CCTV – does it always need to be about Security?

Interesting meeting during this week

An integrator was looking for ways to increase sales of Electronic Security Systems, mainly CCTV.

End user customer base is predominantly agricultural……not many cows get stolen methinks!!

But, it turns out that in fact, the farming community is actually a prime target for CCTV based system solutions……why?

CCTV farming
CCTV helps farmers

Well, during the breeding/birthing season, the farmer is practically living in the animal pens/sheds, waiting for that moment to leap into action!

So, instead, how about a decent static camera (or even internal PTZ for closer action shots !) connected via wifi, through to the main farmhouse……….connected into a decent DVR which the farmer can either view through his residential TV or a connected PC………..

Sophisticated motion and sensor alarms can be created to provide notification…..

Take it even further – add a text dialler or email notification and the farmer can even leave the premises, literally waiting for an SMS or email on his Blackberry or iPhone device, allowing him to connect back to the DVR and view the live image streams……

With cost effective leasing plans allowing low weekly payments and also tax deductible, the farmer can utilise the system as a part of his business!

CCTV – not always about Security !

iPhone sells CCTV

40K CCTV system.

I Recently spoke to sales guy who had a fantastic result in selling a £40 k CCTV system to one of his existing clients based up in London. He retold me the storey of how he had managed to upgrade a customer who’s system was actually less than 3 years old! Quite an achievement in this day of austerity and generally making do when it comes to CCTV and security.

A unique selling point.

His main objective of course was to offer the customer something new, something he had not seen before and try to convince him to part with his money. He had two major aces up his sleeve. He knew his customer was a gadget man. He also knew that his customer was extremely intelligent and was nobody’s fool when he was purchasing any kind of product. He started by talking about the benefits of IR dome cameras specifically Black hawk domes. If you have ever done a dem with this unit at night you will know that the product sells itself. This is down to the picture quality and the stunning difference between a grainy integrated colour picture and the clarity of a mono picture enhanced with IR. To say he was impressed was an understatement. He wanted them and was now only interested in how much this was going to cost him. Well this is where my acquaintance found himself up against it.

Benefits.

Although the benefits were obvious , justifying ripping out cameras that were less than 3 years old was difficult. It was now he played his trump card. He offered the customer the ability to connect to these new cameras using just his iPhone and App he would let him have if he agreed to the upgrade. He knew the DVR was capable of this and the app had just become available. Well the guy could not sign up quick enough, this was the clincher, the deal sealer and my friend could not have been happier.

iPhone sells CCTV.

So what does this tell us about the iPhone  and the remote connection app. It would seem to us that if you buy a DVR you would be well advised to ensure it is iPhone compatible but more than this, it tells us that gadgets sell CCTV and we see this happening more and more. Searches on this site are often looking for CCTV iPhone apps as this form of remote connection goes from a popular feature to what some may now consider essential. We love the iPhone!

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.

CCTV software

CCTV software.

Over the next few years we will begin to see hardware recording solutions in the CCTV security industry slowly disappear and be replaced almost exclusively by CCTV software.

Cost of CCTV hardware.

The high production costs of hardware have in the past always been able to be offset because most end users networks struggled to cope with the high amount of bandwidth taken by HD and Megapixel IP cameras. Recently however, there is a marked change. Recording solutions are beginning to be biased towards CCTV software platforms recording onto dedicated servers. The servers are getting cheaper and developers have taken all the best features from their hardware recorders and integrated this into CCTV software solutions.

CCTV software.

The software of course can vary enormously. Some manufacturers such as Sanyo are happy to give away software in order to sell their IP cameras in volume. Other big players such as March networks have spent lots of time money and effort on developing their Videosphere VMS software into a fantastic package that includes analytics and extremely advanced search facilities not seen in cheap or free CCTV software packages.

Who decides.

Of course the decision will always come down to end user and their requirements. Anyone trying to integrate CCTV systems that already exist on site will not be able to use off the shelf packages. They will have to choose a CCTV software solution that can integrate a multitude of cameras and codec’s especially when using a combination of analogue and IP cameras of different makes and model. The older analogue cameras will need some kind of multiple recording platform and then conversion to IP video streams.

The future.

CCTV software can and will get better and better. Software gives flexibility that older hardware DVRs lack. It will eventually get less expensive and remote support for the product is easier than returning a DVR back to its country of origin just simply to be repaired. The benefits and advantages of using CCTV are slowly but surely meaning that DVRs are soon to go the same way as the VCR.. Ie it become a very breed indeed.

CCTV security news. Financial report on security companies

CCTV the state of the industry

Plimsoll analysis have recently produced an interesting report on the financial health of the CCTV and security industry. They carried out an in depth study of 391 leading UK security firms and found that the majority of companies are coming under increasing threat of failure. Their study found that of the 391 companies only 159 were in a good or strong position, a somewhat frightening statistic if you are a CCTV security installer today.

Fierce competition.

The reasons however are clear , fierce competition has driven prices and margins down leaving profits hard to find. Logistics often means cutting engineers is difficult without seriously compromising service levels and those who have tried have and found it impossible to reach industry standards for service and response times and as a result have inevitably lost customers. It is estimated that of the 359 companies included in the survey as many as 33% are actually making a loss and are in danger of takeover or complete failure.

Solving the problem.

So how can this be addressed? well to be brutal some companies deserve to fail. Installing at a loss, as loss leader in the hope that service incomes will make profits in the end are short sited and simply drive good businesses to the wall . Some of the big boys have been guilty of this during this recession.

Cuts.

Most of the of the more clever players however have simply cut away the excess, driven down stock levels and hung on in there by the seat of their pants. Slowly but surely the CCTV security industry is emerging from the economic downturn, ready to take on the IPCCTV revolution and get back to see strong balance sheets by early 2011.