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Video Surveillance Systems: Reality TV

The reasons to invest in new video surveillance systems are everywhere. Zoom in on these six insights to help you focus on what's important and what's just hype.

Guo decided to shift to a digital, IP-based network and centralize control in New York City (although each site will still be able to monitor its own system). He's phasing this in now. In the first phase of the installation, Guo says, he saved at least a half-million dollars on deployment costs over CCTV. "For software, we saved a quarter-million because it's all open IT systems now, so we did development in-house," Guo says. "Hardware we didn't calculate, but we know we saved. I mean, the monitoring station is, what, basically a PC."

Not only that: Ethernet connections allow cameras to get their power over the same cable that they use to transmit their data. That was another huge savings, Guo says, because in some of the city courthouses, his group is just a tenant. "If you needed to get power outlets to new cameras, you're talking about three different agencies and months for approval."3 Justify the Costs of Those New CamerasGuo is on the front edge of the digital video surveillance trend. He would be considered one of the guinea pigs that Bramlitt said she is waiting on to test the technology for her. But even Guo is careful with what he chooses to deploy.

The New York courts have installed some motion detection, and Guo says he has tested some infrared cameras for low-light spots, but he offers some caveats: "We test first and start simple, where there are well-defined parameters, like restricted space where any movement would be suspicious."

Pathmark's Ramos is more conservative. He hesitates to endorse the IP-based digital video hype. His system is, in fact, a hybrid (such as those of Bramlitt and Genzyme's Kent). Pathmark combines digital and analog, and even uses some tape storage. It's on the cusp of a phase 3 system, but not quite there. Why? "The cost to convert over fully isn't quite where we need it," he says.

He's not just guessing either. Ramos demanded and is getting an average of about 13.5 percent ROI from his video surveillance upgrade. And, under the right conditions, some of his stores will recoup costs in less than two years, some in under one. "We need a six-month time frame for video storage, and I can't cost-justify a fully digital system with that requirement yet," Ramos says. (Like others in this story, Ramos declined to share specific surveillance investment figures.)

Ramos's discipline is not a fluke. One would think someone such as Bill Bowens, who recently managed an upgrade to digital video surveillance at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, would not have to provide a rigid analysis of the need for better surveillance. Airports, after all, are central to domestic antiterrorism efforts. Yet, Bowens says, "We don't do anything because we just think we have to. There's a cost-benefit for everything."