Surveillance --- Analog Video vs. IP Video

Video security systems as we know them from about 10-15 years ago consisted of cameras, lenses, power supplies for the cameras, multiplexers, time lapse VCR’s, and monitors. About the time that the VCR technology was becoming obsolete came the Digital Video Recorder (DVR), now this is not your TIVO or DVR from your cable company, but a new technology (same concept) which allowed you to store the feeds coming from surveillance cameras onto a hard drive which was in the DVR to be played back digitally, local or remote.

This technology took over very fast, and eliminated the need to have all that extra equipment and the biggest pain was the all those TAPES. The DVR got rid of the tapes which most people either forgot to change or hit the record button so that when an incident happened they did not have the evidence to prove it or prosecute. The DVR fixed a lot of issues plaguing video surveillance. The biggest hurdle that was fixed with the introduction of the DVR was the ability to view remotely through a high-speed connection anywhere in the world. This enabled the business owner who never takes a vacation because they always had to be onsite so employees would not run them into the ground by giving the store away. Now, they could be in Hawaii on the beach and check in on their employees to see what they are doing or how busy there location(s) are. Besides being a “security” device this was becoming more of an administrative tool for many businesses. Having this technology really improved the industry in a whole.

That is Analog video which by the way is still very prevalent in the industry still controlling about 80% of the market. The term “Analog” even though we are recording on VCR’s or digitally through DVR’s is still called analog. What we have now is the introduction of IP Video, the IP Stands for Internet Protocol. What that means is going over the “Network” to view and record images from cameras. The introduction of IP cameras is revolutionizing the security industry because not only is it easier for people to store or move data (video), but cabling the systems is far easier. The traditional analog system needed two wires a power wire which is typically a 2 conductor 18 gauge wire for power and a video wire which is a coaxial cable RG59U. They do have other variations of these cables for better distance, but the most commonly used are the ones we discussed. The IP camera only takes one cable and that cable is a CAT5 or better cable the CAT stands for Category. This along with the introduction of Power over Ethernet (PoE) enabled running one low cost wire which gives you power and video.

Now, we have a set number of cameras going into a PoE switch which provide the power and network connectivity. The ability to have a server which is also on the network has these cameras attached to it through IP Address’s rather then physical cables. That in a nutshell is IP Video and how it works, but one of the downfalls and concerns is bandwidth utilization. Consumption of a networks bandwidth with video is substantial and many network managers fear cameras because of this, but there have been some fixes which are in place to alleviate their fears, such as creating a private security network with its own hardware, and splitting the video traffic onto a Virtual LAN (VLAN) which would not disrupt regular day to day traffic. This leads me into my final subject on IP vs. Analog is the switch of control from traditional security guys to the IT managers.

Traditional Analog video did not require much network knowledge and was fairly simple and the installer just had to plug in the cable and it was working. With the introduction of IP Video it’s a whole different ball game and more and more network/IT functions are needed. I am seeing more and more budgeting on public bids to have security rolled into the IT budget which is easier for everyone. This switch creates a more savvy environment when it comes designing and implementing a Video Surveillance system.

The security market when it comes to video surveillance is changing rapidly and the emergence of such video systems like IP video also enable a lot more functionality and in the coming posts you can look forward topics which include Video Analytics and Biometrics.

See you soon!

Kal