This document discusses the challenges faced in building a large-scale IP based video and alarm management system. IP based security management systems are all about data exchange. Whether the data is video, audio, control, alarm or system administration related, the key to achieving a scalable architecture is to understand the flow of data. The operational requirements of the system as a whole must be clearly defined, potential bottlenecks in data flow identified and a system architecture arrived at which avoids hitting those bottlenecks. In general, security management systems are made up from these common components:

• Management Consoles
• Network Video Recorders
• Alarm Servers
• Integration Gateways
• Cameras

The document discusses scalability problems, which can arise as a result of data bottlenecks in each of these five system areas. It also shows how, with a suitable design, these scalability problems can be solved leading to unlimited security management system sizes.

What's inside?

• Identifying data bottlenecks
• Solving data bottlenecks
• Network video recorders
• Alarm servers