CCTV 2010

CCTV Handbook 2010
CONTENTS
CCTV round-table: Technology, standards and certification ................... 4 The effectiveness of CCTV systems ...... 14 The journey continues ......................... 16 What comes after the nVR?................ 18 Future-proofing CCTV .......................... 20 Why intelligent storage in cameras will transform IP video surveillance ............ 22 City surveillance, a practical approach ... 28 Video analytics not an industry bad boy ....................... 32 Monitoring behaviour with video analytics .................................... 34 assisting operators ............................ 36 Stepping out ...................................... 38 Safe soccer ....................................... 40 Retail giant expands surveillance .......... 42 Weekend policing in Glasgow ................ 59 Southern Cape capital secured ............ 43 keeping crime off the streets .............. 60 nVT hybrid video scores ...................... 44 Safe city surveillance .......................... 61 Luxury casino upgrades to digital recording ............................. 46 Ensuring farmers peace of mind .......... 48 Product Showcase ............................. 62 The video surveillance game changer? ... 64 Traffic surveillance along Chiles a-16 highway........................... 52 Urban surveillance in brazil .................. 53 anatomy of integration ....................... 54 Ethekwini Hospital opts for IP .............. 56 CCTV by microwave ............................. 57 Video management secures community ......................................... 58 High-res IR camera ............................. 49 a starring role at Universal Studios ..... 50 CCTV IP mini-dome .............................. 51 Thermal night vision camera ................ 51
www.securitysa.com CCTV Handbook 2010
CCTV/SURVEILLanCE EdIToRS CoMMEnT
WELCOME
Technology and more

he world of surveillance is changing. Not only are we seeing exciting advances in new technology, driven by IP, but we are seeing analogue companies still fighting to retain their share of the market by adapting to new technology and customer demands. And given the price difference between the new and old technology, it will be a while before analogue is banished to the history books. Those who have been in the market for a long time have seen many changes in technology over the years. Unfortunately, the one thing that hasnt really changed is the skill sets of installers and integrators. Hi-Tech Security Solutions holds its annual CCTV round-table to coincide with the publication of the CCTV Handbook each year. The round-table is meant to foster debate around the new trends and technologies in the surveillance market, getting input from all sides of the debate. This years round-table highlighted the usual assortment of new technology available, such as intelligent analysis, high resolution and so forth, but the debate seemed to continually find its way back to the topic of training and standards. A summary of the debate can be found on pages 4 to 13.
The primary complaints of the participants was that there are no standards relating to the installation of CCTV systems and no minimum qualifications installers need before they can sell their services to the market. Anybody can sell CCTV systems and this often leads to poor installations with poor equipment and unhappy customers. Who is addressing this issue? Right now, nobody. The ability to do the job properly is becoming more important than ever as traditional IT companies start focusing on the security market. These companies have a history of technical services done by certified personnel that meet certain standards. It wont take them long to gear up to adding IP-based security products and processes to their sales kit. Apart from the round-table report-back, this years handbook contains a selection of trends, opinions and case studies offering a glimpse of the surveillance market in 2010. We hope you enjoy it and find value. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome at andrew@technews.co.za.
Andrew Seldon. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the Editor should be addressed to Andrew Seldon at andrew@technews. co.za. Sending material to this publication will be considered automatic permission to use in full or in part in our Letters column. Be sure to include your name, e-mail address, city and postal code. We reserve the right to edit all letters.
Andrew Seldon Editor
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CCTV Handbook 2010 www.securitysa.com
CCTV/SURVEILLanCE CCTV RoUnd-TabLE
TECHNOLOgy ,
STANDARDS AND CERTIfICATION
While surveillance technology advances, local industry drivers want to see standards implemented and compulsory technical certification.
athering a group of industry leaders around a table and asking them about the future of the surveillance industry is sure to result in some interesting comments. The 2010 CCTV Roundtable was no exception. We expected the group at this years round table to inundate us with stories of technology advances such as intelligent video analytics, high-definition video and related cool stuff. There was more than enough said about technology, but the discussion often diverted to topics more important in business today, such as quality, standards, training and certification. True to the market where were seeing more companies focused on business benefits, value-add, IT integration and integrating security processes with the rest of the organisations processes, the latest in technology is not what gets passions raised. The value and benefits of surveillance today is based on what users can get out of their systems,
Andrew Seldon
and not what products the industry can offer. An important point raised was that solutions are not about a single technology, but how technology gets business leaders to pay attention because of its deliverables. Long-time Hi-Tech Security Solutions contributor, Dr Craig Donald added to the issue by raising the concept of the human factor. Its pointless having a multi-million rand setup when your staff has not been trained to make full use of it. The reality is that the security industry is evolving from being made up of companies that install cameras and occasionally work with IT departments to ensure networks work as required for the whole company, to installers and integrators that solve business problems without creating new ones. This idea of understanding what your customers pain points are and providing solutions to soothe those issues, like the IT industry had to learn to do, is what separates security integrators in the surveillance market with a future from those that will see their markets shrink.
Intelligence and analytics

To achieve these lofty goals, Kevin Monk, MD of Nkunzi TechniSec expects to see a move to remote surveillance and off-site hosting, a topic we return to later. He also believes were going to see a change in video analytics in which increased use of metadata
Left to right: Standing: Craig Donald, Vladimir Milovanovic, Roy Alves, Kevin Pearman, Kevin Monk, Ernest Mallett. Seated: Chris Havinga, Philip Smerkovitz, Jan de Beer. www.securitysa.com CCTV Handbook 2010
actually makes surveillance footage more useful. Monk describes metadata as the data stream coming off cameras, so youd be able to actually interrogate the camera in terms of saying I want to find every person in a red shirt that has entered the building in the last 3 hours, for example. Another example of the improvement analytics will deliver is, for example, in vehicle access. The system could be used to record all cars entering a premises, but to raise an alarm when a car of a specific colour arrives. In retail this could be useful as there are often reports that a specific make and colour car is used for criminal reconnaissance, but nothing more is known. Roving security officers could be alerted to the presence of a car matching this description and investigate its activities. Roy Alves, country manager of Axis Communications explains that with modern analytics, a number of cameras can be employed to follow a car or person as they move through a location, or historical footage can be followed, a lost child, for example, to see where they went and what they did. He does warn, however, that while it is a good idea, the full implementation of this technology is still some way in the future. Intelligent analytics is where integrators can make an impact on their clients businesses by deploying more than simply a camera system. Monk says they should be helping companies to manage by exception
with analytics, raising an alarm in the control room when an anomaly happens such as someone approaching a restricted area. This type of system can be improved over time to include more metadata and intelligent applications when the infrastructure and the human resources are available to handle it. Its all about identifying a problem and solving it. Ernest Mallett, product manager at ADI Global notes that many companies are selling CCTV solutions as a bunch of connected cameras without knowing what they are solving. Industry-leading integrators and installers are going out to the market and asking what problems potential customers face are, and then assisting in solving them. You need to start looking at it at an enterprise level of how youre going to solve the users problems and not just say well lets come in with a DVR or NVR and put in analytics and walk away without solving anything. Youve got to look at it company by company, and start applying the intelligence around CCTV to their problems. So if its my Johnny Walker Blue Label going missing and I dont know why, how can surveillance determine if theres sweet-hearting, pouring two tots and billing one, or not billing at all? Kevin Pearman, business development executive, CCTV at Bytes Technology Group brings an IT aspect to the conversation, relating the analytics and metadata to traditional business intelligence (BI). This
is where youre looking at it from the point of view of a business intelligence solution, going in and understanding the virtual market in which they operate and thats where your detection will work in various environments. When you start looking from a different perspective at consumer behaviour, for example, where you want to see how many consumers walked into a shop, which direction they went and how long they stood at a cubicle, what they looked at, you add value to using CCTV and video analytics, and bring in a different aspect to traditional security solutions. Surveillance in this context means understanding the business, what people want to get out of the system and then designing a security system based on that, whether it be on-site analytics, where it be perimeter detection, and off-site monitoring. That all boils down to the sales person driving the process, making sure that the technologies are there and implementing the right system. Pearman also notes that these are not vanilla solutions, but will be vertical market dependent. Traditional systems will work in one situation, but advanced analytics will be required to deliver business value in another. Unfortunately, when customising solutions, one often has to work with other departments and people with different skill sets; and the security industry has a rather bad history of cooperation. Continued on page 8
Kevin Pearman, Kevin Monk, Vladimir Milovanovic, Craig Donald.
Philip Smerkovitz, MD, TeleEye (South Africa).
Kevin Pearman, business development executive CCTV, Bytes Technology Group.
Chris Havinga, MD, IP Video Solutions.
Roy Alves, country manager, Axis Communications.
Continued from page 6
Lacking skills
A crucial aspect of successful implementations is training. Vladimir Milovanovic, GM, Industrial Automation & Control (IAC) says distributors often see bad mistakes in implementation. He says the product vendors and distributors need to ensure that the integrators are properly trained, that this training repeated and reinforced at regular intervals so that theyre always up to date. I think its in our best interest to empower them to do a good job. Its really the integrity of the system integrators, the suppliers, the importers and the distributors that matters and makes a difference in this industry, says Jan de Beer, senior executive, MultiVid. Unfortunately, many of the system integrators dont have skilled people that can ask penetrating questions; they dont have the integration skill, the knowledge, the years of experience and they are therefore going to install a pretty useless system at the end of the day. Unfortunately the customers invariably never know what they want, so you have to guide them and this is impossible if your focus is on selling as many products as possible. All the attendees agree that what the industry needs is a certification system similar to what the IT industry has. This will allow employers to hire someone knowing that they are able to perform certain tasks and will be able to function at a specific level of professionalism. At the same time, many attendees believe security integrators should be sending their staff on IT certification courses to ensure they are able to function effectively in an increasingly IT world. IP systems arent ruling the roost yet, but their presence is growing and their dominance is inevitable. Chris Havinga, MD, IP Video Solutions, brings the spectre of IT firmly into the
discussion, noting, a lot of the security responsibility is starting to fall on the IT department. Basically, if you want to use ITs network, you have to work through them and meet their requirements. Additionally, Alves confirms Axis is seeing many traditionally IT integrators entering the security space. This poses a threat to the security integrators, but also poses a threat to customers as they are used to relying on their IT providers, but many of them dont understand physical security. Never mind placing a camera, they dont understand what the requirements are in terms of being able to see a person. These guys are generally putting cameras in places where its easy to run cables. This is irrelevant, however, as the IT encroachment is here to stay and will get worse as IT providers have the ear of decision makers. This is naturally seen as a threat to many in the security industry. It is also an opportunity for security operators with good security and IT skills to work with their IT counterparts to deliver value to IT and the business. Its also an opportunity for security distributors and vendors to expand their training offerings to a new set of clients although this might irritate some of their current customers. Overall the consensus is that the security industry needs to have standards that govern players on the market that are complied with and policed. An example highlighted by Philip Smerkovitz, MD, TeleEye SA, was a lack of standards and education with respect to lightning protection. Gauteng is a testing ground for any lightning protection systems, but there are still dealers selling into the remote alarm verification market, where you reduce or eliminate guarding of high value assets, and theres no lightning protection on the site either because the dealer deems it not necessary or because it adds significant cost to the quote
to implement it correctly. This problem is also exacerbated by the customer who compares quotations on price alone.
Lacking standards
De Beer notes that he was on a SABS board that tried to put national standards together for CCTV. The efforts went as far as delivering a draft document, but then faded away because it was a voluntary forum and the best practices advanced could not be enforced. The authorities, unsurprisingly, had no interest in it. Today the local industry is still without standards, and customers are paying for it with expensive solutions that achieve nothing. Monk comments that it is one thing to getting people together to write a standard. The problem is who polices it? Who implements it? I think if there was an independent body that got the right to police standards, you would have a very good industry. There is however, a silver lining. With more corporations opting for IP solutions and IT departments getting involved in security, they generally demand certification before they allow people to touch the network. Alternatively, Monk says they defer all network operations to their service providers, forcing security integrators to work with these companies which only happens when integrators have the business and IT skills needed to talk to these people. Mallett adds that this does not mean the end of the security integrator because the IT providers still lack the security knowledge to install effective solutions. To them, a switch is a switch, while the way video is switched is different from traditional business data. He also says that while there are no compulsory standards and certifications, some distributors and vendors raise their Continued on page 10
Continued from page 8 own barriers to entry for unskilled integrators. Those integrators that are certified in specific products receive discounts that fly-by-nights dont, which gives the skilled companies a small price advantage. Milovanovic supports this, saying distributors can weed out the unskilled integrators that will cause embarrassment to brands by awarding bigger discounts to those who have made the effort and invested in themselves and their companies by enrolling in training and certification programmes. Havinga notes this is crucial because the fallout of integrators making bad decisions always comes back to the vendors and distributors. A poor installation damages the products and distributors brand; it could be the best product, it could be the best software and the best camera, it doesnt matter if its not being used properly. The idea of charging for services, as IT companies do was also raised. If an integrator needs a distributor to assist them, as often happens with poorly trained installers, the vendors/distributors should consider charging per hour for their assistance. It works in the IT world. This will encourage integrators to ensure their people have the requisite skills to do the job and wont automatically rely on their distributors to fill in any gaps lacking in their skill sets. Of course, distributors are profit driven companies and a move like this would have to be driven by all the major players and not only one or two. This idea caused some discussion and is probably a topic for its own round-table. Needless to say, the influence of IT companies, their skills and lower product profit margins will impact the security industry and force many to consider what used to be ridiculous ideas. Another key issue the attendees expected to see in 2010, partly because of a lack of skills and integrity, is remote monitoring and hosting.
Remote surveillance
Smerkovitz is in a good position to comment on remote monitoring as TeleEye has been in this market for some
time. With the lack of trust in guarding, as well as global personnel and budget cutbacks, plus the increased availability and lower cost of bandwidth in the country, remote services are becoming accepted and easier to implement. And, depending on who youre speaking to, remote surveillance offers more security and less lifethreatening situations. Moreover, infrastructure such as the newly implemented Seacom cable will provide even more opportunity for cross border remote monitoring of facilities in the East African regions facilitated by the increased international bandwidth and lower costs which Seacom provides. Its not all roses however as there are factors which hamper the provision of reliable remote surveillance solutions, ranging from lack of reliable affordable bandwidth in certain regions to the lack of IT communication skills in the security industry. The correct CCTV equipment and data communications are the most critical factors for a successful remote monitoring solution, and any inadequacy in these areas can render a remote monitoring solution useless. For remote video alarm verification, CCTV equipment and detectors must be carefully selected according to their application. We are seeing an increased amount of remote alarm verification operators trying to imitate professional alarm verification equipment with the use of lower cost equipment not designed for that purpose. An example is those companies who offer a low cost alarm panel with a low cost DVR or IP camera, with no backend integration between the two and promote this as a professional solution. This tarnishes the image of remote alarm verification services as these systems lack standards, performance, reliability and accountability. Video analytics is another area that must be approached with caution when used for perimeter detection. While certain up-market solutions perform reasonably well in this environment, there has been an increase in lower cost inferior analytic solutions entering the market. The marketing in the media and demonstration of analytics systems are very similar, resulting in the customer perceiving that all systems provide a similar solution. This is not always the case and one must be extremely careful when selecting the analytics system for detection in critical environments. Analytics systems that fail to detect or cause Continued on page 12
Philip Smerkovitz, Jan de Beer, Ernest Mallett.
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aCCESS ConTRoL
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Vladimir Milovanovic, GM, Industrial Automation & Control.
Craig Donald, independent consultant.
Kevin Monk, MD, Nkunzi TechniSec.
Ernest Mallett, product manager, ADI Global Distribution.
Continued from page 10 false alarms compromise the solution they were originally intended to provide. Whilst a certain degree of false alarms can be tolerated for onsite control rooms, false alarms at the remote control room are very frustrating for operators and are an absolute cancer for remote monitoring centres as they lead to increased bandwidth and resource utilisation, increased emotional frustration and require human assessment. He adds that design of the solution and the selected product plays a crucial role in false alarm rates as well. Companies that simply go for cheaper goods that sound as if they have all the features needed often find the equipment savings lost in excessive costs in dealing with false alarms or no alarms at all.
On camera storage and intelligence

