Honeywell Readies IP Video Management System
- By Steven Titch
- Aug 22, 2008
Honeywell will begin shipping its new IP-based video management system in September, making the company the latest entrant among a growing number of vendors offering software designed to integrate video surveillance components via the Internet protocol.
Honeywell is positioning its video management system as a “top box,” says Rob Blasofsel, Access/Video Integration Manager at Honeywell ACS. Unlike most of its competitors, the software package does not integrate an NVR per se, but is designed to bring together multiple DVRs, NVRS, digital and analog cameras, and other client devices -- from Honeywell and other vendors -- under a common management platform.
But Honeywell goes one step further. Ultimately, it sees the high-level video platform merging with its access platform to become a single point of security and surveillance management. The video management system tightly integrates with Honeywell’s Pro-Watch security management system for access control and management, to the point to where they nearly handshake. “They share common services,” Blasofsel adds, referring to code-level software and functions. “They can share common servers. They eventually will form one platform.”
For example, the video and access control platforms can work in tandem to assure there can be video recording and retrieval of all card access entries. It can even do credential imaging if credentialing is part of access policy, Blasofsel says.
Honeywell also provides analytics, an integrated database manager, and ATM/POS support with the system. The software runs on Windows XP and Windows 2003. It can connect to various large-scale storage platforms, including iSCSI RAID from Honeywell, Blasofsel adds. Application protocol interfaces (APIs) are available, and a software development kit (SDK) is under development.
Honeywell licenses the product on a per-interface basis. For example, once the user purchases a license to use the interface for a particular NVR, there is no limit on the number of those NVRs the user can attach, Blasofsel says. The platform is highly scalable from smaller enterprises up through “power surveillance users,” he adds.
Honeywell will demonstrate the video management system at the 2008 ASIS International Seminar and Exhibits, Sept. 15-18 in Atlanta.
About the Author
Steven Titch is editor of Network-Centric Security magazine.