The CameraMan

How to Make Money Selling CCTV on the Internet

2010-09-27T22:40:00.001-04:00

Every CCTV manufacturer is asking themselves the same question: should we sell product on the Internet? If so, how? How do we go about it? Won’t we make our core customer base- the integrators- mad? If we don’t sell product online, can we compete with manufacturers who do?

Can you sell professional grade product online and make money doing it? Well, that’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? The entire CCTV industry is trying to figure out a rational end-user reseller strategy that helps their bottom line without alienating the integrator. I firmly believe that in the future, manufacturers who embrace e-sales will eat the lunches of manufacturers who are married to the channel-only model. That said, the current paradigm shift the industry is experiencing is just alienating integrators, e-sellers, manufacturers, and end users alike.

The main reason that online sales leaves a bad taste in the mouths of manufacturers is not due to any inherent flaw in the concept. Rather, I feel as though the marketing model most in the industry have followed is flawed on a very fundamental level. In the past, every manufacturer sold plain brown boxes via distributors, where there was very little differentiation between product and integrators simply bought a name on a box. Manufacturers marketed themselves, not their products, and relied on the integrator to market their product to the customer. I know, I was an integrator for a decade before becoming an Internet reseller. My family has been security integrators since 1979. I know lots of integrators, and I know exactly how they purchase product. Even today, a lot of them do not look at different products within the brand beyond, at most, form factor. You go to ADI and tell the guy behind the counter “I need five Speco bullet cameras, three domes- whatever’s cheapest- and give me an 8 channel Everfocus DVR with a 500GB hard drive”.

They’ve seen Everfocus and Speco at the trade shows and counter-days, drunk the free coffee and eaten the donuts, have spoken to tech support, and shop a brand based on 1) price, 2) past history of defective product, and 3) whether the tech support associates were able to help them with that weird question that one time. Sure, sometimes a rep will tell them about an interesting new product, or they will have an unusual application and the rep will suggest a product with a unique function, but beyond that there isn’t much product research.

End users, of necessity, shop very differently. For starters, they will have to live with whatever product they purchase for the next three years, so they need to make sure that the product they choose will do what they want it to do with not much trouble or downtime. They’ve never heard of 95% of manufacturers and have no way of judging them. They choose product based on 1) features and 2) price.

If an internet retailer knows nothing about surveillance or security, they have no way of explaining why one feature would be more desirable than another, or which specific product will be perfect for the particular application. This causes mad customers to jam the manufacturers’ tech support lines with angry phone calls, not understanding why the lipstick camera connected to the half CIF DVR recording at 7FPS doesn’t identify faces at 200 feet like on that TV show. Yes, let’s all pause to giggle at the stupid customers, until we remember that CDW and Newegg make a living selling the kind of high end computer and networking equipment that would have been science fiction seven years ago, and somehow they do not have to deal with calls from angry customers mad that the netbook they bought won’t hack the local traffic. That’s because the computer industry has done a terrific job 1) educating their potential customer base in what computers can do (darn near anything if you have enough free time) and 2) explaining what computers can’t do (power on after the warranty has expired).

Everyone knows that end users seeking to purchase product online are doing so only to save money, and are only interested in the 16 channel kits for $400 from eBay. Like a lot of things that everyone knows, this is wrong. First off, if the customer is shopping for product online, it’s because they do not see the value the local security dealer provides. Is it because the local security dealer provides no value? Not usually. All too often, the local security guy doesn’t understand that his job isn’t to sell security products; his job is to sell himself as a security expert, who uses security products to get the job done. The sales pitch rarely rises above the level of “buy this cause it’s awesome… or buy this other thing because it’s a little cheaper.” I shouldn’t be in business, or, at least, I shouldn’t be able to make money selling Pelco and Axis and Exacq. The reason I get away with it is because my customers are willing to spend extra money if only someone will tell them why it’s worth it.

But this post isn’t how security integrators can beat the internet reseller- I get it, sales is hard work and some people just can’t hack it. The topic is, how do manufacturers sell product to the people the integrator just isn’t reaching. So ignore the integrators whining about the race to the bottom, the integrators scared of the internet reseller were never selling to those customers anyway.

I agree that Costco and Amazon will never be able to sell anything more complicated than the $500 boxed kits, because selling security requires knowing security. But there are companies out there that know security and want to sell security solutions, not box kits, and they need your help, CCTV manufacturers. Invest a bit in marketing. Throw us some advertising. Make your stuff a little more user friendly. Heck, that last bit couldn’t hurt, even if you never end up selling direct. Basically, we all need to stop acting like the end users are idiots who need special handling by integrators. Trust the end users to be smart enough to be make informed decisions, given enough information, and the smart ones will end up being profitable.

The dumb ones will still buy $500 box kits from Costco, so what have you got to lose?

ASIS apparently has plenty of money to toss around

2010-01-21T12:06:00.001-05:00

So, ASIS announced that their keynotes would be Captain Sully of Miracle on the Hudson fame, Dave Barry of generally being hilarious fame, and former Prime Minister of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf. While I don't doubt that General has some interesting things to say about the GWOT, I have to wonder about ASIS's budget. According to Gen. Musharraf's wilipefia page (to which I am unable to link because I am blogging on my iPhone), he gets "$150,000 to $200,000... for a day plus jet and other VIP arrangements on the ground" according to one of the PR firms trying to land a piece of that sweet, sweet speaker fee moolah. Probably somewhat inflated but not by much. Good to hear ASIS spends my membership dues wisely. Now I know why the PSP prep classes are so expensive.

Posted with altBlogger.

True video analytics a reality sometime in the next six months, say researchers.

2010-01-13T00:08:00.004-05:00

Source.

How to Not Go Out of Business: The Manufacturer Edition

2010-01-04T21:58:00.001-05:00

Someone asked me about the state of the surveillance industry. As I'm sure everyone is aware, times are tough. People aren't making as much money as they used too. New construction is down, which means sales are down too.

Interestingly, crime seems to be down. Some have speculated that it has something to do with the fact that gun sales are up. I don't know about that, but I do know that the security industry can't even go to people and say “boogity boogity, give us money or your children will be murdered by rampaging thieves!!!” which is of course the go-to pitch for lazy salespeople since Linus Yale invented the pin tumbler way back before the Civil War.

Slow sales to end users translate of course to slow sales by manufacturers. This means that all the manufacturers are scrambling for an ever shrinking pool of potential integrator dollars. What can manufacturers do to make their offerings more attractive to integrators?

There are several factors that go into the decision to purchase this or that product. Physical security integrators are a conservative and cautious lot, and so reliability is almost always the most important factor. There is a real lack of impartial product evaluation in the security industry, so purchasers are often forced to rely on personal experience and word of mouth reputation in order to judge the perceived reliability of products. This of course means that it takes a while for new technologies to filter through the industry. Put simply, physicals security integrators are not exactly hostile to change, but do not believe in change for change’s sake. This makes it far too easy for a company to rest on its laurels, believing that because customers are buying now, they will buy forever, with no need for technological innovation. Eventually the technology stagnates, and suddenly all your customers are buying from AverMedia or somebody. Put simply, a lot of product offerings out there is nothing special. It’s just the same old same old that we’ve been seeing for the past couple of years, and prices have stayed exactly where they are, too.