Mallett expects to see more cameras with intelligence and storage on board selling in the future. One of the reasons is the excitement over high-definition and H.264. Unfortunately,
while the high-definition image quality is as excellent as H.264 compression, the CPU requirements of H.264 and the bandwidth requirements for multiple high-definition cameras, even when compressed, hampers effective surveillance. Its just too much for the general surveillance environment. With much of the processing and storage happening on camera (32-gigabyte SD cards are now available, with 64 gigabytes due soon), infrastructure resources are freed up and control rooms only need to receive a video feed when the camera detects an anomaly. Pearman notes there are products available with hard drives attached to the camera that offer hundreds of gigabytes of storage, extending the concept even further. However, Milovanovic suggests that there will have to be some compromise in this area. Even with hours or days of video stored on camera, most installations will require some form of constant video feed to a control room. This could be at a lower, less bandwidth hungry resolution, or at a lower frame rate, but some form of streaming will need to happen, if only to reassure people that the cameras are working.
Intelligent solutions
The subject of intelligence has been mentioned before, but remains somewhat contentious. Alves says that vendors are producing cameras and systems with all sorts of supposed intelligence, but most installations dont use it. Whether this is a case of uneducated users or underperforming functionality is ammunition for another discussion. However, many installations that have been branded as failures have suddenly come alive when combined with intelligence. Donald refers in particular to a large supermarket retail operation that was very unhappy with its rollout of hundreds of cameras across stores countrywide. This disappointment vanished when the footage was combined with images of goods going across the counters. Suddenly the video footage was not only something to use reactively after robberies for example, but it produced startling results in identifying staff and accomplices who were helping themselves to goods at discount pricing. The business value was defined and the business was happy.
Chris Havinga, MD, IP Video Solutions, Philip Smerkovitz, MD, TeleEye (South Africa), Jan de Beer, senior executive, MultiVid.
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De Beer says MultiVid has had numerous successes in which combining the surveillance solution with external systems has delivered value the customer had not anticipated, while still doing the traditional job of surveillance. Pearman sums it up, if you dont sell proper solutions, if you dont understand the clients requirements, youre literally going to put something together like the bakkie brigade do and youll be left with a white elephant.
TeleEye does the same to protect its brand, according to Smerkovitz. At the end of the day, the unhappy client sees a CCTV manufacturers brand at his site and associates that with poor performance when an installer has used inferior or under specified IT hardware, or lacks the necessary IT skills to implement a reliable integrated solution.
Full systems ahead, with a caveat

As with the security industry in general, the surveillance market will see the continued evolution to a more IT focused industry that is driven by delivering business value. Fortunately, technology is improving continually and the solutions deliverable will be able to provide far more than traditional surveillance ever could. The issue of IT intruding on securitys turf, or security invading ITs space will continue with both sides grappling to define their own territory. Both have advantages to offer clients, but the IT industry has a head start on delivering value and focusing on business benefits. A positive in this regard will be the ability for security integrators with the right skills to offer an integrated service, expanding their own functional areas. These skills will also allow them to work more closely with IT departments instead of clashing with them.
Integrated storage
While integration is also an enormous topic in the security industry, the round-table found that many distributors are now bundling packages for their integrators that include the traditional CCTV equipment, plus storage and networking kit. Mallett says ADI is bundling network attached storage and networking switches with specific kit and integrators are appreciative because they know the systems work together and they wont have additional integration problems as often happens when buying from various suppliers. And it can work out cheaper. Milovanovic notes that IAC also promotes a specific brand of storage as it has been designed to work with Mobotix, again cutting out potential installation problems.
Jan de Beer, senior executive, MultiVid.
Unfortunately, the issue of training and certification, not to mention standards is one that will not be resolved quickly. There are still too many companies offering bakkie-brigade services to ignorant clients, of which there seems to be no end, making enough to keep themselves happy and therefore having no motivation to invest in themselves or their staff in terms of training. The ultimate losers will be the industry and the brand value of the security vendors and manufacturers.
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CCTV/SURVEILLanCE oPInIon
THE EffECTIvENESS Of CCTv SySTEMS

CTV systems are highly technical and evolving constantly with new developments in camera, recording, and display technology. However, despite all the technical innovation and state-of-theart systems, it is the human component of the operation that needs to be managed and staffed to produce outcomes. The best CCTV sites that I am familiar with give extensive attention to how they get their people. The failure to do this quickly results in a decline in the performance of a system that was functioning perfectly well a few months before. There are a range of other human factors that are important to look at in performance including the control room design, the culture of performance and detection, awareness of the production process, and training in detection. However, all of these ultimately come back to the person who sits in the seat and is responsible for detection. Companies that take the task of getting the right people seriously, focus on a number of stages within the selection process. These can be briefly seen as sourcing, verification, testing, interviewing, training and job probation. The objective of this comprehensive approach is to ensure that the company has people of high calibre and integrity in the positions. I remember one instance of a security manager noting unemployed people standing around looking for a job outside the offices of his security contractor in town as he drove past one day. After making a request for experienced top quality CCTV operators from the contractor, he found the same unemployed personnel he recognised from the week before in his control room.
Dr Craig Donald
such positions. Also, shift experience is a plus in that the person will be used to such work and knows what goes with such a lifestyle. While education is less important in observation, the capacity to write reports and communicate with others is essential. Rather being involved in responsible positions previously would be a relevant factor.
Verification
Verification involves establishing the credibility of the applicant to the operator position. This can be summarised in four main areas. The first is any potential criminal record or misdeed that the person may have committed. The second is the financial standing of the individual poor credit records may make the person more vulnerable to being approached and influenced by criminal elements. Third is the verification of CV details, work experience, and claimed education or training. Last is integrity checking and ensuring that the person is not being subjected to any syndicate or criminal pressure in applying for the position, and that they dont have any criminal intent themselves.
Thoughts on staffing and training your operator personnel appropriately.
Testing
Testing can take a number of forms. Traditional psychometric testing focuses on fairly abstract qualities that may relate to intelligence or spatial perception, but while they may help, these are not generally important for operators. There are some very intelligent people, some with major qualifications, who would simply not make good operators. Our focus has been on observation and visual analysis skills and we have focused on developing this area extensively internationally. In this competency type testing, factors such as attention, vigilance, ability to pick up details and changes in context, and quick effective decision making is important. These qualities seem to be some of the most critical factors in effective operator detection performance. Other testing can address personality factors. Research in the area shows that
Sourcing
Sourcing the right people from the beginning makes the subsequent selection process go more smoothly. The job advertisement is obviously a key factor in this respect. Some kind of technological exposure is essential for any personnel who may move into
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people who tend to be introverted and like working through systems or equipment, are emotionally composed and disciplined, practical and down to earth, relatively stress free, and dont take things for granted tend to make better operators. Finally, medical testing of eyesight, colour blindness, and hearing may be conducted by qualified medical personnel. This could be important in resolving potential issues relating to health claims at some future stage.
Interviewing
Interviews are one of the most popular techniques used in selection, but research also shows, one of the most ineffective. To increase the validity of the interview, it is a good idea to ask predetermined questions that address specific areas of concern that you want to find out more about so called structured interviews. Interviewing personnel for CCTV can lead to some misleading impressions so one needs to be careful with this approach. As indicated above, introverted personnel make some of the best operators, but often come across badly in the interviewing process. For me, there are some critical aspects that differentiate between highly effective and non-effective operators that can be addressed in the interview and should be looked at. The first aspect is, does the person have a passion for the kind of work something not found easily. The second is that the applicant must want to catch people or at least feel comfortable with this this is one of the most important success characteristics in good operators. People who see the detection process as a personal challenge and who want to catch criminals are going to be far more successful.
Training
Training is typically for skill development rather than selection and I generally dont recommend that selection decisions be made in this context. However, there are times when it provides a unique opportunity to view how people see things, what insights they have, and whether they can communicate their observations. As a screening technique it is expensive, but if it identifies that a person is not going to be suitable and stops a bad selection decision that may have major implications for the company, it may be worth it. Working on probation or on shortterm contracts is a way of realistically evaluating a person in the work situation over a period of time and allows one to be fully confident about the persons skills and fit. It also has some difficult legal implications though and needs to be carefully and legally thought through before embarking on such an approach. An extensive selection process may seem to be expensive. However, organisations that have done this have seen the results from their CCTV systems that stand out in the industry. Ultimately, however, getting the right person is also only the first part of the process. Without the right kind of training and management, even the best person is not going to deliver all they have potential for. Dr Craig Donald is a human factors specialist in security and CCTV. He is a director of Leaderware which provides instruments for the selection of CCTV operators, X-ray screeners and other security personnel in major operations around the world. He also runs CCTV Surveillance Skills and Body Language, and Advanced Surveillance Body Language courses for CCTV operators, supervisors and managers internationally, and consults on CCTV management. He can be contacted on +27 (0)11 787 7811 or craig.donald@leaderware.com
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CCTV/SURVEILLanCE oPInIon
THE jOuRNEy CONTINuES
Rob Anderson, MD, Rob Anderson & Associates
The surveillance industry can be tough and competitive, with a never-ending array of newer, better toys. a poetic Rob anderson puts it in perspective.
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you... If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same.... (Rudyard Kipling) The words from the poem IF, by Rudyard Kipling, possibly written during one of his many stays in Cape Town still rings true within the current CCTV environment. It was not too long ago that we debated how video tape storage would be replaced with something digital. And then what is the best compression format: embedded technology or PC based. Big decisions, often involving big money. And then the differing technologies matured and prices dropped. We had products with differences in the replay results, and a slowing down of the marketing drive. We had a clear upper end and lower end of the market and we forgot about tapes. Who would have expected that those IT chaps would enter the CCTV industry? They arrived with a whole pack of new terms that the traditional CCTV experts had not met before. Again, there was a massive rate of change as the IP age arrived. Every magazine and marketing story now refers to IP CCTV as if the analogue age has long gone. Clients are calling for CCTV (that must be IP). But speak to the manufacturers and you will find that the greatest part of the market is still analogue. Why? Well, mostly due to cost. The IP solution is still, in most cases, more expensive. And we all have to admit that the extra money is not providing anything extra that most clients will need. Unless of course the need to mention in passing, that we have just installed an IP CCTV system. So, once again a difficult environment with fast moving product changes, marketing strategy pushing for IP and a new bunch of people in the industry: the IT companies.
So how do we make the correct decision on a purchase? Who should do the installation, the traditional installer who understands CCTV or the IT man who understands networking? Or maybe you are lucky to have a hybrid service provider that understands the new picture. Well, the most important fact to understand is that the new IP CCTV age is still in its volatile development phase. Maturity in this market has not yet arrived. When it does, there will be a slowdown in change, lower prices and some understood and respected standards. There will also unfortunately be many people with expensive systems that could have been simpler and cheaper, while still achieving the same desired results. So rule one in the run up to maturity, dont make rash decisions on product and technology. Decide on the payback period and actual needs, and expect to have outdated technology soon after purchase. Sometimes, using the old technology at cheaper prices to see you through to the point that maturity arrives in the IP market is a more appropriate decision. We still have very good quality analogue systems, video over CAT5 technology and storage systems that provide solutions that solve most clients problems. They can still provide the best solution for rand spent. And never forget the age-old rule in CCTV good pictures start with good lenses. All the latest technology and IT expertise will never correct the results of a badly manufactured lens. Therefore, IF you can offer an honest solution to your client, when all around you are following the latest advert, and still keep your head, and your honour, youll be a Man my Son! (With apologies to Rudyard Kipling.) For more information contact Rob Anderson & Associates, +27 (0)31 267 4150, rob@robanderson.co.za. www.robanderson.co.za.
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CCTV/SURVEILLanCE TREndS
WHAT COMES AfTER THE NvR?

