service is much more than buying a drone. It's a managed service that allows your team to benefit from drone capabilities without the burden of owning, maintaining, operating the technology. What does it mean in practice? Actually, we manage the entire solution. So, the deployment, operations, maintenance, software updates, and the regulatory compliance. For our clients, there is no technology risk. **[6:15]** Drone Division retains ownership of all the hard and software and ensuring our clients always to have access to the latest technology without worrying about obsolescence. Operational flexibility is very important. As the As the needs evolve, the service evolves with the client. So, without the need for new capital investment on client's side, it is very interesting for clients. And we have a 24/7 complete visibility. So, reporting and operational dashboards, we can provide insights into drone missions, performance, and outcome. Therefore, we also work together with Fleet Base. So, our clients has peace of mind. They have an end-to-end managed service means that client's team can focus on its core business while we take care of the drone operations. **[7:16]** Peace of mind. Here you can see a small video of Drone Division performing at the site of Volvo Cars. Next to my presentation, you will also have, later on, Mark from G4S speaking about what we are doing at the site of Volvo Cars in Belgium. and you will see at the video that this is a very large site where we conduct a lot of controls. Drone in a box is installed at the plant and can fly automated to the location needed. I think the video has stalled a little bit today. We can go to the next slide. So, what are the challenges? And that's very important. What are the challenges **[8:19]** today in security? So, today the security teams face more pressure than ever. You can go to the next slide. So, today security teams they face more pressure than ever. In Europe, for instance, security demands are increasing. Uh resources are stretched and organizations are expected to detect and respond to incidents faster than before. At the same time, traditional perimeter protection systems often generate false alarms, causing valuable time and manpower to be wasted. The challenge is no longer collecting data. The challenge The challenge is turning insights into action with limited resources. And that's where Drone the Vision comes in. Our automated drone solutions act as a force multiplier for service operations. **[9:20]** When an alarm occurs, a drone can automatically launch, verify the situation in real time, and provide actionable intelligence to operators and response teams within minutes. Instead of reacting blindly to alerts, security teams can make informed decisions based on live visual information. For For our clients, that means they have faster incident verification and response. They have reduced time to spend investigating false alarms. Better utilization of security personnel. And enhanced situational awareness across large or complex sites. Improved safety for both security teams and assets. So, by combining automated drones, intelligent software, and a fully managed drone as a service model, we help security organizations to do more with the resources **[10:26]** they already have. Can go to next slide. So, the security model faces significant challenges. Most interventions are still reactive. Meaning that by the time response is initiated, the incident has often already occurred. So, manual patrols remain resource intensive. Site coverage is limited and blind spots are unavoidable. At the same time, more than 98% of security alarms turn out to be non-actionable, creating unnecessary workloads, and driving up operational costs within margins continue to shrink. Next slide, please. So, this is where Drone Division creates value. The automated drone solution transforms security operations from a reactive model to **[11:31]** a proactive one. So, instead of sending guards to investigate every alarm, the drone can automatically respond, verify the situation in real time, and provide life intelligence within minutes. So, for clients, this means proactive security instead of reacting after an incident has occurred. Automated alarm verification, reducing the impact of false alarms, enhanced site coverage with airborne visibility beyond fences and cameras, fewer blind spots through rapid aerial deployment, more efficient use of security personnel, allowing guards to focus on real incidents, lower operational costs while improving security quality and consumer value. **[12:32]** So, the result is a smarter security operation where resources are deployed only when needed, and decisions are based on a verified information rather than assumptions. You can go to the next slide. So, security is not about replacing people. That's very important. That's very important message today. It's not about replacing people. It's all about giving security professionals better tools to make faster and smarter decisions. At Drone Division, we combine AI, automated drones, cameras, and alarm systems into one single integrated ecosystem. Together, these technologies continuously monitor the environment, detect the anomalies, verify incidents, and provide real-time intelligence to **[13:32]** operators. This means security teams, they can detect incidents faster before they escalate, automatically verify alarms, reducing unnecessary human intervention, receive actionable insights instead of overwhelming amount of data, and optimize resources by focusing people where they add the most value. All information is managed through one integrated remote remote operation center, giving operators a complete overview over the site and enabling the rapid informed decision-making. For safety and security companies, this means moving from simple monitoring events to actively managing risk. Technology handles the repetitive tasks, **[14:33]** while human expertise remains at the center of every critical decision. So, the at the end and that's very important what changes for security operations, that is they get better awareness by real-time visibility, faster decisions by immediate aerial overview, and more efficient operations, personnel focused on value-added tasks. So, more information, faster decisions, and better security outcomes. That's where we are partnering with G4S, and now in the next slides, you will get my colleague speaking about how we are working at one of these sites