With new IP camera hardware and software coming to the fore, Power over Ethernet (PoE) gaining ground rapidly, and prices and adoption barriers both falling, surveillance looks set to be yet another sweet spot for the IP network.
Mention “network security” to the average person, and their minds will likely turn to a quite specific set of ideas and technologies; antivirus, anti-spam, firewalls; Intrusion Detection and Prevention and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems. Some people’s thoughts might even run to biometrics or UTM solutions.
Few however, would consider the kind of security camera that watches them pull into the station car park each morning, or the hundreds of CCTV screens upon which they appear every day as they wander around the country’s town centres. That kind of security surely belongs in civic control centres, and behind reception desks and cornershop counters?
Well, it did. But now, thanks to that most forceful of technological drivers – you guessed it, IP – CCTV has spent the last few years broadening its horizons, and is now moving swiftly out of the car park and onto the IT network. Indeed, IP’s impact in the network security space has been something akin the arrival of a certain Mr Redknapp at a certainnorth London football club. Instant, dramatic, popular, and hugely promising.
It’s a simple enough idea. Instead of the traditional stand-alone coax-connected analogue cameras common to most physical security systems, IP-driven solutions utilise IP-ready cameras that attach straight to the network anywhere they’re needed. The resulting video-feed can then be made available to any location on the network (indeed any machine with an Internet connection), allowing management to view the feed from any camera, at any location, from anywhere.
In addition to being more flexible and costeffective than traditional analogue systems, many such solutions incorporate advanced functionality – like sound and motion activation, intelligent pan and zoom capabilities, intuitive user alert – that allow substantially greater visibility and control. Moreover, all of these are either extremely difficult or extremely expensive to achieve via analogue hardware.
Accordingly, IP surveillance has been gaining widespread traction for several years and is now becoming the de facto solution for multi-site, distributed organisations. In reality though it’s merely a question of a natural progression, says Raj Pandya, General Manager for Sony B2B Channels. “The world of IP-based technology is evolving constantly, and the video security market has leapt forward in tandem with this.”
“In light of both cost and ease of installation, we are seeing a huge technological shift towards surveillance over IP. Whilst the current UK CCTV market is still predominately analogue, we are seeing large growth in the IP market within the security industry year on year. This growing trend sees the CCTV IP camera market gaining around 15% – 20% growth each year.”
Another key factor driving the market is Power over Ethernet (or PoE) – a technology that, crucially, allows the end user to power networkattached devices directly over the camera’s Ethernet connection rather than via a standard mains supply. “PoE basically means that the network powers the cameras, similarly to powering (network/VoIP) telephones”, explains Chris Brown, strategic business development manager for AV Communications at Sony UK.
“The cost savings are immense. Traditional CCTV cameras each need their own power point and when a security network with multiple cameras is being set up, installation costs can run into thousands of pounds. This money can now be saved with a simple move to Power over Ethernet.” Bringing together intelligent cameras and advanced software, video analytics solutions (such as Sony’s Distributed Enhanced Processing Architecture (DEPA) platform) also look likely to make a significant impact in the space. Such solutions recognise ‘potential’ security threats – abandoned packages, suspicious movement, unusual behaviour – as well as ‘live’ breaches. They can even tell the difference between the movement of a person and moving but ‘safe’ factors in the background such as trees or water.
“You can determine different behaviours such as loitering, object removal, speed of travel and so on”, explains Brown. “So if somebody is driving the wrong way down a one way street, the unit in situ would inform the control room. Similarly, if we were in an art gallery, we’d ‘draw a square’ round expensive paintings and if anyone got close to them or tried to remove them, the camera would ‘decide’ that an object had disappeared. No wires or laser beams needed.”
Additionally, having intelligent cameras on the same network as the servers running the security software opens up new possibilities and potential. Security personnel can be guided by the software to relevant hot-spots and screens. They can be shown the detail of a threat long before it escalates. Neither is IP surveillance necessarily a question of rip and replace, says Phil Doyle, UK MD at Axis Communications, and with good reason.
“Estimates of analogue camera volume in the UK range from 4 to 6 million, so ignoring this reality wouldn’t be a wise decision!” Mindful of this, many IP surveillance offerings can be configured and integrated to work alongside existing legacy analogue/coax systems, he explains. Some encoders are even able to take analogue signals from traditional CCTV cameras and ‘translate’ them into digital images for transmission over the IP network – an area in which Axis in particular is seeing very strong demand. “For those interested in how to sweat their analogue assets, we have a comprehensive range of examples on how to upgrade and not rip out.” One way or the other we all look set to be shooting from the ‘IP sooner rather than later.
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