bernard Senekal, Md of SentronicsSd discusses a new way of servicing customers that cuts the cost without cutting the benefits.
ntil now, we have all been happy to sell surveillance solutions to clients, make our profit on the hardware and installation and then maintain some form of relationship and hopefully income through service levels and maintenance contracts in place. Most clients purchasing surveillance equipment will not reciprocate this joyful selling as it places immediate strain on cash flow and has ongoing intervention by the installation company on the client site. On the sellers end it makes for a harder sale and the cycle times to get approval for sales are much longer due to budget considerations. Yes, sales can be done using a finance house, but still you are placing down unnecessary equipment on a client site and increasing the monthly spend in doing so. So, can we really sell CCTV systems like a cell phone contract? Managed and hosted video security services present the opportunity to do just that. Selling video surveillance as a service (VSaaS) presents benefits, challenges and change which we will investigate in this article. No longer do we need to install expensive recording devices on the client site, but rather just plug the client into an offsite service provider that performs all the recordings for them. In its simplest form we are actually only removing the network/digital recording device off site and onto a remote server, hosted by a service provider that enables us to access the footage (recorded or live view). This footage can be accessed from just about any device, with Internet access from anywhere in the world, provided we have the permissions (allocated username and password) to do so. Imagine a type of YouTube.com, but dedicated to recording, storing and broadcasting security footage. The real question that needs to be answered is how this will affect traditional security installation companies, system integrators and other product and service providers in our industry. The initial target
market for this seems to be the domestic and SME markets, therefore the immediate opportunity (or concern perhaps?) are the security distributors and installers that play in this end of the market. Depending on the go to market strategy of the hosting companies that offer these services, the traditional installer might find himself having to reshape his business dramatically to either cater for installations only, or perhaps be in a position to resell the service and generate recurring income for the duration of the contract term. Even though the focus might be on these markets initially, I can also imagine a world where even missioncritical systems such as stadia, traffic management systems and multi-national private sector companies pay monthly fees, attached to service levels for the hosting and management of their surveillance footage rather than huge capital layouts and expensive monthly maintenance contracts and onsite support. In South Africa, we are starting to see less expensive and more guarantees on bandwidth uptimes in our homes and places of work. Add compression technology and a standard ADSL line could easily be utilised for selling CCTV as a service. The offer however, goes over and above CCTV and could include management and hosting of other disciplines such as access control. Having a look at the growth of this trend internationally, there are some start-ups that already provide an effective solution through Internet service provider platforms and security companies with control rooms alike. This technology might be very close to being overhyped and in the short term not have a direct impact on the industry as we know it today, but in the long run it will. So keep your ear to the ground and your eyes wide open as the case has been made and the trend cannot and should not be ignored. For more information contact SentronicsSD, +27 (0)21 957 4505, bernard@sentronics.co.za, www.sentronics.co.za
Figure 1. The evolution of surveillance video recording.
Figure 2. How it works.
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CCTV/SURVEILLanCE TREndS
fuTuRE-pROOfINg CCTv
to interference from various sources. Coax is also expensive to purchase (due to copper price fluctuations), difficult to install, expensive in cable containment (trays, conduits and trucking) and will need replacing if/when an upgrade to IP is considered.
Analogue on UTP
Analogue on UTP cable provides customers with the best of both worlds. What this means is that an end-user can enjoy IP connectivity (RJ45), plus all the advantages real-time analogue choices. This means users can enjoy a number of low light and cost-effective options from multiple vendor device choices as well as the ability to transmit various signals down one multi-pair cable, including LV power, data (telemetry) and contact (alarms, access control). Whats more, UTP provides a suitable future infrastructure for migration to IP. And thats not all, UTP also offers immunity to interference and substantial noise rejection circuitry that ensure the exclusion of picture distortion and poor recordings depending on the UTP transmission used.
The choice of transmission between cameras and dVR is often ignored, with performance consequences.
hen companies look at installing a CCTV-based security system, they often find themselves caught up in discussions around image resolution of the cameras or the capacity of the digital video recorders (DVRs). Few potential CCTV end-users are aware that the choice of transmission between cameras and DVRs is in some ways even more influential when it comes to making a purchasing decision around a state-of-the-art security solution. At the end of the day, data-transmission methods are very important. Zane Greeff, technical director of Elvey Security Technologies, a company that specialises in a number of video transmission solutions, explains that prospective end-users need to view the choice of transmission method as the technology that connects all surveillance devices together. As such it is important to note that a substantial amount of material and labour costs may be attributed to the laying of cables; and that, depending on the applications, the choice of transmission will determine how far each device can be positioned without compromising image quality, he says. So what is the way forward? In todays market, there are five transmission technologies available coax, UTP analogue, IP (Internet Protocol), wireless and fibre. While each has its advantages and disadvantages, it is worth examining each of these technologies in more detail to ensure we can maintain a balanced perspective for the buyer.
IP
IP-based camera systems are here to stay. On paper, the technology has a number of inherent advantages over some competing technologies. However, IP systems are restricted to the 90 m to 100 m rule and can be subject to latency issues (bandwidth restrictions) in which vital information may be lost in missed frames. With a premium UTP system, all these obstacles can be overcome. Moreover, a combination of analogue and IP over UTP can be an option often overlooked. It doesnt have to be one or the other. Unfortunately, there are other disadvantages of IP cameras that outweigh the benefits. The jury is still out as far as IPs reliability for use as a high security option with possible bandwidth issues, confidence with integrators installing and maintaining an IP network, total cost of ownership, restrictions in quality (external, low light, switchable) etc. Above all, IP-networks are not that secure and may be accessed by outside elements.
Wireless
This transmission technology may be used where free space transmission is a problem. From the wireless receiver point, you still have an option to transmit up to 1,6 km in full colour transmission on an activeto-active UTP transmission system (although not all UTP devices can manage this range). Monochrome
Coax
A dated transmission platform that deteriorates over a relatively short period of time. Moreover, it is subject
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picture can be transmitted much further as there is no heavy colour burst issues.
Fibre
For companies looking to transmit CCTV data over very long distances, often the economical and practical choice can be resolved by a fibre backbone. However, rather than come off in fibre and terminate into the camera (often the most expensive part of the fibre installation), many customers choose to use UTP. One could only achieve distances of up to 1,6 km from the fibre backbone point. Overall, UTP appears to offer customers the most in terms of value add, says Steve Proctor, sales director of NVT. Twisted pair cabling is always used in data and telecommunications networks for short and medium length connections because of its relatively lower costs compared to optical fibre and coaxial cable. Simple, easier to install and hugely flexible, UTP cables look set to have a major impact on the local CCTV industry. If this is the case, why has the
technology taken so long to arrive on our shores? Kenny Chiu, marketing manager of Elvey, says that UTP has been around for a long time. Traditionally its seen as an analogue-friendly data transport medium and with the ever growing popularity of the Internet; it only seems natural that all systems migrate to a digital-friendly technology. However, analogue is a proven technology and transmitting data over UTP can also provide benefits most end-users would consider when purchasing an IP/fibre system but for a much lesser cost. Compared to an IP-based system UTP is also inherently secure, a feature that is of paramount importance for any company seeking to install a CCTV system for security purposes. Another key benefit of UTP is that it costs less per metre than any other type of LAN cable. In the real world, this translates to companies spending less on cabling and more on actual end-user security devices. End users of UTP cabling-enabled systems will always receive quality video signals whether the camera is 10 m away or 1 km
away, he explains. Both devices will have perfect picture continuity and performance, as well as immunity to interference and substantial noise rejection as the circuitry features exclude picture distortion and poor recording possibilities, Chiu says. UTP also opens up possibilities in terms of extension. Spare pairs are easy to accommodate at little or no extra costs much like telephone extensions the spare pairs are already there. In all active units there is also built-in ground lifting (ground loop isolation) features which normally have to be purchased separately. Its easy to see that UTP affords the end-user a wide range of benefits. It is convenient, simple to use, and offers highquality video transmission. This ensures that customers now have the option of choosing a viable, competitive and futureproof solution that can be easily extended, or finally migrated into a full IP solution, he concludes. For more information contact Elvey Security Technologies, +27 (0)11 401 6700, kenny. chiu@elvey.co.za, www.elvey.co.za
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CCTV/SURVEILLanCE anaLyTICS
WHy INTELLIgENT STORAgE IN CAMERAS WILL TRANSfORM
Ip vIDEO SuRvEILLANCE
By Doug Marman, CTO and co-founder, VideoIQ, Inc.
Many of the growing issues with IP video systems today, such as bandwidth, storage and maintenance costs, are the direct result of this centralised storage architecture.
he security industry has adopted a centralised storage approach for IP video surveillance systems. Manufacturers followed traditional data centre designs, assuming that it was best to use the standard architecture for information technology (IT). Heres the problem: data centres and most IT systems are designed for many users accessing data servers in one location. This is called a one-to-many model, since each data centre serves large numbers of users. Most experts assumed that this would also be the best model for security video as well, but this is wrong. Sensor networks have exactly the opposite requirements. Video surveillance systems include dozens or hundreds, and sometimes thousands of cameras, all spread out across the network, with only a few users. Cameras supplying the data far outnumber the users, and there is no way to centrally locate those cameras. They need to be out at the edge of the network. This many-to-one architecture generates very different demands on the system. For example, typical enterprise servers spend about 50% of their
time reading data stored on their hard drives, with the other 50% spent writing new data.1 Surveillance systems, however, require non-stop writing of data to record the video, 99% of the time, but only about 1% to play it back.2 Second, data centres usually need a small number of storage units to support 20 or more different enterprise functions. So, the same storage servers can be used for a wide range of applications. But surveillance by itself requires extremely large amounts of storage. The consequence is the video requirements can put a speed bump in IT plans to reduce costs through consolidating storage, according to Steven Titch, editor of Network Centric Security. Plus, in video, according to Lee Caswell of Pivot3, each time storage capacity increases, there needs to be a commensurate increase in bandwidth. That breaks the mould.3 The increasing reliance on cameras for security presents storage costs that can easily spiral out of control, according to Titch. This is why server manufacturers have been scrambling to develop better solutions for video surveillance.
Network strain
The problem with bandwidth is even more severe, since almost any large deployment of cameras will strain available WANs and wireless networks. In addition, remotely accessing video via the Internet is an increasing need. This often forces video storage closer to the edge of the network, into smaller servers placed at local sites. However, even on local area networks, where adding equipment to expand bandwidth is simple, IT managers are still concerned about the demands made by continuously streaming video cameras. They often insist on separate networks for video, to isolate the cameras and protect their enterprise information systems. Security managers are generally just as concerned, because they cannot afford to lose video recording if the data network goes down, for maintenance or any other reason. For these two reasons, added networking costs are often required. Continued on page 24
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Continued from page 22 Hard drive failures are by far the number one cause of equipment failure with security video. If you centralise video storage, then a single point of failure puts at risk the data recorded from 16, 32 or more cameras. For this reason, IT managers require RAID storage and sophisticated management systems that can automatically redirect video streams during storage node failures. However, traditional RAID 5 storage approaches are often inadequate. This issue is unique to video recording and seldom surfaces in RAID system used by other applications, according to Carl Lindgren of Sycuan Gaming Commission, The key is that for most applications, written data is verified during the write process. But the continuous non-stop nature of video doesnt allow time to verify. A drive could happily chug along writing data that is unreadable for a long time. Neither the system nor the operators would ever know that there is a problem, says Lindgren. If an error occurs on more than one disk, a RAID 5 system cannot recover the lost video. This problem is forcing the move to more expensive RAID architectures.4 On top of all these issues are the skyrocketing costs for installing new data centres and maintaining them, along with the double digit growth in the numbers of servers needed in each data centre, and rapid growth in the total number of data centres.5 While servers once consumed about 50 W, before the year 2000, they now draw about 250 W each. In addition, according to Intel, you now need another 170 W to cool each server today.6
The solution
Adding intelligence and storing video in the cameras resolves most of these issues: 1. It solves the bandwidth problem. 2. It reduces storage costs. 3. It makes video recording immune to network down times. 4. The whole system becomes simpler and more scalable. 5. Maintenance costs and data centre costs are reduced. The bandwidth problem Traditional IP cameras stream massive amounts of data across the network for recording at a central location. However, as mentioned above, only 1% of that recorded video is ever played back. This means you are taxing your networks 100X more than is
necessary. You are streaming all that video across your network for the 1% that you actually need. This is the waste created by trying to force video systems into a data centric model. Bandwidth may be getting cheaper on LANs, but the problem with video across networks is getting worse. Why? More and more network cameras are being added, with a growing demand for higher resolution and faster frame rates, and the increasing need to access the video across WANs, the Internet and wireless networks. The rising importance of cameras for security and business management makes this a growing concern. Standard resolution cameras using the latest H.264 compression need about 500 Kbps if you want full motion video, or 150 Kbps at lower frame rates. MPEG-4 and MJPEG compression needs even more. So, how many cameras can you stream at the same time? Two, if you are lucky. However, when you store video right in the camera, no bandwidth is needed for recording. When video is recorded in the camera, you dont need to stream the video; you can send it as a clip. This makes a big difference. To stream video, you need the full bandwidth required to play that video in real-time. When you send a clip, however, you can transmit the video at much lower data rates it simply takes a little longer for the file to get through, like sending an e-mail attachment from a cellphone. Reducing storage costs If only 1% of recorded video is needed,
wouldnt it be nice to know what that 1% is when it is happening? Adding intelligence into the camera gets us closer to this ultimate ideal. Video analytics adds the ability to automatically recognise what is happening in the scene and whether it is important or not. Installers can define what should be recorded through easily configurable rules, customised to the end-users needs. Unfortunately, the problem isnt quite that simple, because sometimes it is what doesnt happen that is just as important. For example, a shopper sues a store claiming that they slipped on spilled liquid, or their car was damaged in a parking lot by a company vehicle, or a manager mistreated another employee. Sometimes it is important to show that such things never happened, and for this reason it is important to continuously record the video. However, what we can do, as a result of having intelligence in the camera, is record at higher resolution and higher frame rate whenever something important might be happening, and we can retain that important video longer. This improves the value of the stored video, without incurring the cost of recording at high quality all the time. Immunity to network downtime With traditional IP cameras, if you lose network communications, your system stops recording video. Network up-time is high these days, due to rigorous IT management practices and making sure that equipment meets IT standards. However, networks do still go down. Sometimes they need to be Continued on page 26
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Continued from page 24 taken off-line on purpose, during system upgrades or maintenance. But systems can also fail during critical emergencies, such as fire or intentional attacks, when surveillance video is most important. If network communications fail, your recording fails, but if your storage server breaks down, you can lose video to dozens of cameras at a time. By recording video in the camera, you solve the first problem, and you significantly reduce the impact of the second issue, since a single hard drive failure can affect one camera at most, not dozens. This increases system and data reliability. Simpler and more scalable Traditional IP video systems require all of the following systems to work together, often from different suppliers: Network cameras. NVR software to manage the video recording. Storage servers. Video analytics servers. Added networking equipment to increase bandwidth and isolate video from the data network. Once storage and intelligence is built into the camera, you eliminate the need for external DVRs or NVRs. You no longer have to add equipment to increase the bandwidth or to isolate surveillance video from the data systems. On top of that, you can now add 20X as many cameras onto a wireless network, or other limited bandwidth networks. Reduced maintenance and data centre costs Data centres typically represent 25% of the whole IT budget, and these costs are growing as much as 20% per year far faster than IT budgets are growing.7 These expenses are hardly ever calculated into the cost of IP video surveillance systems; generally just the cost of the server itself is included. However, current estimates show that for every $1000 you spend on servers, you need to spend an ongoing $1000 per year to cover site cap-ex expenses, maintenance, electrical power for both the server and cooling equipment, and replacement
costs with three-year life expectancies for servers.8 Therefore, eliminating the need for valuable data centre space, and doing away with the need for adding servers that require maintenance and power to run and cool them, means that the value of distributed storage in cameras represents a major step forward. As said above, the reason for this is: video surveillance systems are inherently sensor networks, not data processing systems. But what about the increased cost of managing hard drives now at the edge of the network? This is an important question. If hard drives fail in cameras every 35 years, as they do in servers, then this means replacing 616 times as many hard drives, if you have one in every camera. These HDDs will also be more expensive to service, because cameras are not centrally located. They are often mounted high on walls and poles, and other areas difficult to get at. If hard drives run continuously in cameras, as they do in standard storage servers or DVRs, this would create a significant added problem. Fortunately, there is an elegant solution. The life expectancy of a hard drive is based on its power-on hours. In other words, if you power on the hard drive one third of the time, then your hard drive will last about three times longer. That is good news, because there is a simple way to keep hard drives from being powered on continuously, as storage servers require. Since we only need to record video from one camera, we can use solid-state memory to act as a buffer. In VideoIQs iCVR, we include 1 GB of solid-state memory. This is enough to store about 4-5 hours of video. Therefore, we only need to wake up the hard drive every 4-5 hours, and after that, we can put it back to sleep again. This means the hard drive is asleep over 90% (typically 96%) of the time. This not only significantly increases the life expectancy, but also reduces power consumption as well. Therefore, the life of a typical hard drive has been extended to last longer than the 10-year lifespan of a typical camera. This not only resolves the problem of having hard drives at the edge of the network, it also solves the biggest maintenance expense with traditional IP video systems: The failure of hard drives.
more network friendly and fault tolerant. The biggest benefits of intelligence, however, lie in the ability to transform surveillance into proactive protection. This is far more valuable than simply recording video for playback after an incident, because proactive alerts allow you to stop crime before it happens. For all of these reasons, an architecture of intelligent cameras with built-in storage will eventually transform IP video surveillance. However, as with any new design, questions always come up: What new problems does this architecture create? The most common concern raised is over the danger of cameras being damaged or stolen. You could lose valuable stored data, since it is more vulnerable at the edge of the network. Most video integrators admit that attacks on cameras are rare, and it is more likely to see DVRs damaged or stolen still this is a valid concern that needs to be addressed. We want the data protected. Fortunately, video analytics in the camera provides the solution. Since the camera is smart enough to know what is an important event, it can send an alarm message along with a video clip to a remote monitoring station. Even if the station is not manned, the video clip is redundantly stored remotely from the site.
The future
The benefits of intelligent cameras with built-in DVRs are compelling today. As many users have pointed out, all of these advantages become even more significant in the years ahead. This is why so many now recognise that it represents the IP video system of the future. Lets look at some of these important trends. Solid-state memory is getting cheaper and smaller While todays cameras with flash memory can only store hours or a few days of video, it is clear that in a few years, advances in solid state memory will make it cost effective to have a complete DVR in the camera. Today it is too expensive, but over the next two to three years that is going to change. The growth of megapixel video If there are problems with bandwidth and storage with standard resolution cameras, think of how much more of an issue this is with megapixel cameras. Even the lowest resolution HD camera the 1 MP camera is about 4X the resolution of a standard camera, while a 5 MP camera is 20X the resolution. That means that if you wanted to record at the same frame rate and the same quality, it would take 20X as much bandwidth and storage space.
The benefits of intelligence

As we can see above, intelligent storage in the camera solves the most significant problems challenging network video systems, and it significantly reduces equipment, installation and maintenance costs. It is also more scalable and simpler to use, and much
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Security as a service Web services for video surveillance have become a hot topic these days. Huge projections in the growth of cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS), as a way of outsourcing data processing, has created a rush to develop video security applications to ride this wave. One leading IP camera company has been promoting this concept and projected that hosted video might account for as much as 25% of all video applications in 5 years. Once again, the assumption being made is that networked video should follow the data centre model. As shown above, this mistake adds unnecessary expenses and added complexity. This is even a bigger problem for hosted video applications. It is quite easy to show that storage in the camera is less expensive than storage in a server farm, because you dont need the added cost of trying to manage hundreds or thousands of streams of video. This recording overhead is many times the cost of the hard drives. However, the biggest downfall of the hosted video approach is the cost of bandwidth.
Conclusion
Adding intelligence and full DVR storage capabilities into cameras significantly reduces bandwidth and storage requirements, along with data centre costs. It also reduces the complexity of the installation, makes the system far more scalable, and decreases maintenance issues due to hard drive failures. System reliability and uptime are also improved. Future trends and technology make this architecture even more compelling. All of these advantages are gained because traditional networked video systems follow a data centre model, while sensor networks run far more efficiently with distributed memory and intelligence. This is why intelligent cameras with storage will transform IP video surveillance. This article has been shortened, the full version can be found at http://www. videoiq.com/uploads/whitepapers/VideoIQ_ StorageWP_8_10.pdf For more information contact VideoIQ Africa, +27 (0)82 789 2010, andrew@videoiq.co.za, www.videoiq.co.za
References
1 http://netcentricsecurity.com/ Articles/2009/04/01/Building-Better-StorageSolutions.aspx 2 http://ipvideomarket.info/report/advantages_ of_raid6_over_raid5_for_video_surveillance 3 http://netcentricsecurity.com/ Articles/2009/04/01/Building-Better-StorageSolutions.aspx 4 http://ipvideomarket.info/report/advantages_ of_raid6_over_raid5_for_video_surveillance 5 Data centres: How to cut carbon emissions and costs, from McKinsey on Business Technology, 2008. 6 Green-memory movement takes root, by Mark LaPedus, May 18, 2009 issue of EE Times. 7 Data centres: How to cut carbon emissions and costs, from McKinsey on Business Technology, 2008. 8 The Invisible Crisis in the Data Center: The Economic Meltdown of Moores Law, by Kenneth G. Brill, Uptime Institute, 2007.
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CCTV/SURVEILLANCE opINIoN
City surveillanCe, a praCtiCal approaCh