they are exploring and that is Volvo Cars in Ghent area. You have to know it is a port you are uh environment. Please give the floor to Mark Van Impe. **[15:35]** >> Yes, hello. Good afternoon. Uh my name is Mark Van Impe. I'm working for a G4S in Belgium. Um I'm responsible for the solutions team, which means product management, technical technical engineering, and the software development. And for the drone uh part, we are partnering with uh Drone Division because of the specific uh knowledge you know you need to know um for working with drones. We don't have in-house uh so we partnering with uh Drone Division. Um the Volvo case uh where we're working together is the first case uh we started. Um just a little introduction about this project. Uh it was a guarding tender in 25. Uh the start of the project was foreseen in Q1 of this year. Uh we have there on site uh 35 guards. Uh 124/7 patrol guards who do the tour around the uh the surface, the uh perimeter um walk. Uh we have four uh four entries we are surveying and uh there **[16:37]** is one central control room on site uh working 24/7 and they're using the Milestone XProtect for their um uh CCTV solution. There was one tender requirement uh a drone uh service for operational optimization. Um it was one uh requirement at the side of the tender, but uh beginning of the project we received an order to put a drone in the uh environment of Volvo in Ghent. Uh and that's where we started working with uh Drone Division. Uh just to give some insights. Uh we do the technical perimeter checks. Uh we also count the number of cars on the uh parking and we do there uh two flights a week B-roll. So it means that they will do it as from the control center of drone division. Um the technical perimeter checks with a drone for the main site is about 35 minutes. For the other sites is 15 **[17:41]** till 2 and 1/2 minutes. The main site is the biggest site we have to survey. If we do it with a physical patrol, it means that a walk around the headquarters site, the main site takes about 3 hours, 2 hours for the other site and 30 minutes for the smallest one. We win about 5 hours by using a drone to do the perimeter checks. So for us the added value is enormous. Means that we can use the guards over there for more useful works than only do a perimeter work. Um just to give you an idea about the environment. So we working in the port of Ghent. The green lines are around the the surfaces we have to survey. You see on the left side of the screen you see the main site and the two other sites are indicated **[18:44]** at the rent at the right side. The green line between the two is the corridor to go over the other surfaces of other companies to go to the other places of Volvo. Just an impression about the car counting. This is for mostly used to see if cars are placed on the correct spots. They have spots for car pooling colleagues. They check it as from the images if every car is on the right spot and they do also accounting and they also check if there are cars that are not moved between 24 hours. This is the same parking but without accounting. We are looking also to expand our services at Volvo. The things we're working on are thermal inspections of the solar parks, **[19:47]** smoke detection because of the industrial environment. It's not allowed to smoke on non non-smoking places around the the factory. So to detect if there are smokers somewhere else on the on the surface, we have smoke detection. We are looking for a comparison of images to check a reference image versus the actual image. We can also do volume measurements of surfaces not immediately useful for a factory as Volvo Ghent but we use it in construction works and that's one of the expansions we are looking for. We are also looking for inspection of the rainwater drainage systems and response on alarm. That's one where we are actually limited by the legal restrictions. In fact, G4S is a security company but don't have drone pilots. Drone Division is a **[20:48]** drone company which has pilots but is not a security company and they're not allowed to do security flights for this moment. So we're working on a solution to do the security flights also together and that means that we will also have possibility for response response on alarm. And that's all about the case of a Volvo. >> Perfect. Thank you so much, Mark, and thank you so much, Stefan. So, I can see that there are some questions in the chat. I'll just take them one by one. So, let's take the first question. What's the insurance picture? Does adding autonomous drones to a guarded site change the liability profile and how do the insurers view it? And yeah, let me just >> That's one point we were looking for. **[21:48]** The liability is the responsibility is always the one of the pilot. So, it's in in this case, it's it's mostly combined because drone division is the owner of the of the drone and we are the pilots in the future. So, if the damage is caused by the drone, then it will be the insurance of the flight company. If it's a personal fault of the pilot, it will be the insurance of the pilot company who is responsible. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. I think there's another interesting question. Why only two flights though? Isn't it proving the ROI for G4S? >> Yes. That's the choice of the of the customer. So, we have foreseen a price in the tender. It was a request in the tender to have a price per flight and the customer actually ordered only two flights a week for starting. **[22:54]** After they have the results of the the first quarter, they will probably expand the number of um, lights. >> Sounds good. So, yeah. Uh, is it top-down from corporate or are individual site managers driving it for the G4S project, Mark? That's a question for you. I think this is regarding the tender or something like why uh, how did this project come through? >> Uh, as far as I know, it's a local decision of the Volvo Ghent uh, factory. >> Sounds good. So, we'll take up the next question. Uh, does Volvo have an approved geo-zone? This is from Kristof Staller. So sorry. Yeah. >> No, they do not have Do you hear me? