Video Innovations With Real-World Applications
New video surveillance products and solutions are often touted as having a game-changing influence on the market, leaving campus security professionals to sort out fact from fiction. Here are several technologies whose time really has come.
The famed writer-management consultant Peter Drucker once said, “Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.
What happens when the marketing outpaces the innovation? Sometimes the result is equivalent to what has been experienced in the video surveillance marketplace. A product or solution introduction arrives adorned in hyperbole and overstated promises; users are left to determine what is reality. But oftentimes, too, the technology truly is remarkable; yet marketplace laggards far outnumber early adopters and the product languishes. Sometimes the solution may simply be ahead of its time.
Remote viewing on smart phones, H.264 compression, forensic and data analytics, megapixel and thermal images, edge devices, HDcctv and so much more. These are among the latest and highly-touted technology advancements introduced in recent times. But what purpose do they ultimately serve? How useful are they in the real world, and what are the best ways to match capabilities to application and optimize the solution?
CS’ sister publication Security Sales & Integration interviewed several video surveillance experts to pinpoint just some of the more recent products and technologies that are fulfilling school, university and hospitals security needs.
Analytics Gets an Image Makeover
Video analytics has for several years been hailed for its promise to transform data into actionable intelligence. By means of sophisticated algorithms, marketing hype assured that suspects could be reliably identified in real-time, thereby stopping crimes in progress. From raw video, organizations could mine enterprise data to enhance security and make better decisions about operational efficiencies.
To be sure, these and other encouraging attributes were possible, but oftentimes multiple system limitations, false alarms and other prohibitive factors conspired to give the technology a black eye. On the whole, the various claims and promises made in the name of analytics proved to be far ahead of the actual technology. Users soured and grew cynical of their floundering expectations.
Nowadays the potential presented by analytic applications will likely excite campus protection professionals once again. Importantly, though, the first order of business is to have a reasonable level of expectation.
Presently there are in fact many effective and reliable analytic applications that satisfy campus security stakeholders, according to Fredrik Nilsson, general manager, Axis Communications, a provider of network cameras.
Before adopting analytic solutions, be sure to avoid locking into one vendor. Instead, choose analytics providers that have an open model and strong application developer partnerships.
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