Niall Beazley, Vision Catcher
Figure 1. PTZ camera plate 80 m only.
Human research has shown that the maximum time an operator can realistically concentrate on a monitor or screen is twenty minutes.
hey have been trained to pick up on situations that might develop and have the ultimate decision as to an event taking place. The success or failure of the control room operation depends heavily on the operators ability to see or miss key events and take relevant actions. The balance between human operation against newer technologies is now surely a question that needs to be addressed.
Current situation
There are Urban surveillance projects in most of South Africas major cities. These extend from a few cameras to many hundreds of cameras requiring the employment of a number of operators and managers to ensure successful operation. This is mainly because, in most of our control rooms pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) cameras have been deployed to enable an operator to pick up an overview of an event, zoom in to identify the event and then move out to gain an overall scenario so that when evaluation of the event takes place the assessor can clearly understand what has gone on. In some control rooms there can be more than 100 PTZ cameras; however only one camera can be operated by one operator at one time. Even if there are six operators and perhaps two managers, only eight out of the one hundred plus PTZ cameras are in practical use at any one time. The rest of the PTZ cameras are on preset tours covering the most likely points of interest and these are recorded onto a digital or network video recorder (NVR) and can be accessed and assessed later. Is this a relevant statement and do we really capture the key events of a situation? We show off our successes, however how often do we miss the critical event? Case 1. In 2008 there was an incident where a woman was raped at an
intersection. The information was captured on the PTZ camera and noted by the operators and manager. They believed that it was a regular meeting between two lovers and merely recorded the event, not bothering to check the registration number of the vehicle or zoom into to see if there was any attempt from either party to show distress or panic. The incident was highlighted when the woman filed a complaint with the police and the resultant footage was unable to provide any additional evidence to the case. Case 2. A major shopping mall car park employs ten pan tilt and zoom dome cameras to secure the open parking area. There are two operators during peak hours to manage the ten PTZ cameras; yet as many as four vehicles can be stolen each weekend from the car park without any footage being captured on camera. The mall has resorted to employing more security guards to increase the physical presence and chosen to deactivate the car park ticketing and access control to ensure that each and every vehicle is personally checked by a security guard before his colleague manually opens the gate to allow exit.
Key points
PTZ dome cameras have a maximum effective range of 7090 metres (Figure 1) depending on the lens. If a dome is working in one area, all other areas are not recorded. What you see is what you get. A dome camera has one operator; if the operator misses something, no one else can see it. When there are multiple cameras on preset tours your recorded footage becomes your main evidence. With terabytes of storage created by weeks or months of events, how good is the recorded material for investigative or prosecution purposes. Continued on page 30
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CCTV/SURVEILLANCE opINIoN
Figure 2a. Avigilon HD camera 300600 m.
Figure 2b. 23 plates in view. We can identify every plate, colour and make of vehicle, even the red, Hyundai at 500 m.
Continued from page 28 Expensive cameras are often parked to watch their manhole covers for cable theft than being used in their primary role.
The solution
The advent of high definition cameras with their wide angle and longer focal ranges now offers city and urban surveillance a far more powerful tool for covering large areas in high resolution. With the innovative use of megapixel IP surveillance cameras we can cover a range of scenarios that replace multiple cameras or a single PTZ camera and provide constant 24/7 live or recorded views of a targeted field of view. We quantify this as Pixels on Target, a simple concept pioneered by Avigilon and other vendors in the high definition and megapixel surveillance space, ensuring a reliable system design by providing a verifiable metric on image detail. For example using a 5 megapixel (MP)
high definition camera with a 5 mm lens enables us to cover a 60 degree field of view providing 20 m of coverage across a street at 15 m range with an effective 130 pixels on target; sufficient for facial or licence plate identification. At a street intersection this would comfortably provide five or six lanes of intersection overview with the ability to zoom in through software multiple times by each and every operator to view live or recorded footage with the highest of detail. If we view a motorway scene (Figure 2) we could cover similar lanes at a set distance that would provide identification of every vehicle and its licence plate; plus those vehicles without licence plates that could be pulled over and prosecuted further down the road. Consider that our 5 MP HD camera replaces up to 12 analogue cameras and the 16 MP HD Professional camera can replace up to 52 analogue cameras. We can comfortably state that with the labour, installation, cabling and subsequent monitoring that we can provide a sizeable saving
on most new installations. Even using our high definition JPEG2000 encoders will provide significant savings on legacy system upgrades and an improved picture quality with our full software interface. The key to the use of megapixel high definition cameras is the ability to stream the video at an image quality sufficient for pixels on target identification. Avigilon has used the JPEG2000 compression algorithm that provides a selectable visually lossless video stream. Through the use of the JPEG2000 compression technology we can choose what images we wish to view and thus change the bandwidth implications of streaming full video back to a central location thus answering the critics who regularly cite bandwidth as a limitation to using megapixel cameras. In reality, just as we can calculate the pixels on target equation to provide a correct field of view for the quality of image required, so we can adjust compression, quality of display and speed of frame rate to enable a measured stream to the control room. Avigilon has taken into account the legacy analogue systems currently installed and therefore provides a four channel encoder, well priced, to be able to stream multiple cameras into the Avigilon Control Centre (ACC). The ACC does provide the ability to control PTZ cameras with the use of a USB joystick or within the image displayed with on screen direction. Add to this the ability to accommodate current IP products such as Axis, Arecont Vision, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung and Sightlogix, with Mobotix, Sanyo and ONVIF Cameras being added shortly provides a platform that is truly remarkable. For more information contact Vision Catcher, +27 (0)11 463 9797, info@visioncatcher.co.za, www.visioncatcher.co.za
Figure 3. 3 MP Avigilon camera.
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CCTV/SURVEILLANCE ANALyTICS
video analytiCs not an industry bad boy
Russel Harris, Norbain
Video analytics is not a silver bullet, but it is also not a white elephant.
oday, businesses use CCTV-based systems as a vital part of their missioncritical security setup. Increasingly, security managers are moving to adopt video analytics (VA) enabled systems with the belief that all their security problems will be solved at the drop of a hat as soon as these systems become operational. While it is true to say that VA systems can add a lot of business value in terms of operational efficiency and cost savings, it must be said that such systems do not operate in a vacuum. To maximise ROI in these costly applications, companies must consider the real-world uses of the technology within the context of their security needs before making this transition. Slapping a video analytics application into a CCTV solution, then selling that same device as an 'intelligent security solution' that leverages the latest and greatest in cutting-edge technology yours for only a few rand more is surely doing a disservice to customers seeking a truly intelligent solution that will get the job done. On paper the concept seems a sound one: migrate an organisation's CCTV operations to an intelligent solution that does away with the costly human factor; resulting in a speedy ROI. Indeed, what could be better? It looks like a win-win situation for all, however, to secure maximum value-add from their VA setup, companies need to know the system cannot operate in isolation. Without the right end-user training and a well-planned infrastructure and backup system, video analytics can fail the end-user in three main areas:
1. Alert generation 2. Maintenance 3. Costs.
Eliminating false alerts

The primary issue for security solution integrators and organisations looking to upgrade their CCTV systems is the elimination of false alerts. Many VA-enabled CCTV systems are sold on the basis of the idea that they will do away with the faulty burglar alarm scenario as well as eliminating the human error factor. After all, every time an alert is generated, it requires human input to evaluate the event. If the alert is false, the human factor is increased leading to heightened emotional and organisational frustration with the system. And let us not forget about the extra costs associated with the above scenario. The truth is the average false burglar alarm reports are very rare, while the opposite can be said for the false alarms generated by video analytic solutions. Statistics reveal that low-cost intelligent solutions are not that intelligent after all. An entry level system can generate dozens of false alarms every week which can be the result of a wide range of factors: from the change in the position of the rising sun, to a change in the weather and even a seasonal change. This can suddenly and surprisingly cause serious problems with the system. Not only does that place a huge operational burden on the company; it also creates a security nightmare pushing up armed response fees and insurance rates.
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Maintenance
Let the buyer beware system maintenance is an often overlooked and somewhat hidden issue in video analytics. To understand this we need to look back at the first point. Over a relatively short period, a cheap video analytic solution can generate a growing number of false alerts. Not only are these false alerts a problem in itself it also creates an air of distrust around the solution. How can any company believe its overall security plan to be a sound one if the system is constantly cranking out errors? The solution? Give in and negotiate a service level agreement that meets your day-to-day needs or reinstate the old system and relegate the intelligent video-analytic enabled system to the storeroom? Either way, companies who take the decision to purchase an inexpensive, VA-enabled system will find it costly in a very short period. This being said, not all video analytic systems are made equal. Many of the more costly systems are more reliable the onus is on the purchaser to thoroughly research the solutions on offer and not to give in to pushy salespeople punting an intelligent system for bargain basement prices.
Costly to purchase and operate

While you can find inexpensive video analytic systems on todays market, these solutions tend to suffer from the problems mentioned in the previous two points, a disproportionately high rate of false alert generation and costly system maintenance leading to significantly high operational problems. The cost of video analytic systems stems from the vendor ensuring their technology can handle real-world scenarios with ease, which is what entry-level systems fail to do. And this is where the real intelligence (and concomitant costs) come into play. Simply put, a VA-enabled systems intelligence needs to be capable of addressing the factors mentioned in the first issue we addressed, from handling differences in lighting, depth, position of the sun, weather, etc, to generating alerts that are genuine. In addition to the software development cost, the implementation of any system requires an additional IT-cost with its own maintenance fees. In real-world terms this means a customer has to purchase the necessary hardware and software to run a high-end VA-enabled security system. All this new technology invariably requires upgrades to a company network to handle the secure transmission of data, and a highly scalable server solution to store the resulting data. And then there is the issue of backup; onsite maintenance, service level agreements and so forth. All of these clearly increase costs, but these are necessary if anyone wishes to purchase a VA-enabled system that is intelligent, and reliable enough to operate in todays security conscious world. At the end of the day its obvious that for video analytic systems to really live up to their hype they need to be capable of both getting the job done as well as generating a real ROI. Companies that are trying to cut costs by slashing the size of their on-site security team are mistaken if they believe the elimination of the human factor will enhance their security. While in some cases the adoption of a costly system can be justified if it leads to a reduction in frequent high value losses, for example the truth is its safe to say that these systems only truly add value when the intelligence of a trained security professional is factored into the equation. For more information contact Norbain , +27 (0)11 887 1546, michellek@norbain.co.za, www.norbain.co.za.
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Monitoring behaviour with video analytiCs

Leigh Yorke-Smith
Video Analytics will enable market research companies to better understand consumer trends.
hanks to the collective intelligence of three South African entrepreneurs, CCTV video surveillance boundaries have now been extended to perform functions beyond that of monitoring suspicious or criminal activity. Now CCTV technology is on the cusp of a new performance era, in which it will be used to perform the function of market research analysis. The same video technology that monitors and records suspicious or criminal activity can now be integrated with a market research programme. All the technology requires is a different algorithm. This market research programme will be able to perform market research on a companys daily business activity in order to ascertain consumers antics, movements and sales mindsets, enthuses Kevin Pearman, CCTV specialist and one of the partners in the concept. This is something that is new to the market, says Pearman. It has never been explored before, yet the concept has been staring us in the face every day. Our solution is literally about expanding the dimension of the traditional use of video analytics to that of a business tool. Pearman says proof of concept has already been approved and it is now literally a case of rolling the solution out nationally and globally. The technology behind this research is Video IQ, a product Pearman distributed while working for Bytes Technology Group. Andrew Page Wood, the person responsible for bringing Video IQ to South Africa, believed that he and Kevin could explore a wider range of business solutions using this technology. The two, together with Craig Henderson of Complete Security, worked on the concept and within a short space of time produced a proposal which they presented to a market research company late last year. The research company was over the moon about our solution and immediately bought the rights to it, boasts Pearman.
placed in specific areas or environments, we can track and trace consumer behaviour, and ultimately determine consumer trends. Dwell Time Event driven video analytics will allow the camera to start recording if a consumer dwells in a certain zone for a long period. Its all based on dwell time, explains Pearman. The camera will only start recording when you are in that zone for a certain length of time; it wont record useless footage. By expanding the profile of the cameras, consumer researchers can analyse and push out dashboard reports on consumer behaviour says Pearman. Businesses can better understand market behaviour in stores, what drives a person to a specific spot in the store, who is busy in the store at specific times of the day, age group trends, what is the consumer buying, the time they spent in a specific area of the shop etc. What currently takes an hour to analyse three minutes of video footage on consumer behavioural patterns, has been reduced by 50%.
our solution is about expanding the dimension of the traditional use of video analytics as a protective tool, to one that encompasses a business function. Kevin pearman
Where to now? This solution may be a first, yet in hindsight it has in actual fact been staring us all in the face, just under a different guise, comments Pearman. And the beauty of this system is that companies can integrate its function for both security and marketing purposes. A system that can expand its functions by allowing for different algorithms to be embodied within the system is a technology of the future. Watch and wait, concludes Pearman. Whatever happens, the market must first understand that this product, like so many others in the industry, is relationship driven; without the chain of supplier, installer and end user being firmly intact, the solution cannot work effectively. The supplier may have an outstanding product, but it is the systems integrator who is the one who has to get it up and running. It is all about people, process and technology. If you do not have the right people, the technology will not work.
Changing the face of consumer research

Track and trace Monitoring consumer behaviour is something that is definitely going to evolve in the future. Video technology essentially amounts to the track and trace theory, explains Pearman. The same old adage that has been applied to security CCTV surveillance can also be applied to consumer tracking. By using the Video IQ methodology in which camera systems are
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assisting operators
By Katharina Geutebrck, Geutebrck GmbH
Watching cameras continuously is just not an effective use of manpower.
ideo systems generate a vast volume of picture data, but it is not economically sensible for people to review and evaluate all of it. Usually on sites where many video cameras are used, they have to be monitored by just a few operators. Watching all cameras continuously is just not an effective use of manpower because nobody can give their full attention to lots of images at once and operators inevitably tire quickly. Soon, lapses in concentration mean important details are overlooked and the whole security concept is significantly undermined. Though there may be a semblance of security, the reality is different. To rectify this, relevant information needs to be filtered out of the mass. And thankfully, analysis algorithms are able to continuously examine as much picture content as you like and to automatically draw the operators attention to critical situations. Algorithms and processors dont get tired and they work automatically in the background 24 hours a day, 7 days a week just like a perfect assistant. Clearly, any system must not generate many alarms without good reason, or operators will cease to treat them as critical situations and will just cancel the alarms without checking them out properly. Then the result is just the same as without video analysis the operators lose concentration, real alarm situations are easily overlooked and the system is only actually providing a superficial impression of security.
where it is likely that people may not approach the site in an upright position (precisely because they dont want to be discovered), then this type of algorithm is completely unsuitable and a security risk. Nowadays there is a large choice of algorithms which can undertake a wide variety of tasks. To provide really reliable assistance, the chosen algorithm needs to be suited to its particular task and must be set up perfectly. The more complex its computing process, and the faster its response time, then the greater the computing capacity it will require.
Centralised or decentralised
Many camera manufacturers already offer algorithms built into their cameras. These support decentralised video analysis conducted out at the edge of the video system rather than in the main server. This arrangement has the great advantage that it is uncompressed image data which is analysed the perfect raw material for reliable analysis. This analysis at the edge also saves bandwidth and reduces demands on computing capacity in the central computer. When IP cameras are used and their images analysed centrally, then all the data is compressed first before being fed into the network and sent to the server which decompresses and analyses it. Unfortunately, this can result in analysis performance being impaired by compression artefacts. And it also inevitably means that the network is loaded with picture data which doesnt contain any important information and whose decompression makes additional demands on central server computing power. But centralised analysis also has its advantages. It offers more flexibility in relation to the algorithms employed often essential for specialist tasks; and it demands less computing power in the cameras which may mean cheaper cameras can be used.
Defining the task

