Security managers are always on the look-out for new ways of reducing the amount of space they need to store ever-increasing amounts of visual information. DVR technology allows the cost-effective storage of large amounts of visual data in a digital format, at last freeing the end user from having to keep and maintain vast racks crammed with analogue tapes.
Given that standard VCR tapes can only hold a few hours’ worth of information, security personnel have to physically remove them from the recorder, label and catalogue them and then pop in another tape on a regular basis. In other words, your security officers will be performing what can only be construed as a less-value added task.
Since digital systems are typically Windows-based, they provide the site manager with instant access to often critical information. Whereas searching for information on an analogue tape could take many hours, digital technology enables you to complete a search in a matter of seconds. For instance, if you need to review an incident that happened one month ago at 12.00 pm on ‘Camera 15’, digital technology allows you to fulfil that search request in next to no time.
The ability to quickly retrieve high quality images is imperative in helping to thwart fraud or theft, at the same time protecting against liability. DVR systems have the additional benefit of performing simultaneous playback from the hard disk while continuing to record (and archiving automatically to the digital cassette).
The hard disk enables the fast retrieval of any necessary information without ever having to lose visual or audio information, while the images themselves may be accessed from any PC attached to either the WAN or LAN.
In other words, security managers are often able to provide the same high quality coverage for multiple sites without requiring on-site personnel, at the same time allowing the surveillance director to proactively participate in the management of the organisation.
In today’s blue chip environments, many clients want continuous high frame rate recording so that they can extract more detailed and higher quality information from the digital images. This is extremely important, as vital detailing is often lost in poor quality images.
The best DVR systems provide continuous high-motion video and audio recording at 12.5 frames per second per camera. High frame rate, coupled with superior resolution, means that recordings will show much more detail when they are played back.
Unlike standard analogue VCRs, digital CCTV offers the security team some much-needed flexibility – from continuous recording through to event-driven monitoring. Recording can be triggered when, say, a door is opened. Such flexibility not only ensures that information of real value is captured, but it also improves productivity for the security manager in that less time is needed to carry out retrievals.
A further bonus can be seen in that, compared with conventional analogue recording, digital systems need very little maintenance and have a high level of reliability. They exhibit a much higher ‘mean time between failure’, while the most sophisticated types boast self-diagnostic features that report any potential problems to the end user. Some digital systems are software-based so that, with the right system, the obsolescence of PCs, networks and other vital security systems is minimised.
Hardware problems, then, should soon be one less thing to worry about in the average security department.
The move towards systems integration
Despite all of these advantages, today’s DVR systems mark only the beginning of a greater shift towards much more sophisticated security management.
Looking to the future, a single trend stands out: that of systems integration. Essentially, integration allows the end user to combine information from two or more systems into one easy-to-use, intuitive application.
The sharing of data and information across integrated devices, such as access control and fire detection, makes for quick and effective information retrieval, enabling improved response times and better security results.
No wonder, then, that this is a goal aspired to by most corporate concerns for more than a decade. The appeal is obvious. Security personnel can manage their environment with minimal effort and expense to the client, yet achieve the maximum deterrent effect.
Most recently, integrated systems have come to be seen as those which can exchange information ‘effortlessly’, responding to predetermined settings while providing management information at a central station. An example of where an integrated system might work in practice is a typical corporate office environment where an employee gives his access control card to an outside party, such as a repair man, for a totally legitimate reason. When the unauthorised person tries to gain entry, the card reader alone will not recognise a potential problem (unless biometric information is involved, of course).
However, with an integrated access control and digital CCTV system, the security personnel can see, record and monitor entry by the unauthorised party.
In the future, such an integrated set-up will include facial recognition technology. The integrated capability will search and match the subject’s face from a virtually limitless database, or from a previously captured image. When a problem is detected, an alarm will sound and the incident will then pop up on the security officers’ PCs in real time. In this way potential risks will be minimised.
This is just one example of how seamless integration could improve security personnel productivity – in turn fundamentally changing the overall role and effectiveness of the security team.
Added value for the client
Integrated systems also have the potential to add substantial value for the client beyond standard security needs, including:
There are a couple of examples which illustrate the innovative use of CCTV above and beyond traditional security measures. Take a personnel manager who has the access control system programmed to flag the arrival of a new member of staff or a specific visitor to the building. The integrated CCTV systems would display a picture of the entrance lobby on his/her PC when the new employee arrives and swipes an access card through the gate. The manager can then personally greet the new arrival straightaway.
And what about the large, blue chip travel operator using a combined CCTV and alarm system, formerly dedicated solely as a deterrent to crime, for streamlining the passenger loading process? This use of the system can result in precious seconds being shaved off the stoppage time at each station, avoiding costly delays and monetary penalties for not reaching performance targets.
Technology is driving the development (and future uses) of CCTV. It will be those end users who wholeheartedly embrace the integration methods offered by these new technologies that will maximise the use of their own security personnel, while safeguarding the host company’s facilities to even greater degrees.
