Decision 2012 IP Video For All
New tech trends that move the question from "Why IP?" to "Why not?"
- By James Marcella
- Mar 01, 2012
The adoption of IP-based surveillance continues to increase annually,
capturing market share across virtually all industry segments.
The most recent IMS forecast indicates that IP video amounted to
about 30 percent of all installations in 2011 and will be nearly 50
percent of the market by 2015. Integrators and consultants, along
with security practitioners, have long-since realized that the trend toward IP has
by far surpassed the point of being a niche offering. It’s moved to the class of
required knowledge.
With each passing year, performance improvements of electronics in the
IT and consumer worlds enable manufacturers to address demands that they
couldn’t have with earlier product generations. This is a major drawback of analog,
where the most recent “innovation” was the addition of color video in the
1950s. In the IP world, however, manufacturers with open ears are essentially
handed a blueprint for success.
Just as CES is to the consumer world, ISC West showcases the trends that will
shape the physical security world in the year ahead. The question remains: What
has the market been asking for that we’ll finally see on the 2012 show floor?
Clarity: Seeing Better than the Naked Eye
Image quality is the most critical success factor for the security professional deploying
video. The defined objective of a surveillance application dictates the
quality of the video required, while the conditions or mounting environment
dictates the camera type selected. This is surveillance 101 for the integrator and/
or consultant.
Recent advances in video processing chips, sometimes referred to as a systemon-
a-chip (SOC), combined with the latest image sensors give security professionals broader product portfolios to choose from. For the past two years, manufacturers
have been in a race to deliver the highest resolution cameras. While the
chips and processors can render high multi-megapixel images, the lens marketing
is currently topping out at about 5 MP. Because camera imaging technology must
wait for the lens market to catch up, manufacturers will concentrate on products
that provide more clarity, specifically in low-light scenarios.
The most light-sensitive camera on the market is an IP addressable network
camera delivering color imagery down to 0.05 lux without the need for auxiliary
light. Known as “Lightfinder,” this technology will find its way into all types of
cameras—from box to dome to PTZ dome—and provide increased resolution,
enabling color images in scenes that traditionally delivered only black and white.
Adding color to video shot in virtual darkness only increases the usability of that
video, giving the security practitioner enhanced situational awareness. This capability
is available in cameras that are outdoor- ready, powered by Ethernet, and
rated down to -40 degrees F, right out of the box.
Compression: H.264 Wins Again, but with a New Profile
Today, the storage of video is done almost exclusively in the digital realm; thus,
any improvements to compression results in cost savings for the purchase and ongoing
operation of a surveillance system. H.264 is the undisputed industry leader,
with widespread adoption by manufacturers of hardware and software. It’s been
the driving force not only behind bringing HDTV-quality video to the control
room but also in the shift from analog to IP as a whole.
That stated, there are several different “profiles” defined by the MPEG-4 standard
that governs H.264—otherwise known as Part 10—which offer varying levels
of performance. Most products operate using what is termed the “Baseline
Profile,” but in 2011 the industry saw the introduction of products using the even
more advanced “main profile.” The adoption of the main profile will further decrease
bandwidth consumption while maintaining or improving image quality for
compressed images. If all things remain the same, this equates to cost savings on
storage since you can record the same amount at higher quality with less disk
space. Another option would be to use the excess storage capacity to either increase
resolution or frame rate, or simply add more cameras without increasing
the storage investment.
Chips for Analytics: Killer Apps are Coming
The killer app for video surveillance products is the ability to apply rules to a condition
and initiate predefined actions as a result. Otherwise known as analytics,
applying intelligence to the edge or in the camera offers new options for solving
some common problems faced by security professionals in all industries.
Over a relatively short period of time, humans experience physical fatigue that
impacts their ability to effectively monitor video—the same fatigue you might experience
when reading a long article. Computers, on the other hand, do not have
this disadvantage and will continually process events in the manner they were programmed.
The challenge is programming them. With each new advance in processing
power brought on by a newer generation of in-camera chipsets, capabilities
increase, giving us new opportunities to do more at the edge while increasing ease
of use.
The power is there today for more on-board analytics, so expect to see software
developers leveraging the camera as a platform in the way the iPhone drove the
app movement.
Convenience: IP is Everywhere
Ease of installation will certainly be showcased at ISC and continue throughout
2012. The end goal is to decrease the time it takes to physically install devices so
more time can be spent on configuration and improved use. Year-by-year we’ve seen IP video products becoming easier to install, and now the industry has its eyes
on making them easy to install in any environment.
Out-of-the-box products that can be installed in any temperature extreme, from
-40 degrees F to 165 degrees F, are hitting the market. By being able to hang and
connect the camera in a matter of minutes, installers can focus on more valueadded
configuration practices, including image-quality settings, which will be the
ultimate judge of the system’s success.
Educating yourself and/or your staff on camera configuration practices would
be a good after-the-fact New Year’s resolution. The industry is at the point where
the majority of integrators can sell, install and maintain a functioning IP surveillance
system, but one major distinguishing factor will be the ability to obtain the
best quality image from the camera selected—default settings are not always the
best choice.
