Technology & Trends - Dome cameras

Over the past year Sony has expanded its product lineup to include a range of capabilities Sony 2014/2015 Review and Forecast: Many would agree that one of the most important trend in 2014 has been the emergence of 4K. We’ve already seen the first 4K security cameras hit the market, at a premium price. Sony is already a champion of 4K technology, which offers a resolution that is four times greater than Full HD (1080p), making for a sharp and detailed visual image. 4K w...

Time will tell regarding how fast public cloud applications will be fully adopted in the security space Sureview 2014/2015 Review and Forecast: The continued movement to “cloud” or “distributed” applications will further impact how security manufacturers and integrators market and position their solutions and offerings. To the traditional security organisation, this brings an entirely new go-to-market and pricing strategy as well as a completely diffe...

Companies will resort to cooperation in a mutually beneficial and complementary way Dahua 2014/2015 Review and Forecast:The global economy is in recovery, and China’s domestic market keeps its strong momentum. Politically, the terrorist attacks and uncertain factors still exist; and with years of market cultivation, people’s safety awareness continues to grow. Important trends include the popularisation of HD, intelligence, integration and the increasing impac...

Integration of wireless and edge technology will continue to change the economics of installation 2014/2015 D/A Central review and forecast: As a security systems integrator, we are seeing some improvement in the industrial sector. It appears that projects that were deferred during the recession are now getting funded. Healthcare continues to have complex needs with continuing consolidation, which then creates opportunity. One question that remains is military spending a...

2014 was a year for eye-popping merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the security space. The big deals of the year included some of the largest names in the industry. One name is larger than any in the security market – Google, which made not one but two acquisitions this year that could impact the future security market. It was also the year that a smaller player in the video camera market (although a huge familiar brand overall) bought a large, open systems V...

The decriminalisation of marijuana has left the security industry apprehensive to collaborate with the industry If ever there was a market tailor-made for security companies, it’s the growing cannabis industry. Although only two states – Colorado and Washington – currently allow the sale of recreational marijuana and 22 other states permit limited medical use, many within the industry believe the tide has turned in favour of legalisation. [After the recent el...

2015 will see Multifocal sensor cameras opening up new markets for Dallmeier Dallmeier 2014/2015 Review and Forecast:The resolution of megapixel cameras is always going to be higher. But people are starting to understand that resolution is not everything, nor does it solve the problem of the customer. In addition, many megapixels on a single chip have unpleasant side-effects related to things like light sensitivity, lens quality, image rate and bandwidth. What really interes...

Winning companies are those that continue to be proactive rather than reactive to the changing security environment Scallop 2014/2015 Review and Forecast: In the last few years, we have seen a number of developments in the security industry – including organisations taking a more proactive approach to security. As a result, the demand for surveillance solutions has continued to grow at a high rate and, in turn, the data being collected has hit record levels. As...

Customers look to leverage video surveillance technologies to optimise and monitor operations within their business MicroPower 2014/2015 Review and Forecast: In 2015, we will continue to see customers look to leverage video surveillance technologies to optimise and monitor operations within their business. Solutions that enable organisations to shift from more situational awareness to situational assessment – for example, using images collected from the surveillanc...

There is convergence of both the video and access control technologies, and of the companies themselves Milestone Systems 2014/2015 Review and Forecast: Milestone Systems is always in touch with our vast ecosystem of partners around the globe as we support them in their customer projects and needs. We partake in hundreds of industry events, road shows, and meetings, also holding our own partner conferences in every region to ensure face time with our stakeholders. We do...

Cloud-based services for video surveillance or hosted access control are garnering more attention in the physical security industry. Most people today are already using or are familiar with cloud-based applications in their day-to-day life, so it will only be a matter to time before the benefits of the cloud permeate security and business solutions. Dealers looking to embrace the cloud model for access control must re-think multiple aspects of how they are set up as an organ...

Think of crisis management and emergency planning as a  customer service Do you have a written emergency management plan? Where is it? When was the last time you updated it?Developing and writing a corporate or organisational emergency management plan can take a long time. Once completed, however, the plan is there for you to access when you need it. In fact, that’s wrong. According to crisis management authority Michael J. Fagel, emergency planning is suppos...

Access control can sometimes get overshadowed by video surveillance Technology is shifting rapidly in the access control market, but another obstacle is the need to communicate the value of the technology to users. Specifically, access control can sometimes get overshadowed by video surveillanceas it competes for a share of the customer’s security dollars. From a pure security standpoint, electronic access control is better suited than video surveillance to keeping...

Orwell’s 1984 depicts a post-apocalyptic dystopia in which camera surveillance is used to oppress the individual The phrase “Big Brother” has been in our vocabulary for eight decades now. Its use is linked exclusively with negative images of a surveillance state (and, of course, a bad reality television show). But would George Orwell, a non-religious democrat, be happy with the way the anti-CCTV lobby has appropriated the phrase? The fact is, Orwell would app...

Access control systems that leverage proprietary technologies severely limit system flexibility Access control’s ongoing transition from closed systems to more open integration provides benefits for integrators, and especially for end users looking to maximise their system return on investment. End users want greater flexibility, specifically in terms of hardware choice. As a result, more non-proprietary solutions are coming to market. For the integrator, offering more o...

Remote monitoring offers a multiplying effect on security efforts The growth of IP-based networks has made it possible for security professionals to easily monitor surveillance activity from any internet-enabled PC, smartphone, or tablet anytime, anyplace. More and more, businesses are realising that remote monitoring can have a significant impact on their bottom line. Whether you’re a retail outlet, bank or hotel, remote monitoring offers a multiplying effect on securit...

