This year's GDSF seminars explored smarter security solutions, such as intelligent buildings, as the trend toward integration heats up worldwide. The seventh Global Digital Surveillance Forum, "Mastering Central Management Systems," attracted a large crowd as part of SecuTech Expo 2008.
This yearˇs GDSF seminars explored smarter security solutions, such as intelligent buildings, as the trend toward integration heats up worldwide. The seventh Global Digital Surveillance Forum, ¨ Mastering Central Management Systems,〃 attracted a large crowd as part of SecuTech Expo 2008.
Total Security Solutions
The forum was divided into four tracks, the first being ¨Intelligent Management Software in Hot Installations.〃 Keynote speaker Jay Chen, Director of Fire and Security, Johnson Controls Asia, started by explaining what intelligent building management means. By integrating all possible building signals, a building automation system or central management system aims to improve comfort, safety and sustainability, such as at the new Shanghai World Financial Center.
The second speaker, Chiao-Fe Shu, Chief Architect of IBM Smart Surveillance System, highlighted the importance of an open and extensible surveillance system and what it means to overall, comprehensive situational awareness. While IBM has developed its own video analytics, it remains an open ¨system integrator,〃 bringing hardware and software from different vendors together.
Makoto Sube, Manager, Engineering Department, Security Systems Business Unit, Panasonic System Solutions, shared the company's short-term product roadmap with the audience. He believes intelligence embedded in edge devices is the next big wave, and Panasonic is ready for this future with its own megapixel cameras and single ASIC for both video signal and intelligence processing.
Vincentius Liong, Head of Product Development Division , Gunnebo Indonesia, presented two high-security case studies: one on an unnamed bank and the other government research lab. Liong went over the specific security and building operation concerns of each facility and walked the audience through the product selection and project implementation processes.
Building Blocks for Security
Hardware for integrated solutions was covered in the second track was "Nuts and Bolts of CMS." Bob Ferrar, General Manager in the New Business Initiatives Division of Intel, outlined processing performance needs in central management systems.
"One size doesn't fit all," Ferrar said. "It needs to be tailored toward specific applications." With the increase in megapixel cameras and number of channels for surveillance, processing power must also increase to meet technical demand. Intel's widely used CPUs provide an open platform for integration with multiple devices, crucial for central management systems.
Bridging IT and security networks was discussed by Adam Waddell, Theater Director for Asian Physical Security at EMC. The need for consolidated data management to respond to emergencies in real time with alerts from access control, intrusion alarms and identity management requires a uniform information management platform.
"Information management is important," Waddell said. "Not just storage, but for regulation requirements and maximize effectiveness to detect problems."
Another speaker was Kevin Lee, Managing Director of Asia Pacific Sales and Marketing for Seagate, who highlighted the benefits of security specific storage in an effective central management system. As footage from megapixel cameras and video content analytics will require higher storage requirements, more powerful surveillance applications will need more storage. Hard drives for 24-7 use must be specially built for security and not use generic computer hard drives.
"Storage is the highest cost in CMS," Lee said. "With compression, intelligence has ways to make use of storage more effectively and efficiently."
Texas Instruments' Danny Petkevich, Video Security Business Manager, introduced advantages of the DaVinci digital signal processor (DSP) chip for CMS. ¨There is no ASIC for video analytics, it's got to be DSPs or host processors,〃 he said. With digital solutions requiring more IT expertise, more powerful processing will drive surveillance.
Reading Images
"Video Surveillance Solutions〃 were covered in the third track of GDSF. ObjectVideo's Director of Global Marketing Ed Troha described how video Content analytics can enable central management systems. Extracting relevant data and taking the appropriate action is part of a total security solution, as ObjectVideo's analytics are designed to work seamlessly with third-party products. "Analytics allows video to be much more than an annotation resource," Troha said. Daniel Doron, Marketing Manager of ioimage, continued to explain the benefits of analytics embedded in hardware devices. Embedded devices are an all-in-one solution, allowing users to go to one vendor for technical support, rather than several vendors. ¨It's easy to do business with, not complicated,〃 Doron said.
Integration in Action
"Product Presentations" was the fourth and final track. Advantech demonstrated its embedded video main board. GKB CCTV showcased the company's Video Fire Detection System. Researchers from Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University described how to set up a video-based intelligent environment. Lastly, Delta Electronics discussed power line communication for surveillance applications. The Global Digital Surveillance Forum has consistently been considered a must-attend series for attendees, with its focus on the latest digital surveillance developments.