So if video analysis is to be used efficiently and reliably, it is vital to have a clear definition of a so-called critical situation and a perfectly matched algorithm. In the video system market in recent years, many marketing campaigns have featured sweeping statements about the capabilities of so-called intelligent video analysis. As a result, many users expect analysis algorithms to have human intelligence. They expect that if they themselves can see that its a person crawling there and not a dog on all fours, then surely so must an algorithm which is supposed to be able to differentiate between humans and animals. If only it were that easy! In fact, most algorithms use relatively basic criteria to differentiate, for example, vehicles and people from other moving objects and from each other. But in order to make this logical deduction, the algorithm also has to have been told how big a person would be in the image when he is in the foreground and how big he would be in the background. This is done during set up when a service engineer measures the scene to determine how wide the foreground and background are. An operator who observes the scene does not need details like this to be defined explicitly. He knows simply from the context. Classification algorithms like this, are perfectly adequate for some applications. However, in situations
Both?
Often the best solution is a combination of different architecture types. You might want to use pre-analysis in the camera first to look for movement, then send selected footage to the central evaluation computer which then examines these pictures using a specialised or more complex algorithm. This second process filters out irrelevant motion and reports relevant situations reliably. Assuming that there isnt constant movement in all of the camera scenes, then several cameras can share the network bandwidth and the computing capacity of the central server. Video analysis is a sensible addition to modern video security systems particularly where it relieves the operator by providing efficient assistance. For more information contact Geutebrck GmbH, +49 2645 137 0, carmen.lahr@geutebrueck.com, www.geutebrueck.com
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CCTV/SURVEILLANCE oUTdooR SURVEILLANCE
stepping out
By Phil Doyle, MD of Axis Communications UK & Ireland.
U
Factors to consider when specifying secure and resilient outdoor surveillance.
nlike indoor locations, where most variables can be held within narrow and predictable ranges, outdoor locations strain video surveillance equipment to its absolute limits. In those tough operating locations constantly exposed to wind, rain and wide variations in temperature, or those where tampering and vandalism are ever-present risks, the need for cost-effective video surveillance that meets the customers needs regardless of outdoor conditions is imperative. Outdoor security is essential for many businesses, with the outdoor perimeter of a site often representing an important security gateway. Outdoor security systems provide the first view of visitors, intruders or other members of the public, providing the most time to react effectively, if needed.
A robust solution
Outdoor security solutions are required to provide optimal performance in spite of the tough conditions they are forced to operate in. From extremes of weather and temperature, humidity dust, vibration, corrosive environments to acts of random vandalism those systems that fail to live to deliver on performance when faced with these conditions can pose an extremely serious security risk.
Image quality
Its not enough merely to be able to operate in harsh conditions: cameras also need to deliver high resolution image quality coupled with high frame rates very important when dealing with fast-moving subjects and varying lighting conditions. High image quality is especially important in applications where it is important to be able to clearly identify people and vehicles such as car parks, train stations and airports. Constantly changing light conditions are the norm for outdoor surveillance installations, from one minute to the next and from brightest daylight to darkest night. These factors and others such as shadows and fast-moving objects can also adversely affect the effectiveness of the security camera. Security cameras need to be able to cope with all levels of lighting, utilising infra-red technology at night and iris control in bright sunlight to ensure exceptional image quality at all times.
Future-proof
End users are looking for systems that provide clear video surveillance, regardless of where the camera is located or the climate it needs to operate in, and site owners need a secure, future-proof investment without hidden costs. With crime on the rise, property owners are realising they need to review their surveillance requirements to protect their properties. In fact, IMS Research believes that robust, efficient outdoor surveillance is becoming more and more important to security professionals and is forecasting longterm double digit revenue growth for applications that require outdoor surveillance, particularly public area surveillance and perimeter protection.
Weather
In many outdoor surveillance situations, cameras are likely to experience adverse weather. Equipment must be designed with these factors in mind, and built with the ability to withstand the toughest conditions. It is important to prevent water ingress by using an Ingress Protection (IP) rated housing to ensure that the equipment does not suffer water damage. IP ratings are given to outdoor surveillance equipment to communicate their resistance to water and dust.
Special demands
Each outdoor application has special demands, but successful video surveillance demands suitable image quality and equipment reliability regardless of conditions, as well as cost-effective installation and user-friendly operation. It takes a very robust camera to withstand the differing weather and lighting conditions faced in the average external installation. An outdoor camera needs to be able to cope with the full assault of the weather from freezing snow storms to dusty, hot conditions and as they can often be located in difficult to reach places, reliability is key as maintenance or replacement can be expensive, time-consuming and difficult. Maintenance also often requires specialist equipment, which is not likely to be easily or cheaply accessible. If the right type of camera is not used, exposure to the elements will quickly damage the camera and severely impair image quality, and poor lighting conditions and extreme weather conditions will inevitably hinder the image quality you are relying on.
Tampering and vandalism

By their very nature, surveillance cameras can be unpopular with individuals who dont wish their actions to be monitored. Its therefore important for cameras to be able to fend off attempts to disable them with vandal-resistant design, hardened casings and active tampering alarms. It also helps to use equipment that is unobtrusive in design, diverting attention away from it. For more information contact Axis Communications, +27 (0)11 548 6780, roy.alves@axis.com, www.axis.com
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CCTV/SURVEILLANCE CASE STUdy
safe soCCer
Soccer City by Frank Oetjen, Dallmeier.
Soccer City and the Coca-Cola park Stadia have modernised their respective video surveillance systems.
he most important stadium throughout the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa will be the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg. This is where the opening and closing soccer matches will be staged. Steeped in history, the stadium was built in 1987 as the countrys first national stadium. Apart from soccer matches, the stadium has also been used for many other large-scale events such as in 1990, when Nelson Mandela held his first mass rally there after his release from prison. However, until the opening match of the World Cup, major reconstruction and modernisation works will have to be completed at Soccer City. The building works are so comprehensive that they practically equal a new construction from the bottom up. Once completed, the stadium will accommodate approximately 95 000 spectators, 99 VIP lounges, 6 000 business seats and exclusive restaurants provide top-class convenience at the largest of the World Cup stadia. Besides its size, Soccer City primarily impresses with its extraordinary architecture. Its faade is reminiscent of a calabash, a traditional African clay pot. Furthermore, the stadium houses a museum dedicated to the history of South African football. Right next to the building are the headquarters of South Africas football association SAFA, which will also accommodate the FIFA offices for the duration of the World Cup. On the occasion of the Soccer World Cup 2010, the Coca-Cola Park Stadium in Johannesburg, which was originally built in 1928 under the name Ellis Park as a rugby stadium, has also expanded its seating capacities. Now, a total of 70 000 fans can be seated at the stadium. The necessary reconstruction works have already been completed so the stadium could be used during the FIFA Confederation Cup in 2009. The additional numbers of fans consequently increases the risk for potentially dangerous situations. Uncontrolled crowds, a tight squeeze,
or physical fights between different fan groups are probably among the scenarios most feared by security staff. In order to be able to prevent any such escalations in the first place, a video security system by German manufacturer Dallmeier and local system integrator Engineered Systems Solutions, subsequently also responsible for the installation and commissioning of the system, provides for the necessary overview. Jose de Oliveira, Manager at Engineered Systems Solutions, explains: We rely on Dallmeier products because the technology is highly reliable and, yet, at the same time, easy to use for the security operator. Besides providing for increased safety and security for the visitors the new CCTV/IP systems also offer the stadia a clear financial benefit. Considering the numerous international fans, its an advantage that the system can help to rebut potential foreign legal claims in case anything should happen, says Frank Oetjen, sales manager at Dallmeier.
Detailed images
When it came to choosing the cameras, it was decided to go with Dallmeier network cameras. The system now includes both fixed dome and Domera high-speed PTZ cameras. The IP cameras are equipped with Cam_inPIX technology, which allows for the recording of clear, high-contrast images, even under the most difficult lighting conditions. Those include frequent changes between shadows and lights as they occur in sports stadia. Individual persons faces can also be clearly identified at great distances.
Reliable recording
The camera images are recorded on Dallmeier DMS 240 IPS recorders. These video network systems with up to 24 IP-based video channels, support MPEG-4, MJPEG, and H.264 compression methods. The integrated PentaplexPlus
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functionality exceeds the usual five Pentaplex standards. The DMS 240 IPS allows simultaneous recording, streaming, backup, live display and playback at the recorder or via a network. Additionally, remote network access for configuration and transcoding via a network is also possible. Every channel can be recorded with a frame rate of up to 25 fps. The Linux operating system on flash memory guarantees highest reliability and three high-performance fans, with automatic revolution adjustment, provide for optimal ventilation. In the case of a hard disk failure the easy-change functionality of the exchangeable hard disks located at the front side of the device ensures the highest possible maintenance-friendliness.
Soccer City by Mathew Smith, Engineered Systems.
Intuitive operation
The respective systems are controlled and operated using the security management system SeMSy. SeMSy enables the easy control and administration of different streams of media data and offers live display and recording of video/audio data at any point within a networked system. Operating procedures and complex controls can be stored so that security personnel can operate their systems intuitively. The graphic user interface, into which site plans of the stadia were integrated, gives every user a quick overview of the cameras and dedicated monitors via a comprehensive graphic display. Riaan Kruger, regional representative of Dallmeier Southern Africa, explains: Despite the fact that the installation is highly complex, the operation of the system remains highly convenient and intuitive for the security personnel.
Exterior surveillance
Aside from the stadia themselves, the outdoor areas are also monitored by high-resolution Dallmeier IP cameras. Depending on the area of application, the system uses high-speed PTZ dome cameras, box cameras or vandal-resistant dome cameras. The latter
also provide for the necessary security around critical areas. Therefore the complete surroundings of the stadia, including streets and access roads, are reliably monitored. The combination of surveillance systems across various locations consequently enhances the security throughout each of the precincts. The security concept is rounded off by incorporating the two train stations which are close to the stadia into the surveillance system. The Nasrec train station alone, which is just a short walk from the Soccer City Stadium, is monitored by over 100 network cameras, and the same applies to the New Doornfontein Station at the Coca-Cola Park Stadium. In the course of the modernisation works, the train stations were also completely rebuilt. Oetjen explains: Of course a camera cant actively prevent an incident from happening, but owing to the video images security staff can quickly get an idea of a situation and intervene immediately, for example when the crush of people on a platform should get too tight. Moreover, potential pickpockets are often discouraged from pursuing their activities by the mere presence of a CCTV system. And if there should be an incident, the police will have detailed recordings which allow for the identification of the perpetrators. For more information contact Dallmeier Electronic GmbH & Co.KG, +49 (0) 941/ 8700-0, presse@dallmeier.com, www.dallmeier.com
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retail giant expands surveillanCe

and pilferage to ensure that shoppers are guaranteed great value for money. With almost 37 years of SAPS experience and 14 in retail, C U LIVE is no stranger to the security challenges facing the retail industry. The company is able to provide many high profile retailers with a comprehensive service that includes professional advice regarding security and risk management, the actual installation of a solution and, finally, the offsite monitoring of the footage by their own experienced operators. Due to prohibitive costs and insufficient infrastructure, C U LIVE does not make use of external suppliers for the enormous bandwidth required for this off-site monitoring. Instead, it chose to obtain an Individual Electronic Communication Service and Network licence and currently operate its own national wireless network. Visec Platinum Edition H264 Surveillance Software was selected to support the Shoprite upgrade. The Visec software offers a single stream for recording and viewing, auto discovery of all Axis network cameras and internal DNS that remembers the MAC address of the cameras. With nine work stations and sixteen channels per station, our software ensures that the bandwidth requirement is significantly reduced and notably more manageable, remarks Gary Scagell, MD of Visec Africa.
Shoprite selects Axis network cameras to monitor Western Cape stores.
hoprite, one of South Africas leading food retail chains recognises the need to ensure that its stock is monitored by the latest security systems on the market and that its patrons and staff are offered state-of-the-art peace of mind. Mindful of this, approximately thirty Western Cape stores were initially identified for an upgrade to their existing video surveillance. C U LIVE, a company specialising in off-site monitoring specifically for the retail industry was requested by Shoprite to expand the existing surveillance solution to include, amongst others, areas such as staff entrances and goods receiving. Gerrit Bruwer, a director of C U LIVE, chose to deploy Axis network cameras at the various sites. The minimal usage of bandwidth and the quality of the footage were the two key factors that influenced his decision. We tested a number of IP cameras and found that Axis functioned superbly over the wireless network and the simplicity of the installation assured us that we had made the right choice. The advanced image quality of Axis network cameras, regardless of light conditions, has improved the service of the operators in the various monitoring centres. The recorded footage is significantly clearer and incidents and events are easier to timeously identify and act upon.
No weakness in low light conditions

Bruwer opted for Axis P3301 Fixed Dome Network Cameras for this particular installation. The Axis P3301 offers superior image quality with crisp, clear images in both illuminated and low-light locations and a tamper-resistant casing, specifically adapted for unobtrusive video surveillance in exposed indoor environments. As the cameras are deployed in dirty, dusty areas, these casings are more practical and require less maintenance than bare lenses. The P3301 was designed purposely to provide the perfect solution for tough locales such as prisons, schools, airports, banks and retail stores. Several other features of the P3301 appealed to Bruwer, such as the multiple, efficiently compressed H.264 streams and the ability to customise views in order to optimise frame rate according to bandwidth constraints. The Power over Ethernet capability reduces the installation costs by eliminating the need for power cables and further simplifies the system setup. The same surveillance system utilised in the Western Cape is currently being rolled out in Gauteng with further Shoprite sites being considered for imminent upgrade. For more information contact Axis Communications, +27 (0)11 548 6780, roy.alves@axis.com, www.axis.com
A need for superior security

Established from a small chain of supermarkets in 1979, Shoprite has experienced phenomenal growth to become one of South Africas leading food retailers and most trusted brands. Shoprite is recognised nationwide for fulfilling basic food and household requirements at low prices. This means that the stores have to be run efficiently, effectively and with an absolute minimum of waste, stock theft
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southern Cape Capital seCured

s the sixth oldest town in South Africa and with 180 000 residents, George forms the administrative capital of the Southern Cape in the world-renowned Garden Route area. While George is the business capital of the region, it also boasts the largest medical fraternity and has the largest number of bednights accommodation available. With its own airport, large conference facilities, many tourist attractions which includes numerous championship golf courses, George is a travel destination for many South Africans and also tourists from all over the world. The George Municipality wanted a CCTV system to protect the building that includes the mayors office, the offices of all the political parties councillors, a place where meetings about decisions on local government are held, all the city management and services departments and payments for local rates and taxes are also received at this location. After months of tender processes, Suiderkruis Security was awarded the contract to install a new CCTV system for George Municipality. The biggest challenge was the size of the building that included multiple floors which could result in vast amounts of cabling used and would increase the project value and time spent tremendously. Another important issue was also system functionality and ease of use. The controllers monitoring these cameras are normally not very IT literate and the system should work for them and not the other way around. I therefore decided that the system design should as far as possible utilise IP cameras and at selected places and entrances use megapixel cameras. To save even further cabling and time costs all cameras were to be powered by POE switches, says Andre Steenkamp from Suiderkruis Security. After seeing the 3xLOGIC systems in the Securex 2009 exhibition I contacted Michael Isakov from 3xLOGIC looking for the following features: ease of installation, very easy graphical user interface and the Aztech compression rate. One of the most important factors in my decision to close the deal and order the equipment was the professional encounter I had with all personnel associated with the product and the response times on my questions. It gave me the confidence that the back-up I will receive from the 3xLOGIC team will also be of the highest standard, continues Steenkamp. States Michael Isakov of 3xLOGIC: Our system was specifically designed to address the deployment and operational challenges we face in safe-city projects assuring we meet the main goal keeping the city centre safe, protecting the public buildings, streets and public parks, and more importantly, preventing potential crime and violations. There is a high growing demand for safe-city projects and we are here to address the need. A municipality representative stated that this is the beginning of a much larger project as the municipality plans to expand the system as and when money becomes available in its budget. For more information contact Devtrade Distribution, +27 (0)21 552 6891, brigitta@devtrade.co.za, www.devtrade.co.za.
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nvt hybrid video sCores

comparatively expensive IP camera solution, including network switches every 90 metres, to amplify the signal, while the alternative fibre network proved far too costly due to the high-cost of the cable and specialist installation requirements.
NVT is the key

At this point, we introduced the idea of employing an NVT-based UTP hybrid video transmission solution, and with comprehensive technical guidance from NVT, we decided this would present the best solution. Harnessing NVT technology afforded a minimal and easy to install cable network, with Cat5 UTP runs installed in the underground ducting to the stands. Deploying analogue video also meant that we could realise real-time (25 fps) fibre-like images on match days, with the added bonus of still being able to encode the video and transmit images via the councils private fibre network, for off-site monitoring during the week a real win-win scenario. Completed in mid 2008, the new stadium included service infrastructure ducting into which UTP Cat5 cable runs were installed. NVTs inherent interference rejection capability meant we could transmit high-quality images in the same service ducts as other stadium services, such as the stadiums high-voltage power cables and communications network, without any worries about picture interference, adds Hutchinson. In addition to providing quality video to the control room, NVTs power, video and data (PVD) technology has also afforded low-voltage power to be supplied to both static and PTZ cameras around the ground. Obviating the need for individual fused spurs to be installed at each camera point, this again saved time and money on the overall cost of the CCTV installation.
Hybrid technology makes the team at Leigh Sports Village.
ne of the biggest investments in public sports, recreational and educational facilities in Lancashire, England, Leigh Sports Village is a state-of-the-art 10 000 seat stadium complex. Securing the projects 83 million design and construction is a Network Video Technologies (NVT), UTP hybrid video-based CCTV transmission solution.
Project planning
From the outset of the project, the construction company oversaw all of the construction decisions on behalf of Wigan Council. From the projects inception, the security and safety of both staff and visitors was a top priority. Addressing this, the construction company appointed Tate Security Technology to manage all aspects of the installation of stadium security measures. Steve Hutchinson, sales and business development director at Tate Security explains: We were responsible for all aspects of security implementation at the stadium, including the turnstiles and access control. However,
the keystone of the whole security plan was a comprehensive CCTV surveillance system, comprising over 60 cameras, including an onsite control room. All modern stadia security is required to conform to guidelines as set out in the stadia industry manual known as the Green Guide. This states a variety of required operational criteria, including specific video quality, coverage and performance of the CCTV network on match days. During the planning stages, we originally looked at implementing an end-to-end IP system at the site, as during non-match days, the images from the stadium would also be monitored at the Wigan Town Hall on its Borough Central Watch, but we encountered a number of issues with this solution. The unobtrusive structured cable network element of an IP system was just what we were looking for, for installation within the minimalist structures of the stadium, but to conform to the Green Guides 25 Frames per Second (fps) standard for match day coverage would have presented a significant challenge. Also, a totally IP system would have required the use of a
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System performance
Match days can see the ground filled to capacity with both home and rival fans, eager to see their teams in action. Managing the flow of fans in and out of the ground is a critical safety concern in modern stadia, and one of the major roles of the surveillance system at Leigh Sports Village. High-resolution images are used to continually monitor the flow of fans throughout its concourse, walkways and through turnstiles, both internally and externally. Information on flow rate (density, velocity and flow relationships for closely packed crowds) is relayed by the dedicated radio communications network to the stewards controlling safety at the turnstiles and gates. Should the flow rate rise in a particular area, stewards can then address and manage the flow, ensuring the safety of fans at all times. Match days is when the unrestricted resolution bandwidth and quality of the NVT UTP transmitted camera images really benefits the club, explains Hutchinson. Although the Leigh Centurions Rugby League Clubs fans have an exceptional record, being able to remotely pinpoint any trouble causers in the crowd ensures it stays that way, and should an incident occur, high-resolution recorded images permit easy identification of any individuals involved. Identification of individual crowd members through high- resolution images is an integral part of the standards for stadium CCTV, as set out in the Green
Guide, and employing NVT UTP Hybrid Video transmission has been integral to this installation meeting those defined standards. During the week, camera images are used to secure the ground, with surveillance monitoring switched to the councils control room at Wigan Town Hall. This kind of flexibility is invaluable to the club and means economical monitoring is made available in addition to high-quality archived recordings, easily and instantly accessible onsite, adds Hutchinson. Hutchinson concludes: Effective systems expandability is essential at the stadium, as it continues to attract more visitors and diversify its activities. New cameras may need to be added to cover as yet unused aspects of the site, or additional coverage may be deemed necessary for existing cameras, such as upgrading static cameras to PTZ, in which case it is an easy process to simply use one of the spare UTP pairs to supply PTZ telemetry data. With the flexibility of NVT UTP transmission, we can locate cameras in ideal positions to gain the most desirable scene coverage, which is not always possible when using cumbersome coax cable. Whatever the scenario, our economical, NVT based CCTV system at Leigh Sports Village is set to provide flexible, highperformance security, site management, and health and safety surveillance for many years to come. For more information contact Network Video Technologies, +44 20 8977 6614, steve.proctor@nvt.com, www.nvt.com.
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luxury Casino upgrades to digital reCording

