People bring judgement. LIMA SHIELD is always on duty.
This is the real question for town halls, social housing landlords and sensitive sites: guards on patrol, a dog handler, or Shields. Keep your guards: nothing replaces their judgement. But a guard cannot be everywhere, all the time, and that observation is what gave rise to Lima Shield. This page compares the two honestly and shows how they work together.
“I was a municipal police officer. Landlords' basements, workshops, sites that cannot be guarded around the clock: I attended call-outs there for years. It is precisely for places like these that we designed LIMA SHIELD.” Cédric Fontaine, founder of Lima Groupe
Comparison and figures checked in September 2026.
What everything on this list has in common: it all happens at the times and in the areas where nobody is present. Exactly where LIMA SHIELD works.
A guard is in one place. Paired Shields hold every area at the same time: entrances, stockrooms, technical rooms, chokepoints, coordinated from a single app, on one site or on ten.
No Wi-Fi in a landlord's basements, no permanent power at a site compound? LIMA SHIELD's detection is local and needs no network, and the built-in 4G transmits alerts. Internal battery: 1 month of battery life, and up to 3 months with secondary batteries.
No salaries, no shift changes, no night and Sunday premiums: €2,500 excl. VAT, once, for a system built to last 10 years.
The two answers in brief, before the details: what a guard does, what a device does, and above all what neither will ever do in place of the other.
A guarding post staffed 24/7 costs in the region of €220,000 excluding VAT per year, excluding night and Sunday premiums.Rates observed on the private security market, 2026
Based on around €25 excl. VAT per hour, the floor rate for a long-term contract, a continuously staffed post costs around €18,000 excl. VAT per month, excluding night and Sunday premiums.
| Guard / dog handler | LIMA SHIELD | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | In the region of €220,000 excl. VAT per year for a 24/7 post. | €2,500 excl. VAT, once, per device. |
| Coverage | One place at a time, at the pace of the rounds. | Several areas simultaneously, devices paired and coordinated. |
| Hours | Shift changes, nights, weekends, absences to cover. | 24/7, never tired; 1 month of battery life on the internal battery, up to 3 months with secondary batteries. |
| Isolated sites | Travel, journey times, areas with no facilities for staff on duty. | No need for Wi-Fi or power: local detection, alerts over 4G. |
| Human risk | The guard is exposed to assault. | No contact: nobody on the front line. |
| Response time | The time it takes to reach the area. | Instant upon detection. |
| Judgement | Irreplaceable: assessing, talking, welcoming, verifying. | None: the system follows a strictly controlled protocol. |
The question is almost never all or nothing. Here is how our public and private customers decide, site by site.
In the field, the answer is almost always a combination of the two: Shields holding the areas and the quiet hours, guards refocused on the tasks where people are irreplaceable. A handful of devices multiplies the reach of a small team instead of replacing it.
The question is not square metres but areas to hold. One device covers up to 100 m² and is placed at strategic points; where a dog handler patrols point by point, a few paired Shields hold all these areas at the same time. A site is secured with a handful of devices, not dozens.
No rotas, no night shifts to cover, no absences. LIMA SHIELD holds its post 24/7, up to 1 month on the internal battery and 3 months with secondary batteries, including on sites with no network: detection is local, and 4G transmits alerts.
A surprise intrusion is the scenario in which a lone guard risks the worst. LIMA SHIELD warns, floods the area with sound and makes the intruder flee without contact and without confrontation: nobody has to be sent towards danger, and the intruder always has a way out.
LIMA SHIELD does not judge, talk or greet anyone: it follows a strictly controlled protocol, with warning, delay and automatic shut-off. This has been Lima Groupe's philosophy from day one: founders from the army and the police, convinced that technology should complement people where they cannot be, and never claim to replace them.
LIMA SHIELD is a French sound shield, winner of the Audience Award at the Nuit de la Sécurité Globale (Républik Group): built-in detection or connected to your installation, warning beeps, then a sound of 86 to 138 decibels, calibrated to the band where human hearing is most sensitive and modulated so the brain never gets used to it. The area becomes unbearable and triggers a flight reflex.
Behind the unit: a French startup, co-founders from the army and the police, engineers from the defence and acoustics sectors, some of them formerly at Dassault, nearly €1 million in research and development, prototypes built in Strasbourg, and compliance with European CE standards.
“This device is already attracting interest from individuals and businesses, but also from institutional and military players, in France and internationally.” Le Figaro, July 2026
Town halls, police stations, warehouses, jewellers and tobacconists already feature among our first customers and pre-orders.
A continuously staffed post costs in the region of €220,000 excl. VAT per year, or more than €4,000 excl. VAT a week. A LIMA SHIELD costs €2,500 excl. VAT, once: the budget for a single week of guarding equips an area for a decade. And we carry the long-term risk: 2-year manufacturer's warranty, battery excluded.
No, and that is not what we sell it for. Judgement, reception, verification and intervention remain human. LIMA SHIELD replaces the hours of passive presence: the areas and time slots where you pay someone to be there just in case. That is the part it takes over: the most expensive and least rewarding.
Real-time notification in the Lima Shield Connect app, sent to your security control room, your on-call staff or yourself, as you choose. Each device reports its status continuously, and all your sites are controlled from the same app.
That is not what it is built for, and we would rather say so here: LIMA SHIELD is installed indoors and in sheltered semi-outdoor areas (IP54 rating: garage, technical room, covered loading bay). For a space fully exposed to the weather, raise it during the demonstration: depending on the configuration, placing it on a sheltered edge (covered bay, canopy, adjoining room) can cover part of the area.
We think in areas to hold, not square metres: one device covers up to 100 m² and is placed at entrances, stockrooms and passageways. Most sites are secured with a handful of paired devices. A security expert will price the exact layout with you, free of charge.
Yes. For indoor use, no French law or regulation known to date caps the power of an acoustic deterrent device, and LIMA SHIELD belongs to a category distinct from alarm sirens. Warning beeps, a 10-second delay and automatic shut-off govern every activation, and its use in the event of an intrusion falls within the lawful defence of property (article 122-5 of the French Code pénal).
Number of areas, pairing, integration with what you already have: a security expert designs the layout with you. LIMA SHIELD is produced in limited runs, and is regularly out of stock.
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