IP vs Analog Security Cameras
Almost every new installation is IP. The question that actually comes up is what to do with an analog system already in the building, and whether replacing it is worth what it costs.
The short answer
Install IP for any...
Cloud vs On-Premise Video Surveillance
This is usually presented as a technology choice and is really a choice about who operates the system, how you prefer to pay, and how much footage you keep. The cameras are frequently identical either way.
The short ans...
Video Surveillance for Schools and Campuses
Schools and campuses want cameras for a small number of specific reasons and inherit a set of obligations that surprise people, because in education the footage itself can become a student record. Who maintains it, and w...
Video Surveillance for Banking and Financial Services
Branches are among the oldest users of video surveillance and among the most likely to be running a system designed for a business that no longer exists. Cash handling still matters, but the risks that have grown are dis...
Video Surveillance for Healthcare and Hospitals
Hospitals are open buildings with restricted rooms inside them, staffed around the clock, containing controlled substances, expensive equipment and records that carry statutory protection. Surveillance has to work across...
Video Surveillance and Structured Cabling
Cabling is the part of a surveillance project that is decided first, changed last and costs the most to get wrong. It is also the part buyers are least likely to ask about, which is why so many systems end up with camera...
Video Surveillance and Intrusion Detection
An alarm tells you something happened. A camera tells you what. Run separately, the first produces call-outs nobody can triage and the second produces recordings nobody watches. Together they produce something closer to ...
Video Surveillance and Access Control
These two systems are bought separately, installed by the same contractor, and then run as though they have nothing to do with each other. Connecting them is usually a configuration exercise rather than a purchase, and i...
Measuring the Value of Video Surveillance
Video surveillance is easy to justify before it is installed and hard to justify afterwards, because the thing it prevents leaves no record. That does not mean the value is unmeasurable. It means the useful measures are ...
Building a Roadmap for Video Surveillance
Most organizations do not need a new surveillance system so much as a plan for the one they have. A roadmap is the document that turns "we should do something about the cameras" into a sequence somebody can fund, and it ...