Needless to say, transmission is a vital component in a video surveillance system for large sites. Getting the necessary data and power delivered to the right place and the right equipment is critical in maintaining the reliability and integrity of the system as a whole. Choosing the right transmission equipment, therefore, is of vital importance.
Needless to say, transmission is a vital component in a video surveillance system for large sites, for example utilities, power plants, airports and manufacturing facilities. Getting the necessary data and power delivered to the right place and the right equipment is critical in maintaining the reliability and integrity of the system as a whole. Choosing the right transmission equipment, therefore, is of vital importance. With a migration toward IP-based video surveillance, a lot of users are looking to save cost by replacing analog devices only, while maintain the coaxial infrastructure.
Transmission plays a critical role in video surveillance. Getting the video transmitted from the IP camera to the NVR in an uninterrupted manner is key to large-scale end user organizations as they maintain situational awareness and secure their staff and properties.
At the same time, besides data, the transmission infrastructure serves as a medium for delivering power, considering modern IP cameras receive power from Ethernet rather than from power sources onsite. Against this backdrop, power-over-Ethernet (PoE) switches and equipment play an important role in supplying power to the IP devices.
As a matter of fact, rising demands for PoE products and equipment have prompted growth in this market. A research study by MarketsandMarkets suggested that the PoE solutions market is expected to grow from US$451.1 million in 2015 to reach $1 billion by 2022, at a compound annual growth rate of 12.56 percent between 2016 and 2022. “The increasing adoption of the PoE technology for supplying electricity to powered devices due to its advantages such as low cost of installation, high convenience, and reliability has led to the rise in the demand for PoE power sourcing equipment and PoE compatible powered devices, thereby leading to increase in demand for power over Ethernet solutions,” the report said. “The power over Ethernet solutions market for powered device (PD) controllers and ICs is expected to grow at the highest rate between 2016 and 2022. This market growth can be attributed to the increasing demand for PoE-enabled powered devices, especially VoIP phones, wireless access points, and IP cameras.”
By region, the report cited that North America held the largest share of the PoE solutions market in 2015, followed by APAC and Europe. “The high growth of the market in this region can be attributed to the increasing demand for PoE controllers and ICs due to the presence of a large number of PoE power sourcing equipment as well as powered device manufacturers in North America,” it said.
What users are looking for
Given the important of transmission, reliability of the equipment – their ability to maintain operational regardless of the weather and environment – is demanded by users. Meanwhile, allowing operators to check the status of the equipment is also important in large installations.
For large sites such as utilities, solar power plants in deserts or airports, transmission equipment deployed in the field can be miles apart from each other or from the command and control center. Sending individuals to check upon each piece of equipment can be costly and labor-intensive.
“If you can't remotely monitor it, you need to send people to the site locally, and this requires cost and labor. That's why many large system operators have moved to a managed environment. For example, if there’s a site that receives a lot of data, you need to give more bandwidth to this site. If you can remotely do it, you don’t have to send people over there,” said Kelvin Chan, Senior Product Manager at
OT Systems.
As a result, having transmission equipment that enables remote monitoring can add convenience and efficiency to the end user’s operation. “OTS solutions not only manage switches remotely, we provide surveillance device management software that is embedded in each switch. It has an intuitive GUI that allows the user with a normal PC to manage, control and monitor the equipment,” Chan said. “The user can use PC to monitor or control the system without special training. As a result technical people or manpower required to maintain the system can be reduced.”
Reliability, meanwhile, is another critical element in transmission, as getting power and critical data to the right place seamlessly without any interruption or downtime is heavily demanded by large-scale end users, many of whom operate in harsh, inclement weather conditions. In manufacturing facilities, corrosive chemicals are present. Having equipment that is hardened and able to resist these conditions is therefore key.
“Operators need transmission equipment with high reliability and stability according to their operating conditions. The equipment should be hardened and may resist hazardous environment, or operate within a harsh environment,” Chan said. “For example in utilities, they may operate in an outside environment, so the equipment should work in a temperature range between -40 to 75 degrees Celsius.”