Not surprisingly, museum curators and their security managers can effectively find themselves in a Catch 22 situation.
High risk public galleries often require a very complex monitoring system that has to cover several floor entrances and exits, 24-hour manned security observation and multiple control points. In turn, this will necessitate a CCTV system typically consisting of a series of multiplexers, VCRs and – if the budget will stretch – matrix switchers.
More commonly, the security manager is confined to the control room scenario. So how can they hope to meet insurance requirements and exploit the latest advances in CCTV technology without busting budgets? In essence, they should look out for the proprietary-based hardware products now available on the market. These systems tend to have evolved from the more traditional analogue multiplexer models and, as such, enjoy a similar cost base to a 'systems' analogue multiplexer – but with the added benefit of built-in recording capabilities.
Employing a 'one box' solution
Digital solutions are also becoming a more affordable option, including so-called 'one box solutions'. As there is no longer any need for VCRs, tape management issues are a thing of the past. Events can be retrieved from where they are stored on an internal hard disk almost instantly, helping to speed-up incident response times.
Meantime, CCTV camera images may be monitored round-the-clock from the central control room on site and, if there is an incident, all images can be downloaded to an external drive and handed over to the police.
The message to managers is clear: CCTV installations in high risk public buildings can now take advantage of the benefits of digital systems, which not only improve efficiencies but, in many cases, can also add real value to the business.
Pauline Norstrom is technical comms manager at Dedicated Micros
Source
SMT