The basics of surveillance

Phase 1: Standalone CCTV systems. These are regarded as relative dinosaurs, but sturdy and simple. They will fade as surely as typewriters did.

Phase 2: Hybrid digital-analogue systems. Sometimes networked, they use black-box digital video recorders (DVRs, essentially TiVo boxes). This represents the transition between old and new—such as those word processors that came after typewriters, but before PC programs.

Phase 3: Fully digital, networked IP-based surveillance. Here, video surveillance is just another node on the IT network. Cameras have IP addresses, controlled centrally with any number of software applications on top of the raw visual data.

What do IT managers want from a security system?

Market research shows that IT managers are certain that they want to move off standalone closed circuit TV, but unsure if they’re ready to move on to what they’re being told is the more powerful, more dynamic, future of video surveillance — fully digital systems. So they network their DVRs to get a few benefits of the new technology without a real commitment. They add some digital systems, while keeping CCTV with DVR. They’re milking their old investments.

New digital technologies can pack some punch...

Here are four considerations in support of newer technology:

1. Better visual data. Optics have vastly improved with the new generation of cameras, which, are more widely available. We’ve come a long way from the blue-gray fuzzy blurs. With better resolution, one camera can cover a wider area, or digitally zoom for fine detail.


2. Standard IT infrastructure. IPbased video will allow CSOs to use the same servers and bandwidth as the rest of the company. What’s more, cameras running IP over ethernet can have both data and power go through the same ethernet cable, with backup power on the same supply as the IT systems backup power supply.


3. Efficiency through centralised monitoring and automation. Simple math: When you have 30 sites worldwide, feeding video into a single control room instead of having 30 control rooms creates efficiency. Automated alarming further reduces the need to keep eyeballs fixed to screens everywhere. Digital archives are easier to access (“Tape,” says one integrator, “basically requires a fulltime employee.”)

4. New applications. It is software that will finally revolutionise video surveillance. Vendors are promising seemingly limitless applications to make video smart: Motion triggers, which can tell cameras to jump into high-resolution mode and track objects; software which can discriminate between a human form and, say, a skunk (thus reducing false alarms); applications which link video surveillance to access systems and safety systems, so that the surveillance system could call the fire department or help turn on sprinklers.