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, okay. Sorry. So, they do not have an approved geo-zone. It's uh, the So, we are working in the **[23:56]** geo-zone of Ghent area and it's a port area. So, there are a lot of approvals necessary to fly over there and Volvo Ghent does not have his own geo-zone. >> Perfect. I think there's another interesting question from Bart. Did Volvo analyze the ROI before and after working together with G4S and Drone Division? If yes, what was the outcome? >> It was an answer on an on an tender um, where we on a global tender where one of the lines was to to have drone services. Um, so I suggest they analyzed the complete tender which also included the guarding um, efforts. Um, but I don't know what their internal outcome was for the ROI analysis. **[24:58]** From from uh from the tender. >> I will pick up on on that part also. Um, so you have to know that the ROI uh it it's it's not so easy to get an ROI uh as long as you have not done any demos. So, that's also the reason why we are doing a lot of demos with our clients to see what what the ROI will be in the future because it's new technology and then you have to get people on a new technology. And it's not easy if you have no references or standards about that. So, we are bringing in these standards to their clients. >> Perfect, sounds good. I think there's another a question which is a bit of related to this. I'll just take this one. Did your FTE count for security actually reduce post this rollout for Volvo? If not, what was the exact KPI success criteria for this? It's a bit related, but yeah, over to you. >> Uh for the moment, there is no reducing of the guards. Uh it's an added service, um, on on the guarding contract. What you see is that uh **[26:04]** guards are now used for other uh tasks, um, in the in the perimeter uh than doing the the the the perimeter walks. Um, but uh we didn't reduce uh the number of guards over there, no. Uh >> Perfect. So, yeah, we'll just take the next question. >> there was there was a second question about the KPIs, but there was no KPI defined. So, there was no outcome, um, for a KPI success criteria. Um, it was a test for everyone in the project to see what will it bring. Um, the the the site of the plant manager of Volvo is looking for innovations. And one of the innovations he would bring into the the company was using drones. Uh so there was no KPI defined and there were also no success criteria for for this. Uh it was a it was **[27:07]** a test case. >> Sounds good. So yeah. How do you see this offering scaling to more companies across Europe and proving that it works with a few proof of concepts? So I think both of you can answer on this. >> So I will elaborate on this part. Um so we are scaling very fast right now to different companies because we start with a test or demo and then we are scaling it because from the moment we are doing demos or tests it starts with a month or 2 months of tests and after that most companies see what it brings to them in their business. From then on they they they want to to have the drone in a box as a state. So we are see that we are moving right now from Belgium to European um bringing it back to to European standards and we we want to to to uh grow now **[28:08]** in the European market especially in France, Germany, and the Netherlands because we have an open sort analysis, a generic sort analysis that provides us or gives us the opportunity to go beyond the borders. And now we are scaling very fast on that part. >> Perfect. Let me take up the next question. I think this is a very generic one. The ones which everybody asks. Do you mean a drone could replace a CCTV camera? I think you answered this, but yeah, you can just take that. >> it's about it's about having if you have a camera plan on your site today and you have 50 cameras probably you will replace some of them by a drone in a box. It will be working together. Instead of having 50 cameras, probably you will have 15 or 20 cameras and having a drone in a box instead of that because you have a better aerial view with the drone in a box. **[29:10]** >> Yeah, you can also some some CCTV cameras are fixed on on perimeter where you need to have 24/7 images. You can't replace this with with a drone. The advantage of drones is you can take another angle for some aspects, but if you need to have images from from from your place 24/7, it's not you cannot replace it by a by camera by a drone. >> But a camera gives you an idea what is happening in in in in a short area. From you lose your connection or you lose the person you have seen then the drone in a box can take over. >> Okay. So, we are running out of time. We'll just quickly take last two questions. So, yeah, I think from Kristoff again, how does Volvo know which drone is flying over the site? A drone of GeForce is versus a malicious one. **[30:11]** >> Which drone is flying over their site? Yes, they know that they know all the insights. We give them all these insights. We do have a platform where they know when we are flying. So, also the port knows when we are flying. And we do have also we we do also have a system that um is detecting other drones into the area where they are flying. >> Sounds good. So, we'll just take the The question quick. Remotely piloted ops currently costly as it seems from it since you only mentioned two flights were affordable. I think this is again correlating to the same question that was asked before. >> [gasps] >> If you go to a commercial discussion, please have a call. We can elaborate on that part. No problem for me. >> Perfect. So, yeah. I think we have come to the end of the questions. Uh, thank you so much, Stefan, and thank you so much, Mark, for this insightful **[31:12]** talk. Uh, there were a lot of new insights, and I think a lot of people will definitely love to know more. And yep, any closing thoughts uh, that Mark or Stefan that you would like to put up? >> Well, actually, I want to thank uh, especially Fleet Base and Eurocom for hosting us here at the NextGen because it's very interesting to be hosted here. And um, I would I would uh, I hope we can work together for a long time because we love to work with you guys. >> Absolutely. Thank you so much again, Stefan, and thank you so much, Mark. I think Matt Ashton has been presenting a great presentation. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much, Mark, for viewing this. So, yeah. Uh, that's how we have come to the end. So, for everybody else, uh, feel free to go to the agenda tab to check some of the uh, exciting sessions that are planned way ahead. And yep, the agenda is quite uh, intuitive. A lot of exciting sessions which are lined up. So, please stay tuned, and **[32:13]** hope you guys have a great day. Cheers. Take care. Bye-bye. >> Bye.