Find news and information for the executive corporate security director, CSO, facility manager and assets protection manager on issues of policy, products, incidents, risk management, threat assessments and preparedness.
Issue link: http://sdi.epubxp.com/i/751434
November 2016 www.SecurityInfoWatch.com / Security Dealer & Integrator 33 platforms to view camera footage, protect citizens and property, ana- lyze incidents, evaluate security and to help them determine appropriate responses to events such as natural disasters, disruptions to transporta- tion and other municipal services, and other public safety threats. ey may also use intrusion, access control, building automation and fire detec- tion systems in their management of a city's security, in conjunction with video surveillance. Cities implementing this connected security approach have been dubbed "safe cities" – and most of them share a common infrastructure and operate using sensors and/or cameras over a shared municipal network. Using these sensors and the data from many different devices synthe- sized through one interface, govern- ment officials and law enforcement are afforded a total, holistic view of a city's security. Integrating the Many Parts of a Safe City e integration of all of these systems is obviously a key aspect, and one that greatly affects the systems integrators, who are oen tasked with giving a municipality the ability to manage its security comprehensively and from a single point of view from a central command center. Integrators are oen faced with operational challenges that accom- pany the many systems that are included in a safe city deployment; and interoperability continues to pres- ent one of the greatest challenges – particularly with VMS, video record- ing and cameras. Municipalities commonly have sev- eral different management systems for operations that were created by differ- ent manufacturers, each with propri- etary interfaces for integration. In order to connect the different systems, cities oen end up employ- ing a build once and maintain forever approach, in which the continuing cost for integration of the city's sys- tems becomes prohibitively expen- sive. is scenario is not practical or attractive, as it severely limits the end-user's ability to deploy new technology. Some end-users and integrators approach this problem by deploying products from a single manufacturer in order to facilitate system-wide inte- gration; however, this approach can stifle the ability to add new products from other vendors and locks the project into a long-term commitment with a manufacturer. Standards Create Interoperability e scenario above is where the need for robust and well-defined standards comes into play – particularly for video surveillance, which is gener- ally at the heart of safe city deploy- ments. Standards, such as those from ONVIF, can provide the common link between disparate components of these systems. Designed specifically to over- come the challenges in multi-vendor environments, ONVIF's common interface facilitates communication between technologies from different manufacturers and fosters an interop- erable system environment where system components can be used interchangeably, as long as the devices conform to the ONVIF specification. ONVIF has published a number of specifications for effective integra- tion of devices for physical security. For video, they include Profile S for video streaming, Profile G for storage and playback, and Profile Q for easier installation and deployment. In a safe city scenario, much of the recorded video from video security systems is used to conduct post-event forensic investigations, which oen requires coordination with local, www.SecurityInfoWatch.com/10215693