Technology & Trends - Digital video recorders (DVRs)

Cloud-based applications and platforms revolutionise supply chain management, helping stakeholders scale operations from small businesses to complex enterprises. Cloud supply chain solutions are showing significant increases in implementation – so much so the sheer number of organisations with a cloud solution outpace or far outnumbers the ones that don't. But there is one area that has still not made the switch to the cloud, most often the security department. But the advent of using vid...

In the new era of work, our relationship with the workplace is defined by flexibility and mobility. Employees are working across the home, office, and blended spaces more than ever before, as well as working varied hours to suit the modern work schedule.  This new hybrid workforce model holds the potential for more diverse talent and better productivity, but it also comes with its challenges – one being how to ensure security, health, and safety in the workplace.  Strong a...

Technology has certainly become an intrinsic part of our day-to-day lives, from the retail industry, to food and beverage outlets, and even within the health and fitness industry. It’s all around us, in varying formats, making processes more efficient. It has refined some of our older approaches, and in the hospitality industry, this is certainly true. Technological advances are leading the way forward for the future of hotels, and with the sector now free from COVID-19 restrictions, venu...

More and more business security practices are going digital. Mechanical keys are still the backbone of most corporate security plans, and it can be very expensive for companies to switch to electronic access control on a large scale. Therefore, enterprises need to choose the most suitable access control system. What is key management? Key management is the process of protecting, tracking, and scheduling mechanical keys. Why is this important? Because the key carries access to sensitive locatio...

While the foundation of autonomous retail has been built up over the past few years, it is only now that retailers are beginning to fully experiment with the technology. There were an estimated 350 stores globally in 2018 offering a fully autonomous checkout process, yet this number is forecast to increase dramatically with 10,000 stores anticipated by 2024. This acceleration in the growth of unmanned retail stores has, in part, been boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic and a demand for a more cont...

Cyber threats hit the headlines every day; however digital hazards are only part of the security landscape. In fact, for many organisations - physical rather than virtual security will remain the burning priority. Will Liu, Managing Director of TP-Link UK, explores the three key elements that companies must consider when implementing modern-day business surveillance systems.  1) Protecting more than premises Video surveillance systems are undoubtedly more important than ever before for a...

From analogue to digital, from stand-alone to interlinked, building systems are in a state of transition. Moreover, the rate of change shows no sign of slowing, which can make it difficult to keep up to date with all the latest developments. If asked to pinpoint the single biggest driver of this revolution, one could point out the growing clamour for platform convergence. A security guard in a building doesn’t want to use different systems to check video cameras, fire alarms or if someone...

Cloud-based technology can reduce IT costs, streamline application management and make infrastructure more flexible and scalable. So, it’s no surprise that cloud video surveillance solutions (also known as video surveillance as a service or VSaaS) are gaining momentum in a big way. In fact, according to recent reports, the VSaaS market is forecasted to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 10.4% by 2025. But some company owners may wonder – what services does a cloud model de...

Since the early 1920s, when the transition to fast food consumption began with the grand opening of White Castle in Wichita, Kansas, fast-casual dining has appealed to a fast-paced way of life – offering convenience and affordability. Today, fast-casual restaurants are as popular as ever, continuing to challenge restaurants to offer a consistent brand experience. This requires security and safety operations to be conducted at a volume and pace too rapid for humans to consistently monitor a...

Amongst the many negative consequences of the pandemic is a rise in violent and abusive behaviour across society. Health workers have experienced it on a regular basis. So too have police officers and public transport workers. Unfortunately, violence and abuse towards shop workers is also endemic in British society. To address this problem which, in truth, has been on the rise since long before the emergence of COVID-19, we need better deterrents. The ability to prosecute these offences is one...

Human beings have a long-standing relationship with privacy and security. For centuries, we’ve locked our doors, held close our most precious possessions, and been wary of the threats posed by thieves. As time has gone on, our relationship with security has become more complicated as we’ve now got much more to be protective of. As technological advancements in security have got smarter and stronger, so have those looking to compromise it. Cybersecurity Cybersecurity, however, is s...

The sound of sirens in the distance is commonplace, nowadays. Whether related to a medical emergency or everyday crimes, such as theft, property crimes, and so on, we’re all accustomed to hearing these sirens by now. It is worth noting that many incidents that police respond to take place at night. According to a recent report by the Sleep Judge, more than half of murders, manslaughter, sexual assaults, robberies, aggravated assaults and motor vehicle thefts happen long after the sun has...

In today’s market, efficient use of bandwidth and storage is an essential part of maintaining an effective video surveillance system. A video management system’s ability to provide analysis, real time event notifications and crucial image detail is only as a good as the speed and bandwidth of a surveillance network. In the physical security industry, H.264 is the video compression format used by most companies. Some companies also employ H.264 enhancements to compress areas of an im...

According to IHS Market, it is estimated that there are over 60 million security cameras in the United States, and other reports say these cameras capture more than four billion hours of footage per week. Over the last decade, IP camera technology has dominated the conversation as it has provided users with a broad offering of enhanced image quality and features. With a large percentage of existing security systems relying on analogue, many end users looking for high definition (HD) video qual...

Dollars spent by video surveillance customers must go towards ensuring high-availability capture, storage and on-demand access to live and archived video. Reaching this goal mandates high-availability of independent components – camera, network, storage (edge, external), internet connectivity, display, all Video Management Software (VMS) components and an architecture that can take advantage of this. In this note, we focus on seeing our way through to a video surveillance architecture, t...

