Cisco Systems is Transforming the Physical Security Industry with Migration to IP-Based Surveillance.
It is important, sometimes dangerous, glamorously depicted in action-based movies and TV shows - and becoming very high tech.
The physical security industry, characterized by the archetypal suited guard peering at a video monitor after hours, now has the opportunity to go IP thanks to technology from Cisco Systems®.
It all follows the April 5, 2006 acquisition by Cisco of SyPixx Networks, a specialist at the forefront of an emerging market for physical security systems based on new technology.
The products that Cisco has acquired with SyPixx include, for example, IP video encoders and networked digital video storage units, as well as software used to control where video goes and who has access to it.
These are a million miles away from the traditional technologies used in physical security, which has barely moved on in technical terms since the invention of the video recorder.
The standard-issue physical surveillance package today consists of a number of fixed and pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) cameras linked to a video matrix switch, an analog switching device.
This in turn is connected to an analogue video cassette recorder (VCR) or in some cases a Tivo-like digital video recorder, display screen, keyboard and joystick for controlling the cameras.Although they have served the industry for years, these systems have a number of obvious drawbacks, including:
Images coming in from the cameras can only be viewed from one point, usually the security desk or control center, which means a single guard cannot monitor them while touring the premises.
Scanning analogue tapes is laborious and time-consuming, creating delays in the event of a query or investigation.
The video images cannot easily be re-purposed or re-transmitted to other departments, wasting a potentially valuable way of measuring queuing times, consumer behavior and so on.
In the Cisco version of the system, the analogue feed from the cameras goes first to an IP Gateway encoder which digitizes the video signal, places it into IP packets and then sends it to a LAN switch for transmission across the network.
The VCR is replaced by a network video recorder (NVR), with capabilities similar to those of the popular TiVo interactive video receiver, which is connected to a traditional monitor and keyboard via a Cisco IP Gateway decoder.
Using low-latency MPEG-4 video compression standard implementation, the system can provide broadcast-quality, high-resolution images at up to 30 frames per second, or lower-bandwidth streams as required.
This comes with multicast and unicast support managed by Cisco Video Surveillance Stream Manager software.
What all this means is that security staff need no longer be tied to a chair in the control room in order to monitor premises, with a corresponding increase in productivity, security and safety.
The camera feeds can be viewed from anywhere in the world where there is an Internet connection, including WiFi-enabled handheld devices that security guards or other authorized personnel can carry around with them when at home, doing their rounds or at remote locations.
Integration with 'video analytics' software increases the capabilities of the surveillance system by allowing digital cameras to react to particular types of images, such as people loitering suspiciously in sensitive parts of a building or an object left in a particular area, and send alerts to the security surveillance team.
Other benefits include the ability to re-use video images elsewhere in the organization, transforming video surveillance from a single-use facility operation system into a business tool for data mining and other purposes.
Moreover, Cisco video surveillance products provide the ability to use equipment from a wide range of vendors-including IP camera companies, storage providers and access control firms.
This last consideration is an important one because physical security is usually seen as an unavoidable overhead.
The fact that most systems are proprietary currently prevents many organizations from picking and choosing equipment in order to make the most of their budgets or building best-in-class physical security and video surveillance systems and applications.
Cisco allows security departments to hold onto their existing investment in analog cameras, monitors and keyboards, while moving to a more flexible network-enabled system.
For security departments that want to go the extra mile, though, there is the option of going all-IP from the camera to the recorder. Experience from sectors such as retail and banking has shown that this can be a major factor in helping security move from being seen entirely as a cost center.
This could be, for example, by allowing sophisticated marketing and customer relationship management applications to be tied to in-store or in-branch activity, such as automatically calling extra staff up for checkout duties if queues exceed a certain length, or by analyzing customer 'loiter time' in front of sales displays.
Another example would be in achieving regulatory compliance. Businesses such as banks and casinos are mandated to securely capture and store video. Moving to network-based video improves the efficiency of both video capture and storage.
The market for IP video surveillance is growing rapidly and its application has helped Cisco, for example, to save USD$700,000 a year.
And there is already significant interest from a number of markets where security is of prime importance, including retail, gaming and the public sector.
So the department that usually protects the safety and security of people and an organization's assets could soon be an important data provider for other business user groups as well.
