Business Innovation Homepage > Governance

When it comes to security and IT, much of the attention is focused on protecting information and access to applications, computer systems and networks. But more CSOs, CISOs and even IT managers might be getting involved in physical security, thanks to the growing use of digital video surveillance systems that monitor physical security and feed information into corporate networks.

In the past, most video surveillance was done using analog cameras that displayed images on monitors and stored video footage on tape. But digital video systems have become somewhat more affordable in recent years, and organizations have begun using them to monitor physical locations such as office buildings. When they link digital video cameras to their IP-based networks, organizations can store and easily search for specific information, helping them to better track activities and investigate or thwart security breaks.

Frost & Sullivan predicts that revenue from video surveillance software sales in North America will grow from $140 million in 2006 to $827 million by 2013.

“We see increased use of digital video for security,” says Andreas Antonopoulos, senior vice president and founding partner of Nemertes Research. “We often hear the term ‘convergence’ applied to the merging of data and surveillance networks. What’s helping to drive the adoption of digital video is the cost savings organizations can experience by using a single network, as well as savings from more efficient storage of images, he says.

Organizations adopting IP-based video surveillance systems are most likely to be combining the IT and physical security functions under the IT department, Nemertes says.

Digital video provides several technical advantages over analog systems. For one thing, digital cameras can transmit images over a broader area. If analog cameras are situated too far from recorders, the signal quality can decline. Another advantage of digital video is that cameras can be powered by IP networks, rather than requiring a local power source. And digital video technology produces higher-quality images, with compression capabilities that enable images to be stored more efficiently.

How much of a benefit digital video provides over analog depends on where the digitization occurs, Antonopoulos says. “There are advantages to digitizing video at the back end and additional advantages to implementing digital video at the camera level,” he says. “IP-based video directly from cameras can leverage the existing data networks [such as Ethernet or Wi-Fi], thereby reducing costs for deployment, maintenance and operations.”

At the back end, Antonopoulos says, the digitization of video allows for better compression and easier processing and retrieval. “Highly compressed video can significantly reduce storage costs and allow for expanded coverage and longer retention,” he says.

Antonopoulos says that one of the challenges of deploying digital video technology is the cost of the cameras — which is dropping but still high compared with analog equipment — and back-end equipment. “But, in the longer run this cost is more than balanced by reduced operational and storage costs and enhanced capabilities,” he says.

Another concern is that digital video systems depend on corporate networks, so any decline in network performance can have an impact on the performance of video systems. And organizations must ensure that their networks have enough bandwidth to support video transmission and storage requirements.

Click here for more Governance articles