Disqus - Latest Comments for smitchell

Re: Security Systems and School Shootings

smitchell — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 10:34:58 -0000

Fortunately the weather and the economics of (relatively) cheap land allow California schools to be designed in such a way that moving into classrooms and from classroom to classroom can be made difficult to outsiders by simply isolating classrooms and locking the doors. Modern schools here tend to be designed from separate modular buildings accessed via walkways from the outside. Classrooms have solid steel doors, and no windows.

At my children's school (built within the past 10 years) the campus is fenced off and gates are locked during school hours with the only access through the office building--which is physically separated from the classroom buildings. All doors are kept locked by default. Procedures are in place with regular drills for alarms, lockdown and all-clear.

With friendly administrators and teachers on-duty it does not feel like a "prison" atmosphere, but is reassuringly safe and feels secure to parents.

Certainly the campus could benefit from video surveillance for administrators and first-responders. I'm sure teachers would find access control card readers on doors much more convenient than fumbling with their keys multiple times a day.

Re: Video Surveillance / Access Control Integration

smitchell — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:35:43 -0000

Brian, I think the demographics of the integrators responding is important here. Like the last section implies, larger CCTV jobs probably require greater demand for PAC integration. Also, we all know integrators have their specialties. How many respondents would typify themselves as CCTV installers vs PAC installers vs overall security installers (handling equal $ of both). These demos can skew the the results and conclusions.

Re: Firetide Failing in Dallas

smitchell — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:49:49 -0000

John, you said "I suspect carriers will negotiate specific deals directly with municipalities for much more robust service." do you know of any examples of this? I suspect that those carriers will have bigger fish to fry (things like millions of 4G iPads to support), which are much easier way to print money than dealing with complex muni projects that stress the heck out of their infrastructure. I'm talking about the big carriers here.. I'm not saying that the 4G services couldn't mature to a point to support our industry's use cases, I just feel that it will take time and the carriers have no motivation to make special accommodations to support these sorts of projects in the short term. So it's premature to imply that a market for a Firetide-type infrastructure deployment is unnecessary in the face of 4G in "2012."

Re: Firetide Failing in Dallas

smitchell — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:15:24 -0000

Ethan, when you say, "In 2012, with multiple carriers building out 4G networks, it makes less sense for public and private entities to build their own networks than ever before." -- it sounds like you're implying that 4G networks are ready for prime time when it comes to video surveillance use cases.
I believe those networks have a ways to mature before they're ready for those sorts of workloads.. Even given greater bandwidth, those networks are designed for different use cases--mainly ad-hoc consumer IP access. AFAIK 3G/4G networks are challenging to address, often have usage and bandwidth limitations, and often have slower or easily saturated back-hauls.

Re: Axis Slowing Growth - Q4 2011

smitchell — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:47:19 -0000

Robinson's Law is right on.

Re: VSaaS Deployment Statistics

smitchell — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:45:04 -0000

Well, I'm just curious--of those integrators out selling this stuff--presumably they need to make a pitch. What's that pitch and how does it relate to adoption?

Re: VSaaS Deployment Statistics

smitchell — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:29:47 -0000

Ethan, I'm curious as to what the value proposition was for those that are providing VSaaS as an offer? What exactly do their customers expect to be getting out of the service?

Re: VMS vs VSaaS: What's the Difference?

smitchell — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:12:33 -0000

I agree with kriwoxtj that redundancy is easier (for the service provider) to guarantee given the fact that the redundant resources are under their control. But redundancy is an architecture typically leveraged to deliver on two non-functional requirements--durability and reliability. Durability being the protection of data (it will not get lost) and reliability being the on-demand access to the durable data.

In theory a service provider should be able to guarantee a very high level of durability to the end-user at low cost. Amazon S3, for example, claims 99.999999999%. This is because it's a relatively simple function of the way in which the data is scattered and redundantly stored across disks, servers, and even data centers.

However, reliability is a function not only of where and how the data is stored but also how the data is accessed. Reliability can be thwarted by application software difficulties or simple access to the system. The weakest link in a VSaaS system is and will remain the network. If you speak to Amazon AWS engineers they'll tell you that the majority of their customer's problems with their (Amazon's) infrastructure turns out to be the public internet chokepoint that provides access to those services remotely.

Re: VMS vs VSaaS: What's the Difference?

smitchell — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:14:01 -0000

Johh, great analysis, thanks!

Re: Stopping Surveillnace 'Videojacking'

smitchell — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:18:33 -0000

Great point. This is IT risk management 101. Risk is a function of the likelihood that a vulnerability will be exploited and the impact of said exploit. Likelihood must be evaluated within the context of the vulnerability as well as the alternatives. In this case, it's conceivable that somebody could hack the wire to intercept video surveillance, but the alternatives are much easier, almost certainly more likely, and thus a greater risk.