integrated TITO cashless ticketing system) and 65 playing tables, including poker, punto banko and blackjack, which will expand soon to 1500 slot machines and 110 tables making Mont Parnes the biggest casino in this part of Europe. This long list of facilities and activities has guaranteed Regency Casino Mont Parnes is listed amongst Europes top tourist destinations.
Proven formula
Following the success and subsequent performance benefits gained with the use of Synectics products at its sister Regency Casino in Thessaloniki, the same tried and tested formula was applied at Mont Parnes, with the use of Synectics SynergyPro software control, coupled with Tesseract camera switching matrices, and now Synectics MDRS archiving technology all installed by systems integration specialists Signal Electronics Security of Athens. Piotr Grzejszczyk, director of surveillance at Regency Casino Mont Parnes, explains how the security specification process unfolded: We knew exactly what we wanted from our CCTV system at the newly redeveloped flagship site, and to secure the best technical partner we invited Synectics along with other manufacturers to demonstrate their technologies to both myself and the security team. After these presentations and subsequent consultation periods with their respective technical specialists, it was clear that the Synectics based electronic surveillance solution with Synectics MDRS storage was best suited to our needs. Thanks to our confidence in the Synectics product, competitive pricing from Signal Electronics Security, and the previous quality of service we had experienced from both, we were happy to add the MDRS system to the existing Synectics SynergyPro and Tesseract matrix. Synectics MDRS review client technology provides instant, one-touch access to recorded footage, as well as easily downloadable video evidence to other media, should this need be required for use off-site. Unlike with standard digital recording systems, Synectics MDRS recordings employ very high-pixel count images, measured in Common Interchange Format (CIF). Typically
Regency Casino Mont parnes in Athens is extending its CCTV surveillance network and installing over 160-Terabytes of storage.
he only gaming facility located in the greater Athens area, Regency Casino Mont Parnes is attracting expanding visitor numbers from around the globe, with thousands visiting it each year to enjoy its facilities. Catering for its increasing popularity, the casino is undertaking a 110M reconstruction programme. With the reconstruction process well underway, the Regency Casino facility has extended its existing Synectics-based CCTV surveillance network to cover new gaming and leisure areas, and included more than 160-Terabytes of Synectics Modular Digital Recording System (MDRS) storage. Following the acquisition of 49% ownership two and a half years ago by the consortium of Hyatt Regency Hotels & Tourism (Hellas) and Elliniki Technodomiki, annual turnover at the casino has grown to over 140M per year. An interim renovation project at a cost of 11M was completed within the first few months of takeover, while the ambitious programme to fully reconstruct the complex is scheduled for completion in year 2013. The expansive site features a cable car system to access the casinos hilltop site, which will include an adjacent five-star hotel, a luxurious spa, swimming pool, bars and restaurants, in addition to extensive gaming facilities. Amongst the attractions for players are almost 1000 slot machines (all equipped with a fully
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D1, these recordings are more detailed (by pixel count) than those commonly offered, permitting more detailed recognition and scene content; a crucial factor in the presentation of key visual information to confirm valid bets. To process and retain the huge amount of data the Regency Casino Mont Parnes camera network produces, the casinos on-site control room utilises SynergyPros Evidence Locker management feature. A robust server configured to handle and store video evidence, the Evidence Locker provides a central point for evidence management. For future authentication purposes, a unique 128-bit MD5 hashing encryption code is created with every minute of video footage, so if a copy of footage is required to be taken off-site, the system saves the video clip and evidences hashing code, logged and detailed in the form of a Digital Evidence Certificate to prove its legitimacy.
Safe storage
Utilising Synectics storage for evidential video at the casino means the data from the systems cameras is extremely safe.
Employing Synectics storage nodes, the data is spread throughout the system, meaning in the unlikely event of a node failure, all data of a particular camera feed is not lost. Safe storage of all our recorded data was the priority for the upgrade and selecting Synectics MDRS storage ensures all our footage is safe, even in the unlikely event of component failure, adds Grzejszczyk. From the onsite control room operators enjoy expanded camera coverage over the entire casino floor, including corridors, reception areas, bar, restaurant and internal staff-only areas. Recording and controlling images from over 300 cameras around the site, Synectics SynergyPro and MDRS technology has not only been instrumental in meeting the government legislations for the safe operation of a casino, but also provides an instant overall view of the entire site at the touch of a button. Grzejszczyk continues; Controlling the cameras from our specially built, on-site control room, our Synectics-trained operators are able to access any camera via the 30-monitor wall and their own twinmonitor workstation. Using one screen for
live images and one for the instant review of recorded footage, we are able to immediately verify the actions of both players and staff in the event of a contested bet. This provides extremely fast problem solving, whilst high-quality images means cards, chips and money can be easily tracked. Commenting on the Mont Parnes installations, Vasilios Harbilas of Signal Electronics Security said: The simplicity of the Synectics SynergyPro CCTV control software and the power of safe, highresolution image archiving via the Synectics MDRS make this end-to-end solution ideal for all gaming environments. Fast, intuitive navigation and recording of large numbers of cameras is essential to the successful operation of any casino. CCTV without effective control is useless, and Synectics technology has proved to be the key to unlocking the power of our casino camera network. For more information contact Synectics Security Networks, +44 114 255 2509, philip.longley@synx.com, www.synx.com
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ensuring farMers peaCe of Mind
Leigh Yorke-Smith
be difficult, yet not impossible. I could find no one to do what I expected from a security system, so I set out to do the impossible myself, claims Louis.
The outcome
The solutions entailed placing IP-based Vivotek cameras on the far corners of a farm, with the signal transmitted to the main house. An important factor was the ability to be able to simultaneously view all the cameras. The signal was transmitted with MikroTik router boards and flat panel antennas. The system grew at a pace of its own. Before long the company was connecting farmers together by running a farm network stretching over an area of approximately 50 km. The benefits delivered by this new and improved solution were numerous. For one you could see an intruder a mile away, and in the dark. The Vivotek SD 7151 proved outstanding, offering endless possibilities. It could also transmit a video/audio signal over vast distances, which proved extremely helpful. For Viljoen, the reward is in the farmers everyday life. The system not only brings peace of mind, but it gives great satisfaction to be able to know and see that the farmers hard earning livestock remains on his property.
Living in the middle of nowhere does not mean you cannot keep an eye on everything.
n todays South Africa, crime is always just around the corner. People who often suffer most in this climate are farmers and rural dwellers due to the expanse of land they need to keep an eye on. For years these farmers have been dreaming of implementing surveillance systems to combat crime, but the technology simply did not exist, and to try to do it with standard CCTV equipment was a nightmare. Luckily times are changing on the technology front. Implementing IP-based cameras along with wireless networks is giving farmers peace of mind, as Louis Viljoen from Gramco IT explains. Gramco IT installs surveillance systems on farms with integrated IP phone connections. The company connects long distances and remote farms to each other and the outside world by applying CCTV surveillance solutions that address the ongoing problem of late night visits from unwanted stock thieves. The solution, says Viljoen, required more than just a CCTV system in place. It required wireless, good quality technology and installation, reliability and most importantly, night vision. Gramco ITs initial CCTV solution was weakened by the fact that it was a wired system that, according to Viljoen, caused endless problems. Running cables underground for distances of 300 metres to 500 metres just was not clever. It lasted for approximately 12 months after digging up trenches five to six times in a matter of months. In the end, we abandoned the whole project. The shift to wireless communication was brought on by necessity. Viljoen and his team had to prepare themselves for a journey that they knew was going to
Implementation
Viljoen believes that attending Miros courses helped him in achieving what he needed to achieve. We wanted to know more so we went on numerous Miro courses until we were satisfied that we could conquer the world. When we ran into problems we simply asked Miro for assistance. The companys service was excellent.The staff were always helpful, and, no matter how much we struggled to get it perfect, they always gave us the right solution. Progress was, all in all, unbelievably fast, thanks to the back-up we had. Viljoen believes that the gap between the standard CCTV camera installer and the installer that combines CCTV with a reliable wireless solution are enormous. The standard CCTV installer is going to try and convince you that a trench of 300 metres is nothing. Do not believe this. You will have to re-dig that trench in the year to come. It simply does not work. Gramco installed 10 Vivotek SD 7151 cameras, all connected to an integrated network, and about 27 PTZ 7122 Vivotek cameras. The company connected 70 farms in the area it was working in with camera systems, phone systems, laser beam systems and more. For more information contact Miro Distribution, 086 123 MIRO, riandi@miro.co.za, www.miro.co.za
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high-res ir CaMera
Regal releases new resilient, long-range IR camera.
he GKB 2708 is a high-resolution analogue camera with long-range IR capabilities with a tough weatherproof metal housing for outdoor surveillance systems. The camera boasts 550 TVL horizontal resolution with the Sony SUPERHAD CCD II. The CC127 features easy adjustment with magnetic coupled controls for lens and focus adjustment. There are four anti-fog heaters located around the lens; helping prevent fog and humidity on the front glass. This also prevents the lens from being frozen in extremely cold weather conditions. The CC127 features 60 IR LEDs and with the latest Sony High Sensitivity CCD, the IR distance can reach 80 to 100 metres even in an outdoor environment. The special lightning resistant insulator between the camera and the bracket prevents the camera from being damaged when lightning strikes on the wall or pole on which the camera is mounted. The camera features dip switch settings to help installers adjust the camera function according to the environmental needs. For more information contact Regal Distributors, +27 (0)11 553 3300, merwede.van.der.merwe@regalsecurity.co.za, www.regalsecurity.co.za
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a starring role at universal studios

closely with display resolution of up to 4CIF. In this application, the end-user receives a constant feed, but clients can also monitor activity according to predetermined schedules or opt for footage that is triggered by motion detection. The ability to overlay a privacy mask means that sensitive image sections are not seen by operatives. The Hikvision compression cards are core components in custom-built PC-based video recorders that are empowering staff at the resorts guardhouse with comprehensive footage of the 160-acre (64-hectare) site. Universal security staff can store video clips in high-definition display (HDD) as well as transferring data to removable media. With many large facilities employing a mix of analogue and IP-addressable cameras, the cards facilitate a hybrid solution.
Outstanding ROI
Hikvisions H264 compression cards make a splash at Universal Studios.
ikvisions H264 compression cards are being used in Florida at Universal Studios, an amusement park themed on the entertainment industry where six million visitors a year are invited to ride the movies. The dual-stream video compression cards from the HCI series are part of custom-assembled PC-based recorders monitoring camera footage across a leisure site that includes the worlds biggest McDonalds and attractions such as Springfield (home of The Simpsons) and a Jaws harbour. Universal Studios was faced with theft and vandalism in their gaming locations where petty thieves prey on parents who may be distracted while attending to children. Continuous high-quality video footage of incidents at dining facilities was also required in the event of spurious insurance claims. Shoplifting at boutique stores is also a significant problem and there is a requirement to monitor staff use of cash registers for their own protection. The resort works closely with the Orlando Police Department which uses CCTV images for evidential purposes when securing convictions. Fort Lauderdale-based integrator National Security Inc is using Hikvisions dual-stream cards which offer H264 (MPEG-4/Part 10) real-time video compression. These units also allow audio compression in the opensource Ogg Vorbis format. The cards provide end-users who need to examine footage
The integrator has employed hard-wiring throughout, predominantly Cat5. Users report that these H264 cards make minimal demands on their computer systems and that even multiple-camera units often occupy as little as 11% of system resources. Anthony Dittolito, MD of National Security, said: Selecting compression cards from Hikvision is indicative of our freedom to use best-of-breed components. The products are well engineered and failure rate is minimal. If operatives understand Windows-based products they can run with the software immediately. This is a more intuitive approach than using conventional standalone digital video recorders. The camera systems employing the Hikvision units are giving the client outstanding return on investment (ROI), with footage resulting in successful prosecutions. Expenditure on surveillance has paid for itself several times over within a few months of installation. A site within the complex making extensive use of the compression cards is the worlds biggest McDonalds. A two-storey structure, the restaurant is designed to resemble a bag of fries and its claim in terms of size is based on 7620 square metres of childrens play facilities. More than half of the restaurant is set aside for video arcades and prize redemption games, an area where camera footage is valuable since purse snatching is a frequent problem. For more information contact Hangzhou Hikvision, +86 571 8700 6060, wulin@hikvision.com, www.hikvision.com
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CCtv ip Mini-doMe
he SNC-DS10 incorporates advanced progressive scan CCDs with ExwavePRO technology. The camera inherits the technical advantages of Sony ExwaveHAD technology, while incorporating progressive scanning and complementary colour filters to provide extremely high sensitivity levels and clear, crisp images in both daytime and nighttime environments. Complementary colour filters are well suited in cameras used for security applications because the luminance signalto-noise ratio is higher than when using primary colour filters. The minimum illumination is 0.3 lx in colour at F1.3. Other features include: JPEG picture quality settings with constant bitrate algorithm, powerful vari-focal zoom lens/ wide viewing angle, ball-joint lens mount technology, selectable JPEG and MPEG-4 compression formats, dual-encoding capability and intelligent motion detection For more information contact Norbain, +27 (0)11 887 1546, michellek@norbain.co.za, www.norbain.co.za
therMal night vision CaMera

he Samsung STC-14 is a static night vision camera equipped with a micro-bolometer thermal imaging sensor. Embedded with advanced infrared imaging technology (with IFOV), it is able to detect differences in the infrared energy of objects and the background. This camera is suitable for short- and medium-range monitoring purposes. The STC-14 can capture man-sized objects at a maximum range of 360 m. It features an integrated housing that is tested to the IP66 dust and waterproof standard, offering good performance under harsh weather conditions. For more information contact Norbain , +27 (0)11 887 1546, michellek@norbain.co.za, www.norbain.co.za
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traffiC surveillanCe along Chiles a-16 highway
M
Highway surveillance systems can work.
any South Africans, especially those in the Gauteng province, would have noticed a vast network of video camera implementations along our major highways. These cameras were implemented in an effort to understand and correct traffic problems, as well as have a more immediate response to accidents and serious collisions on the motorways. Something else that the South African public may have noticed is that the system does not work at all. When driving along a major highway such as the M1 in Johannesburg, you can see every single camera either facing a direction nowhere
near a highway, or facing straight up in the air or straight down into the ground. The people behind the video system have blamed the wireless transmission systems for the faults, so perhaps they should take a few notes from Chiles government.
Chiles A-16 highway

