Tag: CCTV

6 Reasons Why CCTV Security Systems are Vital for Your Business

Do we pay the price of keeping our facilities safe and secure? Do we have a good ROI when we spend our hard earned cash on CCTV monitoring of our facilities? How crucial is it to have our premises covered by a well-designed professionally installed security system?

One of the most cost effective ways to provide security in the workplace is with CCTV Security or Video Surveillance Systems. The highly advanced technology of modern security cameras allow businesses to lower cost and risk by protecting their assets with continuous and seamless monitoring of their facilities. These relatively inexpensive cameras have in the most part replaced expensive security guards while increasing the reliability and accountability to near 100% by providing real time remote video surveillance.

Here are six reasons why CCTV systems are crucial and extremely necessary for businesses today:

  1. Reduce Cost and Risk

CCTV security systems prove themselves as the best investment as soon as they are installed. Full view of your premises and real-time recording as well as remote online access by owner/manager lowers the risk and prevents costly incidents such as burglary, fire, vandalism, etc.

  1. Prevent and Deter Crime

Criminals target buildings and facilities when they see there is no monitoring or watchdog. The very presence of CCTV cameras on an installation is enough to deter potential criminals and prevent their action at the outset. Similarly, by the sight of a safety hazard, employees can take the necessary action to reduce the risk and alleviate the source in the shortest possible times.

  1. Fool-Proof Coverage

A well-designed CCTV infrastructure is practically impenetrable and can provide 100% coverage. Multiple cameras keeping an eye on each other’s blind spots in addition to keeping an eye on the most vulnerable areas of the property, full monitoring is not hampered by human errors such as the guard being on shut-eye or being busy with something else. Remote online access as well as recording of the events documents everything should it be needed by the police or judge.

  1. Keep Your Employees Honest

CCTV cameras on the outside prevent break-ins by outsiders, but if installed inside the facility to monitor sensitive materiel, goods, and assets, as well as vulnerable areas of a facility, it will prevent wrong doing by company employees. Even if something happens, the recorded video will prevent wrong accusation and lack of trust among all staff.

  1. Encourage Good Behavior

CCTV cameras help in creating discipline among employees and customers alike.  CCTV cameras encourage employees and buyers to be on their best behavior alike. It also gives customers a sense of security and safety as they know they are protected and gives them confidence in doing business with you.

  1. Prevent Safety Incidents

CCTV cameras can be installed in high-risk areas of a business facility or establishment. These high-risk and accident-prone areas include locations where fires can break out as well as locations where a potential danger to the building and personnel exist. Properly selected cameras can prevent potential damage because emergency measures can be taken immediately with careful monitoring.

  1. Assist Law Enforcement

CCTV recording of the scene of the crime, allow law enforcement agencies to use the footage and release photos and videos of the culprits to the public. A picture or a video record of the suspect can make a huge difference when it comes to making an arrest and getting dangerous criminals off the street.

So there you have it! We hope that we have enlightened you on the importance of CCTV Security Systems for your business. If you wish to know more about CCTV systems, check out our article on How to Select the Correct CCTV Camera to Use?

What is Big Data and 4 Reasons Why it is so Important

Big Data is one of the new terms that we hear regularly these days along with “Internet of Things” (IOT), “Artificial Intelligence” (AI), and “Cloud Computing”. Interestingly, when you Google the term, you can read a wide variety of definitions – which is not unexpected considering how new the concept is!

In this article, I would like to try to provide a simple understanding of the concept from a technical point of view.

One of the best definitions I encountered is this one: “any voluminous amount of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data that has the potential to be mined for information”.

This definition will make more sense when we compare it with how data was traditionally handled. For old developers like myself, useful data always meant structured tables of data organized in relational databases.  It enabled you to do meaningful searches and display the results in a useful format – like what you see in CRM or ERP applications you daily use. But as the above definition describes, the Big Data is now about big volumes of data that are not necessarily structured in tables of databases.

Why is Big Data mentioned now?

The first question that arises after reading the above lines would probably be: What has changed in the past couple of years that has made Big Data so important?

In my opinion, there are 3 main reasons:

  1. Advance of Artificial Intelligence technologies: masses of unstructured data have always been available – they are the source for any structured data! One of the main reasons we have been organizing such data into structured databases over the past few decades has been the lack of search and data mining algorithms. Finding and presenting the data in a meaningful and useful way is a complicated process that would require very sophisticated programming algorithms. However, these sophisticated programming algorithms are now available.
  2. Advances in computer hardware: storing high volumes of data, searching through them, and accessing useful data on a timely manner calls for advanced computer hardware that enables super-fast data access and very high-speed processing power. Such hardware was not widely available a decade ago.
  3. Advances of the Internet: there is no doubt that the invention of the Internet has been one of the most important events of the 20th During the 21st century, the internet has constantly provided connectivity at higher speeds with more mobility. The result is an access to an incredible amount of unstructured data from all over the world in the form of videos, pictures, text, and codes.
  4. Increased amount of data: this is usually referred to as the three ‘V’s – Volume, Velocity, and Variety. The volume of data, the speed it is becoming available, and the variety of the data has simply made traditional methods of structuring them impossible!

