External security systems.Perimeter protection

External security has been on the rise for the last 25 years. A discipline that was previously only seen in high security and military installations is now common place. Used in garages, compounds, garden centres, quarries and so on,everyone wants to know before an intruder can do any damage.

So what is the best detection device? Well, a mixture of different technologies can work. PIRs external fixed beams and cameras using enhanced analytics to name a few. Geoquip guard wire and other external listening devices are also effective against the intruders.

Thermal Metal Mickey
Metal MIC

We however believe that the ultimate solution is now becoming an affordable option .Thermal CCTV is pretty much full proof technology one that gives an image that can be used day and night even in total darkness. It cant be defeated by fog and intelligent analytics integrated with the thermal CCTV camera mean nothing is missed.

Cost of course is a factor but one thermal camera can realistically see up to 750 metres meaning it far out performs even the best active beams on the market and the installation time and cabling costs are drastically reduced.

Thermal CCTV will become as common as PIRs are today over the next ten to fifteen years and as the prices become more affordable it will change the way we install external security and protect our perimeters.

The poor old intruder has finally met his match.

Thermal CCTV – trust us, THE next big thing!

Thermal CCTV is here! Much has been discussed about it  in our Industry…….but what is it really all about and how does it help?

Thermal CCTV

Imagine an environment where normal cameras are really unlikely to pick up meaningful information – maybe a harbour or port where water, at night, is just a black wobbly mess as far as conventional cameras are concerned

Maybe there is a requirement for observing movement in the water? Man Overboard or similar requirements…….

Thermal CCTV works on heat – ok, we’re not trying to give you a lesson in Thermal here, but basically, heat signatures are picked up, AT DISTANCE, and translated into a video image that is highly useful

Why?

Well, imagine a camera that could spot movement at distances of 750m+ – in pitch black……..Thermal CCTV does not need ANY light at all……..it can display it in colour (rainbow) or black/white heat……..

Imagine strapping that to a standard camera and suddenly you have the best of both worlds – Thermal for Night, High quality analogue for the Day…………

Thermal Predator camera

The boys over at 360 Vision have taken that one stage further and made it a DUAL unit – capable of giving 2 video feeds simultaneously which is a first for Thermal CCTV PTZ cameras………Bosch too have a unit, they have taken a different approach and provide it as a switching unit, offering Thermal and then analogue either manually or automatically form one video feed – both have merits we feel

So why is this going to be a hot topic?

Thermal Metal Mickey

We think Ports, Harbours, Airports, buildings of importance etc are all targets in this heightened world of security alerts……….and Thermal works brilliantly with Analytics. No light, long distances, pixel perfect detail…..ideal for video analytics……and, like Bosch and 360 Vision, strapped to a conventional camera, analytics then allow clever tracking with dynamic zooming options…….

Just watch our Industry in the coming months……Thermal really will be THE next big thing!

Check out this video we caught of the Thermal Predator from 360 Vision……..

CCTV installation,before Xmas,lets wait and see

CCTV for Xmas?


How things turn around. For the last 18 months the CCTV security industry has been eerily quiet. The reasons are obvious. The recession has driven many areas of business to cut back and one of the casualties of this has been the security budget. A make do situation arose where by end users were happy to cancel service agreements and ignore faults that would have normally been rectified as matter of urgency. However the last 2-3 months has seen people seriously considering their security needs again.

CCTV installations start to grow.

CCTV installations have picked up slowly as the economy starts to grow again and there is now signs that with the many bankruptcies that occurred to security installers means there may be a shortage of good installing companies left out there to meet demand.

Can we get installations on the wall before Xmas?

Now it is always the same, Xmas seems to bring mass panic and everyone wants their intruder alarms and CCTV working, upgraded or installed for the holiday period. There are rumours that the “big boys” are already telling their clients that they can’t meet the deadline and intruder alarm and CCTV camera manufacturers are suddenly quoting 2 week lead times for delivery where we have all been used to next day for last couple of years.

Buy cheap buy twice!

So the moral of this story seems to be if you have a fault , fix it sooner rather than later. If you need an installation don’t expect miracles from installing companies who have had to cut staff and prices just to stay in business. And finally those who stuck by their favoured , reliable installing companies instead of shopping around for cheap inadequate replacements, will find that they will have their CCTV and security systems working for Xmas while others are left woefully exposed to crime. It will be very interesting to see how this one pans out.

TCO of an IP Surveillance system. The burning question!

Analogue CCTV v IP camera solutions

An acquaintance  of mine is responsible for building very large hotels from the ground up to the handing over the finished building. Nice work if you can get it! Being a very astute kind of fellow he phoned me up for some advice regarding the security aspect of his newest project. The question he asked was one that is being put to many specifiers at the moment and is one that we believe is the burning question about IP surveillance systems today. That is the TCO or total cost of ownership of IP video systems v analogue CCTV.

