SPECIAL FOCUS:
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY
By Vance Kozik
Reaching
the Tipping Point
We may be near the
top of the mountain,
as IP surveillance
outpaces analog
W
ithin the next three years, more than
half of the surveillance cameras used
in North America will be IP cameras,
according to research firm Frost & Sullivan.
It appears that the fabled "tipping point"
is upon us, and traditional analog CCTV is
slowly running out of steam.
The emergence of IP-based surveillance
also means video surveillance management
is becoming a shared function of Facilities,
Operations and the IT department. For IT
decision makers, many of the advantages
of IP surveillance solutions will be obvious:
• Connectivity is simpler, less expensive
and standards-based;
• Management can be centralized with
policy-driven automation of surveillance and
video-logging tasks;
• The availability of high-resolution IP
cameras is enabling organizations to capture
24
far more compelling evidence for protection,
litigation and prosecution; and
• Bandwidth and storage use can be managed and scaled more easily and flexibly,
using open standards.
The automation and scalability that comes
with IP surveillance is also expanding the
range of video surveillance applications —
whether they are for security, crime prevention and detection, monitoring of staff and
facilities, or vertical-specific applications
such as shrinkage control for retail or risk
management in healthcare.
Investing in a new security system can
appear to be a daunting expense for your
customers; however, with affordable scalable IP surveillance systems from vendors
offering end-to-end solutions, the return on
investment (ROI) can sometimes be realized
in fewer than 12 months. For security inte-
www.SecurityInfoWatch.com | SD&I; | January 2014