Digital Vs analogue technology … how can installers have the best of both worlds? Mark Wherrett, Bewator, discusses the pros and cons

The recent revolution in security systems has seen a surge in uptake of digital technology and the use of IP (Internet Protocol) for exchanging data over the Internet. Digital has been heralded as the solution to faster, easier security solutions.

Analogue technology, in contrast, seems to have fallen out of favour. But those considering a complete overhaul of their analogue systems and converting to purely digital technology may be in danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

There are some areas of security where digital technology makes absolute sense – such as digital video recording. It is a lot easier to manage images on hard disk, for example, as they are not only more compact, but are also easier and faster for accessing and retrieving data.

There is also huge investment in this area from the big players in the digital industry, who have created innovative, user-friendly DVR technology. For example, end users are now able to mark off areas of interest on their screen either to only trigger recording when activity is detected (thereby optimising the use of disk storage), or in order to search recordings for activity in a region of interest. This may be useful when investigating damage or theft.

IP networks are ideal for enabling users to monitor activity or transmit images/data across multiple sites, as they can transmit large volumes of information, such as voice, images and text, across long distances for a lot less cost than analogue technology. This is especially useful for organisations that have a global network of offices.

There is a lot of talk about the opportunity to save money on cabling by using existing office networks to transmit video from CCTV cameras in addition to the normal business computer network traffic.

This can often lead to unsatisfactory performance of both the CCTV and business systems, however, because of bandwidth conflicts. It is far better to keep the two separate, which means that a conventionally cabled analogue system can be used to provide the same flexibility and security, at a lot less cost, than an IP based solution using its own dedicated network.

Five year catch up

Although DVR technology is developing fast, other areas of security are taking longer to cross the digital/analogue divide due to cost, performance and resilience issues, and could take as long as five years to catch up.

This is partly because the vast majority of legacy systems in use in the UK and Western Europe are analogue. The cost of entirely replacing those systems with digital ones is cost prohibitive for many organisations, and rarely necessary.

In other areas such as the Far East, however, which have entered the technology race at a relatively late stage, there are no legacy systems to contend with, and all technology being installed is digital, as it provides easy and rapid scalability and future-proof security solutions – many people believe that the possibilities open to us via digital technology are limited only by the imaginations of the security and IT industries.

Our company philosophy, however, is that technology should reflect the users’ needs, and not the other way around. We understand the requirements of our customers in the security market place and have designed our systems to integrate seamlessly with both analogue and digital/IP technology to ensure that they are able to have the best of both worlds.

Don’t ditch legacy systems

We are now able to integrate analogue CCTV into our IP networked access control and intruder alarm systems by linking events logged by these systems to recordings on our DVR servers. This makes it possible, for example, to see immediately who used a card reported as lost to gain access to a restricted part of a building, or what happened in an area just prior to an alarm sensor activation.

Use of both analogue and digital/IP systems in this way enables organisations to gain added value from their existing equipment simply by adding a new technology layer on top.

The concept of using a security system as a management tool is still very new, but the possibilities for growth are enormous, especially as much of the technology is already in place, and set up costs would be minimal.

So my advice to installers and their customers is that, while the digital revolution is still arriving, don’t ditch all your legacy systems just yet, as analogue technology still has an important role to play in providing integrated, total security solutions.

Retailers in mind

Research has shown that the average CCTV system installed in a retailer environment has six cameras and yet most manufacturers of digital video recorders produce nine or sixteen channel versions.

Recognising this, Sanyo have introduced the DSR-3506P, a six camera input DVR. Retailers can choose a model from four hard disc sizes.

Live images from all six cameras can be viewed on a monitor in “real time” via the DSR-3506P on a split screen format, whilst simultaneous recording and playback is achievable at 50 fields per seconds.

Other flexible features and functions including three recording modes: alarm, timed or programmed, motion detection to record specific activities and audio recording.

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‘State of the art’ system

Bewator supplies the Eventys, a state of the art digital video recording system, which can support both digital and analogue cameras.

The Eventys digital video recorder provides enhanced security control by allowing increased control room productivity and camera management, while also offering low running and training costs.

Each camera running on the Eventys system can be individually set to record based on a range of different criteria including motion, dates or special events.

