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Bringing Focus to Your Video Surveillance Program

The first step in selecting the optimal video surveillance system is asking the right questions about usage, picture quality and storage needs.

Bringing Focus to Your
Video Surveillance Program

The first step in selecting the optimal video surveillance system
is asking the right questions about usage, picture quality and
storage needs.

There’s no question that video surveillance systems are helping municipalities, businesses and public safety organizations protect their citizens, protect their property and put criminals behind bars. But while it is easy to see the benefits of a video surveillance system, it is a lot more difficult to pick one that meets a specific organization’s needs. In fact, when it comes to features such as network management, image quality and even storage, selecting the right video surveillance system can seem like a daunting task.

But it doesn’t have to be. For organizations looking to install, add to or upgrade a video surveillance system, asking just three key questions can help guide them to the optimal video system.

Why Organizations Need to Future-Proof their Video Systems from Day One

When installing, adding to or upgrading a video system, the first question organizations should ask is this: How will this organization use a video surveillance system and what might it use it for in the future? The question sounds simple, but surprisingly, many organizations do not consider the second half of this question before they buy. And that’s a mistake, because how an organization uses its video surveillance system can change significantly as time passes.

For instance, in the early days of video surveillance, many municipalities simply installed cameras as a deterrent to crime. But in today’s age, even when an organization might install a video system for a specific purpose – such as simply to monitor activity in a high crime area – that same organization might find itself using that video for much, much more.

That video might be used in a courtroom to help prosecute a crime. Or it could be sent to first responders when they are on the way to a crime scene so they are better prepared to handle the situation when they arrive. Or private entities or public safety organizations could choose to share the video with other organizations in the event of an emergency. This means that video from many disparate systems would have to be piped to and accessed by many different command centers, such as the police department’s command center, the fire department’s command center or the Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) command center.

Of course, getting the different organizations’ video and command systems – which often use very different technology – to talk to one another can be a challenge. But that’s where software called physical security information management (PSIM) can help. This software “neutralizes the differences between different video systems,” says Dave Fowler, senior vice president of product development and marketing at VidSys, a PSIM provider.

For instance, using PSIM software, an organization can easily access and manage the video piped in from another organization’s surveillance system – even if they have no idea what camera, compression or transmission technology that system uses. Using PSIM software, organizations can even easily track movement across many different types of cameras and video systems owned by many organizations. For instance, the software can facilitate the tracking of a suspect as they move from a private parking lot onto the street.

Or if an organization finds that the video surveillance system it installed several years ago does not meet its current needs and decides to upgrade just part of its system, PSIM software can help the organization easily manage both the old and the new system. For instance, this software can be used to neutralize the differences between an “old” analog and a “new” IP-based video system. This allows organizations to operate and manage the two different video networks as one integrated system using one user interface – thus reducing training costs as well as video storage and retrieval headaches.

Finding the Right Balance Between Image Quality, Frame Rate, Cost and Bandwidth

The second question that organizations need to ask themselves is this: What quality picture is needed for video – and how does this affect bandwidth needs? An organization first must determine how much detail it needs in the picture, which is measured using resolution.

For instance, security guards might simply need to track the movements of someone who has entered a restricted area. They might not need to recognize who it is. But in a courtroom, jurors better be able to recognize a face or read a license plate from a video.

Resolution is measured in pixels, and the primary measurement for resolution is pixels per foot (PPF). As a rule of thumb, the minimum pixel measurement needed to recognize a face is 40 by 40 or 1600 pixels. And to read a license plate, one needs a minimum of 80 by 80 or 6400 pixels.

Another feature to consider is frame rate. Here are some general guidelines. Generally, video being viewed live should support frame rates of 24 to 30 frames per second (fps) – which are the lowest speeds that the eye perceives as actual motion – to avoid eye strain. Depending on how video is supported, however, some security operations may find 10 to 15 fps acceptable today for basic video capture.

In contrast, a higher resolution is often more important than a high frame rate for video that is being reviewed after it is recorded. The higher resolution allows individuals to be recognized and license plates to be read more easily.

Of course, the higher the resolution and the frame rate of the system, the higher the bandwidth needs and the system cost. Fortunately, using compression techniques, one can maintain a higher image quality while reducing bandwidth needs – and cost. But here again, organizations must be willing to make choices.

For instance, too aggressive compression results in anomalies that look strange and can damage the video’s credibility in court. Once again, an organization must first determine how it wants to use its video system both now and in the future to make the right choices in this area.

The Importance of Selecting a Scalable Storage System

The third question to consider is: How much storage do I need for my video system? Unfortunately, video storage is often just an afterthought with many organizations, and this can lead to problems down the road.

“Even when an organization starts with a small video system, they need to think big in terms of storage,” says Kevin McDunn, director of applications and data product strategy for Motorola’s Government and Public Safety unit. “They need to think in terms of scalability.”

“The general issue is that video storage systems are large,” says Chris Gladwin, CEO of Cleversafe, a provider of dispersed storage solutions. “They are generally an order of magnitude bigger than other storage systems.”

How much storage does an organization need – and how fast might those needs grow? Consider this example: Just one megapixel camera (1280×1024 pixels) will generate 80 kilobits of data per frame at 30 frames per second. In total, this means it will generate 207 gigabytes of data each 24-hour day.

Even if motion analytics is used to record only when motion is detected, the camera will generate 20.7 gigabytes of data per day (assuming motion 10 percent of the time). Even at this rate of collection, one year’s worth of video for just two cameras would generate 15 terabytes of data. And a law enforcement organization using that data as evidence in a trial might be required to store that data for at least five years.

Why Storing Information the Old-Fashioned Way Can be Costly

And here is the big problem: At about 10 terabytes of data, storing data the old-fashioned way becomes very costly largely because as the amount of data grows, the more back-up copies of that data are needed. This eventually leads to exponential increases in costs and also leads to security concerns because the data is now located in many different facilities.

And even when multiple back-up copies of data are made, the traditional data backup system still is not that reliable, given that between one and five percent of hard drives fail every year and between 10 and 20 percent of tapes fail.

“With a traditional back-up system, the reliability goes down and the cost goes up as your storage needs increase,” Gladwin says.

Fortunately, there is an alternative way to store data using a technique called Information Dispersal. This technique stores slices of information on a network of servers – and then reassembles it when it is needed. And a file can be reassembled even if all the slices are not available, so if one server fails, the data can still be retrieved intact.

And the cost? Gladwin estimates that with a large scale storage system, where a company might need three back-up copies of the data using a traditional storage model, a dispersed system can cost one-fifth to one-half as much. Plus it will consume one-eighth the power and require much lower bandwidth.

The bottom line is that once an organization understands how it wants to use its video surveillance system – and what it might use that system for in the future – it can more easily choose the right video system. By asking just three key questions, an organization will be well on its way to selecting a video surveillance system that meets its unique needs – both today and in the future.

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