As the world becomes more connected, not only do we face a huge growth of man-created data, but also an exponentially increasing amount of data created by machines. Some examples of such machines are:

  • CCTV Cameras: there are an increasing number of constant streaming videos captured from CCTV cameras. The volume of data created by CCTV cameras would simply not enable any timely analysis by humans. It is also not possible to “structure” them in any meaningful way.
  • IOT sensors: it is expected that there would be over 20 billion IOT devices by 2020. Each of these devices would be constantly creating data. The variety of devices and hence the data they create would again call for the “Big Data” solution.
  • Network Equipment Logs: network switches, routers, security appliances, servers, and other network equipment each create their different logs which again is a huge amount of useful data, if it can be analyzed efficiently.

Conclusion

We’re obviously at the verge of a new technological revolution which would be known by the emergence of robots, artificial intelligence, IOT devices, virtual reality, auto-driven vehicles, and many other great technologies. But at the core of this revolution is the “data” and how it can be analyzed efficiently and intelligently. “Big Data” is the concept for making that happen and includes technologies on how to store such volumes of data, and more importantly how to extract the required information efficiently from it.

Analog CCTV vs IP Cameras – What’s the Correct Choice?

If you search on the internet, you can find many disputes about Analog CCTV vs Digital IP Cameras. The main question is this: Are IP Cameras the sole players in the future of CCTV, or are there still some good reasons for implementing analog cameras?

Today, I see many CCTV designs proposed for buildings that are based on analog CCTV solutions. Unlike some designers who still propose analog cameras, I can undoubtedly confirm that the future of CCTV surveillance solutions is with IP-based systems. Nevertheless there are still rare cases where one might decide to propose an analog camera – I’ll give a hint on those as well at the end of this article.

In this article, I want to quickly go over this topic and provide an easy-to-understand explanation.

The key difference between analog CCTV and IP Cameras

Without going into too much of technical explanations, the two systems can be quickly defined as below:

  • Analog cameras transfer the video signals in analog form (electrical signals), usually use coaxial cables for the cabling, and have the videos recorded by a DVR (Digital Video Recorder), where each single camera is directly connected to the DVR.
  • IP cameras encode the video signal into IP packets, use the data network (LAN) for the cabling, and have the videos recorded by an NVR (Network Video Recorder) that can be connected anywhere on the network.

Both type of cameras use the same mechanism for capturing the video by their CCD sensor, and the main difference is the method by which the video signal is transmitted.

Benefits of IP Cameras over Analog CCTV

  1. Higher image quality: Unlike a few years ago, where cameras have poor video resolution, now we have mega-pixel IP cameras that totally outmatch any analog camera solution. The higher pixel resolution of the IP cameras means you can zoom into much more details of a scene even after it is recorded, without losing clarity.
  2. Unified cabling infrastructure: by utilizing the same LAN network infrastructure, IP cameras can be deployed usually with no need for major re-cabling. It also enables utilizing different network mediums such as wireless and fiber links seamlessly.
  3. No major interference / distortion hassle: in analog systems, especially when the cameras are over a few hundred meters/feet away from the DVR, interference and distortion due to electrical noises, poor quality connections, and ground loop effects can cause tricky situations requiring extensive effort to overcome. With IP cameras, one won’t need to bother about interferences / image quality issues.
  4. Power arrangements: IP cameras can be mostly powered over the same network cable through POE (Power Over Ethernet) by simply connecting them to a POE-capable network switch, eliminating the need for separate source of power. This is not the case in analog cameras, where each camera would need separate power source.
  5. Easy management: IP cameras can be easily managed and controlled remotely. This considerably simplifies and speeds up troubleshooting of the system. One can easily check the connectivity of each individual camera over the network using a laptop with proper authentication, while in analog cameras physical attendance to each camera and using of separate monitoring tools is a must.
  6. Lots of extra features: New IP cameras come with a constantly-expanding list of new features and enhancements – these include video analytic and enhancement features, web interface for direct view and remote monitoring and control, automatic alert notifications via email and SMS and even internal NVR for recording of videos.

When can I still consider Analog Cameras?

With all technology enhancements, many of the arguments justifying analog cameras are not valid anymore and belong to the past. Arguments such as analog cameras have better image quality or costs less were valid a couple of years ago, but not anymore.

But there are two design conditions when one might still justify an analog camera solution:

  1. Very small systems for small shops: If you want a very simple and cost effective setup to include up to 4 cameras connected with a very short cables to a DVR to setup a basic surveillance for a small shop, analog cameras are probably still considerable for 1-2 more years.
  2. Distributed, distant cameras with no existing network infrastructure: There might be some rare cases where a simple surveillance solution is needed where there are a few cameras distributed in different directions and with several hundred meters/feet distance from the control room. In such cases, if there is no network infrastructure available, one might still consider an analog camera solution for the sake of lower costs of implementation.

