By William C. Rutledge

TARGETING YOUR NICHE MARKET

A steady influx of small businesses and entrepreneurs has led to a wealth of opportunity for the security industry.  Small business owners understand the need for security protocols but don’t have the budget or the knowledge of the industry.  When dealing with issues like employee safety, property theft, and vandalism, owners are waiting for security companies to give them options that work.  Biometric access control scanners and facial recognition programs may snare the attention of the entrepreneur-minded owner but their eyes will glaze over when they get to the price tag.  Addressing individual security concerns and providing packaged options at a reasonable price will be the key to protecting small businesses.

VIDEO SURVEILLANCE

The progression of technology has allowed companies to build sturdy inexpensive digital cameras and DVRs that will create the foundation for a secure environment.  These systems are easily scaleable and can accommodate one camera to literally hundreds of cameras with a little careful planning.  For the discriminate buyer, used but functional digital or analog cameras can be purchased from secondary websites that offer the option to resale equipment.

Before determining the camera equipment that needs to be used, an assessment of the site needs to be evaluated to determine the priorities of camera placement.  Cameras that have features such as auto iris control or infrared capabilities and are versatile enough to be used for indoor or outdoor purposes may not be within everyone’s budget.  Camera and light placement are extremely important factors that allow the camera to function properly.  Placing cameras outdoors is a little tricky and requires patience.  Watch for sun flares that will disrupt the camera’s ability to record a clean image.  In the evening, make sure that the space that is being monitored is well lighted so that the camera can clearly distinguish ‘suspicious activity’   Weather conditions can also disrupt a camera’s ability to function properly.  Outdoor camera housing for the camera is essential to protect the equipment from the elements.

PRODUCTS TO COUNT ON

Axis Communications (www.axis.com) has an impressive range of products that are cutting edge but relatively inexpensive.  Two cameras to look for are the AXIS 232D and the AXIS 221 Day & Night Network Camera. 

The AXIS 221 Day & Night Network Camera is a versatile high performance IP-based camera that is able to provide high quality images for any security monitoring scenario.  Perfect for indoor or outdoor use, the AXIS 221 Camera is ideal technology for any industries security demands.  This 45 frame per second camera uses a progressive scan CCD sensor to produce distortion free images and has Day and Night functionality capabilities that will allow the camera to record color images during the day and automatically switch to a light sensitive black and white mode during low light conditions.  Another amazing feature is the ability to support Motion JPEG and MPEG-4 video streams simultaneously to maximize efficiency for bandwidth usage and maintain a high quality image.

The AXIS 232D Network Dome Camera is primarily designed for outdoor use and has full pan, tilt, and zoom capabilities over any IP network.  Its 18x optical auto focus zoom lens with a removable IR-cut filter is a particularly exciting feature for the camera and it enables the camera to capture color video in light conditions down to 0.3 lux, and black and white video in conditions down to 0.005 lux.  With 20 preset positions to create scheduled or preset event surveillance, the 232D Dome Camera is one of the best dome cameras on the market.

“The image clarity from the AXIS 221 Day & Night Network camera and the AXIS 232D Dome Network camera are superior to anything we have seen on the market today,” says John Steen, Senior Account Manager for Axis Communications, West Coast Division of the U.S.A.

Axis Communications also produces video servers that will convert analog video streams into digital IP-based information enhancing monitoring systems.  The AXIS 241QA video server is a durable and compact 4 port box that will allow you to detect motion events as well as stream Motion JPEG and MPEG-4 simultaneously.  The 241Q also includes event management tools such as image upload, alarm notification and I/O control.  The enhanced version of this server 241QA and SA provide you with an audio stream, enabling users to listen to an event and send audio commands.

THE NEXT STEP IN VIDEO MONITORING

One business model that is gaining traction is video monitoring services.  Companies such as Westec Interactive (www.wetecnow.com) and ADT (www.adt.com) have put a premium on video surveillance services to safeguard businesses.  Both are established in the marketplace and offer comprehensive packages for monitoring commercial facilities.  For small businesses to be able to utilize this important service to safeguard their business and employees, owners need to turn to companies who specialize in video monitoring and provide affordable pricing.  Live Surveillance (www.livesurveillance.tv) located in Houston, Texas, U.S.A., has created an affordable video monitoring service that caters to small businesses.  Capitalizing on new proprietary technology, Live Surveillance connects a low cost video server to a client’s existing surveillance camera system and provides video guard services at very affordable rates.  Criminals have little fear of standard recorded video; most images are dark and provide police with little identity information.  Live surveillance is a different story -- early detection of criminal activity and the rapid dispatch of police greatly increases the chance of capture or at least limiting the damage.  Utilizing signs to warn criminals that your facility is being monitored by a dispatcher will decrease your chance of being targeted for vandalism or property theft.  Several solutions are available depending upon the clients needs.  Night Video Guard is a night time only surveillance system for buildings, parking areas, storage facilities, industrial parks, schools and so on.  Watch-over-me services or ”on demand video” is available by manual activation for people walking alone to the parking lot, or high risk locations such as convenience stores, banks, and pawn shops.  Video alarm check can be connected to your alarm system to view on alarm and assess the reason for the alarm.  This lowers the risk of surprising a violent criminal and reduces false call outs.  Live Surveillance also offers the ability to license their software to create B2B solutions for other security companies.  Through proprietary filtering techniques, they are able to monitor 300+ cameras per work station.

“Terrorism maybe driving the headlines but the common criminal is an expensive problem of all business owners.  Hiring a guard to patrol our property even on a part time basis was just too expensive and not considered very effective.  Using technology and new processes to allow one person to monitor dozens of cameras upon motion detection seemed more logical.  After looking for over a year for such a system I called on my friends in software development, and together we mapped out the process and developed a prototype.  Fortunately I also found a major manufacture had just released the necessary hardware and embedded software to complete the solution.  With only minor modifications we had a working and reliable system.  LiveSurveillance.tv is the result and expanding upon these low cost video monitoring capabilities we have developed a low cost portable ‘video Guard Tower’ for construction sites and outdoor event security through a spin off called VideoGuardSolutions.com,” explains Don Skipton, managing partner of Live Surveillance.

ALTERNATIVE THINKING FOR BANDWIDTH CONCERNS

Bandwidth consumption is a major problem in the field of security video surveillance.  Corporations to the smallest of businesses usually cannot allocate enough bandwidth to the data transfer that is required from data streams.  Technology is quickly trying to adapt to the rigorous requirements of the “push and pull” of data streaming, but companies need options that will help them now.  Compression of the data is a solution that helps to minimize the transfer but the information is still large enough that the flow of data can “bottleneck” at certain stages.  An alternative method is to reduce the bandwidth used.  Newer model cameras can shoot up to 45 frames a second.  This is a tremendous waste of bandwidth depending on the application of the camera.  In most cases slowing the frame rate to 1 to 15 fps can save bandwidth and more importantly money.  Maximizing the efficiency of the camera system is one factor that will allow a security company to stand out from the rest.

William C. Rutledge is Security Consultant for LiveSurveillance.tv.