The trend towards IP surveillance equipment in the CCTV security surveillance industry is making it imperative for CIOs to become more intimately involved in what traditionally would have been the security manager's function.
Worldwide, the use of video surveillance is rising steadily, mainly due to heightened security concerns and a range of new technologies - including Internet Protocol (IP) video surveillance cameras, servers and digital video recorders (DVRs) - which ease the adoption of the technology. The most important advantage of IP cameras over analogue cameras is how they communicate with the rest of the system, in-Stat (www.in-stat.com) believes.
Research released by in-Stat in March 2011 forecasts that worldwide unit shipments of security analogue cameras will reach nearly 44 million by 2014. The research also predicts that the growth in IP cameras will surpass analogue cameras and drive higher growth rates in hybrid digital video recorders (HDVRs) and network video recorders (NVRs).
The IP camera's capability to interface to recorders, switches, computers, servers and the Internet can make the surveillance system itself easy to upgrade and expand. However, the price of IP cameras and the cost of upgraded infrastructure can outweigh that advantage.
Often, the solution is HDVRs, which use existing analogue cameras and channel communication from them to recording and storage equipment via an IP network. This also means that CCTV-as-a-service, a hired solution which is monitored remotely, becomes feasible.
In the average office building, there is already a significant investment in an IP network, which facilitates the upgrade. Since the surveillance system interacts with the company's existing IP network, it then becomes imperative that the solution is driven by the IT department rather than by the security department.
Security managers are not necessarily equipped with the IT background to understand the effects of IP surveillance on the company's existing IP network, which remains the domain of the CIO. Obviously, that does not mean the security manager should not be involved in the design, specification and execution process. However, the CIO has the know-how to set up the IP system in such a way that the security manager has access to all the information he requires to do his job, while the company retains optimal use of its existing network and technology investments.
New legislation and regulations like King III also require that the integrity of data be maintained. Plus courts no longer routinely accept CCTV imagery, but want it watermarked, date- and time-stamped, and stored in a secure digital environment - again, the CIO's ambit.
CIOs may balk at the additional responsibility, concerned that it will eat into their time, akin to their existing distaste at being called to change a printer cartridge. However, a good CCTV system functions more like a laptop than like a printer. There is initial time investment in setting it up on the network, but thereafter, it generally functions without intervention from the IT department, unless something goes wrong.
Things seldom go wrong in a properly installed and equipped CCTV surveillance system. In fact, some systems in South Africa have run - untouched - for as long as nine years and are still going strong. In addition, with a suitable partner the system can be delivered as a service, rather than using IT department resources.
Ultimately, the increased uptake of IP technology in CCTV surveillance underscores the important role CIOs can play in their companies' CCTV security surveillance systems.
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