Technology & Trends - CCTV

Simon Hall examines the problems of retrospectiveness and poor observation inherent in CCTV systems with manned control rooms.  Artificial intelligence (AI), he contends, could be the answer. We are living in a time in human history where the words ‘security' and ‘prevention' are becoming synonymous.  There exist a new wave of criminals, expert in new forms of weaponry and destructive technologies and more insidious and more ingenious in their designs.  This frig...

Dr Oliver Vellacott, CEO of IndigoVision, outlines how investment in existing CCTV systems can be safeguarded when migrating to an IP Video solution. The IP Video market is growing rapidly, having been accepted as a mature technology with a field proven record.  IP networking of CCTV, access control and intruder alarms will eventually penetrate the majority of the market - it has too many cost and performance advantages not to do so.  But what does this mean for legacy systems? How ca...

Martin Roberts of NICE Systems discusses current and future security challenges of processes, people and technology. The political, social, business and technological environment is changing the mandate of the modern Security Manager.  Recent events have placed security firmly in the spotlight and are forcing everyone from the board down to ask the following questions: Do we have the security processes, people and technology in place to meet current and future challenges?  A...

Oliver Vellacott, CEO of IndigoVision and Ronan Smith, CEO of Wavesight discuss the many advantages that wireless technology brings to IP Video Solutions In the last decade there has been a massive growth in the use of license-exempt radio technology to carry data, voice and video across networks, moving away from the traditional cable route. Inside many organisations, wireless technology is being deployed as extensions to traditional wired infrastructures - e.g. wireless access points connect...

Each day, as you go about your life, it's likely you'll make a guest appearance on at least 300 different CCTV screens.  Britain now has more security cameras than any other country, yet their impact on crime rates is negligible, while our fear of crime is still rising.  So have these screen saviours been a flop?  Jay Rayner of The Observer goes behind the cameras to meet the men who watch our every move. I am walking through London Bridge Underground station when a pub...

Jon Hill, Video Product Specialist for security manufacturer Bewator, a Siemens business, discusses the issue of security for British firms operating in hostile environments abroad, and looks at what companies in these situations can do to improve security.  In an age of war, terrorism and unequal distribution of wealth, British firms operating in sectors, such as the petrochemical, aerospace and offshore industries need to ensure they secure their businesses and provide a safe working envi...

Jeff Kitching, ADPRO Sales Director, encourages the security industry to give Video Motion Detection another look. Video Motion Detection (VMD), three words that arrived on the scene in the late 1980s to herald the start of a detection revolution.  Only the hype did not quite match the reality. Much was written at the time and subsequently about the potential for VMD.  It was, we were told, not just an alternative to PIRs, fence vibration systems and other detection technologies, but...

Robert Wint, Marketing Director, EMEA of Verint Systems talks about the growth of wireless CCTV and whether the existing technology is ready to change. With the growth in the acceptance of wireless technologies, we are still yet to see the predicted rise in wireless video – indoor or outdoor.  The technologies are converging and I believe we are on the cusp of a major boom in secure, digital wireless networked video.  The benefits of wireless networking are well documented,...

Ken Sutherland of Telindus Surveillance Solutions discusses the growth of networked video surveillance over the past ten years and whether the security industry is now ready for this change. Some of the early pioneering companies in the video over IP market are approaching their 10-year anniversaries, but few of them are profitable yet.  Most of these companies became involved in this market by inventing some video encoding technology and then trying to find an application for that technol...

Pauline Norstrom, Vice-Chairman of the BSIA’s CCTV Section discusses the newly published Code of Practice for Digital Recording Systems and the excellent advice it offers security professionals in relation to the admissibility of digital evidence in the judicial system.  The prolific uptake of digital video recording by the CCTV industry has led to a pressing need for definitive guidance where digital video images are being used as evidence in the criminal justice system.  This...

How a local authority has gone about putting a new CCTV monitoring system through its paces, in the real world. Luton has a track record of getting the best out of its town centre CCTV scheme.  More than 130 cameras are monitored 24-365 by a team of control centre operators who have collectively played their part in more than 6,000 arrests and who have on several occasions received commendations from the police for their work.  These have included helping to identify a serial rapi...

Bob Randall, chief operating officer of Inkerman, took Mark Rowe out to lunch.  The terror threat is as high as it's ever been, he said; but don't panic.  Bob Randall became the corporate risk, intelligence and investigation consultancy's Chief Operating Officer recently (featured in our September issue).  A career Metropolitan Police man, he retired as a detective chief supt.  His work took in counter-terrorism, covert operations, security, major investigations,...

At a time when private security companies are coming under greater public scrutiny following two recent high profile cash snatches, the whole industry is on the verge of collapse, according to security boss, Major Frank Quigley.  Major Quigley, a retired Military Police officer who has advised the Ministry of Defence on the establishment of its own security services is a director of a rapidly expanding medium sized security company, Guarding UK Ltd.  He said: “The industry has b...

Britain’s police forces have been urged to embrace the private security industry in the fight against crime as the industry undergoes the biggest change in its history. Andy Drane, Deputy Chief Executive of the Security Industry Authority (SIA), the government body tasked with regulating the private security industry, told a Reliance Security Services conference in Manchester yesterday that the changes promised a new future for law enforcement. “The police now have no philosophical...

The view that ‘dodgy' guard people will be on the way out and prices will rise for guard providers is rose-tinted, according to Douglas Greenwell, Marketing Director, of G4S Security Services (UK).  He spoke of his firm putting through price increases of about two per cent, to recover from licensing, and meeting some resistance from customers.  He said: "That's to reinforce the message - the only way prices are going to go up, or the only way we are going to improve our returns,...

Northamptonshire is the model for joined-up work on business crime, the launch event for the county-wide business crime reduction partnership heard. Introducing Northamptonshire Action Against Business Crime was Sir David O’Dowd, the former Northants chief constable who agreed to be patron of NAABC.  Sir David pointed to the December issue of Professional Security regarding the latest British Retail Consortium crime survey.  He described NAABC as the next evolutionary step in th...

What might police modernisation mean for private security companies and consultancies?  Alan Beckley, director, Baddiley Associates, offers some pointers. Greater inclusion in the ‘extended family of policing’ Need to form new relationships based on new police structure Need to understand new boundaries and new responsibilities Vigilance to spot new opportunities and police tasks, roles and responsibilities that fall off the list of police priorities Vig...

The venue for a recent business crime conference was an example of good practice, the event heard.   Bob Golding, Warwickshire Police Assistant Chief Constable and ACPO lead on business crime, was among speakers at the Belfry golf club.  Welcoming the audience to Warwickshire, ACC Golding said he hoped that their cars would not be broken into.  Such crime at the club near Birmingham - thieves breaking into cars to take laptops, on view on back seats - is no longer a hot-spot...