Convergence: IP Isn’t All-or-Nothing
Despite the many undisputed advantages of network cameras—image quality,
scalability, TCO and functionality—analog still has its place at the table in 2012
and will be an uninvited guest for many years to come (for those of us who strongly
believe in the IP world, anyway).
All kidding aside, analog cameras still provide a workable solution for certain
installations and continued to amount to 70 percent of new camera installations
in 2011, according to IMS Research. But the shift from analog to IP video surveillance
continues to accelerate, and that’s because the shift isn’t an all-or-nothing
proposition.
The continued development of video encoder technologies, which act as a
bridge between the analog and digital worlds, enables practitioners to leverage
working analog cameras and integrate them into the future IP surveillance
system. Like the analytics market, encoders are benefitting from improved chip (SoC) technology.
One of these benefits is the ability
to better de-interlace video captured
by analog cameras. For example, analog
cameras produce video in lines of
resolution that are designated as either
“even” or “odd.” Combined, they produce
the entire picture, but there is a
17-millisecond delay between the odd
and even lines. When there is movement,
the delay creates an interlaced
effect that causes degradation in the
image quality. De-interlacing reduces
this effect and thus provides a clearer
image. You’re still stuck viewing recordings
at NTSC or PAL resolution
because of the analog camera, but it
won’t have the jagged lines associated
with interlaced cameras.
Finally, the form factor of encoders
is typically identified by two criteria:
- the number of analog video channels
it can convert
- whether it is stand-alone or rackmounted.
Current offerings start at
single-channel offerings and go up
to enterprise rack-mounted solutions
that can encode 84 channels
of video. Performance enhancements
of SoC provide the capability
of multichannel video ports on
one chip—the end result is a lower
cost per port of video encoders.
The world is full of analog cameras,
and with each performance
increase the reality of converting
them to a digital solution becomes
more affordable.
More Convergence: Small
Systems Have an Edge
As discussed when talking about compression,
storage is a major component
of the solution with IP surveillance systems.
Solid-state, removable media falls
into this category and is now commonly
found in edge-based video devices.
Whether cameras or encoders, edge
devices can have significant storage
capability built into the product. The
SDHC standard is commonly found in
network cameras today and offers storage
capability up to 32 GB, which could
amount to days or weeks of video. Local
storage coupled with a basic Webbased
viewing application amounts to
a simple NVR platform. The ability for
small business owners to leverage the
enhanced image quality of IP surveillance
can be realized with these lowercost
systems.
Moreover, by using edge storage, the
complexity of the installation is greatly
reduced by eliminating the need to deploy
recording servers or load software.
Traditionally, this market—the lessthan-
16-camera one—has been dominated
by analog cameras and low-end
DVRs. As a result, the companies that
are focused on this small market segment
can no longer afford to ignore the
IP shift. To do so will imperil their livelihood
as more IP-savvy companies learn
they can compete successfully for small
business surveillance opportunities.
Even More Convergence:
The Cloud Flies High in 2012
The final trend pushing IP surveillance into the realm of small business
is one that’s been buzzing for the last
two years: hosted video. In 2011, major
national system integrators including
ADT, NAVCO, Niscayah, Siemens and
Stanley launched hosted video applications
that offered customers a range
of business choices. Now customers
can opt to purchase cameras and pay
a monthly fee for the off-site storage
of recordings. Some companies offer
complete turnkey solutions—cameras
included—for a monthly fee.
This changes the traditional DVRbased
business model of purchasing
all the equipment up-front and relying
heavily on maintenance and service,
which can be cost-prohibitive
for small businesses. It also offers new
avenues for monthly recurring revenue
for integrators of all sizes, since some
hosting providers offer private labeling
of the service, giving qualified
companies the opportunity to offer
hosted video services under their own
brand. Together, edge storage and
hosted video might just sing the final
swan song for the DVR.
But the hosted video trend is not
solely focused on small businesses. For
instance, national retailers with a number
of dispersed locations might deploy
thousands of hosted video channels
across their retail operations in malls or
shopping centers. They receive the benefits
associated with IP video but aren’t
purchasing separate storage devices for
each location. And for those who do
not have the time or resources to monitor
all these video channels internally,
central monitoring stations will embrace
this opportunity as it becomes
more widely accepted.
And for those customers who are
hesitant to consider hosted video because
of the need for high-resolution
video, the consumer market is playing a
major role. Ever-increasing bandwidth
pipes from Internet service providers
will give us more resolution options in
the future. In areas where bandwidth
is lacking, network-attached storage
devices—the same ones that consumers
use to store backup photo, video
and music files—can be used to record
multi-terabytes of higher-quality video
locally in a cost-effective manner.
Remember the onboard storage from
earlier? That can be used for HDTV recording,
as well.
IP (Really) is for Everyone
Technology innovations in network
video have made it so that IP is for everyone,
regardless of the installation
size or location. There are so many
more storage, installation and functionality
options today that it will be hard
to turn down an IP system—so long as
the end customer is properly educated
on the benefits. Use this year to learn all
you can about IP. It will be everywhere
you look.
This article originally appeared in the March 2012 issue of Security Today.