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Video Surveillance and Data Monitoring: The Basics

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On the technology side, the choices between CCTV and newer digital systems is difficult. How about some guidance?

Experts say video surveillance technology adoption is progressing over three phases:

Phase 1: Standalone CCTV systems. These are regarded as relative dinosaurs, but sturdy and simple. They will fade as surely as typewriters did.

Phase 2: Hybrid digital-analog systems. Sometimes networked, they use black-box digital video recorders (DVRs, essentially TiVo boxes). This represents the transition between old and new—such as those word processors that came after typewriters, but before PC programs.

Phase 3: Fully digital, networked IP-based surveillance. Here, video surveillance is just another node on the IT network. Cameras have IP addresses, controlled centrally with any number of software applications on top of the raw visual data.

Joseph Freeman's market research shows that CSOs are certain that they want to move off standalone closed circuit TV, but unsure that they're ready to move on to what they're being told is the more powerful, more dynamic future of video surveillance—fully digital systems. So they network their DVRs to get a few benefits of the new technology without a real commitment. They add some digital systems, while keeping CCTV with DVR. They're milking their old investments.

New digital technologies can pack some punch. One example: Pedro Ramos, director of loss prevention for Pathmark Stores, identified a problem universal to grocery stores. Most inventory shrink—shoplifting, employee theft and damaged goods—occurs at the point of sale. So he installed digital video that links to the cash registers at all of his stores. "I can look at the [the digital archive of the] register tape, pick out any item on that tape and be taken to the archived video of that moment in that transaction." This allows quicker response to incidents and deters theft. Recurring problems (such as a cashier who repeatedly mishandles egg cartons during scanning) can be identified and ameliorated quickly. "Almost immediately," says Ramos, "we've seen a significant decline in shrink."

Here are four considerations in support of newer technology.

1. Better visual data. Optics have vastly improved with the new generation of cameras, which, are more widely available. Dave Kent, CSO of Genzyme, says, "You can now buy equipment online that you used to have to go to some custom shop in an alley in New York to get. Good lenses. Low light. Thermal imaging. This stuff is smoking." Director of Corporate Security Sheila Bramlitt's bank, First Horizon National, helped solve a case involving kidnapping and homicide by using pictures captured from a camera at one of its ATM machines. "It looked like the person was posing for a portrait," she says. "We've come a long way from the blue-gray fuzzy blurs." With better resolution, one camera can cover a wider area, or digitally zoom for fine detail. Casinos love this.

2. Standard IT infrastructure. Historically, "You were tied to your supplier," says Joe Freeman, a security industry consultant and president and CEO of J.P. Freeman. IP-based video will allow CSOs to use the same servers and bandwidth as the rest of the company. What's more, cameras running IP over ethernet can have both data and power go through the same ethernet cable, with backup power on the same supply as the IT systems backup power supply. Prisons and areas vulnerable to wide-scale natural disasters love this.

3. Efficiency through centralized monitoring and automation. Simple math: When you have 30 sites worldwide, feeding video into a single control room instead of having 30 control rooms creates efficiency. Automated alarming further reduces the need to keep eyeballs fixed to screens everywhere. Digital archives are easier to access ("Tape," says one integrator, "basically requires a full-time employee.") Global companies with small sites love this.

4. New applications. It is software that will finally revolutionize video surveillance. Vendors are promising seemingly limitless applications to make video smart: Motion triggers, which can tell cameras to jump into high-resolution mode and track objects; software which can discriminate between a human form and, say, a skunk (thus reducing false alarms); applications which link video surveillance to access systems and safety systems, so that the surveillance system could call the fire department or help turn on sprinklers. Insurance companies love this.

Four caveats on digital IP video:

1. Digital IP surveillance requires a higher capital investment. The vendors will promise that despite this, they'll also provide higher returns faster. Make them prove it, like Pedro Ramos, director of loss prevention at Pathmark Stores, did. The cost of the cameras is actually negligible compared to application costs, storage costs, bandwidth costs, training costs, and, critically, security costs of using the Web to transmit image data and other security data. "They're making money in this industry, believe me," Genzyme CSO Dave Kent says.

2. New skill sets are needed. While CCTV was largely a monitoring game, the whole point of digital video surveillance is to reduce the need for eyeballs plastered to screens. It's a rules-based game. What triggers an alarm? A moving object? What kind? How is it moving? And when does it trigger? Only after hours or all day? It will require intense review and possibly modification of business processes. "What we're looking for is actionable intelligence," says Sandra Jones, a security industry consultant for Sandra Jones and Co. "That means we have to filter, filter, filter." IT expertise will also be required.

3. Information overload is a real threat. Sheila Bramlitt, director of corporate security at First Horizon National, says she could put surveillance everywhere, but that's just asking for trouble. A company would drown in visual data and false alarms. "That's where we go to risk analysis," she says. "We use our own case intelligence, public crime stats, lots of sources. We form this picture of where we need it most and start there. It's easy to use video surveillance. Using it efficiently is the challenge."

4. Buying now means not buying something better three months from now. Like a consumer buying a PC knowing faster, cheaper ones will be out tomorrow, CSOs have to make a leap of faith to get into digital video surveillance. This is a fact: The technology will continue to improve and come down in price. So when do you make that leap?

What are the best practices for handling and storing CCTV tapes?

According to consultant John Kingsley-Hefty: "The key is building a tape swap and storage schedule that rerecords the tapes equitably. Tapes will wear, over time, to the point of failure. Color-coding by day and/or shifts, and numbering by week works well. The key is designing your system around your required video storage retention schedule. To ensure that tapes are rerecorded according to the proper sequence and schedule, shuttling tapes per day or week to a separate secure area—or in some cases, offsite—works well."