IP CCTV installer

IP CCTV

IP CCTV installer. An interesting statement. Just who is best suited to install IP CCTV systems? The plot thickens the more you investigate. Search on google and there seems to be no traditional CCTV installer that pops up in the results. Why is this? Well have the likes of Chubb and ADT given up and handed the market place to Cisco, Mayflex and the likes?  CCTV manufacturers have definitely grasped the metal and continue to push IP cameras and Megapixel solutions onto their historical customer base , but are they starting to realize that they are flogging a dead horse.

Panasonic

Recently Panasonic held a series of seminars introducing the benefits of their Ipro series. Heavy advertising meant that traditional security installers were well informed about the way Panasonic saw the future and were trying to drag its traditional customer base into the new world of IP CCTV but the seminars were dominated by networking companies that were truly amazed and more importantly delighted by the opportunities that clearly lay ahead of them.

Big players

Security has always been dominated by some big players who seemed to have the market sewn up but clearly they are extremely slow on the uptake , preferring to bury their heads in the sand thinking analogue is here forever.Well wake up and smell the coffee ..its not…. and unless the security industry as whole moves quickly the CCTV market as we know it and those who have made a living from it will find that they will be left very much high and dry!

CCTV engineer. What is your future?

CCTV engineers are you listening?

CCTV engineers,  luddites! Harsh perhaps, but in our experience it is the CCTV engineers within the security industry who least like change. Over the years they have seen little change to how their basic job works. Yes regulation means they have had to embrace a few tweaks to the standards and to be fair most engineers are happy to take these on board, but new technology presents a different problem. Up until the last few years the only serious technology introduced into their job spec has been the DVR. Most engineers did come to terms quite quickly with the new menus and the general installation of the now common DVR. Rarely however did this require the use of a laptop to set up and any networking tended to be done by a commissioning engineer who swept up after them. Now however things are about to change in a big way and those who don’t make the effort to embrace new ideas will be left behind.

IP video systems.

IP video systems are here and this requires a whole new approach by CCTV engineers who to all intensive purposes will see many parts of their job disappear over the next 5 years. Basic IT skills are an essential and probably much more than just the basics will need to be instilled into the CCTV engineers job specs  to enable them to install and understand IP video in the new era.

IP CCTV Training courses.

To be fair to IP camera manufacturers, they are very keen to get training to everyone they can. Rarely does a day go by without an email landing into the inbox advertising a free training course for engineers to help them brush up on the skills they need . However in this climate of recession CCTV installers have cut back on all training and even if this training is free they still have to consider the cost implications of taking their engineers off the road for the duration of the course. So are CCTV engineers going to be left to hang out to dry and simply be replaced by IT network technicians? Well we will have to wait and see but a wake up call has been sent out …..is anyone listening?

IP CCTV. How will today’s CCTV installers fit into tomorrow’s world of IP solutions

Within the industry we are all pretty much agreed that IP CCTV will inevitably be the future of CCTV security systems. In fact in reality its not going to be CCTV at all. Closed circuit television meant just that! a group of cameras completely isolated from the outside world with recorded images only able to be viewed by the privileged few within an organisation. We all know this is changing, the reason for this, more than anything else, is connectivity.

Connectivity.

We are in a world where any one who has connectivity to the Internet, given the right security rights, can access any IP device anywhere in the world. CCTV installers have pushed this hard as a benefit. Using DVR’s connected to the Internet, they have sold the concept of how an MD can be on his boat in Spain and still watch his staff as if he was sat in his own office.

Great sizzle when it comes to a selling point but in reality we suspect it is a rarely used feature.

Future revenue streams.

However we are at a cross roads that means CCTV installers are going to have to think extremely hard about future revenue streams. The reasons are simple. CCTV and security is no longer their baby. It falls into the domain of the big IT integrators who are quickly beginning to realize that they can start to step on the toes of the security industry and bring surveillance into the world of IT. So why the sea change? Well this goes back to connectivity and software solutions.

We have touched before on the site about how CCTV software with a server will inevitably be the way forward for recording images and we know IP cameras are quickly reducing in price to the point where they will soon be cheaper than analogue. We also know that IP has far greater functionality at the camera end. So any new system will almost certainly be specified to go down the IP route. This will mean CCTV hardware in the form of  analogue cameras and DVRs will suddenly find its self very much surplus to requirements and this leads us to the next point.

NVR ,the remote recording solution.

Remote recording. Why would any customer want a box, with lots of cables going into the back of it (that can go wrong) sat in the corner of their room recording images when they can simply route the recording to a data centre and access them at any time at their leisure ? Add to this the fact that some data centres are now realizing that they could suddenly host millions of IP streams and charge for the privilege we now have the concept of  repeat business year on year with very few overheads.

Now lets take this a step further, say for another competitive yearly fee the data centre as part of its service offers to manage the customers CCTV system including routing alarms to its own monitoring company. We suddenly see a major shift in the favour of IT integrators over security companies. Lets add one more little earner into the fray. The connectivity needs to be monitored and secure. By providing a secure broadband connection into the customers premises and of course charging for this broadband service we see more year on year repeat revenue, an excellent business plan.

Data centres.

So how can these data centres centres secure the business? Well this depends on the business plan, but one very frightening point that CCTV installers may wish to note is that they may start giving hosting and recording away for free!! Certainly for smaller security systems, this brings them connections for even the smaller CCTV installations and allows them to either make money on the broadband connection or charge a licence for each camera from the second year onwards. This will put DVR manufacturers out in the cold almost overnight.

