CCTV IP certification

IP CCTV

IP CCTV is the new way forward but as yet much of the industry is still waiting for some kind of standard to work to. The NSI has worked very hard over the last 20 years to ensure many standards have been put in place and inspected rigorously to ensure affiliated companies keep to these standards.

IP CCTV is about to change things.

Things such as data the  protection act are now hopelessly out out of date now images can be transmitted and stored just about anywhere in the world but it seems that most people in the industry have just turned a blind eye.

CCTV installations.

As IP CCTV solutions become the common format for CCTV installations then there will be efforts by the inspectorates to enforce some kind of standardization and inspection regime, but it seems that the IP technology is simply evolving too fast for regulation to be effectively applied.

The government.

the government did introduce a CCTV regulator knowing that the IP CCTV revolution was on its way but as yet we have seen or heard nothing , certainly at industry level.

ISO9002

So with the updating of  iso9002 for security companies can the new regs ever keep up .The way technology seems to be moving the answer has to be no.

Seagate or Western digital

Seagate  or Western digital.

Hard drives! Anyone in the IPCCTV world will tell you these are the only two hard drives that are really used in most digital recorders today. They will also tell you that both are the same , there is no difference, it does not matter which one you use. This is especially true of installers who buy their DVR’s from the manufacturers and install their own hard drives .This can save a lot of money. Most manufacturers will advise against this but all in the know realize that on paper it makes little difference.

But……….

However we have come across a case where it seems some DVR’s really do need the hard drive installed that the product has been tested on. Below we carried out a series of test on a DVR that seemed to fail for no apparent reason the results were surprising and indeed could shed some light onto why DVR’s seem to fail for no apparent reason.

The test.

Below is the findings as described by the technician who carried out the testing…………………….

“I have been undertaking an extensive test on the DVR to emulate some of the issues we are seeing reported in the field”………..

The issues we were hearing were:-

  • Alarms locking up the units
  • Rebooting
  • HDD / recordings missing

I have set up a unit and  over the last 2 weeks, here are the results of my tests:-

Seagate 1Tb ST31000525SV – 2 of them to make 2Tb –  DVR 400ips unit

  • 5 cameras connected (1 camera looped to 4 other inputs)
  • CCTV Camera 1 is set up for motion and also I have turned on Sensor 1 and set to N/O – basically causing the alarm to be permanently on
  • Cameras 2-5 are set for motion
  • Recording schedule set for motion and continuous 24/7
  • Notify set to send alarm data to an internal IP address………….my laptop,……….so not always there (testing to see if a non-connection will cause lockup)

After 1-2 days of me not being present, the unit shows the ‘no HDD’ symbol with a red cross through the symbol………..looking at the System info, no HDD’s are present………reboot and they still do not appear……..when I do a full power recycle, both HDD’s appear again, the system continues recording and all video recording is still present (up to the point where the HDDs disappeared obviously)

last week, I observed the unit reboot after 3 hours, and when I checked the System info, one of the HDDs had disappeared……..a couple of hours later, both HDDs had gone after another reboot

So, I had taken delivery of 2 x Western Digital 1Tb HDDs Caviar AV 10EVDS and proceeded to put those into the  DVR in question

It is now Wednesday (5days later) and the exact same test has been performed with no reboot, lockup or HDD / Video recording loss……………….this leads me to suspect the following:-

  • The Seagate drives we were using were a faulty batch (possible but unlikely)
  • The Seagate drives we were using are actually not fully compatible with the DVR firmware, even though the manufacturer gave us the part number (possible)
  • The Seagate drives were not correctly inserted  by the client and my changing the drives to another unit is purely coincidental and corrected the fault – again  unlikely

Conclusion , it would seem that there is some subtle difference between the hard drives that has caused the DVR to crash although in practice this is not really possible the testing proves that somewhere within the firmware of the DVR a problem has occurred with the original hard drives.

When we at integrated CCTV asked the engineer if he thought there was a difference between the hard drives he replied.