GE is a terrific example of this. They (or the companies they devoured, anyway) were early innovators, back in the 90s when the industry was slowly going digital, and either led the way forward with carefully rolled out technological innovation. But then they just got fat and lazy and stopped innovating while keeping their pricing sky high, believing that customers would “shop the name”, purchasing cameras and DVRs because there was a GE sticker on the outside. And it worked for a while. Then, in August 2009, GE started looking for a buyer for their security segment, and was eventually acquired by UTC. This was widely seen as an effort by UTC to enhance their already strong access control and fire alarm offerings, two markets in which the former GE Security remain strong- and it is important to note that both access control and fire are relatively low tech, unlike surveillance video. If I may, I'd like to refresh everyone's memory with a link to this acrimonious thread on IP Video Market.

Simply put: aging, expensive product simply will not fly. With the economy the way it is now, everyone is sensitive to price.

The economy is also the reason why a lot of the old guard is experiencing a sharp drop off instead of a slow steady decline in terms of sales. Basically, the two factors that drive DVR sales is new construction and product failure. With new construction in the toilet, especially new construction of large complicated high security multibuilding projects, I’m not surprised that no one is buying expensive DVRs. There is still some replacement activity- as in, replacement of failed equipment- but it takes a while for a DVR to fail, failures can to a certain extent be planned for because they happen on a more or less predictable timeline, and the only time you buy a legacy DVR is to replace another legacy DVR and you have enterprise management software that requires you to use that manufacturer's product. If your DVR goes kablooie tomorrow, and it’s a standalone 16 camera installation, the first thing you do is find a cheaper DVR with similar or superior specs. After all, analog cameras work with all analog DVRs; you don’t have to buy a specific DVR to work with your existing cameras.

Replacing failing cameras is a good steady business, but there is very few cameras out there that you can’t find from somewhere else cheaper. In other words, it’s a simple matter to just go to another manufacturer’s offerings, and budgetary constraints are encouraging security managers to shop around, and the integrators are required to deliver.

You want to know who will ride out the financiapocalypse? EverFocus. You'll note that their stock price has climbed steadily all year long. Why? Three reasons: they've been incredibly aggressive on pricing, they've announced new product on a fairly regular basis (every few months or so, not so quick that it just looks like their spewing in all directions but not so slow that everyone forgets who they are, either), and most importantly, they are one of the prime movers behind HDCCTV, a concept that may revolutionize the industry forever ('forever' meaning 'probably for the next eight to ten years or so') if it actually works.

We are in the beginning stages of a worrying trend in the surveillance video business. Simply put, there is a lot of redundancy in the security market, and we are seeing a contraction of the industry. Manufacturers that cannot entice customers to purchase their products will simply cease to be. So if you're sitting on some cash reserves, you can 1) dump as much money and effort into R&D as possible as quickly as possible, 2) buy some startup with an awesome idea and a cash flow problem, or 3) find some sucker to buy you out. You have a little time to decide... but not much.

The best part? Even if new construction does pick up, customers may get used to paying less money for newer technology, and you may never recover if they continue the way you've been going on.

Choosing cameras using the DCRI method

2009-12-08T16:49:00.002-05:00

Before you can choose the camera that will work for you, you will have to define your expectations for the camera. Take a moment and think about what you want the camera to do for you, and what the camera is actually for. Put simply, there are four operational levels use to classify camera performance, and they are detection, classification, recognition, and identification, known as DCRI.

Imagine two security guards looking at the feed from a camera on a monitor in a control room somewhere. Bob nudges Mike and points to the screen.

Hey, Mike. Looks like movement on camera six.

What is it, Bob?

Beats me, Mike. You think we should go check it out?

This is detection. Bob can see that there is an unnatural level of movement at the edge of the camera’s vision, and has been alerted that there is a situation that may require further attention. Bob stares at this particular camera all day, every day, and knows there is movement where no movement should be, but doesn’t know if he should be concerned.

As the subject moves closer to the camera, the next level is classification.

Hey, Mike. Looks like it’s a person, moving closer to the building.

Who is it, Bob?

I don’t know, but I don’t think anyone’s supposed to be in that sector, Mike.

At this point, you can tell if your subject is a vehicle, a person, or an animal. You can’t tell much about the subject, but you at least know what kind of subject you’re dealing with.

As the subject moves closer to the camera, the next level is recognition.

Hey, Mike. We have a white male, wearing a blue shirt and khaki pants, in Sector G… doesn’t look like our subject is carrying anything. Subject is walking at moderate speed. Go and check it out.

We can get some broad details of our subject, but the subject is still a little fuzzy. We cannot recognize unfamiliar faces. We cannot recognize scratches, dents, or other small distinguishing marks on vehicles. We can tell what type of clothing a subject is wearing and we can determine what body type a vehicle has. We may be able to recognize familiar people, but that is because we recognize people we know well using cues other than facial features. For example, we often recognize people by the way they walk, or the way they hold themselves, or their particular clothing or hairstyle. Keep this in mind when testing a camera.

The final level is identification.

(Speaks into walkie-talkie) Hey, Mike, this is Bob, I can see him on the camera now. It’s Joe, the new guy. Let him know he’s supposed to be in Sector F. Over.

This is the level of detail we need if we are to prove that a specific individual committed a specific action in a court of law.

In addition, identification can be broken down further to three sub-levels of performance: General, Forensic, and High. General, as we said, can be used to identify the facial features of an individual performing an action. Forensic is a higher level of detail, allowing you to make out small elements such as license plate numbers. High gives you an extremely fine level of detail, such as is required to make out the denominations of specific bills, and is mainly used in cash counting rooms, casinos, and in industrial processes.

How do we determine the distances involved in the DCRI system? It depends on two main factors, the performance of the camera and the performance of the recording device. In this example, we will assume Mike and Bob are looking at a high quality analog camera with a decent lens and good lighting, being fed through a DVR recording at 1CIF (pronounced “sif”), or 352 x 240 pixels, which is still the most common recording spec, as it allows the video to be stored most efficiently. Assuming a camera mounted no lower than 9 and no higher than 12 feet from the ground, identification ends at about 12 feet, recognition ends at about 24 feet, classification ends at about 32 feet, and detection will end at about 42 feet. This is not scientific, as many other factors will play a part- not least the visual acuity of the operator- but are rather rules of thumb.

Back in the olden days, security professionals had only one way to increase the chances of identification, and that was to use creativity to mount the cameras in spots where the likelihood of the subject coming close to the camera increased. While this is still the best and most effective method, it isn’t always possible. Technological advances have now given us another option- increase both the resolution of the camera and the resolution of the recording device. For higher end analog recorders, we now have the option of recording at D1 resolution, which is 704 x 480 pixels. This will give you identification at 22 feet, recognition at 32 feet, classification at about 42 feet, and detection at about 52 feet (at this point we get scalloping of the image due to using an analog monitor, so doubling the resolution will not double the DCRI lengths).