So back to the original question …how do traditional installers adjust and make money in this new world of  IP CCTV?

External CCTV installations.

Well of course external CCTV systems are still quite specialized. You need to design this properly with sensor detection and also need some kind of interface to prevent indiscriminate alarms swamping the central station. It also seems improbable to expect an IT engineer used to office environments to start using cherry pickers to clean or change external cameras mounted in difficult positions. Also running cables externally often needs civil works and a level of expertise that can only come with years of experience. However the profits available in this area are dwarfed by the concept of ongoing revenue that could be produced by remote recording. Something else that needs to be seriously considered is that installation companies will not be able to survive in their current form without the profit provided by hardware supply and servicing. So something is going to have to give and this has to be the concepts of how they currently generate their revenue and how they train engineers and  operate their sales department. In addition they will need to form alliances with unfamiliar partners in the world of ITC.

So when will installers get to grips with this new world, well at present it is the big software houses such as Cisco and Milestone who have marked out their plans, it just waits to be seen if others will have the vision to follow into the world of IP CCTV.

Possible future revenue streams.

Secure broadband.

remote recording

remote management

remote monitoring

remote software supply upgrade and support

licence fees

IT supply and support

IP camera supply.

Site visits and maintenance

Camera installations

Repeat revenue is the key to survive.

Many of the the above reduce the need for a large support team out on the road and therefore the reduction in many of the overheads that are restricting profits within the CCTV installing industry today.

Time for a rethink?……………… yes probably………………

CCTV kit

CCTV kit.

Is there an argument that as an end user it is better to buy a CCTV kit from a wholesaler and then install the system either by yourself or get an electrician to carry out the work? Well it would save on costs there is no doubt about that. But CCTV kits available on the Internet tend to be imported from the Far East and tend to be of a lower spec than a CCTV installer would use.

Home CCTV.

For home CCTV it is defiantly a market that is growing, the average domestic customer is simply looking to install a CCTV system to enable them to see who is there without leaving the safety of the home. To this end the CCTV systems that are available in Kit form will suffice. Commercial users though often have CCTV cameras installed for more reasons than just observation purposes and this is where good recording and quality cameras will make a difference.

CCTV kits

Most companies have little or no resources to just have someone watching CCTV images, so inevitably all the information that the CCTV system gathers will need to be reviewed from a recording. This is where the main difference between CCTV kits and a professionally installed CCTV system will tell.

CCTV system.

A CCTV System in kit form will have little or no flexibility on the number of frames per second it can handle or the image quality unlike a more expensive DVR solution. Lets be honest though some high end spec DVRs can cost upwards of £6000 they will have many features and some of these would be over the top for many small or domestic installations.

Buy CCTV.

At the end of the day when buying CCTV kits you really need to think hard about why you really want it, to observe or to actually produce usable images after an event has occurred. Review what is out there and take advice. It could save you spending hard earned cash on something that at the end of the day turns out to be a white elephant.

CCTV maintenance,essential service or industry myth?

CCTV maintenance, essential service or industry myth.

For many years it has gone without question that when you buy a CCTV system then you also buy a maintenance package to go with it. The packages you can buy are diverse, however and you can go from 1 visit per annum to clean and test the system to an agreement that will cover comprehensive labour and parts. The choice at the end of the day is of course in the hands of the customer but ultimately to the installer the maintenance is sometimes crucial to ensure that after year 1 a profit can actually be achieved on the installation itself.

Dangerous game.

This for the installer is a dangerous game to play in the current market place. Cut throat pricing means margins are small to non existent, if the client decides against a service agreement this can cripple small to medium sized installers and many businesses have failed in the last 18 months trying to get jobs on the back of a maintenance package.

CCTV servicing.

This then of course begs the question how profitable is a CCTV maintenance agreement? Well it tends to go back to the kit that is installed in the first place. Cheap kit is inherently unreliable and we would never recommend its installation. The other trick of course is to install closed protocol equipment meaning due to software restrictions only the installer will ever be look after the kit and will sting you forever and a day every time you call them out.

Cheap kit…dont take that route!

Customers tempted by cheap prices often regret their purchase simply because  a) the kit does not do what it was originally claimed to do.  b) The CCTV installer is constantly out trying to fix it. Of course any company doing multiple visits back to installation will soon see any profit wiped out, they will go under and the end user left with a useless un-serviceable CCTV system.

Do you need maintenance?

So back to the original question does a CCTV system need a maintenance agreement? Well the answer is defiantly yes. CCTV can be very reliable but it is a critical requirement. When it goes wrong it needs fixing and fast, an agreement that does not include a “hot swap” arrangement means goods can be removed from the site for repair and not returned for long periods of time. So the company you use to install and to service is crucial. The whole concept of  CCTV maintainence agreements really does come down to one of quality. Buy quality in the first place and your failure rate will be low , When the product does fail the installer should have a stock item to replace it , this is only possible if the installer can make a profit on the install and this is only possible if the customer has the vision to pay a fair price in the first place.

Tough times!

We find ourselves in a climate that is pushing prices and margins down; this can only lead to poorer service levels in the future, choose your installer wisely, pay a fair price for good products and don’t fall foul of cheap deals it may come back to bite you!!!