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The NW blog
Archive for the ‘Industry Comment’ Category
How IP video is changing the CCTV landscape
As you are probably aware the video surveillance world is going IP. But what does ‘Going IP (Internet Protocol)’ really mean? On the face of it this change looks innocuous and some would say unnecessary. You are going from a world where video data which used to travel over coaxial cable is now travelling over CAT 5+/CAT6 Ethernet cabling, fibre, WIFI, or even 3G. It means that video can be moved, recorded, stored and managed using the same type of network infrastructure as firms use for their other computer-generated data.
IFSEC 2014: the interesting bits
We’ve just spent three days at the annual security exhibition IFSEC, taking place at the Excel in London this week. It’s a huge show and impossible to look at everything but overall the sense is that the evolution of IP-based security technologies is continuing to gather pace and analogue-based solutions have now been marginalised. I did not see one analogue camera on the show at any of the main stands, but then I was not looking for one.
IP Video and Access Control Systems integration business case is clear, but why has it not yet taken off?
The physical access control market is already a substantial one. IHS (formerly IMS Research) valued it at $3 billion globally in 2012 and projected its CAGR of 7% over the next five years (source: IHS report 2013). There is no doubt that the business case for Access Control System (ACS) integration with IP video strengthens when you consider the backdrop of the rise of what is commonly referred to as the ‘intelligent’ or ‘smart’ building (see for example the SmartBuilding Conference 2014).
2nd generation Y-cam Bullet HD cameras. What’s new?
Y-cam Solutions have launched their 2nd generation Y-cam Bullet HD cameras, available in either HD 720p or HD 1080p versions. Y-cam is a popular camera brand amongst home users and small and medium sized businesses, with all Y-cam models offering wireless capabilities, ease of use and compatibility with a wide range of operating systems, browsers and mobile platforms. So how have the new 2nd generation Y-cam Bullet HD cameras improved from the first generation models?
The new generation of Mobotix cameras
Talked about since summer last year the next generation of Mobotix IP cameras is finally here and available. Not having seen any real improvements from Mobotix since the introduction of the benchmark setting 14 and 24 camera series in 2009 / 2010 we felt Mobotix was falling behind somewhat in recent years. But it was worth the wait. The new generation of Mobotix cameras is a big leap forward and puts Mobotix right back into it. So what makes Mobotix an attractive solution again?
The global value of IP camera sales is close to 50% of total CCTV cameras sold worldwide, but they are not plug and play…
Close to the tipping point
During 2014, the global value of IP camera sales is set to reach the tipping point when compared with analogue CCTV cameras, according to the leading analyst covering the global surveillance and analytics market IHS (formerly IMS Research). Jon Cropley, IHS’ lead analyst covering the surveillance market explains:
“The video surveillance equipment markets in EMEA and the Americas have already reached a ‘tipping point’ where revenues from network video surveillance equipment exceed those from analogue equipment. At a global level this is not forecast to occur until 2014 due to the continued growth of the market for analogue equipment in Asia.”
IHS’ global report on the video surveillance market based on 2013 sales (which should be out by June 2014) may even reveal that the global ‘value tipping point’ has already arrived – spurred on by rapid migration to IP video in China and the rest of the Far East.
Wider deployment of IP Video in UK manufacturing
UK Manufacturing is slowly moving its process control systems from a range of proprietary transmission protocols to IP-based systems transmitting data across Ethernet infrastructures. This move opens up the potential for IP Video to be added to the mix of process and safety monitoring and control equipment on UK production lines.
Ethernet becoming ubiquitous on the factory floor
When you investigate the world of manufacturing today what hits you straight away is the range and sophistication of equipment used to monitor and control modern production lines. Often at the heart of any industrial automation system is the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), connected with an array of automation and safety components such as Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs), drives, servos, inverters, sensors, cameras, safety controllers and many more control devices.
How will UK schools and colleges take advantage of their early lead in IP video adoption over the next few years?
The Blair-led Government unveiled the largest UK schools spending programme for 50 years back in 2004. This unprecedented £55bn investment programme which was called Building Schools for the Future (BSF) led to the construction of more than 70 new schools and the extension and rebuilding of many more. It also triggered a colossal investment in ICT equipment across UK state schools. Annual investment rose from £683m in 1996/7, the year before New Labour came to power, to over £5bn per annum at its peak. Spending on ICT equipment was supported by a specific annual grant which in 2007-8 alone was £113,000 per secondary school and £34,000 per primary school.
UK retailers gather vital business intelligence (BI) using network video
We are noticing increasing deployment of IP-based surveillance cameras to help UK retailers to find operational efficiencies as well as reduce shrinkage. Indeed this trend is confirmed in a key finding from an August 2012 CCTV in Retail survey of 700 UK retailers conducted by the Centre for Retail Research. The study, which was commissioned by Axis Communications, found that 58% of UK retailers plan to migrate from analogue-based CCTV to a new network video system in order to integrate network cameras with business intelligence (BI) applications. BI application integration was the most significant reason for UK retailers to move to network video, or IP Surveillance as it is sometimes called.
So what are these retail-specific BI applications? We were interested to see many of them were geared to capturing and understanding in-store customer behaviour better and flagging up areas for potential improvement.
Technology improvements, definition of interoperability standards and a clear SMB business case, all combine to make the time right for VSaaS
There has been a great deal of talk about Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) in recent years. Authoritative sources are starting to highlight the business case for VSaaS or Hosted Video Storage.
As the SecurityInfoWatch article indicates, there are many different flavours of hosted surveillance storage. The argument runs that the advent of multi-megapixel HD cameras and the proliferation of these cameras have created an explosion of video data which all needs to be stored and managed.
The article suggests a hybrid video surveillance storage model using internal (i.e. in-house DVR, NVR, VMS-embedded server, NAS or other storage device) and external storage (i.e. cloud) usage being increasingly considered by larger enterprises. The cloud could be used for holding backups in this hybrid scenario, for example.
