Just some of the dominant strands to be found inside the IFSEC CCTV Village this year, but how much of the manufacturer information on offer at Birmingham’s NEC was of practical value to the end user?
Security Management Today’s Editor thought it would be a good idea to follow up on last year’s IFSEC end user report. “David, I’d like you to do exactly the same as last year,” he said. “An assessment of the exhibition from the CCTV end user’s point of view.” After all, what could be simpler than to compare the 2001 event with this year’s equipment extravaganza?
However, your Editor threw down a googly with his final remark: “I should imagine that IP video will play a large part this year, so it’ll be interesting to discover visitor reactions to it.”
With such concise instructions issued, I set off for IFSEC 2002 with a single-minded approach: to split the mission into three tasks. First, compare IFSEC 2002 with my report from last year’s event (‘Eyes front’, SMT, August 2002, pp24-26). Second, pay attention to IP video matters and, last but not least, make a note of any significant changes.
According to the MBD ‘UK CCTV Market Development Report: 2001’, many overseas competitors are now targeting the UK surveillance sector. This is perfectly understandable, as the UK and European sectors account for more than half of total worldwide sales.
This ‘international expansion’ was well demonstrated by the increase in the number of overseas exhibitors at IFSEC 2002. Last year there were 91 overseas companies at the show. In 2002, that number had leapt by almost 50% to 135. Where did they come from? Most prominent was the Far East contingent (accounting for 73 exhibitors) closely followed by 54 European concerns. Surprisingly, there were only 10 North American firms showing their wares. The remainder were from South Africa, Israel and Australia.
In 2001, there were 217 exhibitors in the CCTV Village. This year there were 285 (an impressive increase of 30%). In simple terms, the growth was due to two specific topics – biometrics and IP video. Last time around there were 24 biometrics-related products on display, whereas in 2002 the total had more than doubled to 59. For biometrics, read IP video. The 22 IP manufacturers of last year turned into no less than 47.
Providing for the end user
My principal observation in 2001 had been that exhibitors were not, in the main, providing for the needs of end users, but instead were aiming at technically competent visitors. Sadly, this remains the overriding impression.
As usual, the stands were all of the highest quality. My basic three questions at each were: “What are you selling this year?”, “What is different from last time around?” and “How will the equipment benefit me?” This approach seemed to pose problems for the personnel in attendance, as they had very obviously prepared a briefing that covered all the capabilities of their products. However, as an end user I wasn’t particularly interested in the intricacies of various systems, only in the benefits that they might provide for me.
Surprisingly, a number of exhibitors didn’t possess the relevant literature for their latest products. This was quite serious, as it meant they couldn’t answer my first question – not properly, at least, in any case. Although many promised to forward such material “when it becomes available”, it does mean that an end user is unable to form any proper judgement until the literature is to hand. It also means that the end user cannot begin to influence other key decision-makers within their own organisation until such time as the brochures land on their desk.
A good many end users are working to imminent deadlines. They make the pilgrimage to IFSEC to confirm or delete possible purchases. Given that a host of exhibitors didn’t have relevant literature to hand out concerning their latest products, such an omission begs the question: is IFSEC still all about ‘techno groupies’, and not really concerned with selling to end users?
Manufacturers must begin to realise that buyers can be both technical experts and laypersons, with the latter very often being the decision-makers.
Real life scenarios
A degree of change was evident, though. Sony had an excellent stand that was certainly the most end user-friendly. It was laid out in the most creative of fashions, and broke the mould by displaying many of the company’s products in situ (ie in retail, corporate reception area, director’s office, central Control Room and warehouse-style environments). The idea centred on e-surveillance, highlighting the latest range of IP-specific and network products that compliment the company’s existing ranges of CCTV systems.
A welcome change from the routine ‘technoheads congregation’ style adopted by most exhibitors, then…
Sony representative David Snook was keen to emphasise the benefits of this layout for stand visitors. “We decided that the end user could relate much better to our products if we provided some ‘real life’ scenarios, instead of a list of benefits on a sheet of paper.” Indeed so.
The proliferation of biometric and IP video equipment was the most strikingly obvious difference from last year. There’s no doubt that video over IP has now started to come of age. After many false starts – including my own pleas in bygone years for ‘convergence of networks’ – it would now appear that IP-based CCTV activity is making headway. This can only be a definite indication that the concerns of in-house IT managers have been assuaged.
That said, manufacturers are still referring to CCTV ‘images’ instead of CCTV ‘information’. Once this semantic but significant terminology has been accepted, the use of video over IP can truly be considered just another IT network matter.
