Sixty seconds

In the current climate, the nation's attention is suddenly focused on security … particularly CCTV. As CCTV increases its coverage and more cameras are deployed, what are the issues and technology areas installers should be looking out for? We asked Peter Boriskin, director of technology at Tyco Fire and Security …

SI: So what are the hot new areas for CCTV?

PB: There are a number of new technologies available on the marketplace in the realm of CCTV. One of the leading technologies in this space is video analytics. This is the ability of the surveillance system to monitor itself and present events and alarm conditions to the operator based on a set of criteria such as a bag that is left unattended. One of the clear advantages of this, is the ability for unattended facilities to be monitored 24 hours a day and send alarms and events remotely to a central station or remote officer, cell phone, pager, PDA …

SI: How can video management systems increase efficiency?

PB: Facilities are deploying more and more cameras year on year, but they are not usually deploying any more monitoring staff. This leads to situational overload at the officers' monitoring station. By using intelligent devices, and by tying them to a rules-based security management system, they can gain the efficiency of a system that will never get tired.

It can respond to every camera view and input point activation immediately. Beyond security, the customer can gain valuable metrics on traffic, areas of use and compliance with safety and other regulations, utilising the infrastructure they already have in place.

SI: How effective is CCTV as a deterrent?

PB: It has been well documented by police and security organisations that surveillance in the retail and education environments has had a marked impact on curbing theft and deterring vandalism. Other areas, such as transportation, are also positively affected by obvious surveillance, and the concept of the "public view monitor" was born from this idea.

Dome cameras are superior to traditional PTZ cameras in a number of ways. They can pan tilt and zoom with much greater efficiency, even flipping 180 degrees and rotating the image to follow a perpetrator … and they have much smaller and more aesthetically pleasing housings, which can be pressurised to withstand even the most damaging of environments.

SI: What security measures can we expect to see in the future?

PB: I think one of the interesting trends in security is that while the technology changes rapidly, the requirements are fairly similar from generation to generation of products. I would venture that you will see the market moving to increase the interoperability between the fields of physical and logical security. You will see more and more video analytics being paired up with network or data metrics, to give a more complete view of the customer's "world".