If we want to go digital, we have the option of using a new operational concept we call dPTZ, or digital pan-tilt-zoom. Using a megapixel camera will give us an image with more data in it. We can then take that image, and blow it up (after the fact), picking out details we could never see with the naked eye, just like you’ve seen on a thousand TV cop shows. Sure, megapixel cameras are much more expensive than standard cameras and they take up a lot of storage space. However, you can get better ROI (return on investment) by pairing megapixel cameras with rectilinear lenses. Rectilinear lenses are basically super wide angle lenses which use fancy optics so that there is virtually zero distortion. This allows you to cover enormous areas using a single camera, and because you are using megapixel, you can drill down into the image, and your Identification and Recognition thresholds are much, much higher.

Of course, we all want the highest resolution possible, but that gets expensive quickly. The smartest way to specify surveillance product is to 1) define the purpose of the surveillance system, 2) define what our expectations are for each camera, and 3) figure out the optimal placement for each camera. Remember, a low resolution camera in the right place is often all you need, and much cheaper than a high resolution camera that still isn’t close enough to see what we need it to see.

ISC East

2009-10-22T22:58:00.002-04:00

I'll be at the show both days, live tweeting from the show floor. Follow me on Twitter here, or click on the widget to your right.

Irresponsible Rumors

2009-08-20T12:31:00.001-04:00

Which manufacturer is about to lose their president/ general manager/ head cheese/ big kahuna? Stay tuned.

Also, I’m hearing about more than one empty booth at ASIS 2009. L

Things to look forward to:

2009-07-01T22:06:00.003-04:00

ASIS just released a new set of guidelines: the Facilities Physical Security Measures Guideline! Am I excited? Yeah, I'm excited! Why? Because I'm a physical security nerd, that's why. Some of us have to exist, after all. I'm still cooler than Marc Weber Tobias.

According to the press release:

The guideline assists in the identification of physical security measures that can be applied at facilities to safeguard or protect an organization’s assets—people, property and information. It outlines eight main categories of physical security measures used to protect facilities: physical barriers; physical entry and access control; security lighting; intrusion detection systems; video surveillance; security personnel; security policies and procedures; and crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). The emerging field of security convergence is also addressed.

Makes you all tingly, don't it?

I ordered a hard copy, because trying to open a .pdf has been making my computer choke, sputter, and die lately. Hard copies are back-ordered, of course. Shipping is, like, seven bucks. Seriously? I order entire books from Amazon that ship for less than $7. With hard covers, even.

Looking forward to seeing it.

Pinnacle Security salesman using unethical practices.

2009-06-26T14:31:00.003-04:00

Reading this story makes my blood pressure rise. Apparently, salesmen have been knocking on the doors of CastleRock Security in Wichita, Kansas. The way the scam works is they tell you CastelRock is out of business, change the panel, and get a bank check from you so they can start charging you for CSM right way.

The best part is that Pinnacle isn't even licensed in Wichita.

I read about this story on consumer protection blog The Consumerist. The comments are freaking precious, too. My favorites:

The Pinnacle Security salespeople were in Portland about 2 months ago saying that other security systems "were easy for burglars to get around" and started asking intrusive questions.

I used to work for Pinnacle Security out in San Diego, California. I was originally trained to be an installer. I moved over to selling for a short period before our office closed. They taught us to use things like "We are looking for a model home and we will give you a security system for Free." There was nothing Free about the systems. I never lied about a company going out of business, but they do use some pretty Iffy sells techniques. I recommend no one do business with Pinnacle.

Wow! I was wondering if anyone else had been a victim of their predatory sales techniques. About a month ago one of these guys visited my house trying to give away 1 of 5 free alarm systems in my neighborhood. The guy was insanely pushy and tried to push his way into my house to do a so called home inspection.

These [adjective redacted because this is a family blog] came to my neighborhood a few months ago and I called the cops. They knocked on my door at 9:30pm and asked me if I had a security system. They were wearing Pinnacle Security t-shirts, but other than that they looked like gang-bangers. Not exactly the best people to be selling a security product.

Seems like they hire a lot of kids for summer jobs- they even have a MySpace page (I have been blogging here and there since 2003 and so help me this is the first time I've ever linked to a MySpace page. May it be my last). I guess you get what you pay for.

ESX 2009

2009-06-25T21:48:00.004-04:00

So I went to ESX 2009 today, in beautiful downtown Bodymore, Murderland. Next year's event is scheduled to go down in Pittsburgh. Candidates for ESX 2011 include the Gaza Strip, the South Bronx, and a Carnival Cruise ship anchored off the coast of Somalia. I suppose the show's organizers think that security professionals are a rough, tough breed who won't be scared of a little crime. That, or it's cheaper to hold a convention in a town that doesn't usually get conventioneers. Sam Pfeifle is a bit more charitable. But then, he's a better person than I am.

I kid! I kid because I love! I like Baltimore. My wife is from Baltimore. We had our first date at the Baltimore Aquarium, a short walk from where the convention was held. But, still, Baltimore (like Pittsburgh) is not what you'd consider glamorous, like New York, or Las Vegas.

In other news, ASIS 2009 will be in Anaheim. California.

Speaking of Sam Pfeifle, I couldn't help but notice I'm not one of the 20 under 40. Oh, well, always next year, when I'll still be younger than anyone on the list this year. Has a 25 year old ever made that list?

Anyway, on to the show review.

I mainly hit this show in order to attend the Axis vendor training I saw advertised on a banner ad on top of the Security Info Watch forums (which you should sign up for if you like this blog). The training was excellent and totally worth the trip from New Jersey (YMMV). I was worried that it would just be the PowerPoint version of Axis' highly controversial TCO 'study', but they mostly skipped the propaganda and just answered the hardest question anyone in IP surveillance has to address: why go IP instead of analog?

The training was aimed at street-level sales people and dirty-pants installers, and strove mightily to give them a reason to recommend IP cameras instead of analog systems for medium sized jobs. The reasons why you might want to go IP have been hashed and rehashed and hashed further still elsewhere, but suffice it to say that the Axis guy did not hesitate to admit that 1) IP is nearly impossible to implement unless you know networking or can hire someone who does, 2) IP is often more expensive, and 3) in at least some cases, the customer would be better served by an analog solution.

Of course, there is a word for convincing the customer to spend more money than they had planned, based on the salesperson's knowledge of the product and the specific issue the customer is trying to address. Well, there is more than one word, but this is a family blog, and the word we're looking for here is "salesmanship". You may argue that the customer does not want to spend the money on IP cameras, but I would like to point out that to the customer, the ideal security project is completely free and solves all past, present, and future security issues forever and ever. Ain't gonna happen. Sure the customer doesn't want to spend IP money, but if you are a sales professional, it's your job to show them why spending IP money is a good idea.

After the seminar concluded, I hit the show floor. Unfortunately, Northern Video did not have a booth at the show, so I remained completely sober all day. I went to the Panasonic booth, and despite what I've been saying all over the Internet, Panasonic has not in fact shut down their analog R&D, and in fact had a new analog camera and a new DVR to brag on. The camera, the WV-CW504 (which apparently debuted at ISC West but I did not attend ISC West, grrr) is awesomesauce. Very pretty picture, using the new SD5 .

From here on in, analog cameras will use the new SD5 chip (SuperDynamic 5, replacing the SDiii image sensor) and IP cameras will use the MegaSD chip. Either way, the WV-CW504 will eventually replace the CW484 series. Street date is, like, Augustish. They did not have the DVR to show, but said the street date is something like Octobertime.

