Monthly Archives: December 2010

IP Video Management Features – Recording and Viewing
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Managing the video captured from your IP cameras is an important function of your surveillance system.  I’ve talked about the hardware platform and software platform options that are available.  Once you’ve made the right hardware and software choices for your surveillance system what features and functions can you expect from the video management system?

This post is about recording and viewing features which probably sounds like the simplest and most obvious functions but, there are interesting options available that you may not have considered.…

Are Analog Cameras Cheaper Than IP Cameras?
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A couple days ago I linked to an Axis study that set out to prove that the cost of IP surveillance is now less expensive than its analog counterpart.

Now there is a healthy debate over at IP Video Market Info about the validity of this study.  Check it out:

Debating Axis’s IP vs Analog Cost Comparison

Some of the major sticking points are:

  • The Axis’s study assumes that no surveillance equipment is currently being used (i.e., ‘greenfield’).  A majority of organizations buying surveillance systems already have some cameras and cabling installed and a large portion of that infrastructure can and regularly is reused.
  • For any given feature set, IP cameras always cost significantly more than analog. While a DVR costs more than PC plus VMS software, that

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IP Video Management – Software Platforms
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IP video management plays an important role in your surveillance system.  I’ve already discussed the hardware platforms options.  The physical devices that manage video.  Now we need to move on to software platforms.

The IP camera software you choose allows you to view your IP video in different ways.  The platforms include:

  • Built-in web interface
  • Windows client-based programs
  • Web-based software

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Cost of IP Surveillance
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Thanks to the heads up at Security Products, a study has been released by Axis Communications that compares the cost of a traditional analog surveillance system to that of an IP video surveillance system:

Total cost comparison study of analog and IP-based video surveillance

This study was conducted in the Spring of 2010 by the research group Lusax. Some highlights include:

  • There’s a perceived higher cost of IP cameras versus analog
  • Cameras are only one part of a video surveillance solution, and the total cost of a complete system is dependent on a number of factors.
  • Recording is the most significant cost category in the analog alternatives
  • Savings derive from off-the-shelf IT and server recording equipment
  • Scalability and flexibility are mentioned as two main

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IP Video Management – Hardware Platforms
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What is video management?  Once you’ve got your IP cameras up and running video management is an important tool to properly manage, record, store, and view video. 

Not much happens in the majority of recorded video – you need a smart system to control this so you don’t consume too much of your time, bandwidth and storage space.

Depending on the size of your IP surveillance system there a couple systems to choose from.…

IP Camera Storage – New Media
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I’ve been talking about the different video storage options for your IP surveillance system and I happened across a good article that goes into more detail about server-based, network-based, and camera-based storage architectures.  Additionaly, the redundant storage options that focus around RAID and hot standby servers.

There’s an interesting mention too about the growing capacity and reliablity of the on-board camera storage options of flash drives and SD cards — that eventually months or even years worth of video will be able to be stored within a camera.

Check out “Eye on Video: New storage media; Revolutionizing the way we archive video,” by Fredrick Nilsson, GM of the Americas for Axis Communications:

Until recently, storage was a bottleneck for video surveillance and represented a very large …

IP Video Surveillance Storage – Best Practices
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The previous post talked about the different methods for IP video surveillance storage.  When selecting the right kind of storage for your IP surveillance system, you’ll need to review your current server set up and ask yourself what you’re aiming to accomplish from your surveillance video information.

Keep in mind that once your IP cameras capture images you need a system that handles all of these video functions:

  • Monitoring
  • Recording
  • Managing
  • Archiving

Those factors are an important consideration when determining server configuration and the amount of storage that you will need.…

IP Video Surveillance Storage
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QNAP VS-2008-PRO NVR Surveillance RecorderStorage of IP surveillance video is driven by cost and, based on your application, how long you need to store the video.

High quality, high resolution IP surveillance video can take up a lot of space and can be a sizable cost of your IP surveillance system.  But with today’s technology, driven by Moore’s Law (“The number of transistors incorporated in a chip will approximately double every 24 months.”), any size of storage system that you need can be arranged.

That is to say video frame rate, number of cameras, and video retention time can be handled.  IP video surveillance storage systems have varying degrees of performance, cost, and scalability.…

Wireless IP Camera Setup – Part III
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In the beginning stages of wireless IP camera setup  there are some simple considerations to be aware of.  As you get deeper into a wireless IP camera system solution other factors such as frequencies, signal strength and security concerns need to addressed.

Wireless networks can be a bit trickier than their wired counterparts so in the final step of this series I’ll talk about the following concerns:

  • Bandwidth
  • Distance and number of cameras
  • Wireless vs. wired networks

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