Newer concepts and modern security solutions help achieve operational efficiencies in the retail sector Asset protection across retail organisations is sometimes still viewed as a necessary evil. But at a time when shrinkage is on the rise, margins are low, competition is fierce and the economic climate is still somewhat uncertain, retailers need to maximise any investment in technology and consider how it can positively impact their bottom line. Steve Bocking, Sales...

Event-driven video for surveillance and recording involves using a video recorder or video management software system that is triggered by movement in the areas where cameras are located. Event-driven video can be achieved by using intelligent motion detection or video contents analytics (VCA) on the camera, recorder or PC server. Recently, performance of VCA has improved; however, some conditions can still affect detection using the camera image. Tomo Ito, Business Development Man...

If a security or video surveillance / CCTV system isn’t working, who’s to blame? Or more to the point, what’s to blame? Is the problem the malfunction of a specific device on the edge of the IP network, or is it a network or other system failure? How can an end user or dealer / installer know what the problem is? How can a camera manufacturer know if a call to their overworked tech support department is really about the manufacturer’s camera or cau...

Editor's Note: HDcctv Alliance has announced that Dahua has opened its patented HDCVI technology to the global video surveillance industry as the basis for HDcctv's AT 2.0 standard. For additional elaboration on what the move means to the growing market for higher-resolution CCTV, we approached Todd Rockoff, chairman and executive director of HDcctv Alliance. SourceSecurity.com: How is HDcctv AT 2.0 superior to HD-SDI or other previous approaches? Todd Rockoff:  When i...

On April 16, 2013, snipers fired for 19 minutes on PG&E Corp.'s Metcalf electric power transmission station near San Diego, California, knocking out 17 giant transformers that supply electricity to Silicon Valley. At least 100 rounds were fired from at least one high-powered rifle. The power grid was rerouted to avoid a blackout, but it took 27 days to make repairs and get the substation back up and running. The incident got the attention of regulators and security prof...

When comparing specifications among a range of similarly featured video surveillance cameras, NVRs or monitors, it can be difficult to ascertain which of the devices truly has the best performance and/or quality. John Grabowski, National Sales and Marketing Manager of JVC Security Division, poses some questions for consideration: Can the human eye actually see a difference in image quality between one camera that offers 700 lines of resolution and another that offers 600...

Low-light imaging has historically been a problem for megapixel cameras. Arecont Vision, like other megapixel camera manufacturers, has struggled to solve the dilemma of low-light images, which are plagued by noise, smearing of video, high bit rates (requiring additional storage) and loss of colour. Arecont Vision says it now has the answer, dubbing it STELLAR technology. The “LL” in the middle of STELLAR stands for “low-light;” the entire acronym sta...

Thermal cameras provide images that reliably show the presence of people in any lighting situation FLIR Systems broke a historic threshold in thermal camera pricing when it announced a thermal camera for $499 at the ISC West show in April. Before that announcement, the lowest-price thermal camera was $2,000, which was itself much lower than the $10,000 price just a few years ago in 2005. The price decrease resulted from FLIR’s R&D efforts specifically aimed at loweri...

Pelco is making its big comeback with renewed vigour and new lines of surveillance products to set it apart from the rest Working to Regain Momentum in a Changing Market: Most observers agree that Pelco lost momentum in the video surveillance market after the acquisition by Schneider Electric in 2007. Hervé Fages, senior vice president of Schneider Electric's video business, is looking to regain that momentum, guiding the surveillance giant in new directions as the mark...

In China and Russia ONVIF Profile S compliance is becoming mandatory for smaller systems The familiarity and widespread use of ONVIF interfaces in the market are evidence of the success of ONVIF, which was created in 2008 by three manufacturers, Axis, Sony and Bosch. More evidence of success is a growing number of new members and compliant products. All over the world, ONVIF is being embraced – in China and Russia, as examples, ONVIF Profile S compliance is becoming mand...

 H.265/HEVC coding format will bring major benefits to IP video cameras offering a new level of video quality at an economic price The emergence last year of a new format for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is poised to have a huge impact on IP video surveillance cameras over the next few years. Among the benefits of the new H.265/HEVC coding format over the legacy H.264/MPEG-4 is a 40 percent or more bit rate reduction at the same visual quality. Therefore, a camera...

A U.S. economic forecast of 2.3 percent growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) bodes well for security businesses to thrive in a healthy economy in 2014. The Conference Board’s 2.3 percent growth prediction for 2014 is higher than its 1.7 estimate for 2013. Globally, both the physical access control and video surveillance markets are forecast to record healthy growth rates this year. Conference board predictions on housing starts (up 1.16 percent in 2014, compared...

High definition (HD) megapixel cameras can help in the surveillance of larger areas with fewer cameras while delivering superior detail and improving overall security operations. This translates into lower infrastructure costs and improved overall return on investment (ROI), enabling users to deploy less expensive video systems with megapixel cameras and achieve better performance and functionality. In this article, Scott Schafer, Executive Vice President of Arecont Vision ex...

72% of British consumers express preference for HD CCTV over standard CCTV systems According to a survey by YouGov and Avigilon, 38 percent of people feel safe in areas where they know CCTV is being used because it acts as a deterrent, and a further 41 percent attribute the feeling of safety to the fact security forces can use the footage if anything were to happen. The presence of CCTV in the UK makes people feel safe, but the images captured by today’s CCTV cameras are...