I stopped by the Mace booth, which was being manned by Dennis Raefield personally. We spoke about central station video monitoring, and how cool it would be if we could sell it. He told me about an all-in-one DVR Mace is going to be putting out. He told me that returns are down at Mace (which I see myself- we sell a ton of Mace stuff and returns for non functioning and malfunctioning product is way down, not that it was ever anything more than a minor concern, despite our no-questions-asked return policy).

Good for Mace, I want them to do well. Best user interface on a DVR I've ever seen- a retarded iguana can drink a pint of vodka and still figure out how to program a Mace DVR in a few minutes. Imagine how fast your end user can figure out a Mace DVR if they have thumbs.

Also said hi to Geoff Kohl of Security Info Watch. He's a cool guy. Hi, Geoff!

Overall, good show. I like the fact that the focus was on the installer, rather than the buyer or the CSO- I started out as an installer and I'm a dirty-pants kind of guy despite my suit. Freebies were not very impressive, although Wynit gave out thumb drives and Axis had a very substantial notebook. I got one "extra large" t shirt from Canon, and although I haven't tried it on I know that the Japanese define "extra large" very differently than Americans do.

I will probably be back next year.

Lots and lots of storage!

2009-06-19T10:13:00.008-04:00

The second biggest barrier to entry that prevents customers from considering IP cameras is storage. Let's face it, you need a lot of storage. How much? Using Axis' design tool, I figured out that a single Axis 211A, under a moderate amount of motion, recording 24 hours a day, 6FPS at MJPEG, 640x480 at 50% compression, will suck up 10.3 GB a day. A day! Say you've got 16 cameras and you want to save 30 days of video. That's 4TB, 944 GB. besides the expense, you've got to manage all that, too. Don't you?

Well, it just got cheaper, and a whole lot easier, for ordinary, regular alarm guys with dirty pants to add big massive gobs of storage to IP projects. I give you the DroboPro 8 slot hard drive enclosure. I got to take a look at the thing earlier this week, and let me tell you, it is just perfect for medium sized surveillance projects.

Basically, this thing is an idiot-proof hard drive enclosure that will accept up to 8 drives of any type and size. You can mix and match any 3.5" drive of any manufacturer and size without worrying about matching- just slot it in and the DroboPro just automatically configures the thing. If you were on a budget but anticipated expanding in the future, you'd just buy a few drives and add more as you go.

The aforementioned ordinary regular alarm guys will be relieved to know that no knowledge of the various flavors of RAID is required. They've got this thing called BeyondRAID, which should be called AutoRAID (feel free to use that, Drobo), because that's what it is. You throw a bunch of drives in there and the box figures out the best RAID configuration and does it for you. Even adjusts the RAID on the fly for you. It also automatically detects bad drives and spreads the data elsewhere, giving you time to replace the drive.

The user panel is simplicity itself- easy enough that even a Mac user could figure out how to run the thing. There are a bunch of ways to connect the thing. You've got your choice between FireWire 800, USB, or even Ethernet, meaning you can put this drive anywhere along your network.

What about the price? The price is simply awesome. The array itself is just $1,199.95. You can also get it as a kit with 4TB for $1,689.95, 8TB for $2,189.95, or 16TB (that's right! sixteen big, beautiful terabytes!) for a mere $3,189.95! Do we live in a wonderous time, or what?

Got my eye on you

2009-05-20T14:32:00.002-04:00

DSC_0022, originally uploaded by CCTV Cameraman.

Took some pictures of our store display, and I got this shot of an Axis 211 looking balefull.

Explaining megapixel cameras and rectilinear lenses

2009-05-17T22:05:00.003-04:00

Why megapixel cameras?

Manufacturers have been pushing megapixel cameras for a while now. And, let’s be honest, they look super awesome. But is there an actual business case there? When the bean counters come around, can we justify the added expense past “but, look how pretty it is!”?

Some manufacturers have been telling us that you can use megapixel cameras to replace standard cameras. Use one megapixel camera to do the work of six or eight standard cameras, goes the argument, and save money on the installation. How does that work, exactly?

You gotta use rectilinear lenses, that’s how.

Here's the thing. I don't know how big of an area you are trying to cover, but I'm going to hope for the best and assume it's an indoors area with bright, constant lighting, with the camera mounted about 12-15 feet high looking at an open area (no aisles or displays or desks!) about 35 feet by 35 feet square.

Assuming this is the case, or similar, you may be able to get away with a 2MP camera and a 180 degree rectilinear lens (NOT FISHEYE!!!) for your dPTZ (digital PTZ- remember this term for later) camera. Basically, what you are trying to do is get a VERY wide picture, and then blowing up portions of the picture later, like they do on CSI. Unfortunately, on CSI blowing up a picture actually makes the picture sharper, where in the real world blowing up a picture means a loss in detail. Therefore, you need a very sharp camera, a great lens, ideal 24 hour lighting, and wonderful storage and compression protocols. The actual software is pretty simple and your existing DVR could theoretically do it using the zoom feature (if your DVR could handle such detailed pictures without compressing the hell out of them, which it can't of course).

Now since most CCTV or security people are unaware of the very existence of rectilinear lenses (but YOU aren't, are you, because your good buddy the CameraMan linked to the definition earlier in this rant), so most people wanting to set up a dPTZ camera actually use a fish-eye lens (or buy a camera with a fisheye lens already installed) and use fancy, sophisticated software packages such as the ones made by Avigilon, which actually uses a bunch of very sophisticated programs working together to 1) zoom into a sector of the fisheye picture (ie the easy part) and 2) flattening it out (the hard part). This is very cool, except for the fact that it doesn't quite work the way you need it to work because, well, the picture is still distorted, and a distorted picture JUST may give a jury reasonable doubt.

So just buy a rectilinear lens. The best ones are from Theia. They've got a choice of CS mount, auto iris (the SY125A), a CS mount, manual iris (the SY125M), and a C mount, manual iris (the MY125M). Expensive? Sure. The lens alone is nearly the price of a megapixel, non D/N camera... but worth it, if it replaces six or seven cameras.

Now, the other thing you gotta think about is: storage. This camera is going to eat up storage and eat it up fast, and I assume you need to store video for a goodish while because I assume you are a medium to high risk site because otherwise you wouldn't be using so many expensive cameras and such an expensive NVR package. So. Learn about RAID arrays and buy Seagate Baracuda SV35.3 series drives by the case. Have fun, and kiss your budget goodbye.

At this point, assuming you are still reading, you may be wondering why the hell you should get this setup- wouldn't be easier to just get a freaking PTZ and be done with it? The answer is no. Now, a rectilinear lens plus a GOOD 2 megapixel camera plus a boatload of storage is the same or even a little more than a normal PTZ plus a keyboard plus an encoder BUT dPTZ has an enormous advantage over traditional PTZ, and that is: you never miss any of the action.
Remember, if you point the PTZ north, and someone gets stabbed to the south, you are basically screwed (a technical legal term), but with a dPTZ setup, you are looking at EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME.

We usually only use PTZ cameras to supplement fixed, traditional cameras, but even then it is usually not practical to have full coverage. Proper use of dPTZ cameras could make true, full coverage a reality.

dPTZ is an operational concept and a design philosophy, not a product in a cardboard box. It
requires creativity and true understanding of how cameras work and experience in physical security. There will always be a need for true surveillance video experts to explain and implement solutions such as dPTZ.

