Video Surveillance – Security Solutions Group

Video Surveillance systems use security cameras to detect, observe, recognize, identify and record activity, people, and vehicles outside and inside of your facility. There are different system designs to achieve various goals and needs.

Features

The main features of video surveillance systems are:

Live viewing.
Detecting activity on the property.
Observing human and vehicle behavoir.
Recognizing what people are wearing, carrying, doing or driving.
Identifing people with facial recognition and vehicle with license plates.
Providing notification via email and mobile phone triggered analyctics.
Historical recorded footage of incidents to provide the insurance and police.
Integration with alarm systems to trigger alarms and verify them.
Integration with access control systems to verify badge identity with assigned user.

If you want these features for your facility contact us.

AI Analyctics

Are used to improve the output value of the scene image being received for more useful operations. Here are analytics that are available to use:

Motion Detection
Line Crossing
Inrusion Detection
People Counting
Que Monitoring
Crowd Gathering
Heat Mapping
Audio
Mask Detection
Unusual Behavior Detection
Facial Recognition
License Plate Identification
Vehicle Counting
Visual Tamper
PPE Detection
Color Search
Timelapse

If you want any of these analytics to improve business operations contact us.

A Camera’s Purpose

Each camera location needs to be evaluated with the goals and needs of what that camera is trying to achieve in order to select and design the right solution. The primary measurement is pixels on target (resolution from a distance) which is the level of detail we are needing to be at based on where the camera is going to be located. There are four main pixel on target levels:

Detection – having an object such as person, animal or vehicle entering the scene.
Observation – seeing roughly where the person, animal and vehicle is going or doing.
Recognition – making out details of color, model, items of the person or vehicle.
Identification – facial recognition and license plates of persons and vehicle in database for matching and notifications.

The goal and distances make a difference in selecting the best fit camera model to achieve the outcome. This is critical in design for only providing what cameras reach the goal but not more to save on budget.

For example, an outdoor license plate reading camera covering the parking lot and driveway is different then an indoor facial recognition camera at the entrance of an indoor lobby over view camera of activity. This is regards to the specifications and mounting locations.

Higher quality with a better resolution will achieve better pixel on targets at farther distances than cheaper cameras with a lower resolution. The price of cameras goes along the spectrum from hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars a piece depending on what is needed.

Storage – Cloud, Local & Edge

There are three places to store the recorded video footage – in the cloud, locally with an NVR centrally located and on the edge of the system in the camera itself.

Cloud

Cloud storage comes in both clips and full footage. Clips are used to save bandwidth for uploading the data and are more affordable. Full footage recoding to the cloud increases the bandwidth required. Storing in the cloud provides additional security in the event cameras and local NVR storage are physically removed or damaged. The events and history are still safely protected offsite. While bandwidth can be a limitation or concern for the network, there is a new encoding technology that allows compression of the non changing scene footage to reduce this. The system can also schedule and control bandwidth while uploading times and dates. Systems with cloud storage also do not need to worry about constantly upgrading hard drive space while expanding their system or losing the duration of time stored either.

Local Hard Drive

Simple standalone systems or non cloud based systems have a centrally located hard drive storage. The hard drive storage is calculated based on the number of cameras, what resolution and what duration of footage history is desired. As the cameras on the system increase, the duration of footage decreases requiring a hard drive upgrade. If additional history length is requested, additional hard drives are needed after install. These systems have a higher upfront cost and have to be upgraded with changes. They also can be damaged or stolen in break ins, causing loss of video footage needed for the insurance and police.

Edge

Edge storage is an SD card in the camera itself. This allows for additional backups and separation of data for security. If the system has 40 cameras and the network goes down, or in the case of a break in, causing damage to the central storage, each camera will retain the footage. This design creates a web effect of retaining data as it is highly unlikely all 40 cameras would be removed or damaged in the event an incident happens.

Video surveillance systems can be designed with either one of the storage locations or all three storage types simultaneously for the most secure system.

Duration

Common storage durations are:

2, 7, 14 & 30 Days
2, 3, 4, & 6 Months
1, 3, 5 & 10 Years

To help design the right combination of storage solutions contact us.

Hardware

Video surveillance systems are comprised of several hardware components. On the network side there is a power over internet switch, Cat 6 network cable, and the cameras. If it is a locally based system, there is a NVR which is the main computer for processing the footage and reviewing it.

We size the switch to accommodate the current infrastructure and future growth. We provide remote managed switches to monitor devices and reboot them. This minimizes service calls with remote support and trouble shooting.

For cameras we go off the purpose of the camera, objectives and physical location to choose the right megapixel, form (bullet or dome) and features to achieve your goal.

Floors Plans

For designing video surveillance systems, having floor plans are ideal. We can use a Google map image or fire escape routes too. We use software to over lay camera positions and viewing coverage to plan out what will be covered and what will not. This helps communicate what you get in your system.

Integrations

Video surveillance systems can be integrated with intrusion alarms and access control systems. Some systems have native integration created by the same manufacturer for ease of use. Others can be plugged into different systems that do not make there own cameras. We can integrate with existing systems, take them over, or design a new one with your particular matching software requirements.

Pricing

Standalone simple video surveillance systems are a one time upfront price. With cloud storage and AI analytics and unlimited updates pricing may be monthly, annually, or charged for multiple years of licensing together. We can design a system that fits either operational expenses or capital expenditure budget cycles.

Video Surveillance Solutions

We offer multiple video surveillance platforms. Click below to learn more about each of them:

Rhombus
Alarm.com
Uniview
Axis