Each camera can be set individually to record on different modes at different times of the day or days of the week. This allows for added flexibility and can focus security where activity levels vary between night and day and weekday and weekends.

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Versatile machine

The Ganz ZR-DH1621NP from CBC Europe is a compact, versatile, flexible and very powerful 16 channel Triplex DVR. The unit allows the user to play andrecord whilst viewing in multi-screen mode, with the added functionality to control via ethernet and back up storage to fire wire simultaneously.

The matrix element to the DVR enables switching any of the 16 cameras to a chosen monitor. Wavelet compression makes it possible to archive compact files with high image resolution, allowing events to be backed up to removable media (e.g. memory stick, CDR, DVD and HDD). Up to 1TB of storage is installed as standard by using four inbuilt HDD. If more capacity is required, a further external 20 HDD can be simply connected via firewire, providing a total of up to 6TB.

Inbuilt telemetry control allows control of most cameras on the market.

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Ideal for petrol stations

Panasonic’s WJ-HD200 digital disk recorder allows for high quality and cost effective video surveillance. Building on the WJ-HD500, this hard disk recorder offers large amounts of storage space and is highly functional.

Its compactness is said to make it ideal for use in petrol stations, parking lots or hotels, where the same tape records continuously day after day.

Incorporating a 120 GB hard disk, the unit permits continuous recording for one week. For longer recording times, the unit can be expanded to 240 GB of hard disk drive storage capacity – capturing extensive recordings without the need to change or file video cassettes.

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Fast and easy searches

Price, quality and storage capacity come together in a complete package in the DX8000 Digital Video Recorder from Pelco. Said to be ideal for the mainstream video security market, the DX8000 can record, store, and playback video on demand along with a wide range of features.

This easy-to-operate, high performance, PC-based DVR offers high-quality CIF (320x240), 2CIF (640x240) and 4CIF (720x480) video recording. Settings can be adjusted on a camera-by-camera basis.

Moreover, the DX8000 can be set to record 480 images-per-second at CIF resolution.

It has advanced recorded video search capabilities, with Index Search, Quick Search, Thumbnail Search and Pixel Search making searches fast and easy.

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Maintenance free

The maintenance free VR-601U Digital Video Recorder from JVC is a single channel digital video recorder equipped with two Hard Disk Drive (HDD) compartments. One HDD is pre-installed; the second can be added for expansion or used for hot-swapping removable disks. The hot-swapping feature is said to make it easy to maintain multiple HDDs depending on the application.

The VR-601U digital video recorder is a plug-and-play replacement for time lapse VCRs and is compatible with most multiplexers available on the market today.

It records in MJPEG picture compression, and recorded images can be searched for in different modes such as time, date and event or alarm list. Its jog and shuttle functions allow for forward or reverse playback at faster or slower speeds.

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Interchangeable caddy

Mitsubishi Electric supplies the DX-NT400E digital recorder, which can manage the security requirements for a variety of modern businesses.

It can accommodate up to 600GB of hard disk recording space, using two 300GB HDDs. Hard drives are not supplied with the unit, allowing users to fit the memory to suit their own requirements. The model also has a unique HDD caddy, which is not only removable but also interchangeable; additional caddies (DX-TR400) can be purchased.

The interchangeable caddy means that recordings can be removed and stored, which may be necessary if images are required as evidence. The purchase of additional HDDs can provide the user with a long term storage option.

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Double recording capacity

Dedicated Micros introduced 100 picture per second recording capability into their range of DVRs, with the launch of the DS2 Plus and new improved BX2.

All BX2 models will have a maximum record rate of 100PPS, double the previous model’s from 50PPS. The BX2 range also now boasts a massive 1.2TB model, in addition to the 640GB, providing over four months onboard storage at standard rates.

The 100PPS DS2 Plus offers all the familiar features of the standard 50PPS Digital Sprite 2, and is available in 6, 9 and 16 channel variants.

To accommodate the faster recording capabilities, the DS2 Plus range has a maximum disk size of 600GB, providing over two months recordings out of the box.

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Source

Security Installer

Postscript

Mark Wherrett is Product Manager at access and video control specialist Bewator, Albany Street, Newport, South Wales NP20 5XW. Tel 01633 821000, email sales@bewator.co.uk