More about rectilinear lenses here.

Understanding WDR

2009-05-14T22:54:00.001-04:00

Understanding WDR Cameras from Peter Brissette on Vimeo.

Explains wide dynamic range cameras, and why you should get some.

NBFAA to create Young Security Professionals group

2009-05-07T10:54:00.002-04:00

With the cutoff age being 45. W. T. F?

IRVING, Texas and WASHINGTON—The National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association is concerned about the future of the industry. A recent survey it conducted found electronic life safety and security professionals between the ages of 25 and 45 are concerned as well, with respondents acknowledging the importance of education and participation. The results of the survey led the NBFAA to found a new industry group called Young Security Professionals, which will launch at this year's Electronic Security Expo in Baltimore... According to Security Partners vice president Kerry Egan, who is YSP Council vice chair, the first event, previously titled the NBFAA Young Security Professionals Reception, has been renamed to include some of the immediacy the group hopes to convey. "We just changed the name, so I might as well tell you. We changed it to YSP Launch Party! DMTB! [Don't Miss the Boat!]," said Egan, who was in Washington for the NBFAA's Day on Capital Hill.

Because we young people enjoy excalamation points. And acronyms. What with our texting messages and our innerwebs and so forth.

YSP Council chair Trevor McEnaney, who is general manager of Westchester, N.Y.-based Knight Security, believes the YSP is essential to the continued health of the security industry. "This is a much needed resource … Right now, as I see it, recruitment into the industry is nonexistent—or at least it's not marketed well—so we don't have the next round. We're not reaching out. No one really knows this is a viable career path," McEnaney, also in Washington, said. "Where are we going to find the next installation manager, the next installers, the next sales manager, the next salesman or operations manager? If we can get into the high school and college level, that will be pretty exciting. This is a really noble and exciting profession. You're protecting life and property."

This is, of course, very true. Much as I like to make fun of people, these guys have a point, which is that the fogey to whippersnapper ratio is out of whack. At least, I think that now. Let's see what I think in, say, 1,000 years from now when I'm the same age as the geezers are now.

Anyway, the website is here: www.alarm.org/ysp_register.html

I sent them my email address, we'll see what happens.

The Value of Making it Easy for Other Manufacturers to Work With You

2009-05-07T00:46:00.003-04:00

The smartest blogger in our industry, John Honovich, talks about how manufacturers can be more open.

John Honovich keynote at Milestone MIPS 2009 from Fredrik Wallberg on Vimeo.

You know, I can buy software from, say, MacAfee and not worry about whether it'll work on my PC, because Microsoft is a known quantity and it's easy for MacAfee to make something that is so guaranteed to work I don't even have to think about whether it'll work or not. Hmmm

Review: 2009 Video Surveillance Industry Guide

2008-12-02T21:08:00.003-05:00

I just read the 2009 Video Surveillance Guide, written by John Honovitch.

Let me be frank. If your mortgage payments and grocery bills depend on your selling IPVS systems to people, you need to read this book, right now.

IP video surveillance is a teeny tiny little itty bitty market segment, and it is also the future of our industry. If you just do analog surveillance video, you are obsolete. Other companies will leave you in the dust and you will be forced to sell out or go under. I believe in 2 years over 51% of video installations will be IP based, because the price and capabilities of IP based video will blow analog out of the water.

For those of you who are already in IPVS- either as a distributor, manufacturer, dealer, or integrator, you need to know some specific things about our industry. You need to know who the major players are and which minor players are coming up from behind. You need to know about which side of the standards war to bet on. You need to know who will grow and who will fail and whose product to back.

Most importantly, you need to know how to market IPVS more effectively.
This book is not an introduction to IP video. John has already put out an introduction to IP video. This book is not for amateurs and trunk slammers. This book is for anyone who wants to be a player in IP video. Clearly written with so few technical terms the Marketing department can read and understand it. For those looking to break into IP video, John has written a free book called The Security Manager's Guide to Video Surveilance, which I also highly recomend.

Cost of this book is $40 for a single download, $100 for a 5 user license, and $200 for an unlimited license, through electronic distribution. My company spends more than that on name tags. John promises to update the book in March, in time for you to prep for ISC West. I don't think I'm going too far hyperbolic in calling this book "invaluable".

You need to know this information.

New Guy at Panasonic

2008-07-27T00:15:00.002-04:00

From Security Sales & Integration:

Panasonic announced that J.M. Allain will succeed Frank DeFina as president of Panasonic System Solutions Co. (PSSA). The company said DeFina recently retired. Allain most recently managed the operations of Duos Technologies. Allain has led deployments of integrated security systems in high-profile public and private institutions around the world. He has also established experience in a number of technology-driven industries including data communications and telecommunications.

DeFina oversaw a pretty big expansion of Panasonic's cctv division, including what basically was the phasing out of all analog products and the introduction of lots of great products. But while DeFina was terrific at the technology side, I don't know how much feeling he had for integrators, coming as he did from the land of broadcast video. Whereas Allain is an actual integrator, or at least, managed actual integrators. According to his LinkedIn page, he was the VP of Duos Technologies, GM at NetVersant, and VP at Adesta. So while he probably doens't have any dirty pants and scuffed boots in his closet or dirt under his fingernails, he managed people who directed people who supervised people who did have these things. Which can only be good news for us here in the trenches.

I'll keep an eye on Panasonic for you.

What's the matter with IP Video?

2008-07-25T18:00:00.002-04:00

John Honovitch has a great post entitled Top Five IP Camera Problems. He identifies five reasons why people don't usually choose analog over IP (still):

IP Cameras are too Expensive Compared to Analog Cameras
Storage for Megapixel cameras is too expensive
Smart Cameras are still in their infancy
DVRs offer limited support
Lack of Integrator Training

IMHO, problems 2 and 4 are non-issues. Storage is dirt cheap and getting cheaper every day. I have a 4TB Drobo kit, for example, for $1,249.95. Very soon, we will not be worried about storage. As for DVRs offering limited support, well, that's what NVRs are for.

The price and limited capabilities of IP cameras are very troubling, but to me, the biggest challenge is the fact that integrators won't sell it because they are completely ignorant about the technology and unwilling to learn. It won't matter how good and cheap IP cameras get, if installers won't spec them, install them, or support them, then they just won't get used. End of story.

As soon as, say 60% of medium sized installers are confident enough to at least offer IP cameras as an option to their customers, we will see the widespread use of IP cameras. Not before.

That's why initiatives like Northern Video's IP Roadshow is so vital to the future of this industry. I attended the show in New York City and took the Northern Video Systems' IP Networks: An Introductory Course class. It was excellent, by the way, though I may have been the youngest person in the room. And that's fine- I think it's terrific that the people on the top are taking the time to check out this whole "internet camera thing" the kids are talking about.

IP Video Roadshow

2008-07-09T03:12:00.002-04:00

I'm going. Are you? NYC next Wednesday. Free to Northern Video customers. Details here (pdf file).

IP is the future. In surveillance? Learn IP or get a new job.

Happy Birthday, America

2008-07-04T12:23:00.004-04:00

Some pictures I took in Washington DC in the spring.