In an ongoing effort to monitor traffic flow and enable immediate detection and response to road incidents, Chiles Department of Public Works installed megapixel video cameras along the A-16 highway. The Department of Public Works chose RADWINs wireless broadband solutions to
transmit video from the cameras back to its traffic control centres and to connect the local traffic control centre in Cerro Tarapaca to the central one in Iquique. The high bandwidth and low latency of RADWINs equipment ensures high-quality video transmission and enables licence-plate recognition. With RADWINs equipment in place, personnel stationed in the traffic control centres can monitor the A-16 highway in real-time 24x7 and take immediate action when required. For more information contact Miro Distribution, 086 123 MIRO, riandi@miro.co.za, www.miro.co.za
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urban surveillanCe in brazil
rban surveillance presents a security challenge in its very scope. To guard a city against multiple threats, take on policing and citizen assistance roles, and be significantly fail-safe requires technology and system architecture that is proven in multiple locations worldwide. The ISS urban surveillance strategy is centred on the SecurOS platform. ISS urban surveillance incorporates a myriad of intelligent technologies that work independently and in conjunction to envelop a city within a safety blanket. The city of Recife is the fifth largest metropolitan area in Brazil and the capital of Pernambuco. The city chose a comprehensive security solution using Pelco cameras with Axis encoders, all managed and integrated into an ISS SecurOS video
server framework. The system allows for rapid event management, definition of scenarios, and easily additive of new functionalities and threat management capabilities.
Key statistics
Market: Region: Urban surveillance Recife, Brazil Centralised management of security operations. Interoperability of multiple systems into one unified framework managed by ISS. SecurOS video server framework. Highly extensible and additive system for future upgradability with limited capital cost and deployment time. For more information contact ISS South Africa, +27 (0)31 572 5514, eugene.kayat@isscctv.com, www.isscctv.com
Installed units: SecurOS Deployment. 50 Pelco Spectra 3 PTZ cameras. 50 Axis Encoders. Wireless transmission.
Value proposition
Wireless IP camera infrastructure reduces capital costs.
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anatoMy of integration
aintaining an optimal environment for advanced patient care is no small feat. But Ontario-based London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is doing just that, thanks to an integrated facility management system. Today, LHSC is comparable to a healthy human body, with an interoperable network of pieces and parts functioning in sync. The hospitals facility management system connects the hospitals core building functions, including heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC), security, life safety, and critical point monitoring, to enhance patient care and operational efficiencies across all of its facilities. Reaching and maintaining optimal facility health, however, depends on a delicate balance of adequate planning, maintenance and flexibility with a touch of innovation.
Road to integration
LHSC has 7 400 staff members spread across three campuses Victoria Hospital, South Street Hospital and University Hospital. More than 1 million patients visit LHSC each year, and the hospital is cited among North Americas top-rated healthcare organisations for patient care, teaching and research. It also is a recognised global leader in areas like robotic surgery, cardiac care, multi-organ transplantation and clinical neurological sciences. Previously, LHSCs three facilities operated separately, running on disparate systems that didnt communicate with each other and left building managers without a complete view of activity across all campuses. This arrangement limited the efficiency of facility operations, including energy management, safety and equipment maintenance. Also, each system existed on a different server with its own software and workstation, which made training building and maintenance staff difficult. The hospital took steps to cut energy costs and improve its infrastructure at the turn of the century. And this move created an opportunity to explore new levels of operating efficiencies through integration. With a multitude of systems and equipment across its three campuses, LHSC chose to build upon its decadesold relationship with Honeywell. In 2003, Honeywell began installing
energy-efficient building systems and making equipment upgrades. These projects were completed under an energy performance contract that allowed LHSC to finance the improvements and new technology through the energy savings produced by the upgrades. Honeywell guaranteed the savings so the improvements didnt impact operating budgets or require additional taxpayer dollars. Central to this work was the installation of Honeywell Enterprise Buildings Integrator (EBI), an integrated controls platform that acts as the brain of the hospital by providing operators with a campus-wide view of all systems and equipment. EBI ties HVAC, security, life safety systems and critical point monitoring together, and enables operators to view, access and manage any system in real-time from any workstation, increasing efficiency, reducing operating costs and improving business continuity.
Secure foundation
With this integration, the hospital began piecing the standalone areas and operations together. Doing so streamlined processes to create safer and more secure facilities, as well as more productive environments for staff. LHSC took a phased approach to moving to EBI, starting with the integration of the hospitals security operations. In 2004, the hospital upgraded its access control system at University Hospital, replacing the legacy card system on campus, which was nearing capacity and had limited scalability. The hospital chose to standardise on Honeywell technology with new cards and readers to control access to the hospitals entrances and exits. Given the hospitals planned growth, the new system made sense. As a critical part of a risk mitigation strategy, LHSC also installed Honeywell Asset Locator and Digital Video Manager (DVM) asset protection and closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems that are components of EBI. Using a common platform gives facility personnel the ability to view real-time video in the event of a security alarm. For example, the system monitors the hospitals amphitheatre, which houses expensive video equipment. The equipment is outfitted with radio frequency identification (RFID) security tags and if someone moves any piece outside the
How an integrated facility management platform is helping London Health Sciences Centre deliver healthcare excellence.
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amphitheatre, the system initiatives an alarm and security personnel automatically see live video. This provides an immediate view of the situation and helps LHSC respond appropriately. Because it runs on the IT infrastructure, DVM also enables LHSC to easily deploy cameras wherever it chooses. Instead of having to plan for how to run video cable back to a central analogue recorder, the hospital can easily add cameras at any location on its three campuses. This flexibility offers time and cost efficiencies while improving safety, since the hospital can quickly add cameras where necessary. The success of the upgrade at University Hospital prompted LHSC to expand the architecture to the other two campuses. DVM, for example, now includes more than 60 cameras throughout the hospitals. Overall, the EBI system has grown to encompass 12 000 control points across the three campuses. As the system grows, LHSC maintains secure grasp over all activity thanks to its centralised security and building operations centre. Facility personnel are able to monitor operations through EBIs singlewindow access to the multiple systems and
databases that make up the security and building operations. The centre boasts both birds eye and individual system viewing capabilities, allowing personnel to quickly isolate any problems, and respond quickly and accurately.
Additional gains
Today, LHSC relies on the EBI architecture to optimise its building operations, benefiting everyone from the youngest patients to IT staff. For example, the hospital now uses an infant protection system to prevent unauthorised removal of babies from designated areas. The system uses electronic infant tags to track newborns, keeping personnel informed of their location in real-time. If a baby travels beyond the designated maternity floor or zone, the electronic tag triggers the security system to lock doors and elevators, initiates video surveillance, and automatically dispatches security personnel to the area. Integration also is enhancing safety at LHSCs power plant and select remote areas, such as the diagnostic imaging and mental health wards. Employees in these areas use
locator technology that doubles as a distress or man down system, which adds another layer of safety for employees who often work alone or in higher-risk areas. These workers carry RFID-enabled badges that they can trigger by touch in the event of a safety or security concern. The badges transmit signals that are detected by wireless readers and routed to LHSCs central security centre where an operator can see who sent the distress signal and where the individual is located, along with video, floor plans and any other supporting data.
Collaborative plans
Throughout the development and growth of its facilities and building systems, LHSC keeps Honeywell closely involved in all planning. Primary to this planning is an EBI roadmap jointly developed to leverage the integrated systems scalability. Together, LHSC and Honeywell constantly update and revise the roadmap based on the hospitals changing needs and overall expansion. For more information contact Honeywell Building Solutions, +27 (0)11 695 8000, hsa@honeywell.com, www.honeywell.com
55
ethekwini hospital opts for ip

synchronised audio to enable remote users to not only view, but also listen in on an area to increase effectiveness. The AXIS 207 offers the best image quality in its class, linked to outstanding bandwidth efficiency. Two AXIS 233D network dome cameras cover the parking area. Designed for challenging surveillance applications, they can follow moving objects at long distances. Through their 35x optical and 12x digital zoom lenses and electronic image stabilisers (EIS) controllers can clearly see licence plates from a distance of 160 m. AXIS 233D can follow a person walking at a distance of 400 m and pan or tilt to any preset location in less than 1,5 seconds.
Ip video surveillance provides central security control and management support.
urban-based Ethekwini Hospital & Heart Centre is a state-of-the-art facility committed to taking customer service to new heights. The R340 million centre, owned and managed by Capensis Management, is 100% black owned. At the core of the hospital is its Cardiac Centre staffed by a team of cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons and experienced nursing and support personnel. Tragically, hospitals are no longer unaffected by the wide-spread crime tormenting other businesses in South Africa. True to their calling to provide exceptional standards of service to their patients, Ethekwini Hospital has identified the safety and security of its staff, patients, visitors and property as a priority. The hospital is a huge complex, housing highly sophisticated and expensive equipment and systems in various locations and wards on four floors and offering its visitors 420 parking bays.
Monitoring and control

In the security ops room, Milestone Smart Client has been installed on one monitor, providing 64 views. A click of a button shifts the view to selected floors and can also provide full screen views. The second monitor is directly linked to the cameras, giving more clarity as the software talks directly to the camera in real-time. The system switches cameras at 3-second intervals. A button allows users to see the view of any chosen camera on the system. An Impro access control transaction viewer provides images of people clocking in and out. Images are recorded at 4cif resolution at 8 frames per second and footage is retained for 30 days. This places huge demands on storage, but a 4 TB storage system copes adequately.
Easy integration
After considering several tenders, Intelligent Building, a division of the First Technology Group, was mandated to run the project. The ease of integration of the Axis network cameras into the hospitals newly designed IP network, made Axis Communications our first choice as a partner to deliver on this installation, says Vernon Harripersadh, systems design and software infrastructure consultant at Intelligent Building. Intelligent Building went on to design a video camera system over IP networks using Axis network cameras, linked to an operational room from where security officials can effectively control the building, parking area and all entrances. An unobtrusive, yet functional security system ensures the safety and security of its patients and visitors without the intimation of big brother surveillance. A comprehensive network of Axis network cameras was installed. Five AXIS 221 cameras cover the entrances to the premises. The cameras provide high quality images under all lighting conditions, capturing images at gate control points, using Power over Ethernet (PoE). Not only do they record activity at the gates, but they also capture images of all registration plates. Forty-six AXIS 207 network cameras throughout the building cover entrances to wards and elevator areas. The cameras give excellent low light performance and are equipped with built-in microphones for
Why Video over IP?

Only IP technology can support megapixel cameras. Furthermore, analogue cabling would have been much more expensive and given substantially poorer image quality. Considering that the systems serves 53 cameras on four floors including exterior units, running cables would have been a daunting task. Analogue cabling would also have picked up a lot of interference from the fluorescent lighting and power cables.
Future perspective
Additional cameras have already been ordered and an expansion to 64 channels is imminent. This will add considerable capacity to the system and improved video surveillance coverage. Storage capacity will be increased by installing an extra SAN/NAS as the hospital plans to archive footage for 6 months. The IP solution offers great versatility and image quality at reasonable costs. The system allows for unlimited expansion and it integrates seamlessly with other systems such as access control and time and attendance. For more information contact Axis Communications, +27 (0)11 548 6780, roy.alves@axis.com, www.axis.com
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CCtv by MiCrowave
Tough terrain for surveillance.

he latest CCTV technology from CBC and a microwave link across 500 m of open water is helping to protect a regeneration area in Rochester, Kent, following a series of high-value thefts last summer. Ganz Infra-red illuminators and rugged C-Allview speed-domes are playing a key part in an upgraded surveillance system, which has been deployed at key points around the 32-acre Rochester Riverside site. Images from one PTZ camera with Ganz IR lighting, mounted on a historic crane, are being transmitted across the River Medway via microwave, and from there carried back to the councils 24-hour monitoring centre in Strood. Other points along the riverside are being kept under surveillance with C-Allview cameras because they can cope with both adverse weather and tough operating conditions. The installations, follow two separate attacks last summer during which thieves stripped away more than 140 m of newly-installed stainless steel handrails and posts. The thefts not only cost more than 200 000 but caused the closure of the area to the public because of safety fears. However, with the improved protective measures, including more robust post fixings as well as the 24-hour CCTV monitoring, the council has been able to re-open the popular walkway and cycling area. Although the site is less than a mile from Rochester town centre it proved attractive to thieves because it is relatively quiet and not overlooked by buildings or traffic, so CCTV was really needed, says Steve Craddock, project manager for TJW Electrical. This is an exposed area with no other infrastructure so to overcome the challenge of installing the system the most economical solution was to set up the microwave link to carry the video data across the river. The Ganz IR500 illuminator allows superior night-time surveillance. With a range of up to 300 m it is ideal for perimeter protection applications and open areas such as Riverside. As a new generation LED unit it is also much more economical to run than traditional lamps, as it offers low energy consumption, low maintenance and a 10-year lifespan. Meanwhile, the C-Allview ruggedised speed domes, with their IP67 rating, are ideal for challenging coastal and riverside environments. Each C-Allview unit has a built-in wiper to clear away dirt and water, and features a replaceable front glass window which is toughened to resist substantial impacts. The Rochester Riverside site is one of the most ambitious developments in the Thames Gateway, with 2000 new homes expected to be built there. For more information contact CBC (Europe), +27 (0)83 780 4123, charding@cbc-sa.com, www.cbc-sa.com
57
video ManageMent seCures CoMMunity

n existence since the late 1930s, the Trenton Housing Authority (THA) provides decent and affordable housing for low and moderate-income residents throughout the city of Trenton, in New Jersey, USA. Its mission is to provide safe and sanitary housing for residents and to lead them toward self-sufficiency. For the past 30 years, the THA has served nearly 2 000 households. Today, the THA is an autonomous body that is chartered by the State of New Jersey, partially funded by the federal government and governed by a seven-member Board of Commissioners. Previously, the THA relied on 11 unarmed officers patrolling various developments to maintain safety and security. Due to the prevalence of drugs and guns in the area, this was a dangerous situation for both the unarmed officers and the THA residents. As a result, THA officials sought to create a safer environment, where people could feel comfortable walking to and from their housing units, regardless of the time of day. Officials also wanted to provide officers with tools that could help them become more efficient and effective. To accomplish this, THA officials began by distributing an RFP to security companies with the goal of creating safer surroundings for THA residents and officers. After a careful ranking process based on a variety of factors, the THA selected integrator ComTec Systems. As ComTec employees began to address the needs and concerns of the authority, they realised the THA needed a full-scale security initiative, so they set about to design a unique solution.
Trenton Housing Authority increases operator productivity and reduces investigation with Ip-based video management.
The solution
Since the housing communities were spread across multiple locations throughout the city, THA officials sought complete convergence of all THA video. Officials also needed the video to be centralised so they could manage it more cost-effectively. One of the challenges in our industry is gathering information from locations across an entire city and sending it back to one location. And how do you
balance cost and technology effectively, so it works? says Michael Vertolli, president of ComTec Systems. In response to these needs, ComTec designed a unique wireless network to transmit CCTV, access and other data to a command and control centre. The wireless solution proved to be especially economical, since it did not require putting fibre in the ground and trenching or digging up existing environments. A critical piece of the installation is Honeywells MAXPRO VMS a unique video management system that bridges the gap between analogue and digital video systems. MAXPRO VMS is ideal for a central command centre where multiple operators are required to view numerous cameras all at the same time, explains Maureen Bruen, regional sales manager of Honeywells Video Systems. For the THA, this solution enables the integration of all camera systems and provides a single user interface to manage the entire system. Now, multiple operators can share incidents with other operators using simple drag-and-drop functionality. This increases operator productivity and, most importantly, reduces investigation time. The THA works closely with local police departments to solve any crimes that occur in their jurisdiction. With this technology in place, officials can make real-time decisions about investigations. Police can come to the THA command centre to view any criminal activity, and camera shots can also be sent to a desktop in a patrol car, further aiding investigations. The THA is pleased with this powerful system. Since its implementation, crime has decreased, and illegal dumping and unauthorised use of certain areas has also been significantly reduced. Most importantly, the community feels secure, fulfilling the THAs mission to create safer communities for its residents. For more information contact Honeywell Systems Group, +44 1928 754023, nick.honess@honeywell.com, www.honeywell.com
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weekend poliCing in glasgow
Glasgow partygoers enjoy themselves under the watchful eye of Bosch surveillance cameras.
ore than 30 Bosch MIC Series 400 cameras are protecting the public in Glasgow City Centre following successful trials of the equipment in other parts of the city. Glasgow Community and Safety Services (GCSS), an organisation set up by Glasgow City Council and Strathclyde Police, was keen to provide the citys three million visitors and locals alike with a safe environment to socialise. So it created the Night Zone, a partnership initiative that is designed to help residents and visitors get home quickly and safely from a night out in the city. Brian Maguire, MD at Racam, installers of the CCTV system explains: When we were approached by GCSS for this project, we had in mind that we would use MIC Series cameras. Glasgow City Council installed some 20 MIC cameras in the parks about five years ago and it was impressed with the cameras robustness, design and image quality. Part of the appeal was the MIC cameras compact, attractive design which allows for discreet integration into urban environments, but the ability to react to situations as they arise was also key, which is why the MIC Series 400 PA version, with twin public address speakers was specified.
Mobile surveillance
MIC Series cameras have also been fitted to 19 of GCSS vehicles to provide mobile surveillance and were part of a solution trialled during the Scottish Cup Final last year, as Walter Kean, head of facilities at GCSS comments: In the first year the cameras were installed, we conducted a survey and discovered that there had been a 20% reduction in offences, particularly around taxi ranks, he says. All Boschs MIC Series 400 pan-tilt-zoom cameras are rated to any industry-leading IP68 for performance in the most extreme surveillance environments and can be mounted upright, inverted or canted for total installation flexibility. Kean concludes: Such is the success of the Night Zone scheme that 700 hundred crimes have been prevented, amounting to a saving of at least 500 000 a year. A number of other councils across the country have visited to see the set up for themselves and are now using it as a template for their own CCTV solutions. For more information contact Bosch Security Systems South Africa & Sub-Sahara Africa, +27 (0)11 651 9818, elaine.ogorman@za.bosch.com www.boschsecurity.co.za
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keeping CriMe off the streets

