PSI magazine, a very well respected monthly security publication has recently ran an excellent article with the very clever headline “Know IP or no IP” . Essentially the article centred on how the security industry is embracing (or in many cases not embracing) IP technology in order to drive sales and move the industry forward to another level. Several commentators take a view on whether the CCTV industry as whole has the technical knowledge to advise, sell, install and service IP CCTV in a way that will bring improvements, reliability and satisfaction to the end user.
What all the commentators seem to agree on is that IP is inevitable, analogue CCTV as a technology is finished and it is now just a matter of time before those who have invested in IP surveillance training, ICT staff and IP CCTV products will prevail. In market that before IP CCTV came along, was dominated by installers who generally operate with 5 or 6 hard working staff and have little or no time to invest in a discipline that is far more demanding than installing simple closed circuit analogue systems, this news is quite daunting!
Now it has to be noted that IP CCTV brings many benefits but the most obvious is HD quality. This is the driving force for IP CCTV to really take off and this is what will cause forward thinking end users to upgrade. It was noted that in a later article on P40 there is a quote that suggests” if you want a high resolution system you have to go IP”, ironic then that the advert directly following the “Know IP or no IP” article is for the new HD SDI CCTV range from Videcon.
Now that is forward thinking!!! HD SDI CCTV offers high definition images over coax. It is widely acknowledged that coax makes up over 70% of all CCTV systems here in the UK at present. Many of those systems consist of less than 16 cameras and many of those systems need upgrading. Many of those systems are installed and maintained by CCTV installers who have little desire to go over to IP CCTV technology.
It would therefore be fair to ask then who is looking beyond IP surveillance? Is HD SDI CCTV a technology that can allow smaller traditional CCTV companies to compete against the tide of IP CCTV products flooding the market place? We certainly think it is!