As anybody who's tried to integrate CCTV products can attest, it's sometimes a great challenge to access video even when you're given access rights and documentation.. While we should ensure that we make our products reasonably secure, and be aware of the risk, we should also weigh the risks appropriately.

Re: Regional Apparel Chain Case Study

smitchell — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:36:36 -0000

Thanks for the great story. Really informative.

"What they most value is remote monitoring, specifically remote monitoring from a single interface." Can you expand on this statement? What's the use case that requires remote monitoring? How often and how much? Is it "remote review" such that they're interested in playing back from the DVRs remotely or remote ad-hoc viewing to check up on current store conditions and activity?

Re: Medical Center PSIM RFP 'Cut and Paste'

smitchell — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:14:48 -0000

John, this is a good example of the complex ecosystem that is IT. The customer is dealing with technology that falls well outside their enterprise's core expertise. In situations like this, the most technically discriminating person may be an "MIS" manager or technician who's struggling to find information about (what are to them) exotic products and processes. The only entity that's really eager to help them is the vendor--who supplies brochureware suitable for the RFP. The only other entity eager to help is a consultant who may be biased or seen as prohibitively expensive themselves. Brian makes good points about the funding forces.

Dynamics like this have played out in the IT world for decades. I guess "convergence" is upon us.

Re: Are Your CCTV Cameras Broken?

smitchell — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 13:38:53 -0000

John, why no mention of the technical solutions that exist for (at least) detection of broken cameras? Something like SNMP can at least tell you if your (IP) cameras are alive and the link is up. And most VMS systems support some LOV alerts. Point being that the number of questionably functional cameras is measurable. With the proper metrics it should be manageable as well.

Re: IP Camera Sales Surge

smitchell — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:28:00 -0000

Whew! So glad I bulked up over the holiday--I think I burned a few calories reading this report..

It would be interesting to see this kind of analysis broken down by geography as well. Growth in China (for example) is significant.

Re: Closed IPTV Eliminates Camera Spoofing

smitchell — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 12:06:53 -0000

John, I admire DM's proprietary play. I am hopeful it finds a productive niche for them.

For the majority of customers I believe it defeats the fundamental principle behind going to IP. Using IP allows one to leverage commodity IP infrastructure, standardize, and enjoy economies of scale that weren't available with analog CCTV. In the old days we created analog "switches" to switch video from one monitor to another. Now the infrastructure that IP rides takes care of "switching" for us and we're free to develop more interesting solutions with that fundamental capability pushed down into the infrastructure.

Certainly there's some degree of security through obscurity -- or in this case proprietary products. But when well designed and operated networks provide a similar degree of security, it's probably not worth the cost.

Re: How Strong is VSaaS ROI Really?

smitchell — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 07:50:27 -0000

John, in principle I agree with this statement: "For VSaaS to be a real force, the monthly subscriptions fees need to be low or nil. To achieve this, you need to store the video locally (just like with traditional video surveillance systems)."

The implicit assumption seems to be that VSaaS provides the same value as a DVR--you just operate certain use cases over the internet. But to accumulate many thousands of dollars in monthly fees over the life of a DVR (plus paying for bandwidth!) is a tough sell over an on-site DVR. Simply, the VSaaS solution needs to provide additional value proportional to the added cost. And many of the "hosted video" offerings I've seen aren't yet doing that.

This is where the "managed video" model has more promise assuming that a) the video is recorded on site, keeping the bandwidth tax on the solution low, and b) there's some true value in the "managed" part of the solution that's worth any fees to the end-user.

Re: Does PSIM Have to Support 3rd Party Systems?

smitchell — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:08:46 -0000

John, I'm sorry I mangled that last paragraph. It wasn't clear at all.

The point is that we in the industry tend to look at PSIM from the point of view of the tools we need in our tool box to go out and win jobs. The requirement for a platform that supports integration with many VMS systems is essentially a requirement that benefits the vendor/integrator. The more VMS drivers available for the platform, the more jobs that can be won. But the guy paying the bills (the customer) doesn't care so much about the mechanics of how our products go to market. They want a solution--preferably one that works with the one or two video or access systems they already have or want. Certainly deep VMS integration capabilities will impact the cost and possibilities at design time. But in a steady state, said customer is more concerned with functional capabilities and breadth across a wide range of physical security systems than a long list of video, access, or intrusion systems that the system could hypothetically support.