IP video in focus
The CCTV Village offered a bewildering selection of IP video products. These encompassed Internet cameras, webcam servers, IP camera support mechanisms, network cameras, TCP/IP bridging and networking, IP video servers, TCP/IP MPEG2 video surveillance, LAN cameras, modem/LAN/Internet connectivity and V-networks IP cameras.
As if that weren’t enough to bamboozle the average end user, there was also evidence of web-based digital recording, JPEG 2000 IP-addressable IP cameras, video e-mailing, dynamic IP broadband Internet, IT network technologies, IP modules built-in to cameras, compatibility with various IT networks, GSM and IP Intranets and video over mobile telephone networks. Oh yes, video over IP is very much on the advance.
Companies such as Baxall have now moved into IP control systems. Products in the company’s Destiny range can be applied to both small-scale LANs and also those with ATM-based WANs. Karl Haw, Baxall’s business development manager, told SMT: “ATM transmission enables far better picture quality. However, it’s expensive and will be needs-driven from the end user’s point of view.”
Interestingly, Control Room systems integration specialist Barco has also moved into the IP video arena. “Our large screen, back projection system is well suited to any multi-camera IP system,” commented Simon Turtle, Barco’s projection development manager.
Thermal imaging also featured prominently, but there’s still no sign of a significant breakthrough that will overcome the inherent problems of current IR detector technology.
Overall, there was a definite advance on the use of digital technology to enhance the capabilities of video image information. Until recently, the advantages of digital technology were being used mainly to improve recording capabilities, image enhancement and data retrieval. Now, the trend is focusing on the application of digital techniques to improve image information in the form of biometric and motion detection capability.
Sam Austrin-Miner, European technical director at Intervid, said: “More use is now being made of the digital platform. It makes little sense to limit its use to digital recording. We can now develop its capability to integrate biometrics and smart motion detection.”
Austrin-Miner continued: “At the end of the day it’s all about integrating disparate data types and bringing them together to make that data both practical and meaningful to the end user. That will be the true beginnings of us taking the CCTV business into the digital age.”
Biometric recognition systems
The other major topic at this year’s exhibition was the prominence of biometric recognition systems. In fact, this was such an important matter that the organisers set up a separate Biometrics Village. Many exhibitors displayed iris recognition technology, as well as the more conventional facial recognition systems.
Yet more proof, then, that CCTV is now being routinely integrated into networked systems to interface with access control and other associated matters. As with all technology, this is being developed into potential second generation products.
Currently, the underlying reason for having biometric recognition is to match faces against a database of known images. However, one of the regular tasks for town centre CCTV systems is to search their locality for a lost person.
Thus, as Carlton D’Souza of Vigilant Technology explained: “We would like to provide solutions to such problems by building an intelligent detection and search capability into the existing digital platform. In this way, we could carry out an object search task to trace a lost person who was wearing the proverbial ‘red coat’.”
Intelligent privacy zones
Last year, the problem of coping with new legislation was addressed at one of the IFSEC seminars dedicated to reviewing the terms and conditions of the Human Rights Act. Although there are many complaints about legislation – to do with cost, inconvenience, relevance or omissions – it’s good to see that the security industry can respond effectively, at least in certain instances.
The most obvious case concerns the increase in the number and complexity of products displaying the capability for CCTV privacy zones. This is a direct consequence of the Data Protection Act 1998 (Data Protection Principle number 2 states: “The cameras must be restricted where practicable so that those operating the system cannot overlook spaces that are not intended to be viewed)”.
Some of the exhibitors at IFSEC were marketing intelligent privacy zone capability, providing a scaleable functionality that ensures the privacy zone remains in place regardless of the camera angle or zoom ratio in operation.
On that subject Tony Makosinski of Bewator noted: “There has been an increasing demand for privacy zone capability.” As a result, Bewator has developed a dynamic electronic zone masking capability that’s very easy to use. It enables the zones to be inserted and amended from the control desk to cope with any changing circumstances regarding the area under surveillance.
“That’s one of the great benefits of digital technology,” added Makosinski. “It’s all part of the trend towards making technical matters easier to cope with for the end user. And it’s another ‘plus’ of the digital revolution.”
Finally, something of a red herring. Has CCTV now become a mainstream activity? Has it come in out of the cold and become an integral part of security solutions? That is one way of interpreting the lack of CCTV-specific themes at this year’s IFSEC seminars. There was only one in 2002, and four at last year’s show.
Commenting on the seminar line-up, Pauline Appleby – the BSIA seminars’ co-ordinator – said: “Following September 11, a decision was taken to focus on terrorism. CCTV will definitely be back on the agenda next year.”
The main impression of IFSEC 2002 has to be: “Getting better. However, equipment exhibitors still need to concentrate more on the end user’s requirement for practical rather than technical information.”
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