Jason Deign is a freelance journalist located in Barcelona, Spain.
The physical security industry, characterized by the archetypal suited guard peering at a video monitor after hours, now has the opportunity to go IP thanks to technology from Cisco Systems®.
It all follows the April 5, 2006 acquisition by Cisco of SyPixx Networks, a specialist at the forefront of an emerging market for physical security systems based on new technology.
The products that Cisco has acquired with SyPixx include, for example, IP video encoders and networked digital video storage units, as well as software used to control where video goes and who has access to it.
These are a million miles away from the traditional technologies used in physical security, which has barely moved on in technical terms since the invention of the video recorder.
The standard-issue physical surveillance package today consists of a number of fixed and pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) cameras linked to a video matrix switch, an analog switching device.
This in turn is connected to an analogue video cassette recorder (VCR) or in some cases a Tivo-like digital video recorder, display screen, keyboard and joystick for controlling the cameras.Although they have served the industry for years, these systems have a number of obvious drawbacks, including:
Images coming in from the cameras can only be viewed from one point, usually the security desk or control center, which means a single guard cannot monitor them while touring the premises.
Scanning analogue tapes is laborious and time-consuming, creating delays in the event of a query or investigation.
The video images cannot easily be re-purposed or re-transmitted to other departments, wasting a potentially valuable way of measuring queuing times, consumer behavior and so on.
In the Cisco version of the system, the analogue feed from the cameras goes first to an IP Gateway encoder which digitizes the video signal, places it into IP packets and then sends it to a LAN switch for transmission across the network.
The VCR is replaced by a network video recorder (NVR), with capabilities similar to those of the popular TiVo interactive video receiver, which is connected to a traditional monitor and keyboard via a Cisco IP Gateway decoder.
Using low-latency MPEG-4 video compression standard implementation, the system can provide broadcast-quality, high-resolution images at up to 30 frames per second, or lower-bandwidth streams as required.
This comes with multicast and unicast support managed by Cisco Video Surveillance Stream Manager software.
What all this means is that security staff need no longer be tied to a chair in the control room in order to monitor premises, with a corresponding increase in productivity, security and safety.
The camera feeds can be viewed from anywhere in the world where there is an Internet connection, including WiFi-enabled handheld devices that security guards or other authorized personnel can carry around with them when at home, doing their rounds or at remote locations.
Integration with 'video analytics' software increases the capabilities of the surveillance system by allowing digital cameras to react to particular types of images, such as people loitering suspiciously in sensitive parts of a building or an object left in a particular area, and send alerts to the security surveillance team.
Other benefits include the ability to re-use video images elsewhere in the organization, transforming video surveillance from a single-use facility operation system into a business tool for data mining and other purposes.
Moreover, Cisco video surveillance products provide the ability to use equipment from a wide range of vendors-including IP camera companies, storage providers and access control firms.
This last consideration is an important one because physical security is usually seen as an unavoidable overhead.
The fact that most systems are proprietary currently prevents many organizations from picking and choosing equipment in order to make the most of their budgets or building best-in-class physical security and video surveillance systems and applications.
Cisco allows security departments to hold onto their existing investment in analog cameras, monitors and keyboards, while moving to a more flexible network-enabled system.
For security departments that want to go the extra mile, though, there is the option of going all-IP from the camera to the recorder. Experience from sectors such as retail and banking has shown that this can be a major factor in helping security move from being seen entirely as a cost center.
This could be, for example, by allowing sophisticated marketing and customer relationship management applications to be tied to in-store or in-branch activity, such as automatically calling extra staff up for checkout duties if queues exceed a certain length, or by analyzing customer 'loiter time' in front of sales displays.
Another example would be in achieving regulatory compliance. Businesses such as banks and casinos are mandated to securely capture and store video. Moving to network-based video improves the efficiency of both video capture and storage.
The market for IP video surveillance is growing rapidly and its application has helped Cisco, for example, to save USD$700,000 a year.
And there is already significant interest from a number of markets where security is of prime importance, including retail, gaming and the public sector.
So the department that usually protects the safety and security of people and an organization's assets could soon be an important data provider for other business user groups as well.
Jason Deign is a freelance journalist located in Barcelona, Spain.
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