The Continuing Evolution of Power and Transmission Solutions
- By Ronnie Pennington
- Dec 29, 2016
Thanks to a number of new technology advancements, power supplies and transmission solutions with network management features are a natural progression for ensuring the reliability of today’s IP-based physical security systems.
Security consultants, integrators and end-users are implementing advanced power and monitoring solutions to ensure the reliability and dependability of the video surveillance, access control, fire and security systems deployed within an organization. Driven by a number of industry trends, the increased demand on these technologies will continue beyond 2017.
Integration
The migration from Analog-to-IP continues to play a key role in nearly all aspects of security as more and more devices are now network centric. The virtual mountains of data these products transmit on a continual basis translates into a need for increased security and network performance, as well as detailed analytics and diagnostics. Power and transmission devices that control, monitor and report have now become part of the network architecture delivering a true end-to-end solution.
Benefits from advanced and innovative hardware solutions also permit the ability to integrate systems, including intelligently designed enclosures purpose-built to easily combine power with leading manufacturers’ access controllers and accessories. Simplifying board layout and wire management, these enclosures significantly reduce installation and associated labor costs while providing the flexibility, versatility and scalability installers require to configure multiple products easily and efficiently. The simple – but highly pragmatic – design of enclosure backplanes substantially increases the cost-effectiveness of this often time- and labor-intensive aspect of integration, delivering tangible benefits for installers and end users alike.
Advanced Functionality
Forget everything you know about the conventional power and transmission products that have been the norm within the security industry for years. Today’s power supplies are miles ahead, thanks in large part to the addition of network communication capabilities that allow system designers and installers to ensure more seamless integration that enable comprehensive remote monitoring, reporting and control. With this functionality, early integration, preventative maintenance and possible service calls can be handled more accurately, improving users’ overall security levels. In short, with network communication, these solutions provide a more comprehensive fabric for the professional security industry as a whole.
In addition, these capabilities can also significantly reduce end-users’ total cost of ownership through more efficient service management. Simple tasks such as rebooting devices remotely and scheduling back-up battery replacements can be easily accommodated with these advanced power and transmission solutions.
Revenue Potential
Business is good for security professionals, according to a recent industry report by research firm IHS, which placed the global market for systems integration at $60.3 billion in 2015, with the service industry forecast to be the fastest-growing sector within the market.
Security professionals understand the importance of service for generating the ongoing, predictable revenue in determining a company’s ultimate success. Addressing this critical need, networked power and transmission solutions create new business opportunities in the service sector in the form of device monitoring. This allows dealers and integrators to monitor real-time diagnostics from virtually anywhere as a value-added service that can create a new source of RMR. Using the data and alerts these solutions provide, security professionals can quickly identify and mitigate potential and actual system issues prior to dispatching technicians to a site – saving time, reducing expenses, increasing efficiency and improving overall security.
Flexible Design and Deployment
Very few surveillance, access control, fire and security installations are exactly alike. The design builds for each project must take into account existing infrastructure, budgets and the security issues the systems are intended to resolve. Ethernet over Coax (EoC) adaptive transmission solutions are among the latest solutions that address these issues by allowing analog infrastructure to be upgraded to IP. By eliminating the need to replace existing cabling, these solutions deliver substantial savings. An added benefit is the ability to transmit both power and data for multiple devices over a single coax cable, providing a cleaner, less costly installation in a smaller footprint and allows for expansion of additional devices without the need for lengthy cable runs.
Furthermore, the continued evolution of PoE midspans/endspans deliver even more flexibility for today’s advanced IP systems, with outdoor versions that include Hi-PoE providing up to 60W of power to IP devices and SFP ports to accommodate fiber cabling for long-distance applications. New managed midspans provide more power per port, fulfill the increasing demands from multi-sensor megapixel cameras for more bandwidth, and include battery charging to ensure security is operational during an outage.
In the coming year, power and transmission solutions with network communications and management capabilities will continue to be deployed in growing numbers as a key component of advanced integrated security systems. Given the ability to increase overall system performance and reduce expenses, it would be time well spent for resellers and end-users alike to familiarize themselves with these new solutions.