There is a general feeling that video surveillance has become an overly complex topic. There are hundreds and hundreds of equipment suppliers that each offer a wide range of product. With new products being introduced all the time, customers are faced with the challenge of choosing the optimum solution for their surveillance scenario from a bewildering range of options.
There is a general feeling that video surveillance has become an overly complex topic. There are hundreds and hundreds of equipment suppliers that each offer a wide range of product. With new products being introduced all the time, customers are faced with the challenge of choosing the optimum solution for their surveillance scenario from a bewildering range of options.
At the same time, many of these vendors are encouraging customers to adopt network surveillance systems that offer more advanced feature sets compared to traditional analogue systems. For larger installations, the higher costs associated with network security cameras are often off-set by reduced cabling and maintenance costs. What is more, these installations often have dedicated security or IT managers that have the interest and time to not only make a basic evaluation of different products from different suppliers, but also to understand issues such as how lighting and camera placement affects image quality and how bandwidth requirements might vary by resolution, frame rate and the implementation of video analytics.
Smaller installations do not usually have dedicated security or IT managers. In fact, security is often only a small part of the role of the employee responsible for it. Little wonder they often “play it safe” and stay with an analogue system.
Yet many suppliers of network video surveillance are now targeting smaller installations to grow their businesses. IMS Research therefore predicts 2013 to be the year where suppliers begin to focus on developing products that are easy to install, easy to operate, and easy to maintain. There is some evidence to suggest that this trend has already started. A number of major network camera vendors are advertising products that are easy to use. At the same time, VMS vendors are developing simpler and more intuitive user interfaces. Avigilon has even introduced a gesture and voice controlled interface for its VMS.
Network video surveillance can be an overly complex topic, particularly for those responsible for smaller installations. 2013 will be all about manufacturers making it more straightforward.