Over the years, video surveillance has demonstrated its business value as a security measure again and again in a wide range of applications. Today, many organizations are shifting to IP video surveillance systems to lower total cost of ownership (TCO), realize greater value through both established and new usages, and achieve a higher return on investment (ROI).
These benefits are delivered by four key IP video surveillance system advantages.
1. Lower installation costs through IP networking
2. Reduced TCO through IP networking advantages
3. Future-proofing through interoperable (open platform) components
4. Better video quality and other value-added features of digital video technology
Analog surveillance systems are expensive to install because each camera has to have its own coax cable and access to an electrical connection. The more advanced analog camera installations today also typically include digitizers and digital video recorders (DVRs). This eliminates the need for tapes, but adds to the cost of the installation.
IP video systems are much easier and less expensive to install for all of the following reasons.
Digital cameras can be connected and powered by Power over Ethernet (PoE), a technology that enables power to be provided to a network camera using the same cable as that used for network connection. PoE eliminates the need for power outlets at the camera locations and enables easier application of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to ensure operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Multiple cameras can use the same cable, attaching to the network just like you would any other network device.
Changing camera placement is simple – just remove and plug into another network jack somewhere else. Cameras can be placed almost anywhere using cost-efficient standard wireless technologies such as IEEE 802.11b and then
In most organizations, nearly all important processes and operations are connected through a local area network (LAN). The exception is security. Legacy CCTV systems are proprietary and typically have separate support and maintenance contracts. This prevents security from being able to leverage the lower infrastructural costs of the existing network and all the advantages of IP networking for video.
IP networking opens up a new world of cost savings for video surveillance systems. Here’s why:
Your company already has the necessary IT expertise. Cameras have IP addresses just like any other network device and can be plugged in anywhere in the network and controlled centrally via software.
IP networking enables you to leverage existing infrastructure such as servers, switches and cabling.There’s no need for complicated proprietary hardware and dedicated monitors. You can increase frame rates and storage any time by adding “off-the-shelf” hard drives and PC servers.
IP networking eliminates the need for a control room at each location. That means you can centralize monitoring functions for many locations to a single control room if you want.
Live camera feeds can be accessed over the Internet from any location, making it easy to check out an alert or event from any computer, laptop or other device with a wired or wireless Internet connection. (Management software enables you to control access to surveillance video to authorized personnel only.)
Proprietary CCTV systems are a risky investment. They lock you into a single source, preventing competitive pricing. They’re limited in what you can connect to them. And they use analog cameras, a “sunset” technology. What’s darkening their future? The much more versatile digital video cameras. Manufacturers are focusing all their innovation and competitive pricing on digital cameras, letting analog choices wither and their feature sets shrink.
Choosing an open platform like IP networking gets you out of this proprietary “jail,” allowing you to choose freely from a wide selection of digital cameras and interoperable components from many manufacturers – not just one. Such freedom of choice reduces initial investment, ensures better pricing and greater value, and makes additions and replacements easier and less expensive down the line.
Open platform advantages for IP video surveillance systems include:
Freedom of choice in hardware, software, and other components. IP networking opens up an enormous marketplace of choices in COTS (commercial off the shelf) servers, storage, switches, IP cameras, video servers, and other devices that can be connected via open platform software. You’re assured of getting the best products and pricing, being able to select equipment from different suppliers based on your needs.
The ability to integrate with other security equipment like lighting, gates and doors. IP network cameras have digital inputs and outputs (I/O). Through the inputs, alarm devices or sensors can trigger cameras to transmit images to a select destination for recording, or request that e-mail alerts be sent, for example, to a mobile phone. Digital outputs can be used to enable cameras, upon alarm or other cue, to activate switches to close or open doors, turn lights on or off, or other actions.
The ability to integrate through the network with other business systems, such as ATMs, emergency response plans (ERPs), and point-of-sale (POS) systems, etc. This enables you to synchronize with these other systems and perform searches to view specific surveillance images combined with their data to confirm actions and analyze patterns.
Greater archiving capabilities and storage reliability through easier transfer to off-site storage and the ability to inexpensively set up redundant infrastructure, server and storage architecture. In general, the use of standard server and network equipment makes redundant systems and replacement considerably less expensive and time-consuming than proprietary solutions.
Greater potential for incorporating new applications as they become available - either hardware or software solutions. Putting IP video surveillance on your network opens the door for all kinds of synergy with the rest of your organization’s data, video and voice systems. A marketing department could use retail store video to study consumer behavior at POS displays. Store managers could use video to monitor fast-moving items and make sure shelves are restocked promptly. Video streams from toll booths could be put on the Web to enable commuters to check for traffic jams.
Greater availability of powerful software management tools for monitoring, accessing and storing video. Software makes it easy to add additional powerful capabilities such as combining video evidence with timelined POS or ATM transaction data or integrating video with cash register transaction data for advanced, flexible searching and analysis. Advanced capabilities like these can add considerably to your ROI.
Analog recordings lose quality over time. They are expensive to store and reference. They require staff to change tapes, date, categorize, and archive them. Many organizations have already moved to “hybrid digital-analog” systems that use digitizers and Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) to eliminate tapes and simplify storage. This is a good intermediate step, but cannot compare to true IP digital video surveillance systems.
Switching to digital video is simply common sense. If you were going out to buy a camera right now for personal use, what would you buy: analog or digital? You would buy a digital camera. It offers the greatest return on your investment and opens the door to all kinds of value-added features through connection to the rest of today’s digital world.
Here are some of the top advantages of today’s digital video cameras for IP networking.
Digital cameras provide up to 16 times the resolution of traditional analog cameras. Digital cameras can also cover a larger area and provide superior digital zoom capabilities, providing real detail (such as the numbers on a license plate) rather than blurry, hard-to-read images.
Fast search and retrieval capabilities enable you to get better pictures faster – and do it remotely.
Intelligence at the camera level can include detection of motion, directional motion, abandoned objects, object removal, human presence, camera tampering, identification (such as reading a person’s access badge), and pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) controls.
Network software makes it easier to monitor, manage and update cameras just like any network device.
Images can be stored on a disk connected to a PC or server, or streamed to a dedicated storage server on the network.
ROI has not typically been part of the traditional planning process in surveillance systems. Security has had more of a risk management orientation, like buying an insurance policy. With IP technology, any business process can be video-enabled and organizations can realize increased efficiency in the form of reduced costs, as well as better and speedier decisions using fewer numbers of personnel. The scalability of networked security systems gives a clear return on investment: the larger your installation and the more remote sites you have to monitor from a central facility, the more efficiency you gain and the greater your ROI.
Having video surveillance available on an IP network quickly leads to many other beneficial uses in the business environment. Monitoring production lines, shipping and delivery bays, employee procedures, traffic or customer flow, environmentally hazardous areas or other safety matters, for example, can significantly aid in optimizations or resolution of problems. It can also help fend off false insurance claims or potential lawsuits that could cost a lot of money to conduct, such as a staged slip-and-fall accident. Having surveillance video available to other departments to search and retrieve can make it easier to assemble training videos or do customer behavior studies, too.
The truth is, with IP video surveillance, the sky is the limit in determining all the potential uses and applications for it. And once you have IP video surveillance installed, you’re ready to leverage any applications.
Authors: Eric Fullerton, President, Milestone Systems Inc.
Courtney Dillon Pedersen, Media & Communications Manager, Milestone Systems A/S.
Copyright Milestone Systems 2008
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