Why do IP cameras cost more?

What was confusing my friend and quite rightly, was this. Why was his ME contractor charging him £500 per camera for a 68 way IP camera system? He saw this as costly and the first thing he did, as many would, is check this out on the Internet. He quite simply could not justify this cost when he saw that he could buy what seemed like a perfectly adequate analogue CCTV camera for not much more than £100. So armed with some prices he rang me to know what I thought and find out if he was about to get ripped off.

NVT

Firstly we explored how far the hotel build had advanced and how the cabling had been structured. It seemed that from day one the designers of the networking infrastructure were always intending to go down the IP camera route. I explained that if we wanted to use analogue cameras there was a little more we needed to cost in before we could make a fair comparison. Firstly there was a possibility that we may be able to use the CAT5 cable and by using an NVT solution we could encode and decode the analogue video at each camera and termination point. This however involved a cost and quite a bit more labour to make each end off. I also explained that cable distances were important to decide whether he would need active or passive transmitters and receivers. In addition I asked him if the analogue cameras he had sourced also came with lenses because other wise we need to add £50 per camera straight away, the answer to this was no.

PoE is so much quicker!

I then explained that each camera would need a power supply as the  IP cameras would be PoE, so perhaps another £30 for each PSU once installed needed to be added. In addition for each power supply we would need a fused spur, that would also need to be certificated, so add another £100 per camera. We were not finished yet as each camera would take longer to install and set up, perhaps another £25 or so per unit.

Is it still cheaper?

My friend could see that now costs were beginning to add up but still the analogue CCTV system still seemed a cheaper solution …just.

DVR  v NVR

I then asked him about what recording solution was going to be put in place. Although he was not exactly sure of the make , what he seemed to describe was Milestone software or something similar together with a server to record all his images, I asked if this needed to be accessed remotely and it seemed it did.

High quality DVR.

I then explained that to get a similar picture quality together with the 28 days recording he was asking for would mean he was going to need some high end spec DVRs and what was worse he was going to need 5 of them. I suggested that he check out the cost of these but said in reality this could potentially add at least another couple of thousand pounds to his cost of going analogue.

Clear crisp images

We then went onto picture quality and features that Megapixel IP cameras would be able to provide over an analogue CCTV solution. PoE , auto-focus and better flexibility with recorded images all added to the benefits of the IP option.

The decision.

In summary he was left to make some difficult decisions but in the end I believe that it was the future proofing that an IP surveillance system could give him,  just about made his mind up!

Panasonic IP video

Panasonic i-Pro smart HD.

Panasonic have recently unveiled a new division within its organization called PSNE or if you prefer the full version, Panasonic System Networks Europe. The new division formed in January of this year (2010) and is seen by many forward thinking in the CCTV industry as a very clever move.

Quite simply Panasonic have realized that CCTV as we know it today will look very different in the future. By recognising that the convergence of telecommunications, security and imaging products all needing to come under one portfolio, they have sent a message to the market place. They see  IP video systems integrating with various different edge devices including epos point of sale, industrial and medical cameras as well as home networking products as the way foward.

With this new focus on IP based technology they have produced some excellent network video cameras that are designed to suit just about every application. This has been named the i-Pro smartHD. This range of  IP cameras and monitoring systems means they can easily integrate older analogue products seamlessly with the new IP video based systems.

NVR’s within the new portfolio include the WJ-ND400, WJ-ND300A and the WJ-ND200 all the new equipment is of course ONVIF compliant.

Panasonic trail Axis now a very close second in the sale of IP Camera and ip video systems and see that although the market is still split 80% 20% heavily in favour of analogue camera solutions the trend towards network video systems is an irresistible force. This is now driving many CCTV camera manufacturers to look very closely at what Panasonic are able to achieve in this next year or two, especially as the CCTV market place is thought to be worth anything upwards of 350 million pounds this year.

With IT mangers now taking ownership of newly installed Network video systems the design of any IP video system needs to ensure that the ITC department is kept happy. Getting the IT manager on board as we all know is going to be half the battle when specifying IP surveillance systems however this is becoming easier, especially with Panasonic giving heavy behind the scenes support for its network of dealers.

To ensure Panasonic are able to get their message across to the general public they have invested heavily in the London 2012 Olympics so their famous catchphrase “ideas for life” will soon be ingrained in the thoughts of many installers and new customers who will inevitably start to migrate from analogue to IP camera solutions. Probably an awful lot sooner than they think!