Now go out and celebrate the independence of your country by blowing up a small part of it. Don't hurt yourself, and if you do, post the story in the comments. I love "well, the way I ost my thumb was, it was the Fourth of July, and I'd been drinking" type stories.

Where's the Bandwidth?

2008-07-01T10:57:00.003-04:00

According to this story, New York City's much touted $450 million (that's $450,000,000 for you taxpayers keeping score at home) is not going to be completed any time soon. Why?

Some anonymous but obviously incredibly intelligent person wanted to install fancy, gee-whiz megapixel intelligent cameras in the subway system. It was to have auto-tracking, left-object detection, analytics, the whole nine. And while this person was writing up this job, he had a brilliant thought.

"Ya know, we could save a lot of money by using the existing fiber optic network already installed in the subway system. Whoopee! I'm a genius, just like Mommy always said!" Then he proceeded to split atoms with his mind while calculating pi to the millionth place. Because that's how he rolls.

The problem? The MTA had installed that fiber optics network in the 1980s.

According to a board document, tests on the cable showed that it had “many broken fibers unsuitable to carry the high bandwidth required” to transmit large amounts of data, which hindered the surveillance camera project. The document did not say how long it would take to replace the cable.

Wow. Just... wow. Who woulda thunk that 20 year old cable made out of glass and running underground in a tunnel carrying the worlds busiest mass transit system with hundreds and hundreds of trains rumbling past at 45 or so miles an hour might have had problems? I would have run a speed test or something, but that's just me.

That's not all. Appearently, there are serious problems with the analytics.

One of the officials who spoke on Wednesday said those problems involved the cameras’ ability to spot an unattended bag or briefcase left on a train platform or other busy area and then alert law enforcement to the possible hazard. That capability had originally been promoted as a major feature of the system, but the official said it had failed in tests. “There are too many people, too many things moving around in the system,” the official said.

Well, dang. At least that's not the biggest scandal in American municipal surveillance systems. That prize surely goes to San Fransisco, with it's 0.01 fps cameras. Seriously, reading this article, you get the sense that a drunk monkey working for ADT set up the system: Bad wireless connections, terrible motion detection protocols, poorly sited cameras, framerates so low you'd get better results with an army of sketch artists using notepads and pencils standing on every corner, they don't have enough storage space to save what little data they do have (a staggering admission; hard drives are so cheap they're practically free), and San Francisco law doesn't allow the police to view the cameras live or to move the PTZs. Also, the cops say they came up $200,000 short and had to dip into their operating budget to cover maintainance.

There's video, too. Watch it and weep. At least they're megapixel cameras with some nice resolution, and clearly they didn't scimp on the lenses. Too bad whoever sited that camera was a moron, because it should be a little lower to see the entire crosswalk.

Seriously, people, I know figuring out the cabling requirements are the least fun part of the job, but if you screw that up, nothing is going to work, okay?

Show me your papers!

2008-06-23T22:17:00.003-04:00

I was reading about this guy who flew with no ID.

Now, the rule is, if you want to fly, you have to show ID. You don't have to show ID to the TSA, but if you don't, you don't get to fly.

I guess this makes sense. This has the very salutary effect of weeding out the stupid terrorists who aren't smart enough to get a fake ID.

Above: Osama's most deadliest weapon.

Heaven forbid the terrorists ever get their filthy paws on Photoshop.

But what if you forget or lose your ID? Sat, you went to Vegas for a convention, and mysteriously and through no fault of your own the dealer inexplicably failed to stop dealing you cards and you had a big bunch of tequila and you are now missing your wallet and, also, your pants. So, according to the article, they'll give you the full business, which includes signing a piece of paper stating, under penalty of perjury, that you are who you say you are. They also give you a pat down and check your luggage- big hairy deal, they did that to me in the airport in Israel. The most interesting thing to me is that the TSA supervisor called a "service"- the DMV?- to answer personal questions. That's it. Sounds easier than getting a credit card. Not that you'd know it from the amount of whining in the story and the comments- you'd have thought they sent him to Gitmo.

Anyway. I guess my point is 80% of security is keeping the stupid would-be bad guys away from your target. This is important because 80% of bad guys are unnacountably stupid.

But, don't forget that the more attractive your target is, the more bad guys are going to want a piece of it. And 20% of them will be smart. And you can't play the laws of averages forever.

Feel Good Security

2008-06-17T22:17:00.002-04:00

According to this article, Delta Airlines will add registered traveler kiosks from Clear at LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, as well as LAX.

That's fine, although this really won't do anything to make us safer.

The Registered Traveler program is a scam, although in the spirit of fairness I should mention that I do not believe that Verified Identity Pass employees consciously realize this. If you've been in a US airport lately, you've probably seen them; the way the Clear program works is you give them your driver's license number, previous home addresses going back five years, SSN or alien registration number, and a valid credit card. They then run your info past... somebody, and then do... something, and, after taking your picture and biometric data (fingerprints and iris images, for what it's worth) and taking your picture and noting your two forms of federal ID, they give you futuristicy little card. All this for a hundred bucks a year, plus a $28 bribe to the TSA.

Now, anyone who's been stuck in security screening purgatory would gladly shell out $128 to get through it a little quicker. But that presuposes that there is some way to tell someone is going to be a terrorist before they actually, you know, terrorize somebody. And that doesn't work. Would they have caught Mohammed Atta with routine security screening, or even the kind of screening they do now? I doubt it. I've thought of a trillion ways to get past airport security just in the time I've spent on security lines. The only things that have made air travel safer since 9/11 is, as Schneier says, 1) locking cockpit doors and 2) the understanding of ordinary passengers that they may have to be prepared to fight back (which is what stopped Reid, after all).

Everything else is security theater. Clear isn't about making us safer. Clear is about making lines shorter.

Food For Thought

2008-06-11T23:26:00.001-04:00

IP Video Market May or May Not Suck This Year: Report

2008-06-05T14:54:00.002-04:00

Much has been written about this report from IMS Research. The very depressing synopsis says that

(T)he market has got off to a slower start in 2008 and it seems unlikely that the market will grow as fast this year as it did last year.

The main reason for the slow-down is the struggling US economy, which narrowly avoided entering a recession in the first quarter of the year, recording a modest increase of just 0.9%. Economists are divided as to whether a recession will take hold in the second quarter of the year. In this current climate of economic uncertainty, many companies are delaying capital expenditure and several major security projects have been put on hold. The retail industry, which is the largest spender on video surveillance equipment in the US, has been particularly hard hit. Soaring energy and food prices, together with the credit crunch, have curbed consumer spending. In the first quarter of 2008 consumer spending rose just 1%, the slowest since the second quarter of 2001, when the US was suffering its last recession. As a result, many retailers are scaling back new store expansion plans which will impact sales of video surveillance equipment.

First off, I'm not sure that a 1% rate of growth constitutes a recession, especially with our low unemployment rate (nearly the same as the economic boom years of 1998, when Internet money was going to make everyone a billionaire). This is slightly better than England's, much better than France's, and much better than Germany's. Of course, this is a CCTV blog, not an economic blog, so I may be wrong. And of course no one can deny the subprime mortgage meltdown has slowed new construction a little, although according to this they've been falling for the past two years so I guess the new housing market crisis isn't so much a result of irresponsible subprime mortgage lending practices and more the result of the housing market being flooded and the law of Supply and Demand really is true.