“No same spec should make no difference, hard to understand, the Seagate is a good make so its not the Hard drive just the way it works with the DVR”

Feedback.

Has anyone else experienced hard drive failures on your own DVRs that may in fact be caused by a similar problem? If so we welcome your thoughts and feedback.

International Security Exhibitions

We may be based in the UK, but we always like to follow some of the up and coming International Exhibitions!

Volcano ash permitting, we are looking to bring good information on emerging technologies from the following exhibitions in 2010

ESSEN – Essen, Germany 5th to 8th October

ASIS – Texas, USA 12th to 15th October

ISC EAST – New York, USA 3rd and 4th November

more to follow!

Emerging Video Technologies – Pt6 Mesh Wireless Networks

Today, we take a look at Mesh Wireless Networks

Potential Benefits:
Video surveillance is often wanted in areas that are remote from buildings, such as in parking lots and along fencelines. Running network cabling can be cost prohibitive and requiring expensive and/or disruptive trenching.

Ip wireless systems offer a wire free alternative to transmit video in those areas. Mesh wireless systems (a specialized form of IP wireless) allow video to be transmitted across longer distances and around areas of interference (like hills or trees etc)

Costs: Compared to long distance cable runs, mesh wireless is generally significantly less expensive. Even at about £1500 per wireless node, wireless is far less expensive than almost any form of trenching across roads or pavement.

  • End User Risks:
    Because of the bandwidth demanded, deploying wireless systems for video surveillance require specialized expertise. If end users do not choose experienced installers, significant delays may occur. Additionally, risks exist in the long term performance of the system (as environmental or local changes can degrade performance). It is imperative that customers budget for long term maintenance of the system or major issues could occur.
  • Installer Risks:
    Deploying wireless video surveillance networks may be the single most difficult technical task in all of video surveillance (even harder than video analytics). Wireless demands technical expertise in both IP networks and wireless systems. Futhermore, wireless systems can be impacted by external factors such as the weather and nearby wireless users (because most systems are licence free). Two specific risks are : (1) systems that do not deliver as much bandwidth as the installer plans and requires and (2) ongoing stability problems with the system that demand expensive service calls.

 

Taken from the ‘Emerging Video Surveillance Guide 2010’ from http://ipvideomarket.info/

Have you any opinions on this? leave a comment for us!

Emerging Video Technologies – Pt5 Storage on-board IP Cameras

Today, we take a look at On Board storage for IP cameras

Potential Benefits:-

Some camera locations have limited or unreliable bandwidth. In those lcoations, ensuring that video can be streamed and recorded remotely can be expensive (or simply not possible). Putting storage inside of an IP camera can eliminate this problem. Of course, some network connections will be needed to remotely view/download record video. However, this will only need to be done periodically.

Cost: While storgae costs drop continuously, today the cost of on-board storage is far higher than centrally storing video in hard drives. Moreover, for most video surveillance applications, it is simply not possible to solely store video on-board IP cameras as it is not technically possible (with the exception of  suppliers supporting hard drives inside or attached to their cameras)

  • End User Risks
    Using on board storage may force compromises in the length of storage or the quality of storage (because of limitations on how much video can be stored inside the camera). Additionally, most VMS systems do not support remote playback of video recorded on an IP camera. This could make it difficult to access and use this video.
  • Installer Risks
    If the on-board storage cannot be remotely accessed using the existing VMS playback, the installer may be called for additional service calls. Some systems will require a technician physically remove the on-board storage while others will require downloading raw video files.

Taken from the ‘Emerging Video Surveillance Guide 2010’ from http://ipvideomarket.info/

we at IntegratedCCTV agree in part with the report – however, we still think that a camera recording in a continuous loop, just enough to cover a 3 9’s network (99.9% allowable down time, 43 minutes per month) and then using technology such as March Networks’ Shadow Archive feature, means that the system can synchronise video lost during the network downtime, with little effect on the overall system…………this is new and probably not known at the time of the report, but it is worth noting when discussing the above!!!

Have you any opinions on this? leave a comment for us!