IP can help you grow

A great deal has been written about the emergence of Internet-Protocol (IP)-based surveillance technology. But many established security installers are still not prepared to consider what this technology evolution means for them and the markets they serve. Fewer still are actively changing in recognition of this development.

But those who do educate themselves about the advantages of the new technology will find solutions which leave them with a string of satisfied customers and prospects beating a path to their door. Those who don't, risk losing market share to the more technically savvy.

Today's customer expects more effective support for security guards from the security installer. It is no longer good enough to hope to secure premises with over-worked, under paid security guards working up to 80-hours per week to make ends meet.

Changes demanded within the Working Time Directive 1998 (which is due to pass into law by this time next year at the latest) will mean several changes, not least of which is the maximum 48-hour working week and no more than 13 hour day shifts for UK-based security guards.

Standards of training and competence are also set to rise. All this will naturally cost more money as more, better trained guards will be needed to provide the same amount of security cover. But will companies be prepared to foot the bill or will they look around for ways of cutting down on manned guarding? It isn't hard to see the answer to this question.

Text message to guard's mobile
And IP surveillance technology definitely offers some of the answers to reducing this resource constraint. For example, IP-based surveillance solutions can provide the flexibility for guards to be alerted if an unauthorised person is entering a specific door of an office building after hours. An access control sensor on that door could trigger transmission of an SMS text message to that guard's mobile phone for example. The same message might be transmitted to a central monitoring centre during specific hours in which security staff are not on-site.

Images or video from existing CCTV cameras or new IP cameras could then be sent direct to the guard's device of choice – his PC at home or even his GPRS mobile phone. These same pictures might be sent on to the police for use in verifying that there is a crime in progress before deploying vital resources.

All this is possible today and the costs of the technology which make it possible are falling all the time. In addition, the newer networked security products not only integrate very effectively with access control systems but also work alongside traditional CCTV equipment. The majority of larger projects require integration with existing analogue CCTV infrastructure. No wholesale upgrade or 'big bang' investment is required to realise the benefits of the new technology today.

Changes are afoot in other cost centres within installers' client bases which are putting increased momentum behind the take-up of IP surveillance solutions. Companies that have over-spent in recent years on providing staff with near limitless network bandwidth capacity to support a seemingly endless increase in usage of email and the Internet, are now looking to claw back some of the costs of this investment by maximising the use of the network.

The quickest way to do this is by utilising the existing infrastructure as the conduit for more applications. It goes some way to explain the heightened interest in implementation of IP telephony this year, but Axis is also seeing several large companies and public sector organisations looking to put all their video surveillance output over the network – CCTV over IP.

It makes absolute sense to use a resource which is practically lying idle for half the time (from about 7pm to 7am for most organisations), to handle and transmit surveillance pictures electronically to security staff, wherever they are physically located. This quiet period for the network is, after all, probably the busiest time for would-be thieves and other unauthorised intruders to go about their work.

IT directors taking security reins
IT departments, albeit reluctantly, are now being asked to get involved in security system procurement decisions. Of this there is no doubt.

Security installers who cannot engage with the issues of concern to IT departments will find themselves cut out of a large chunk of their market

A recent survey of IIPSEC Conference attendees found that nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of the sample of 50 CCTV installers, IT resellers, vendors and consultants questioned, said surveillance buying decisions were now in the hands of an IT director. Little more – 31 per cent – of surveillance buying decisions are still in the hands of traditional security managers today.

More worryingly perhaps: 50 per cent believe that security managers are less involved in the buying decision today than they were just two years ago. In short then, security installers that cannot engage with the issues of concern to IT departments will find themselves cut out of a large chunk of their market in the near future, if indeed they are not already feeling the pinch.

IP surveillance technology by its very nature is highly versatile and 'networkable' with other technologies. For example, installations exist today where IP cameras integrate with Electronic Point Of Sale based cash registers to assist with the detection of fraudulent activity. As a transaction takes place it is logged with video on a database to assist the gathering of vital visual evidence.

Storage of visual evidence has long been a bug bear of security managers. The use, rotation and storage of VHS tapes of time lapsed CCTV image pictures has gained a great deal of bad press in recent years. There have been no end of shameful stories about lost tapes; gaps in time too large to capture the vital footage; and recording onto over-used tapes creating poor quality pictures which fail to identify suspects. DVD recorders have gone some way to solve these problems. IP solutions also enable direct recording to multiple servers in multiple locations if necessary. This data can be encrypted and access denied to all but those fully authorised. And, providing cameras are properly set up, housed and integrated, that digital output will be worthy of use in court.

Hire someone who knows networks
So assuming then that IP-based surveillance systems offer real opportunities for all security installers, how should they embrace these opportunities? Clearly one answer is to aim to hire somebody who understands computer networks and involve the person in initial discussions with a prospect where appropriate.

It may be worthwhile talking to some IT security resellers (of which there are thousands across the UK) about the sorts of challenges they are facing. You may find some of them are already being requested by their prospects to come up with holistic security solutions which include physical security – all linked to the network.

They need your expertise just as much as you need theirs. An information security specialist is more used to setting up data transmission protocol policies on a corporate firewall than getting the right configuration of CCTV cameras in a comp-any's reception area to ensure there are no blind spots. This sort of knowledge is key information and if it can be combined with information security and networks knowledge, the mix will be compelling to any right-minded company director looking to cut costs and deploy a holistic security system which covers all the angles.

The police are already recognising what can be done by networking cameras from high crime locations into police monitoring centres. A UK police force recently unveiled 'The Detectacam' covert security solution. This solution, which uses AXIS 2100 IP cameras, gives the force the ability to remotely monitor opportunist burglars as they enter a property (see page 67).

The cameras which are so small that they can be housed in everyday household items such as fan heaters, Hi-Fi speakers, A4 lever arch files or waste paper bins, start to send pictures via Orange's high speed GSM data network to the forces' HQ.

Security 'excellence' rewarded
Newport City Council have also managed to roll out a highly cost effective IP–based surveillance solution, taking advantage of broadband networking capacity provided to them by the Government through its National Grid for Learning initiative The Newport Community Safety Partnership initiative, which combined the City Council, Gwent Police and private sector partners including Axis Communications, put together a solution which enabled surveillance of hotspots such as school roofs after hours. AXIS 2400 video servers were deployed to distribute video images from CCTV cameras onto the network. The Newport Schools project was the first IP based project to win the Security Client of the year award at the Security Excellence Awards 2002.

The entire solution enabled alarm activation and relaying of video footage to a central monitoring centre in the council's civic centre on a 24-hour basis. The solution offered Newport Council considerable cost savings and incidences of vandalism were stopped in their tracks, saving the council £75,000 per year immediately.