But that's not what this post is about. This post is about a press release Axis emailed me yesterday.

It reads:

The market research institute IMS Research announced today in a press release that the growth for network video products on the American market has slowed down. This affects the ongoing technology shift from analog to digital surveillance negatively. For a number of years, IMS has forecast that the market for installations of network video products has an annual global growth rate of approximately 40 percent. IMS expects slower growth in 2008 than in the preceding year as a consequence of the receding American economy. However, their estimation is that network video products will grow by at least 30 percent in the US. Axis' ambition, as announced previously, is to grow in pace with the market.

The interest for network video products has been considerable during spring and the inflow of new projects continued to be satisfactory, but the current financial turbulence has impacted new investments and expansion plans. This has now affected growth in the network video market. "We have seen signals from the market, e.g. from the retail trade in Europe but particularly in the US where major retail chains have chosen not to expand as planned. As approximately 25 percent of all video installations are performed within the segment, we have drawn the conclusion that the pace of the technology shift from analog to digital network video has slowed down", says Ray Mauritsson, President, Axis Communications.

Emphasis added for emphasis. Because I feel empathetic. Like, what they heck, guys?

I mean, 30% projected growth in an industry is not a reason for sackcloth and ashes, it's a reason for champagne and caviar and big stinky cigars.

At least Geoff Kohl of SIW is optimistic. He quotes a Panasonic rep as saying that "they are still experiencing year-over-year growth in the company's i-Pro IP video surveillance products." This is true. I'm hardly a big player in the IP sales market, and I can't even keep the WV-NS202A in e-stock- it flies off the cybershelves. That's because we have found all sorts of other markets for IP video. Vloggers, for example. Webcasting of all kinds, in fact. I have a customer who uses the WV-NS202A to save video of performances in his nighclubs. He likes the autotracking and the audio input. Another customer has a bunch of Axis 207Ws set up in his apartment. He feeds it to his website for entertainment purposes, ifyouknowwhatImeanandIthinkyoudo.

Anyway, my point is, relax. IP video isn't going anywhere, and the US economy is in semi-decent shape, too.

Networking for Camera Guys

2008-05-27T21:55:00.002-04:00

I know I promised to tell you about the Panasonic, but I swear this is related.

Many old school camera guys are mistrustful of networks, mostly because they don't understand them. Listening to a camera guy talk to a computer guy is like, for example, a Neolithic wheel carver talking to a Honda engineer- sure, the two industries share a distant common ancestor, but the family lost touch when they moved to America and they changed their name at Ellis Island and only the grandmother can speak the language anymore. Which is why I'm a fan of the Eye on Video series of essays by Fredrik Nilsson of Axis. In it, he attempts to talk to the bicycle store owner and explain some of the fundamental concepts of aircraft design.

The latest article, called Uptime for Network Video Systems, starts out with this very stupid quote: Short of catastrophic disaster, most networks today deliver between 99.99 percent and 99.9999 percent availability — from less than one hour of downtime a year to less than one minute of downtime a year.

Now, either this is an outright lie or Scandinavians have a much lower bar for the definition of catastrophe than we do. Anyone works with computers or has ever used a computer knows
that they die or have strokes at random times for no apparent reason.

The article itself is chock full of efficient Swedish network optimization goodness, with helpful tips like backing things up, having redundant storage, not using cheap switches, and installing surge and lightening protection. Not much to pick apart there.

Camera guys need to learn networks, because that is where we are headed. End of story. We won't be using coax and DVRs and quad switchers for very much longer. Listening to a camera guy and a computer guy talk to each other, and you'll see a look of incomprehension and mistrust on the face of the camera guy together with disdain and patronizing talking-very-slowly on the part of the computer guy. This kind of thing holds our industry back.

Anyway, back to Panasonic. I got a good overview of all the old i-Pro stuff, which I basically already knew, along with the new megapixel cameras and the decoder with the analytics, which is pretty cool, actually (a decoder with an HDMI out for the megapixel cameras! Awesome! Just the thing for making the kind of ultracool hi tech control centers of the kind you see in movies where they say "rewind the tape" and Jason Bourne destroys a small Central European country).

Sorry. After all these years, I still get caught up in the gee whizerry.

They gave us a flash drive with a bunch of demos and video clips and tools and estimators and so on. But first they had to give a very long and complicated Powerpoint presentation proving that Panasonic is much better than Axis (which they called "Company A"). And speaking of redundancies, popping a $12 SD card into most Panasonic cameras will automatically back up video, at 1 FPS (for 24 hours of video per 1gb SD card). So, cool.

Buy Panasonic. Read Axis.

Panasonic Training

2008-05-20T22:49:00.001-04:00

I'm doing the iPro sales training at Panasonic HQ in Secaucus tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

You did who to the what now?

2008-05-15T17:30:00.001-04:00

It never ceases to amaze me, the stuff people bring in and expect me to take care of. Like today. A guy had a box camera with what looked like a 1/4" chip and a board-lens-to-CS-mount adapter. Why would you do that? What purpose would that serve? What were they drinking when they come up with that idea? I sold him an Everfocus bullet. Then I had this other guy who showed me this cable that he said he took off his security camera. It looked like a Firewire cable but it had this weird hood on it. I just sent him on his way. This was just before the lady who had 6 pin DIN DVR and wanted a BNC adapter so she could add the board camera she had purchased.

Man, I don't plan on working that hard.

Axis, Sony, Bosch to Promote Standards.

2008-05-14T21:55:00.001-04:00

Axis Communications, Bosch Security Systems and Sony Corp. announced recently that the companies will be cooperating to create an open forum aimed at developing a standard for the interface of network video products. Currently, there is no global standard defining how network video products such as cameras, video encoders and video management systems should communicate with each other. The new standard is expected to comprise interfaces for specifications such as video streaming, device discovery and intelligence metadata.... A unified open standard will also offer end-users greater flexibility of choice, enabling them to select products from different vendors in order to develop systems that fully meet their needs.

This is great news. Having every IP camera be proprietary is nothing short of insane. When I buy a computer from Dell, I don't need to buy Dell routers and Dell switchers and Dell monitors and Dell keyboards and Dell printers and Dell paper and Dell ink. I can buy whatever, secure in the knowledge that most of it will probably work together okay, eventually, after a lot of cursing and calling tech support and thinking hard about just buying a pencil and a legal pad. And this is good for both consumers and manufacturers, because making it easier for things to work together causes people to want to buy more of those things.

But then, the security industry doesn't know how to work together, does it? Just look at ADI and Napco, two idiots who just hurt themselves to spite the other one. Babies.

Bored

2008-05-13T18:20:00.001-04:00

I'm bored today. Sold one Wilife nanny cam all day. Bored, bored, bored.

How bored?

I dug up an old C-mount-to-Nikon-F adapter we had in the basement, and stuck it on a box camera we have on display (a Sanyo VCC-6584). Then I stuck a Nikon 80~400mm lens on it. That turned out to be overkill, because at 80mm I could read the menus in the window of the Chinese resturaunt across the street, and at 400mm I couldn't see anything at all, just a blur.

So that killed 30 minutes.