Re: Does PSIM Have to Support 3rd Party Systems?

smitchell — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:23:27 -0000

John,

Customers are looking for solutions that integrate a variety of physical security systems together--regardless of their manufacturer. The customer doesn't care how many VMS systems a PSIM could support. They just want it to support the VMS system(s) that meet their needs--which many only be one.

PSIM is best suited to critical security applications in which security policy is implemented within the PSIM's business rules, and data from a number of different systems can be coordinated (typically in real-time) from a single interface point. That's the solution attached to the name--and its value or qualification should come from the customer's perspective, not our industry's.

Given the breadth of applications possible with PSIM, I don't think it's realistic to assume that any one vendor can provide all the underlying systems. For example, a seaport needs to integrate fire, video, radiation detectors, LPR, radar, radios, etc. My logic says that since no single vendor provides all those underlying systems, it's nonsensical to propose that any PSIM system can satisfy the entire need from a single source.

A debate about exactly how many VMS systems or access control systems can/should be supported by an integration platform is artificial. How many VMS systems must be supported before you'll consider it "true" PSIM? Two? Twenty?

My PSIM supports 20 VMS systems and 300 other systems, but only one radio system (I'm Motorola). Am I PSIM?

Personally I dont't think PSIM is about depth of support for third-party VMS systems--it's about breadth of support and capability across a variety of physical systems--not all of which will be provided by any single manufacturer anyway.

I suspect those of us in the industry are looking at this from the perspective of "Which PSIM can I rep that will allow me to work with the most customers given that they're all going to want me to support different video systems in a highly fragmented market." That's backwards.

Re: Examining Milestone Corporate Version 4.0

smitchell — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:24:59 -0000

John, my point being that enterprise network topologies are complex. This gives rise to the need to deploy cameras to physical locations that aren't always logical network-wise (unreliable wireless links, VPN tunnels across WAN links, etc). I'm trying to give Milestone props for enabling a key feature for corporate/enterprise. :)

You state that VMS support is required for edge storage to realize its full potential. In a way, that's what Milestone is doing here--implementing one facet of said VMS support (the ability for the camera/recorder to recover from link interruption). What are some of the others? Decentralized search, I assume. Others? I'm not trying to be argumentative. Just trying to see what you think the "disruptive" edge-storage capability looks like in the future.

Re: Examining Milestone Corporate Version 4.0

smitchell — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:52:39 -0000

John, I think a lot of customers will find the edge storage as backup/buffer to be valuable. It's a particular weakness of IP systems--especially when the system is spread over various network links and a WAN. Maybe that's why the dismissal of this as a "niche feature" is surprising to me. Rather, I think it's a valuable feature for an enterprise type product.

A different topic might be the "disruptive" manifestation of the permanent edge storage model. Examples exist today, but presumably have a ways to go before their disruptive value is realized. I'm curious what criteria do you think this strategy has yet to meet before it can really take off?

Re: Examining Milestone Corporate Version 4.0

smitchell — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:40:13 -0000

Can you say why the edge support is "certainly less valuable than full long term storage on board a camera?" While permanent camera storage will be nice when ubiquitous, it suffers many downsides due to the lack of high availability and fault tolerant capabilities inherent in edge storage. There's pros and cons to both strategies for storage--I don't see how one is "clearly less valuable" than the other.

Re: Can PSIM move downmarket?

smitchell — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:52:47 -0000

Agreed. Disruptive Innovation often moves from downmarket to upmarket successfully because it's driven by forces of simplicity and lower cost. That being said, PSIM is about managing complexity. THAT being said, if you're the downmarket customer, you don't have the complexity problems to be solved in the first place. :)

Re: Megapixel Camera Search Criteria

smitchell — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:17:45 -0000

John, you're leaving off ONVIF/PSIA support? In general, I think there might be several IP related protocols that would be good to include beyond SNMP. For example 802.1x, NTP, etc.

Also, POE.

Seems like trying to maintain "VMS Systems Supported" is going to be quite a challenge to keep up to date. Not that there's anything wrong with that. :)

Re: Budget / Home / SMB IP Camera Competitive Comparison

smitchell — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:14:25 -0000

Scott, looks like you were looking for "prosumer" cameras? There are lower end, home/consumer type products emerging (Avaak VueZone for example) that might have made this list otherwise.

Re: CCTV Stories

smitchell — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:38:09 -0000

Hi Benros,

It's common for CCTV to play a role in many forensic type of law enforcement activities. While the video footage is rarely the key evidence in an investigation, it will often provide a clue in a chain of clues that lead investigators down the right path to a conclusion.

The reality TV show, "The First 48" has many interesting examples of this. Check out episode 165 here in which the identity of the criminal was not clear from video, but the make/model of the car was enough to put on the investigators in the right direction: http://www.aetv.com/the_fir...