Technology ‘Sherlock’ on the chase to stop crime
Print Edition
CATCHING crooks, as any viewer of modern TV crime drama knows, involves sophisticated equipment.
Liangxiang Intelligence Co Ltd on Chunshen Road in Minhang, knows that all too well. It is at the cutting edge of police and security equipment in China.
The company started as an importer of surveillance cameras, then branched out into research and development of an array of products. Liangxiang has branches in Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing. In Shanghai, half of its 220 employees are researchers.
The credit for the company’s success goes to Chen Xiaoqun, 43, president of Liangxiang.
“The technical content of our products is our life,” said Chen. “The company has no future without its own research and development.”
Chen tells the story of a friend whose office was burgled. The thief was captured on closed circuit television cameras, but it was harder for police to track him down.
If the friend has installed Liangxiang’s “electric fence” device, everything would have been easier, Chen said.
“The device automatically records all the cell numbers entering an area,” he said. “So if we find a strange number and hand it over to the police, finding a thief would be a piece of cake.”
The electric fence is only one of Liangxiang’s more than 200 products. The company also produces a device that can drill tiny holes in cement, brick or wood walls almost silently. Through the holes, a micro camera with a diameter of only 1 millimeter and a recorder with a diameter of 4 millimeters can collect information from a room.
There are also household products, including an intelligence security device that can be controlled by smart phone. People can monitor their homes while away, and the device can trigger alarms and call the police if a break-in occurs.
“We never stop pursuing new technology and ideas,” said Chen. “We direct all the resources we can find toward research. We cooperate with universities in China, and sometimes we buy products from overseas to study them.”
Chen’s career has been built on never being satisfied and always striving to do better. He did postgraduate work in metal materials and heat treatment at Jiangsu University of Technology. His first job was at the research arm of a state-owned machinery plant in 1996 in Shanghai. The work was stable and fairly well paid, but Chen said he felt bored. He quit after two years and founded Liangxiang.
In the early years, Liangxiang sold imported surveillance cameras to licensed police equipment companies.
“There was no special reason that I chose surveillance cameras,” he said. “I just thought I could make money from them.”
But being a middleman didn’t satisfy Chen. Before 2000, closed circuit television (CCTV) was not widely available in China. Chen saw his chance.
The company started to develop its own cameras.
“I was a layman when it came to security equipment, but I wanted to sell our products, not someone else’s,” said Chen. “So we began our research.”
Chen knew that Liangxiang’s biggest market was the police. The government, however, stipulated that police could buy equipment only from designated companies, so Liangxiang had to work hard to break into those ranks.
It took five years. In 2005, the Ministry of Public Security opened its market to private companies. Liangxiang was finally able to apply for a police-equipment business license.
“It was actually more of a challenge than an opportunity because the license required extremely high quality and functional standards,” said Chen.
For two years, Chen and his team burned the candle at both ends, and their efforts were not in vain. Liangxiang began to thrive. Some of the companies once designated as sole suppliers to police forces went belly-up.
Despite success, Chen is still dissatisfied.
“This industry lacks competition,” he said. “That is a dangerous thing because breakthroughs are harder in the absence of a competitive environment.”
To spur employee initiative, he abolished annual salary raises and told workers they would earn bonuses based on performance.
The company is developing a new research center in Zhuanqiao Town in Minhang. It is expected to begin operation by the end of this year.
“If we don’t make efforts at further progress, we will be washed out by the market just like those designated companies were,” he said. “I always bear in mind that they are lessons we should learn from.”
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