IPSecurityWatch.com |

In the July 2008 issue of Security Technology & Design magazine, managing editor Paul Rothman began a roundtable to survey some of the top video surveillance manufacturers and integrators on adoption of IP video. Half of the roundtable appeared in the July issue of ST&D (see first part of this roundtable) and the other half appears here on SecurityInfoWatch.com and IPSecurityWatch.com.

The Participants:
• Guy Apple, vice president of marketing and sales for Network Video Technologies (NVT)
• Phil Aronson, president of Aronson Security Group
• Dr. Bob Banerjee, product marketing manager of IP Video products for Bosch Security Systems Inc.
• Jean-Pierre Forest, CPP, director of security solutions for Avigilon
• Eli Gorovici, president and CEO of DVTel, Inc.
• Duncan Havlin, vice president of product management for Samsung GVI Security
• Mickey Lavery, system specialist for I2C Technologies LLC
• Fredrik Nilsson, general manager of Axis Communications Inc.
• Mark S. Provinsal, vice president of marketing and product strategy for Dedicated Micros Inc.
• Joel Rakow, Ed.D., president of Ollivier Corporation
• Moti Shabtai, Executive VP, Strategy and Products, NICE Systems
• Steve Surfaro, Group Manager, Strategic Technical Liaison, Panasonic Security Systems

---

QUESTION: What’s the best or most efficient way for end-users to migrate from analog to an IP-based video surveillance solution?

Bob Banerjee/Bosch: A hybrid system is an excellent way to meet the needs of customers looking to leverage existing analog camera investments when upgrading or expanding video surveillance systems. Using IP encoders as the bridge between analog cameras and the network, video can be viewed using video management software or a Web browser, recorded to NVRs or centralized storage area networks that offer high-density fault-tolerant storage devices instead of a single hard drive

Recording at the edge, or storing video at the edge of the network instead of transporting it to a centralized NVR, is a bandwidth friendly option in today’s IP video systems. This decentralized approach only uses the network to replay video at a workstation. This renders recording independent of other network conditions, such as congestion and downtime. Many users also have analog switches with attached tapes or DVRs for recording. Or, recording can also be achieved with multi-channel encoders with direct-attached iSCSI RAIDs, as a direct and more flexible direct substitute.

Duncan Havlin/Samsung-GVI Security: Use either a DVR to connect their existing analog cameras to the network or an encoder. Install video management software that talks to their DVR and IP cameras. In addition, adding IP ready products like our new Video Plus UTP power hub that enable analog coaxial video signals and power to be sent over Cat-5 cable, is ideal for new projects that have pre-wired Cat-5 cabling but that are not yet ready to install an IP-based system.

Guy Apple/NVT: Stop installing coax! UTP-based hybrid analog, without a doubt, is the best way for end-users to set themselves up for possible future migration. The future is clearly a mix of analog and digital video. One of the most popular and fastest growing architectures is that of a hybrid system. A DVR-based system is the simplest example, where video is digitized within the DVR and made available for viewing locally or over the Ethernet network or via the internet. Analog cameras, UTP transmission and IP digitizers with hybrid network video recorders at the control room provide the next step in the evolution, where the IP backbone is comfortably confined (for high bandwidth) within the control room. The key is the deployment of a UTP-based structured cabling transmission system. It allows the use of cost-effective analog cameras, and eliminates the need for a full IP-based distribution system. It also provides for migration to a full IP architecture down the road.

Eli Gorovici/DVTel: Through integration, analog-based systems can make their way to IP-based video surveillance solutions and then as cameras are brought on-line, you just add them directly into the system. As channels fail, just bypass the integration and go directly into the new system. As a manufacturer, we see equal number of installations between retrofits and “greenfield”. When migrating from analog, it is not necessary to throw away or discontinue using perfectly good equipment -- another tremendous benefit of IP-based video surveillance.

Phil Aronson/ASG: Follow the money. Digital recording has a clear cost advantage over the VCR when total costs are evaluated. Use the end-of-life of a system’s infrastructure to phase in digital replacements, consolidating equipment as facilitated by the IP infrastructure. Once the core of a system is IP-based, all new cameras and system extensions should also be IP. Finally, coordinate with other facility updates to extend the IP network to camera locations so that cameras can be upgraded to IP according to their lifecycle.

Jean-Pierre Forest/Avigilon: The most efficient way to migrate from analog to IP-based solutions is to replace the existing recording infrastructure with a solution that supports both analog cameras and HD (high definition) IP cameras. This allows an end-user to continue to use the existing analog cameras that are still useful, and HD IP cameras can be used everywhere new cameras are going to be deployed.

Fredrik Nilsson/Axis Communications: That depends on what the existing system looks like, but there are many technologies for bridging an analog system into network video. Video encoders with built-in intelligence, PoE and multi-stream capabilities are widely available, either as standalone devices to be installed close to the camera or a video encoder rack with blades, providing very high density for replacement of DVRs. Additionally there are technologies for using existing coax cables for IP transmission, a benefit when an analog camera is being replaced with a network camera.

Mickey Lavery/I2C: The easiest way to migrate analog investments to IP technology is the use of video encoders to convert the analog video stream to a digital stream. This can be done at the head end by plugging the coaxial cabling directly into an encoder. The encoder is the connected by a network cable to a server or PC. Many companies make the transition to IP as their current DVR systems get older or need replaced.

Moti Shabtai/NICE Systems: The best way is to adopt the evolutional approach and choose a platform that will support a migration path by supporting on the same unified front-end both analog and IP solutions, eliminating the need for fork lifting the analog platform.

Joel Rakow/Ollivier Corporation: One scenario is to deploy signal converters to existing analogs when it is time to replace the DVR with an NVR and then add IP cameras as needed.

Steve Surfaro/Panasonic: The use of low-latency control platforms, dedicated, embedded network disk recorders, high definition hardware decoders and video encoders supporting over-the-coax control all together form the “best practice” in analog-to-IP Video migration and deployment.