Tag: CCTV software

IFSEC will encourage integrated CCTV solutions

IFSEC

IFSEC is going to be very interesting this year as it will prove to be the year that suddenly propels IP CCTV into the market place as the dominant CCTV player over a traditional analogue solutions. Integration between Access control, intruder alarms and IP CCTV will be the main theme that people will take away with from the exhibition. Many of the big Security suppliers will try to promote IP CCTV as the way forward and begin to discontinue analogue cameras and recording solutions.

Image Quality.

IP cameras have now begun to prove their worth and better image quality and the way this can be manipulated by VMS CCTV software can only help installers pursued customers to upgrade from older less flexible camera systems. The ease of installation will be used together with the high definition that IP cameras can produce and in addition to this the CCTV software is becoming far more popular over a standalone DVR.

More powerful camera solutions.

The reasons for this is that as the IP cameras become more powerful and software more advanced it makes sense for business to install a system that can be upgraded through a simple remote download rather than be saddled with a black box solution that is severely restricted in terms of the number of cameras that can be recorded at any time.

IP camera licence.

Licences seem at first sight to be expensive when an IP solution is first presented to an end user but because with most software the number of cameras is unrestricted it means customers only need buy what they need at the time . It is then very  easy to add more for a minimal cost once the need arises.

Conclusion.

Flexibility, picture quality, FPS is so much easier to achieve with an IP CCTV solution that after IFSEC this year very few punters will walk away with the view that analogue is the future and as a result we believe that a huge expansion within the security market place is now just around the corner.

Why appoint a CCTV regulator?

New IP solutions encourages new appointment.

Why has the UK government decided to appoint an interim CCTV regulator? Well Andy Rennison certainly has a big task ahead of him. To be fair it seems on the surface just another public servant being appointed just for the sake of it. We already have regulation within the industry in the form of the NSI and this is effectively controlled by the government already through the implementation of European standards for intruder alarms, access control and CCTV.

The challenges ahead.

There are however some challenges ahead within our industry that to the credit of government officials have actually been foreseen at a relatively early stage. Integration between CCTV, access control and intruder alarms mean that the boundaries are becoming blurred between the security technologies . Of even more relevance is that CCTV evidence produced by camera systems has always been contentious but now with the advent of IP CCTV and integrated CCTV systems mean that the police and the courts are desperately seeking guidelines and regulation to ensure that evidence that is forth coming from the new IP surveillance systems can be used in the courts  and this is very much in the public interest.

Government interference?

Government intervention can only be justified if it is profoundly in the public interest and with CCTV software being used more and more, guidelines are are must to ensure forensic integrity is maintained and all evidence is 100% acceptable however it may need to be used.

Complaints procedure for CCTV systems defined by the CCTV regulator.

The right for the public to be able to complain is only a step forward if there is a real understanding in the public domain as to how IP CCTV works . So if education is part of Andy Rennison’s  remit then this cannot be viewed as bad thing.

Conclusion.

Within the industry we have to look at this in a positive way. No publicity is bad publicity and if it means that high standards are enforced then only the most professional companies will be able to take on the new challenges set out by the new CCTV regulator. We look forward to the way this develops with interest . Your thoughts are welcomed. Do we need this kind of regulation or can the industry be relied upon to govern itself ?

Data centre CCTV

CCTV in data centres.

We have recently been asked to look at IP CCTV solutions within Data centres. This is one of the fastest areas of expansion for security solutions within the country at the moment. The reasons behind this expansion are simple. Paranoia when it comes to the protection of company data and information. In addition demands from users when it comes to accessing this information are unparalleled they do not accept down time.Therefore there is always a  requirement for off site storage and redundancy.

IP camera solution.

Quite simply IP cameras are the only real option. The network is always going to be in place and most data centres understand the benefits that HD IP cameras can offer.When dealing with playback it is essential that the pictures give both quality and a frame rate that will mean anything that goes on inside the data centres does not get missed. The ability to record using a VMS solution is also now being viewed as crucial , storage on a server is what data centres do anyway and with VMS CCTV software you have the ability to zoom in without losing image quality and suffering from the age old issue of pixelation.

Remote access.

The ability to remotely access any recordings is also crucial because we find that most managers are off site and data centers tend to be lightly manned.

Conclusion.

In conclusion Data centers are growing at an incredible rate in the UK and IP CCTV is going to be used more and more for the protection of the building and storage infrastructure. If you require more information please click here.

Moving sales forward with IP camera solutions

A new sales opportunity.

So how do we pursued customers to upgrade to new camera systems? . Well of course firstly we have the lever that no forward thinking business is gong to want  to get left behind with their security solutions. With the advent of HD CCTV we have a consumer led technology that people want to jump on board with, this technology is good  but megapixel technology offers some even more amazing picture quality as long as the network that is is in place has the ability to handle the amount of data that is going to pass through it.

So much to offer but who is ready?

It seems that we have cameras that can do more than we could ever imagine but customers generally don’t have the bandwidth to handle it. Add to this the hundreds of different and incompatible recording solutions and we find that on many occasions we have to compromise on the  CCTV software. We need CCTV software that  can handle most if not all the  manufacturers cameras. Analytics will only work with analogue cameras that have been converted by codecs, we see this as a completely unsatisfactory scenario. Analytics for HD and mega pixel cameras are a must.

What the industry wants.

What we want is a recorder/CCTV software that can do analytics, record the best quality that the best cameras on the market can supply and no network restrictions , This is still a long way off  but without doubt within the next 3 years an IP solution will emerge that will take the market place by storm . If the manufacturer who can fulfil all the above criteria does emerge then  they will dominate the market for many many years to come.