Conclusion: After reading this article, if you see a designer proposing you a camera system based on “coaxial cables” – you can confidently conclude that you are in wrong hands!

The Challenges of Unified ELV Implementation

In my recent article 5 Reasons Why Integrated ELV Systems Reduce Costs, I tried to explain briefly how a well-designed integrated and IP-based unified ELV system considerably reduces construction costs.

However, like any other good thing, this comes with its own set of challenges to tackle!

Integrating complex ELV systems into a single LAN network requires high design experience and extremely good knowledge about integrated technologies.

The network designer who is responsible for the design of the unified ELV system must have an in-depth understanding of both the passive layer (cabling/containment) and the active layer (network switches and routers).

One of the main challenges in utilizing the same network for different systems is the calculation of the required bandwidth. This is especially important to ensure that audio/video related technologies such as CCTV (surveillance cameras), IPTV (TV system) and VoIP (telephone) – systems that highly depend on IP streaming techniques – are not jittered.

Some of the design considerations needed to achieve the best results are listed as follows:

  • Ensuring a proper network topology with correct IP plan that allows expandability
  • Ensuring the usage of correct network switches to achieve the needed bandwidth while controlling the costs
  • Determining the correct backbone media to use for future expansion
  • Ensuring proper network segregation by implementing Virtual LAN (VLAN) techniques
  • Implementing IGMP snooping for controlling IPTV multicasts
  • Ensuring backbone redundancy

Another challenge to tackle at the design level of a unified ELV system is selecting the right products to use. There are so many brands for so many systems that need to be integrated into a unified, IP-based solution – and due to the diversity of solutions, there is no single brand that even claims they can cover everything.

So it becomes absolutely critical to ensure that the right products from correct vendors are determined for each specific project, based on the project requirements as well as the priorities. It is also very important to ensure that the selected solutions can actually seamlessly blend into a single, unified solution.

5 Reasons Why Integrated ELV Systems Reduce Costs

In this article I want to quickly go over 5 reasons on why designing integrated ELV systems considerably reduces construction costs.

Unfortunately, many ELV designers still base their designs on traditional systems running on proprietary networks for various building management systems, as well as separate telephony, data and television networks each with their separate/multiple cabling systems.

This results to increased costs, limited functionality, and complex management.

The solution is a modern design based on integration of all ELV systems over an IP-based network.  This calls for a higher level of technical expertise and experience, and a good combination of networking and ELV knowledge. As you will see below, the results are higher efficiency at lower OPEX and CAPEX costs, and reduction in risks of delay:

1- Unified Cabling and Pathways

Unlike traditional solutions where each system would need to use its own cabling system and pathway (CAT6 for network, copper multi-core twisted pair for telephony, coaxial cable for TV systems, twisted cable for PAGA, control cable for ACS, …), in a modern IP-based ELV design, all systems mainly use the same common data network, hence considerably decreasing the costs on cabling and pathways.

Of course the installation of common cabling and pathways requires planning of the containment systems at the early stages of the project so that the optimum routes can be designed by experienced network designers.

2- Less Quality / Interference Problems

One of the key challenges of traditional analog designs especially for systems such as CCTV, telephony, and television is the complication during the design and installation to ensure that proper quality of audio and picture is obtained. Although things might look good on paper, in the course of installation and commissioning many unforeseen problems usually pop up, which cause further unexpected delays on project timelines and increase on forecasted costs.  Problems can arise such as grounding problems, quality issues of cables and connectors, and electrical and ground-loop noise which directly affect analog solutions. In IP based solutions, by implementing a digital/IP based backbone these issues are no longer a concern.

3- Lower Costs for Expandability

Most of traditional ELV systems are very limited on the available means of expandability over large compounds. For example, to expand a conventional analog telephony, CCTV, or public alert system over a medium-sized compound, kilometers or miles of cables need to be physically laid. This calls for expensive, multi-core copper cables that are both expensive and hard to lay. While on new IP based solutions, the network cloud consisting of all types of connection mediums such as much less expensive fiber cables or even microwave links can be used to seamlessly interconnect remote areas at a fraction of the costs of traditional solutions.

4- Easier Management and Troubleshooting

IP-based unified ELV solutions are by far easier to manage and troubleshoot, because the maintenance staff do not need to bother about multiple cabling systems and connections, and the cabling (called physical layer in data networks) is easily managed and checked. The overall needed experience and troubleshooting time required for maintaining the systems are also considerably lower and usually a single computer would be sufficient for managing and troubleshooting the all systems from a centralized location.

5- Capability for Remote Management

Unlike traditional analog solutions, IP-based systems can be remotely managed and reconfigured, with minimum physical changes required. This saves considerably on maintenance costs while bringing many new features and possibilities.

Other Benefits of Unified ELV Systems

Costs savings is not the only benefit of modern IP-based integrated ELV systems – there are more benefits such as:

  • Much more functionalities and features
  • Expandability with no need to redo the infrastructure
  • Software upgradability
  • Integration of different systems

In a future article I will explain the challenges of designing modern integrated ELV systems.