ristol is no different from any other major city in the UK in that it has to put up with its fair share of challenges, from inner-city crime through to congestion on its roads. In both cases, however, there is one product that is helping the City Councils teams to stay one step ahead of the game, a product noted for its reliability and flexibility even in the most demanding environments: the MIC or Metal Mickey Series of cameras from Bosch. Bristol City Council first started using MIC cameras in 2000 after the technology was recommended by a local installer, Select Electrics. Select had installed the fibre network infrastructure across the city and was the councils principal contractor for the installation and maintenance of CCTV. At the time, MIC cameras were seen as quite a radical design, explains Select Electrics MD, Ray Murphy, and the Council needed to be convinced that it would give them the level of performance and reliability they needed.
reliability that we need, and are robust enough to operate in a number of challenging environments. They are also plug-andplay, which is excellent from an installation and maintenance perspective, and if parts need to be replaced they can be changed with minimum downtime.
Expanded use
The success of the cameras in a security surveillance capacity led the council to look at MIC cameras for use in traffic management, managed through a dedicated urban traffic control room. The cameras used across the city for traffic management or city centre surveillance can be viewed in either control room, McLanaghan says. Recently, my colleagues in traffic secured funding to increase the number of cameras deployed, and because they could access the cameras we have already installed, they were able to extend their scheme quite dramatically. I recommended they use MIC cameras and after a trial against a range of competitor technology, they agreed that the MICs offered greater performance, and better value for money. The quality of images and the effectiveness of the zoom from each of the cameras is second to none, McLanaghan adds, but there are also other advantages. It is easy to configure automatic number plate recognition functionality, which gives us tremendous flexibility, and their design makes them unobtrusive and aesthetically better looking. We are replacing the old shoebox cameras with MIC cameras wherever we can as budgets become available. For more information contact Bosch Security Systems - South Africa & Sub-Sahara Africa, +27 (0)11 651 9818, elaine.ogorman@za.bosch.com, www.boschsecurity.co.za
It is all praise for Boschs MIC cameras in Bristol.
Radical design and performance

It is a testimony that there are now more than 250 MIC Series cameras deployed in Bristol, not only for security but also in a traffic management capacity. Images from the cameras are transmitted to the City Councils control room in the council offices. The facility is both CCTV User Group Gold accredited as well as having a national accreditation for social alarm monitoring one of the few councils in the UK to be so recognised. In charge of the control room is manager Gordon McLanaghan: Since trialling the cameras we have never looked back, he explains. They give us the level of flexibility and
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safe City surveillanCe

Safe City partners in Israel select SerVision dVRs for live video monitoring of public spaces.
erVisions remote video surveillance solutions are being used across Israel as part of the Safe City Program designed to enhance public safety throughout local communities. The campaign makes use of advanced technologies to help reduce theft, violence and other crimes. Israels Safe City partners include the municipalities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Eilat, Raanana, and Shoham, all of which are using SerVisions video gateway solutions to help city authorities remotely monitor traffic intersections, public parks, town centres, and municipal security vehicles all from one centralised location. Authorised users can also view live and recorded video from any monitored site (fixed or moving) on their mobile device or laptop. Raanana, Israels first and largest Safe City partner, has over 250 cameras and 150 DVRs already installed throughout the city. SerVisions video servers have been developed and optimised to stream live video over cellular and low bandwidth networks and are able to stream four frames per second on only one kilobyte per second of bandwidth. The range of SerVision gateways used for Safe City applications (CVG, UVG 400, SVG 400, MVG 400) supports between one and sixteen video cameras per DVR, and has advanced event detection and handling capabilities. Most gateway models also support bi-directional audio for two-way communication between control centre authorities and individuals at the monitored site. Single channel CVGs, four channel UVGs, and sixteen channel SVGs are installed at busy traffic intersections and town centres throughout Israel. All units are able to transmit video using a cellular modem, so no physical connection to the Internet is required. The MVG400, SerVisions mobile DVR, has been installed on public security vehicles. In addition to offering four channels of live video from a moving platform, the unit has a ruggedised chassis to withstand heavy vibration, a removable HDD, and built-in GPS for fleet tracking. Studies have shown that the technologies used by Safe City partners in Israel have helped to reduce crime and violence in local communities considerably. There is no question that SerVisions remote monitoring video solutions have contributed greatly to the campaigns success. SerVisions MVG 400 is a compact 4 camera ruggedised DVR and live video transmission system with built-in GPS, bi-directional audio, a removable hard drive and wireless streaming capabilities over cellular and WiFi networks. SerVision is soon to release the CVG-M, a mobile version of the CVG. This light-weight, compact two channel unit is ideal for body worn applications but can also be installed in small remote sites or on-board taxis, buses, trains or trucks. It has a built-in GPS module, bi-directional audio, an internal 4 GB flash for recording and comes with an internal GSM module (which supports GPRS, EDGE, EMTS and HSPA networks). All that is needed to transmit video over cellular networks is a SIM card and data plan from a local carrier. For more information contact Graphic Image Technologies, +27 (0)11 884 9570, markc@git.co.za, www.git.co.za
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CCTV/SURVEILLANCE pRodUCT SHoWCASE
Axis puts on its thermals
High-resolution hybrid dVR cards
Axis Communications is introducing its AXIS Q1910 and AXIS Q1910-E Thermal Network Cameras. The new cameras use thermal imaging, which allows users to detect people and incidents with great reliability even in complete darkness and other difficult conditions. Thermal cameras create images based on the heat that always radiates from any object, vehicle or person. This gives thermal cameras the power to see through complete darkness and deliver images that allow operators to detect and act on suspicious activity. Thermal cameras can also handle many difficult weather conditions better than conventional cameras, e.g. allowing operators to see through haze, dust and smoke. AXIS Q1910 is designed for indoor surveillance, while AXIS Q1910-E is an IP66rated, outdoor-ready camera. Both cameras offer competitive thermal imaging capabilities such as 160 x128 resolution, 8.33 fps and 17-degree angle of view. In addition, they are unique on the market in supporting key IP-Surveillance features such as H.264 and Motion JPEG, audio, local storage and Power over Ethernet. Intelligent video is a key component of any thermal camera, and AXIS Q1910/-E provide tampering alarm, motion detection, and support for AXIS Camera Application Platform. To view a video of the thermal cameras in action, surf over to http://www.axis.com/ movies/products/thermal_low.wmv. For more information contact Axis Communications, +27 (0)11 548 6780, roy.alves@axis.com, www.axis.com
The DS-42xxHFVI series card is one of Hikvisions new generation audio and video compression products. It adopts a high performance video processing chip with low power consumption and is used for real-time audio and video capturing and encoding. This product incorporates hardware compression which translates into a much smoother and consistent video stream. The DVR card does the processing onboard as opposed to software compression where this is left up to the CPU. iVMS DVR software is supplied with this pro-duct. There are many features such as point of sale/text overlay, the ability to add an alarm device with eight inputs and eight outputs, intelligent search and many more. There is one audio input per channel of video, i.e., the 8 channel card has eight audio inputs and the 16 channel card has 16 audio inputs. Ogg Vorbis compression is used for the audio compression ensuring clear audio output. Further to this, central management software (CMS) is included with the cards. The capability is to view 64 channels per screen or one can do a screen pop on an event such as a bank vault being opened. The cards incorporate dual video streaming where the main stream would usually be high resolution and high frame rate for video recording. The sub stream would be set at a lower resolution and lower frame rate for streaming to a device such as a laptop with a 3G connection. The software also has a mobile phone solution where any modern mobile phone running Java 2 will be able to view the channels remotely. The Hybrid capability means that additional Hikvision IP cameras can be added to the system, at no expense other than that of the camera. The DVR cards come in an 8-channel and a 16 channel variant, and are stackable up to 40 channels in one PC. All channels are real-time at 25 fps and at 4CIF resolution. This product is available from all Regal branches as card only or as prebuilt DVR (up to 32 channels) in both PC and rack mount casing. For more information contact Regal Distributors, +27 (0)11 553 3300, merwede.van.der.merwe@regalsecurity.co.za, www.regalsecurity.co.za
The Tibet 16-channel H.264 embedded dVR

The powerful H.264 compression technology in our Tibet Series of embedded DVRs ensures that you receive high quality network and web viewing without compromise to the recording quality. Various models are available depending on your requirements. Contact your local IDS branch office now for more information. For more information contact Inhep Electronics Holdings, +27 (0)31 705 1373, matthew@inhep.com, www.inhep.com
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Radwin WinLink1000 Video Series
Fibre pro from BFR
Video surveillance systems are always installed for an important purpose, whether its monitoring banks for security, or monitoring staff within a company, these services need to always be on, and always be accessible. For this reason (when wireless IP video is concerned), more people are starting to look for a carrier-class solution, due to carrier-class systems offering the desired throughput and outstanding 5-nines availability (networks stay operational for 99,999% of the time), which means that you have close to zero downtime, the only catch is often the cost of equipment. Radwin has addressed this issue perfectly, as its new video series offers all of the carrier-class reliability that is required at a really great price. IP video streaming uses the majority of bandwidth in one particular direction, and very little in the other, and with the new Radwin video series, the devices are programmed to give you more bandwidth in that direction, hence the great cost saving, so you dont spend money on bandwidth that you dont need or use. Combined with IP video cameras from well known manufacturer Vivotek, which have a very low bandwidth need due to H.264 codecs, these Radwin video units offer you the most reliable way to transport your video data. For more information contact Miro Distribution, 086 123 MIRO, riandi@miro.co.za, www.miro.co.za
Fibre Pro is designed for digitally encoded uncompressed video transmission on multimode fibre up to 2,5 km and single-mode up to 30 km. Fibre Pro consists of products with multiple video channels, bidirectional data, bi-directional contact closure and bi-directional audio. Fibre Pro transmits 8 and 10 bit digitally encoded uncompressed video and features adjustment-free installation and operation. Fibre Pro transmitters and receivers are categorised below: 1. Video only multimode and single-mode standalone units and cage cards. 2. Video and 2 Data single-mode, standalone units and cage cards. 3. Video and 2 Data multimode, standalone units and cage cards. 4. Video, 2 Data and contact closure single-mode standalone units and cage cards. 5. Video, 2 Data and contact closure multimode standalone units and cage cards. 6. 4 Video and 2 Data- multimode, standalone units and cage cards. 7. 4 Video and 2 Data single-mode, standalone units and cage cards. 8. Fibre Pro field termination enclosure includes; pig tail, splice cassette and PSU. 9. VRX-Rack 14 slot 19-inch rack mount card cage for single and multimode receivers, including power supply unit. Fibre Pro product uses laser emitters. Video and data is transmitted on one fibre using wavelength divisional multiplexing. For more information contact BFR Digital, +27 (0)11 786 5575, dionp@bfrdigital.co.za, www.bfrdigital.co.za
Fibre Lite and Fibre Lite plus

Fibre Lite is designed to transmit analogue video and data over a multimode fibre optic cable. Fibre Lite has a maximum cable distance of 2,5 km and Fibre Lite Plus has a maximum cable distance of 5 km The Fibre Lite and Fibre Lite Plus range of products consist of: 1. Standalone video transmitters and receivers. 2. Stand alone video and data transmitters and receivers featuring digitally controlled AGC. 3. Fibre Lite field enclosures with four video transmitters and a data receiver. The data is then distributed and each video input features its own data output. 4. Cage cards transmitters and receivers for video and data. The video receiver features digitally controlled AGC. 5. Fibre Lite rack is a 16 slot 19-inch cage card including the power supply unit. For more information contact BFR Digital, +27 (0)11 786 5575, dionp@bfrdigital.co.za, www.bfrdigital.co.za
63
CCTV/SURVEILLANCE ANALySIS
the video surveillanCe gaMe Changer?

install and use; however, there are limitations on the number of cameras that can be stored on a single unit. The DVR market is forecast to decline as many installations turn to IP. IMS Research forecasts that IP SAN will be the fastest growing product type in the market for enterprise and IP storage used for video surveillance for three key reasons: 1. IP SAN is being used to expand the storage offered by COTS servers, and provide IT features such as RAID, failover and virtualisation. 2. IP SAN is cheaper per TB than Fibre SAN solutions. 3. IP SAN can be used to replace COTS servers and boxed NVRs because suppliers of IP SAN have recently incorporated the server running the VMS, creating a single boxed appliance. This creates a system that is more economical and designed specifically for video surveillance applications. IMS Research analyst William Rhodes comments, the entire video surveillance storage market is growing because end-users are demanding larger storage capacity to cope with higher resolution cameras, increased government legislation, and the ever present crime and terrorism threat that is increasing the use of video surveillance. The market has traditionally been served by video surveillance companies, but in recent years more IT storage companies have entered the market. With rapid growth forecast, this leaves room for even more storage companies to enter the space. For more information contact IMS Research, +44 1933 40 22 55, alastair.hayfield@imsresearch.com, www.imsresearch.com
s IP SAN the game changer in the market for IP and enterprise storage used for video surveillance? Will the scalability, flexibility and economy of IP SAN solutions re-shape the video surveillance storage ecosystem? A new market research report from IMS Research (www.imsresearch.com), The World Market for Enterprise and IP Storage used for Video Surveillance, forecasts the world IP SAN market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 66,7% between 2008 and 2013. Traditionally, IP video has been recorded on COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) servers or
boxed NVRs. Boxed NVRs are optimised for video surveillance and work particularly well in low camera count deployments. However, they are not favoured for larger deployments. COTS servers have been a very successful storage solution because they are relatively inexpensive and scalable, because additional storage can easily be added to the network. However, COTS servers are generally not optimised for video surveillance. Analogue storage solutions involve recording video onto a DVR and, where necessary, expanding the capacity with vertical external storage (such as DAS). DVRs are very simple to
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CCTV Handbook 2010

www.securitysa.com CCTV Handbook 2010

CCTV/SURVEILLanCE EdIToRS CoMMEnT

Technology and more

Andrew Seldon Editor

CCTV Handbook 2010 www.securitysa.com

www.securitysa.com CCTV Handbook 2010

CCTV/SURVEILLanCE CCTV RoUnd-TabLE

CCTV Handbook 2010 www.securitysa.com

Intelligence and analytics

CCTV/SURVEILLanCE CCTV RoUnd-TabLE

Kevin Pearman, Kevin Monk, Vladimir Milovanovic, Craig Donald.

CCTV Handbook 2010 www.securitysa.com

www.securitysa.com CCTV Handbook 2010

CCTV/SURVEILLanCE CCTV RoUnd-TabLE

Philip Smerkovitz, MD, TeleEye (South Africa).

Kevin Pearman, business development executive CCTV, Bytes Technology Group.

Chris Havinga, MD, IP Video Solutions.

Roy Alves, country manager, Axis Communications.

Continued from page 6

CCTV Handbook 2010 www.securitysa.com

www.securitysa.com CCTV Handbook 2010

CCTV/SURVEILLanCE CCTV RoUnd-TabLE

Philip Smerkovitz, Jan de Beer, Ernest Mallett.

CCTV Handbook 2010 www.securitysa.com

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CCTV/SURVEILLanCE CCTV RoUnd-TabLE

Vladimir Milovanovic, GM, Industrial Automation & Control.

Craig Donald, independent consultant.

Kevin Monk, MD, Nkunzi TechniSec.

Ernest Mallett, product manager, ADI Global Distribution.

On camera storage and intelligence

CCTV Handbook 2010 www.securitysa.com

Full systems ahead, with a caveat

Jan de Beer, senior executive, MultiVid.

www.securitysa.com CCTV Handbook 2010

THE EffECTIvENESS Of CCTv SySTEMS

Thoughts on staffing and training your operator personnel appropriately.

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THE jOuRNEy CONTINuES

Rob Anderson, MD, Rob Anderson & Associates

CCTV Handbook 2010 www.securitysa.com

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WHAT COMES AfTER THE NvR?

Figure 1. The evolution of surveillance video recording.

Figure 2. How it works.

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CCTV Handbook 2010 www.securitysa.com

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WHy INTELLIgENT STORAgE IN CAMERAS WILL TRANSfORM

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CCTV Handbook 2010 www.securitysa.com

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The benefits of intelligence

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City surveillanCe, a praCtiCal approaCh

Figure 1. PTZ camera plate 80 m only.

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