NetVu’s Chief Technology Officer and Founder, Mike Newton, tells SJUK about the company’s mission to make people safer through continuous security innovation.
Mike Newton’s influence on the UK’s security landscape over the last four decades has been substantial.
As the Founder of Dedicated Micros in 1982, a solution now in the NetVu stable, Newton has pioneered surveillance systems that have transformed how we monitor and secure public and private spaces.
From multi-channel surveillance to cloud-based video management, Newton has consistently been ahead of the curve.
In this exclusive interview, he reflects on the ground-breaking technology, the trends shaping the future and why continuous innovation remains at the heart of everything he does.
My entry into the security industry actually stems from my final year project at Manchester University in 1981, where I developed a commercially funded leisure and retail monitoring system.
It was a pioneering move – at the time, it was virtually unheard of for undergrad projects to be commercially backed.
The system monitored drinks optics in licensed premises and from that early innovation, I founded Dedicated Micros in 1982.
Initially, we targeted the leisure industry, particularly snooker clubs, with systems that recorded customer activity to help resolve disputes and monitor usage.
In 1983/84, we began integrating electronic point-of-sale (EPOS) data with video footage – essentially metadata overlaid on CCTV.
This was revolutionary and marked the start of intelligent video analytics.
In 1984, we developed the first time-division multiplexer, which allowed multiple video channels to be recorded simultaneously. This changed the industry completely.
By 1987, we launched the Uniplex system – a plug-and-play, time-based correction unit that made multi-channel CCTV accessible and reliable.
The move from bespoke engineering to scalable, user-friendly products marked our transition to mass adoption.
In 1991, we introduced Digital Video Storage and Transmission (DVST), using digital compression and the OSI 7-layer model.
We were transmitting video digitally, years ahead of the widespread emergence of the internet.
By 1992, we had implemented early forms of edge recording and centralised archival – precursors to what is now known as cloud-based video surveillance.
Throughout the ’90s, Dedicated Micros became an industry leader.
I briefly stepped back when institutional investors came in around 1998.
This allowed me to dedicate more time to my motor racing career, as well as establish AD Aviation which focussed on affordable corporate air travel.
However, I never stopped innovating in security.
In 1999, I authored a code of good practice for remote video monitoring, which later evolved into the BS 8418 industry standard.
Fast forward to today, and Dedicated Micros remains under the banner of NetVu with our other specialist solutions FireVu (fire protection) and TransVu (transport surveillance).
We’re again at the forefront, championing cloud-based solutions, edge recording and integrated system management.
I started racing in Formula Ford back in 1985, and with some blood, sweat and tears achieved top-three championship finishes between 1995 and 1997.
My endurance racing career includes class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2005 and 2006, and LMP2 Drivers Titles in the Le Mans Series in 2007 and 2010.
I’ve also had the opportunity to race in events such as the Bathurst 500, Daytona 24 Hours and Spa 24 Hours, with class victories at the Nürburgring 6 Hours and the Daytona Grand-Am Finale.
Some gave me flack for spending time racing, but the truth of it was that I spent as much time on the engineering side of the motorsport business.
Bringing my motorsport CV up to date, I have also secured LMP/LMP2 class wins for the last three years in the Peter Auto Endurance Racing Legends Historic Series.
At NetVu, we’re driven by a few core principles.
Innovation first: We adopt the best available technology, always looking forwards to ensure that what we develop is future-proof.
It’s about solving real-world problems with the most robust, forward-thinking tools available.
Tenacity: We never walk away from a challenge.
Applying my racing mindset, whether it’s rebuilding a race car mid-event or engineering a new solution under tight constraints, we persevere.
That same attitude carries through to how we approach security innovation.
Integrity and independence: Especially in today’s landscape, being able to offer UK-designed firmware on virtually any chipset (not of Chinese origin) is a major strength.
It gives customers confidence in our products and keeps us compliant with increasingly stringent standards.
Collaboration: We believe in strong partnerships – whether it’s with clients, vendors or public agencies. Our ambition is to co-create solutions that push the whole industry forward.
The industry is experiencing a seismic shift toward cloud and managed services.
While hardware remains important, the integration of smart software, edge analytics and remote monitoring has become the norm.
It’s led to a rush of ‘cloud solutions’ claims in the marketplace, but there’s a difference between retrofitting legacy systems and truly cloud-native architecture.
We’ve seen this coming since the early 1990s, when we built systems that functioned with limited storage and bandwidth.
It’s not just about off-site storage; it’s about resilience, intelligence at the edge and systems that self-monitor and report proactively.
Another major trend is the geopolitical shift away from technology manufactured in China due to security concerns.
As a UK-based technology provider, we are positioned to meet the growing demand for trustworthy surveillance infrastructure.
Efficiency in security isn’t just about speed; it’s about reliability, integration capabilities and simplicity.
One of the biggest inefficiencies in traditional setups is fragmentation – multiple vendors, incompatible software, siloed systems.
The future lies in managed, unified solutions.
We pioneered this approach with remote transit systems in the early 2000s.
For example, during the 7/7 bombings in London, the resilience of our technology stood out, providing important footage of the atrocities.
While many competitors’ systems failed, our transit surveillance systems had nearly 100% uptime, due to continuous remote diagnostics and predictive maintenance.
Efficiency also comes from anticipating problems before they become failures.
Our systems flag issues pre-emptively, allowing for proactive responses rather than reactive panic.
It’s everything. Continuous innovation is why Dedicated Micros was the first to offer true multi-channel recording. It’s why we developed DVST before most people had heard of digital compression.
It’s why we created cloud-like systems before the cloud existed.
Without a culture of relentless innovation, you’re always playing catch-up.
Innovation gives us competitive advantage and keeps our users secure in an ever-changing threat landscape.
We also apply this philosophy across industries.
For example, with FireVu, our advanced visual flame, smoke and thermal detection system, we’ve applied our cloud-first, high-availability approach to fire detection – especially in critical environments like waste management, where every second counts and early detection prevents massive losses.
We listen. We innovate. And we iterate.
Our approach is to work directly with customers, whether it’s a major transit authority or a remote waste facility and co-develop systems that solve real problems.
That’s how we’ve achieved consistent 98%+ system uptime in US public transport networks like Dallas DART, Washington Metro and LA Metro.
We also support our customers with fully managed services covering installation, integration, monitoring, maintenance and compliance.
This ‘solution as a service’ model simplifies security for clients while increasing performance and uptime.
We’re also investing in leadership.
With Alan Hickson recently appointed as Chief Operating Officer, this allows me to focus on my role as CTO and on engineering, development and innovation.
If there’s one thing I’d like to emphasise, it’s this: we’ve never stopped building the future.
Whether it’s CCTV in the 80s or remote monitoring in the 90s, resulting in the cloud-native video systems we offer today, our mission has remained consistent: use the best technology available to make people safer.
This article was originally published in the June edition of Security Journal UK. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.
