the top seven video surveillance trends you can’t afford...

The Top Seven Video Surveillance Trends You Can’t Afford to Overlook

3 TOP SEVEN VIDEO SURVEILLANCE TRENDS YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO OVERLOOK

Do you know what’s next for video surveillance? It’s an incredibly dynamic industry that continues to grow at an exponential rate. According to IHS, the industry experienced 12 percent growth last year, and is projected to expand even more this year. Are you keeping up with the trends that are fueling this momentum? More importantly, are you capitalizing on the trends that can give you a profitable competitive advantage? This article will show you what to watch out for and provide some insight you can implement that will help you and your customers do just that.

https://technology.ihs.com/483405/video-surveillance-trends-for-2014

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Trend 1

Network cameras as emerging stars


Fixed-dome and180/360-degree IP network cameras are the fastest growing product segment, and the city surveillance and utilities/energy sectors are vertical markets to watch. According to IHS, 180/360-degree IP panoramic network cameras are forecast to increase global unit shipments by more than 60 percent year-over-year.With their increased scope, these cameras are the preferred choice for monitoring wide indoor areas, meaning customers can save money by installing fewer cameras while still covering the same area. That’s why they’re predicted to gain increasing market share in verticals such as retail, airports and casinos. Even entire cities are attempting to capitalize on this trend in an effort to help them solve and prevent crimes.

Philadelphia reimbursing businesses to join citywide surveillance systemIn an effort to get businesses throughout the city to join SafeCam, the police department’s public safety camera network, the city of Philadelphia is offering to pay 50% of the total cost of a new surveillance system on a single property. Of course, there are some restrictions. The total cost is limited to $3,000 and only exterior cameras qualify. Additional qualifications include:

• The cameras can be IP or analog cameras connected to a networked-based DVR, mounted outside of the building and must show a clear, unobstructed view.

• DVRs must have a dedicated channel for each camera in operation, record at least 15fps and store for more than 15 days.

• The total cost eligible for reimbursement is limited to parts, installation and camera licenses.

This initiative comes on the heels of the city struggling to maintain its own camera network for the past few years. The hope is to provide funding to about 200 businesses. Once the cameras are added, police don’t watch them live. Instead, they only access archive footage related to criminal activity.


http://ipvm.com/updates/1950



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Trend 2

Crowdsourced video surveillance


Emerging technology: VizSafeBesides improving police incident responses, systems integrators and software vendors will have additional opportunities to create solutions to impact other areas in the coming years. One such emerging solution is called VizSafe, a new service that integrates surveillance cameras and crowdsourced images from mobile phones. This technology is being tested at several Rhode Island schools.

Using the VizSafe app, teachers and staff can upload video clips and photos, and view all of the geolocated information that has been posted. School officials and first responders can view all camera streams, uploaded images, and video via their web interface. It’s important to note that VizSafe isn’t meant to be a standalone video surveillance management (VSM) solution, but rather act as an add-on to existing systems.

With the increasing prevalence of mobile users, crowdsourced video surveillance data will be on the rise. This trend took center stage during the Boston Marathon bombing as personal photos and videos played a major role in identifying the Boston bombing suspects. In 2011, investigators seeking information about rioters in Vancouver received more than 5,000 hours of video from the public, ultimately helping them find the suspects.

One of the immediate practical applications of this trend is the ability to improve reaction time of law enforcement agencies, especially with the use of social media monitoring. Of course, the continued growth in this space will create data analysis and manipulation challenges as authorities deal with the unsophistication of the source files.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/boston-marathon-bombing-crowdsourcing-how-citizens-are-using-the-internet-to-help-solve-crimes

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/boston-marathon-bombing-crowdsourcing-how-citizens-are-using-the-internet-to-help-solve-crimes

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Trend 3

No substitute for the right surveillance storage


Relying on traditional desktop drives, while they may have the required space, isn’t a best practice because they’re not built to withstand the constant data writing involved when capturing multiple streams of high-definition video. The rigors of today’s video surveillance systems require true 24x7x365 operation. And the reality of the situation is that standard desktop drives just can’t handle the workload.

Customers use desktop-class drives today for low-cost, high-capacity storage, but they compromise their system reliability by using these drives in a surveillance environment. It makes sense then that choosing the right drive can dramatically improve a system’s overall ROI. There are a variety of companies that manufacture drives built specifically to help optimize video content recording/playback and drives built to quickly process data and provide faster performance. For example, Seagate provides surveillance drives that provide enhanced data integrity and can help you reduce cost of servicing by delivering optimized HDDs for surveillance applications and improving their overall lifetime in the field.

What’s the difference between drives?Drives are built for specific environments to create a better user experience in both reliability and performance. In a surveillance environment we expect a drive to be recording or writing data the majority of the time and playing it back or reading the data only as needed. This graphic illustrates the different workload configurations based on how often drives expect to be reading and writing data.

Desktop drives

Video drives

Surveillance drives

60%read

40%write

50%read

50%write

10%read

90%write

http://www.seagate.com/solutions/video-surveillance-systems/?cmpid=ext_techtarget

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Trend 4

Video surveillance backup and video data recovery


The #1 pain point for video surveillance systems integrators is data loss. And with good reason. After all, what exactly is the proper protocol to follow to recover your surveillance footage? If your customers have tried to pinch pennies by installing a standard drive for their surveillance system’s storage, the answer is nothing. If they bristled at the initial cost of a proper drive, chances are they aren’t going to want to absorb a starting recovery cost of about $499. That means the data is gone. Forever. And, while no system is impervious to failure, there are some options that give your customers a fighting chance to recover their critical data should anything go wrong.