Over the course of the past few months, I have discussed a myriad of topics, from Big Data, the Internet of Things and emerging video surveillance-use cases, to analytics, storage complexities and IT technologies like virtualisation and hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI). All of these trends have a significant effect on the security market, and in April they were highlighted in spades at ISC West. It’s great to talk about these trends but it’s far better to see how they are being l...

Video surveillance as a service (VSaaS) is not just for commercial organisations. Federal, state and local governments can also realise benefits from the technology—and use it to deliver an integrated video surveillance system that addresses some of their unique security needs. Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) What is VSaaS? Simply stated, it’s a cloud-based video surveillance solution that is packaged and delivered as a service over the internet. The price varies depending...

When a news story of global interest begins to break, reporters across the world will scramble to find CCTV footage of the event, however isolated the incident may seem. Given the average of one camera installed for every twenty-nine people on the planet, it is perhaps unsurprising how often a persistent journalist, investigator or member of the public will actually be able to uncover footage. In fact, this number is estimated to be as high as one camera for every eleven people in mature market...

Everybody has been hooked on the discussions about Analogue HD or IP systems, but shouldn’t we really be thinking about WiFi and 5G connectivity, removing the need for expensive cabling? Are wireless networks secure enough? What is the potential range? Even the basic question about whether or not the network is capable of transferring the huge (and growing) amount of data required for High Res Video, which will soon be quadrupled with the advent of 4K and higher resolutions. The future o...

The corporate mantra “Utilise TCO instead of purchase price when making purchasing decisions” means evaluating a project’s Total-Cost-of-Ownership over its lifetime period as the primary cost factor. It requires the corporate buyer to scrutinise the entirety of the investment as opposed to just the upfront purchase price. Like an iceberg, where the majority of the ice is below the surface, the total cost of ownership of a security system is typically much larger than the upfro...

With 60 percent of all of the world’s data expected to be created and managed by enterprises by 2025 according to IDC, it’s not surprising to learn that enterprise players have moved swiftly to help their customers and organisations maximise the opportunity around this massive data growth. However, when it comes to one of the most significant drivers of this growth in information—surveillance data— many enterprises struggle to understand how they can apply it to do more...

What do users want from their surveillance system? Ask any security professional, and you will hear answers like these: sharp, high quality images; widespread camera coverage; real-time analytics; fast search and retrieval of video footage with minimal, if any, intervention from people in the information technology department. In other words, they want the tools they need to do their job. Delivering those tools requires an underlying technology infrastructure that includes a storage file system...

Gaps in video from dropped video frames are a common problem. A web search on the phrase “dropped video frames” turns up links oriented towards gamers, YouTube videographers and even the world of video surveillance, discussing why frame drops happen and providing advice for coping with them. On Windows computers, video frame drops are a fact of life. Much of the advice can help reduce the number of frame drops, though never completely eliminate them. If you are an amateur filmmaker...

Security solutions should be about integration not isolation. Many organisations are considering their existing processes and systems and looking at how to leverage further value. Security is part of that focus and is a central component in the move towards a more integrated approach, which results in significant benefits. Gert Rohrmann, Technical Manager for the solutions division of Siemens Building Technologies UK, examines how by drawing data from a number of different sources...

  Demand is increasing rapidly for more video, higher quality video, and increasing use of video for innovations like video analytics that provide enhanced security and operational intelligence.   The growing demand is driving higher resolutions, larger camera counts, and longer retention times, which have all contributed to the growing importance and higher profile of data management and storage systems in the video surveillance industry.   Customers need...

Through new technology, applications and analytics, video surveillance systems are helping to make hospitals a safer place Healthcare organisations face many challenges. Federal mandates associated with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), changing reimbursement models, an ageing population and competition are among the most concerning issues. Unfortunately, so are safety and security. However, video surveillance is helping. Through new technology, applications and analytics, v...

Over the course of 2016, we witnessed a continuation of the prevalent trend towards more integrated and intelligent networked systems using Video Management Systems (VMS) as the central control platform.   One of the drivers behind this is open platform solutions that support more advanced physical devices such as IP cameras with on-board analytics, which continues to shift emphasis from the physical aspects of video and access control systems to the collection and correlation...

SourceSecurity.com’s Expert Panel covered a lot of ground in 2016 about a variety of topics in our Roundtable discussions. The very most-clicked-on Roundtable discussion in 2016 was about how to choose between a cloud-based system and a server-based system. Other hot topics that made the Top-10 list of Roundtable discussions included edge-based video storage, the challenges of commoditisation, and mistakes customers make when buying and installing security systems. Here is...

The holiday season generates 34% of annual sales for retailers but accounts for 37% of annual losses It is that time a year again, when shoppers and shoplifters converge on our retail outlets looking for that all important deal or steal. Peak shopping season This year, the National Retail Federation estimates holiday spending will rise 3.6% from 2015 to more than $655 billion. While the peak shopping season used to be defined as the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas Ev...

Innovation is not an end goal but an ongoing process that must be sustained Regardless of market, the challenge of commoditisation is very real for manufacturers as companies producing lower-end products continue to imitate the most advanced technologies. This creates a perception among customers, and the marketplace in general, that even leading-edge products with greater features, functionality, and value are indistinguishable from others on the market. As a result of commod...