Pricey IP networks an adoption barrier for digital security video

With more data, voice and video traffic converging on IP networks, it would make sense that security video would move from traditional separate coaxial cable networks to sharing IP infrastructure with other traffic. And as that happens, it seems logical that digital security cameras would replace older analog ones. But it hasn’t happened as fast as you might think. Even today, notes Dave Tynan, vice-president of sales and marketing at Vancouver-based surveillance systems vendor Avigilon Corp, only about 10% of security cameras sold are IP-based. “There hasn’t been a flood, a tsunami I guess, to move to IP technology,” Tynan admits. Why not? It’s not that there are no advantages to going digital. There are a number, starting with the potential to eliminate network duplication. That’s most interesting in new installations where coax for security video isn’t already in place, but if you want new cameras in existing locations where IP network links are available, IP is one way to go. Adding an analog camera on a coaxial cable network requires a home-run cable back to a wiring closet, says Scott Schnell, president and chief executive of IP video equipment supplier VideoIQ Inc in Bedford, MA. Pulling and connecting coax is a finicky job. For an IP camera you need easier-to-install Category 5 wiring to the nearest available network port. An IP system can also simplify central monitoring. “Analog generally was a closed-circuit system,” comments Peter Wilenius, vice-president of corporate development at March Networks Corp, an Ottawa-based specialist in digital video. Interest in IP security video is growing largely because of the ability it offers to manage security infrastructure centrally via IP networks , says Hein Gerber, a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers who oversees the consulting firm’s information security and business continuity management practices in British Columbia. Finally, digital video is easier to work with. Finding a particular incident on tape requires going through the tape. With digital, Wilenius says, you can scan an hour of video for any movement. In fact, digital video systems in areas with little traffic are sometimes set up to start recording only when they detect motion. Smart networks can be pricey SNC-Lavalin ProFac Inc, a Toronto-based facilities management firm, installed an IP security video system early this year at Ottawa’s LaSalle College, where it manages security. Ease of use was a key factor, says Adam Jolliffe, project manager. Commissionaires monitoring cameras can zoom in or move through the camera’s field of view without the need for moving parts in the cameras. The image quality is better than with the previous analog cameras, and SNC-Lavalin can store more video. Wilenius says digital video also makes it easier to correlate video with other records. So if a point-of-sale system flags a suspicious transaction, you can check video of the checkout at the time the transaction took place. One barrier to IP adoption is price. If you’re looking for an inexpensive security video system, Schnell admits you can find an analog system cheaper than most IP products on the market. You’ll get about a quarter of the video resolution and miss out on other advantages of IP, but sometimes cost is a bigger consideration. And where coax is already in place, the efficiencies of an all-IP network are less compelling. It’s in the greenfield installations that IP really shines, Schnell says – especially multi-building campuses. The slow move to IP video also reflects internal silos and politics. “One of the big issues in the security convergence space is the cultural and political battle,” Gerber says. “One of the implications of using IP technology,” says Robert Hagens, chief technology officer at Envysion Inc in Louisville, CO, “is that you now become an IT project.” He argues some security groups stick to analog technology because they can implement it without involving their IT colleagues. Envysion targets those customers with a software-as-a-service (SaaS) approach to IP security video, on the theory that this avoids the need for internal IT expertise. Can the network handle your security requirements? If security people don’t always want IT folks involved in their projects, IT departments aren’t necessarily enthusiastic about security video on their networks. That’s because of bandwidth demands. “IP video takes up a significant amount of bandwidth, especially as you scale to high resolution and high frame rates,” Hagens says. “That can be an order of magnitude more traffic than the network was designed to handle.” Here, good network design comes into play – and it’s not a simple matter of throwing more bandwidth at the problem. Fortunately, there are ways of reconciling the benefits of high-resolution, high-frame-rate video with network limitations. One way to cap bandwidth demands is to limit resolution and frame rate. But that would negate one advantage of digital video. Though the perception still lingers that digital video doesn’t match the quality of analog – as it didn’t in its early days – today’s digital technology can deliver better video than analog systems. That’s useful when there is a need to identify an individual or read a licence plate on a moving vehicle. Yet high resolution and frame rates aren’t always required. Video from a camera monitoring a perimeter fence needn’t be displayed at high resolution at a security guard’s desk when nothing is happening – the more detailed image is only needed when something happens that may need investigation. Even when digital security cameras are linked to a wide-area network, high-resolution video is often stored locally to reduce bandwidth demands on the network. It’s possible to stream a lower-resolution image over the network for remote monitoring, Wilenius says. VideoIQ’s cameras have built-in storage, so the high-resolution video need not travel over the network at all. And sometimes, cameras are set up to stream a low-resolution image until they detect motion or receive a remote request for a higher-quality image. Thanks to video analytics software, digital systems can even be programmed to bump up image quality when they detect certain events. For example, analytics could distinguish a person climbing over a fence from a deer running by outside it. Another advantage of IP is that it opens the door to using wireless networks. That makes it much easier to put cameras in parking lots, or in areas where wiring is difficult. At Lasalle College, for instance, SNC-Lavalin Profac is considering wireless cameras in heritage buildings where installing wiring requires a complex approval process. In addition to wireless connectivity, IP makes adding and moving cameras easier. As well, higher-resolution cameras are finally dropping in price. It all adds up to more cameras watching more areas more closely. While helpful from a security standpoint, it does raise privacy concerns. Wilenius claims the general public is becoming more accepting of video surveillance, and he says employees, while they may be hostile to the idea at first, often warm to it when they realize that video records can protect them from claims of misconduct or error. Schnell agrees, but adds that there are ways to minimize privacy concerns. Many IP security cameras have a masking capability, making it possible to block out areas of the video image. This is often used outside to avoid capturing video of a neighbour’s property, but could also block views of areas that raise privacy sensitivities – doors to washrooms, perhaps. “Most surveillance systems do their most important work off-hours,” Schnell adds. So it may make sense to program some cameras to operate only outside business hours, or to capture less information while employees are at work. IP video technology creates new options – the key is using them wisely.

Pricey IP networks an adoption barrier for digital security video

News | 09/15/2009 4:48 pm EDT

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