Companies like Seagate offer surveillance hard drives that are specifically engineered for demanding surveillance systems. Seagate now offers a three-year Rescue Data Recovery Services plan with select Surveillance HDD models. If customer data is lost, deleted or corrupted, Seagate Rescue will help your customers get their data back from their failed drive with a reported industry-leading data recovery rate of 90%.

Case closed: Seagate Recovery Team goes above and beyondAfter two men broke into a gold store, killed two of the shop’s employees and left with merchandise valued at nearly $200,000, the police were stumped. The robbers had gotten away with no witnesses and had successfully smashed the store’s surveillance cameras and DVR. Police knew recovering the data on that drive was their only hope of bringing the criminals to justice.

See what happened »

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/consumer-electronics/surveillance-hdd/?cmpid=ext_techtarget

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/consumer-electronics/surveillance-hdd/?cmpid=ext_techtarget

http://consumer.media.seagate.com/2014/06/the-digital-den/case-closed-seagate-recovery-team-helps-solve-gold-heist/?CMPID=smc-facebook-okto-B2C+ONGOING-007o5T2WgRz9Jmm&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=B2C+ONGOING&utm_medium=social&utm_content=007o5T2WgRz9Jmm

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Trend 5

Video management systems and video bandwidth management: Quality here, there and everywhere


With the rise of high-definition video and IP cameras, it’s more important than ever to take into account the bandwidth needed to run your system at maximum efficiency. If bandwidth isn’t optimized, video quality will degrade and the efficacy of the entire system will be irreparably compromised.According to Genetec, multicasting, multistreaming and video compression are three innovative methods that users can use to optimize bandwidth management in video surveillance applications.

With video management software (VMS), users can leverage existing hardware and software functionalities to experience benefits such as reduction in bandwidth requirements, optimization of network resources, and decrease of storage needs. As long as they’re supported by an intelligent VMS, multicasting, multistreaming and video compression can ultimately contribute significant cost savings and long-term investment protection.

And you can help take the savings and efficiency a step further. Be proactive and involve your customers’ IT partners to ensure minimal impact on system bandwidth and ensure enough bandwidth exists to fully support the capabilities of the system.

multicasting

multistreaming

video compression

Optimize your bandwidth management

http://www.genetec.com/Documents/EN/Whitepapers/EN-Genetec-Three-Simple-Ways-to-Optimize-Your-Bandwidth-Management-in-Video-Surveillance-WhitePaper.pdf

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Trend 6

Video analytics: Do more than ever before


Embedded low-end video analytics applications have already been offered as “free” features. But are free apps a viable option, or will there continue to be a market for video analytics? One thing is clear: vendors can no longer charge for basic algorithms. Yet, more advanced analytics remain profitable.

There are multiple considerations when it comes to analytics, with each area projected to continue growth well into the future.

Practical applications of analytics

Customer satisfaction: With an increase on the focus of customer satisfaction, proper implementation of analytics can make the difference between a memorable and forgettable experience. Imagine coming into a hotel and being checked in and identified by the time you hit the reception desk. Or watching the pattern of your in-store customers to identify better product placement. All of this and more is possible with today’s analytics.

Mobility: The anytime, anywhere viewing for convenience, speed, sharing and more accurate response must be balanced with investment in software that permits web-enabled security video and connection with mobile devices.

Special events: Analytics is a part of a total technology and personnel solution with the aim of real-time situation awareness of large, diverse crowds. Information is easily shared with law enforcement, city, and arena security officers.

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Trend 7

New Frontiers: HD over coax


According to IHS, we should expect more new product and service announcements from network-focused security companies as they seek to add new revenue streams to their portfolios. So where will some of these new sources of revenue come from?Even as the popularity of IP cameras continues to grow, acquiring more than 50% of the market by 2017-18, we see HD over coax being a promising area to watch. It’s gone through evolution from analog to HD-SDI (high-definition serial digital Interface) in its early stages and now with HD-CVI (high-definition composite video interface) and HD-TVI (high-definition transport video interface) iterations, and AHD (analog high definition).

It has maintained its position in the market for two simple reasons. One, there is no latency over coax, so what you see is what you get in real time. This is obviously the preferred working state for businesses like casinos and some applications that need real-time monitoring of their properties, and who are not worried about missing anything due to latency issues. And two, it’s innately easier to set up – a true plug-and-play solution. IP ultimately offers higher quality, better integration and higher scalability, but it can be complex especially for small installations. With IP and analog cameras displaying different strengths, more companies will start to implement hybrid versions of each technology in their systems.



As video surveillance continues to evolve across both public and private sectors, there’s an increasing opportunity to capitalize on these emerging trends in order to gain a distinct competitive advantage for you and your customers.More than ever before, businesses need to listen to their customer needs, understand their path to growth and engage with them not just at the initial install. By thinking of the engagement as more than a one-time sale and focusing on the expansion of systems themselves – over larger spaces or with more cameras – they set themselves up for future opportunities to generate sustained success. And as you continue to provide the latest performance upgrades like surveillance-optimized drives and video analytics, you will ultimately achieve your goal of building lifetime customers.

For more information about the right surveillance drive for your system, visit Seagate.com to learn more.

http://www.seagate.com/solutions/video-surveillance-systems/?cmpid=ext_techtarget