Then I read the SIW IFSEC page. Then I went to Axis's website to read about their new P1311 box camera with H.264. Then I read a bunch of Axis white papers. Then I went to Wikipedia to see why it was called a "white paper" (when the English Parliament wants to announce a new government policy, they publish it on white paper, as apposed to green paper, which is used to propose strategy, or newspaper, which is used to wrap fish and chips).

Then I just clicked "random page", which gave me The Ramones, Registered Historical Sites in Albany, New York, a list of Urban Areas in New Zealand, which was ranked by population and median income (apparently, Aukland is the biggest city by population, but only the second by median income, while Wellington, the second biggest city, is also the richest), and a list of Shopping Malls in Houston, Texas. I was intrigued by this enigmatic entry:

Hong Kong City Mall - an Asian strip mall based in Alief, Houston, Texas at the southwest intersection of Bellaire Boulevard and Boone Road.

What is an Asian strip mall?

Eventually that got boring, so I wrote this post. And I'll bet that I've now succeeded in boring you, too.

ASIS NYC Trade Show

2008-05-12T21:45:00.004-04:00

ASIS NYC had a little shindig today. I headed over, even though I'm not an ASIS member, because the Javits Center is just two blocks away. I shook hands with my three biggest suppliers (word up to Ritz, Ernie, Dean, Ivan, and Fred, in no particular order), which is always nice, and I saw a IP Video manager that can accept signal from cameras from different manufacturers, and a facial recognition system that didn't totally suck.

I'm thinking of joining ASIS. Any one care to comment one way or another?

CCTV Monitor

2008-05-12T12:00:00.005-04:00

Just got the Sanyo VMC-L2017 on display at work. It looks very nice. 2 looping BNCs, 1 looping S-Video (who else has an S-Video out?), VGA, freeze button, 2 left-and-right audio inputs, and Picture-in-Picture. Very sharp picture, very nice color. You can also raise and lower the screen. We have it for $639.95 retail. I like it.

PTZ Control comes to.... iPhone?

2008-05-12T03:12:00.002-04:00

How is this possible? Can anyone out there identify the PTZ, first of all? Second, what PTZ works with Quicktime? What CCTV or IP CCTV device works with Mac? Anyone? Huh?

Wet and Wild Video Action

2008-05-12T02:58:00.003-04:00

There. That should get me some hits.

I got a job I need to spec. Some smart person in charge of an aquarium wants to have cameras mounted inside the tank, about fifteen feet down, streaming video to a web server. Wirelessly. They're going to use it for maintenance.

Apparently, they now send divers into the tank every so often with camcorders in waterproof housings.

So, Extreme CCTV makes what they call the EX15, a submersible housing. Throw in an Axis 247s, a Watec camera of some description, a good lens, and a WAP, and I say we got something going.

Anyone want to add anything?

ISC West Report

2008-05-12T01:20:00.001-04:00

This was my first ISC West. Being based in New York City, with my office being a 5 minute walk from the Javits Center, I usually attend ISC East. That show takes up most of a day. ISC West is a good day and a half. So I didn't get to see everything on my list- I had to skip Bosch, DVTech, and Fujinon, as well as any booth that wasn't outright CCTV related. Any booth that I did get to was a hit and run, with me asking the show personnel "what's cool?" Booths that responded well to the question "what's cool" as well as having something that actually is "cool" are as follows (warning- the term "cool" is defined by me):

Axis has an H.264 single channel encoder. Streams 30 FPS at D1 (720x480). Supports numerous PTZ protocols. 2 way audio. With PoE, SD card slot, motion detection, tamper alarm, audio detection. 9MB buffer for pre and post alarm recording.

Marshall has two incredibly impressive lenses. They aren't on the website yet, but there is one 300mm, f3.75 lens, and one 140mm, f1.0 lens- the 140mm is practically a starlight lens! The 140mm has a field of view of 3 degrees H by 2 degrees V (using a ½" chip). They should be out in the summer. Special order only. Use a good tripod, these lenses are humongous. Marshall had these lenses mounted 503HDV, 351MVB2K kits. MSRP may or may not be $2499 on the 140mm.

Speaking of starlight, Bolide will have a starlight box camera- 1/3", 0.001 lux, 560 VTL in color and an incredible 620VTL in b&w. Digital noise reduction, and variable power from 8VDC to 30 VAC. I recommend Tamron IR coated lenses for this one.

Arecont Vision has a line of mega pixel cameras that compress video in H.264 right in the camera. Streams 1920x1080 in 16:9 format, in 30, and 15 FPS, with 1.3, 2, 3, and 5 mega pixel versions. The company says "The new cameras will also support RTP protocol for direct streaming of H.264 video into third-party software players, such as Apple's QuickTime, as well as custom TFTP protocol for streaming into Arecont Vision's own AV100 software, and other custom software applications developed using Arecont's SDK." I think that means you can use this camera for custom apps like traffic watch.

Everfocus has a new Wide Dynamic Range version of their famous vandal proof domes, the EHD 650. 480 VTL, and 0.08 lux. As usual it has a heater and blower, and comes with a varifocal lens.

Panasonic has a high definition video decoder with HDMI out called the WJ-GXD400. Supports 1 video at 1920x1080 with audio. Use with a mega pixel camera. They also announced the WJ-ND400 NVR, replacement for the ND400. It will ship with 500GB storage, expandable to 4.5TB onboard or 27TB with external units. No info on the Panasonic site yet. This is part of their new megapixel line.

Probably the most astonishing thing I saw at the show was the super wide angle lenses fromTheia. 1.3mm mega pixel pan focus lenses… with no distortion! It needs to be seen to be believed. I, personally, love lenses, and this goes against everything I know about lenses. It requires no power- all correction is done optically. Good for dPTZ and video forensics.

Of course, there is the SV35.3 series of hard drives from Seagate. Drives are the least visible, least glamorous, most important part of the CCTV system, and buying good drives are important. Available up to 1TB.

Some company I never heard of called Dotworkz has a line of wireless IP housings. Very nice.

Nothing I saw seemed very revolutionary. Everyboday was talking "H.264" and "storage" and "IP". Seems some companies are abandoning analog cameras entirely, and focusing on IP cameras and networking. Good thing too, except the security industry seems a bit lost as to this whole IP thing. It requires a whole new way of thinking, and some people just don't get it. For example- storage. We're all used to thinking of video storage as something expensive, so we compress video as much as possible to fit as much time as we can on the same amount of space. Video tape is expensive to buy and bulky so it's difficult to store. But we don't use video tape anymore, we use hard drives. And hard drives are so cheap nowadays it's virtually free. A 750GB SV35.3 Seagate hard drive is only $200 more than a 250GB hard drive (retail!) but the difference between a DVR with 160GB onboard and 1TB onboard is $1000 or more. There's no good reason why any DVR from any manufacturer should ship with less than 500GB of space.

The H.264 revolution could have gone in one of two ways. Either the DVR manufacturers could have decided to use the same resolution and just saved more video, or they could have saved the amount of video we're used to at a far higher resolution and frame rate. I applaud the companies that have decided to go in the second direction.

On a personal note, I got to meet Geoff Kohl at securityinfowatch.com's booth. I told him how much I appreciate this forum, which allows me to get a glimpse into the minds of the most imoportant users of CCTV- security guards and managers. Kudos.