Wireless Security Cameras = Future Company Growth

Some companies take on change while others resist it.  Does anyone remember Eckerd’s drug stores?  If not, I don’t blame you.  Resistance to change is what ended Eckerd’s run as a strong force in the drug store market.  Meanwhile, taking on change helped keep Walgreens alive, with the addition of the drive through pharmacy, among many other things.  The point is, change is inevitable.  Simply put:

You can either change and progress, or resist change and fade away.

source: www.activerain.com

One area that is often discussed in the security camera market is wired vs. wireless security cameras.  Customers want wireless.  Installers want wireless.  Dealers want wireless. 

Question: What are RELIABLE and COST-EFFECTIVE wireless solutions?

Short answer: Hard to find.

They are becoming more readily available with time, but this is a change that WILL happen.  It’s not a matter of IF, but WHEN.

Being in the security camera industry for almost 6 years, I have not been too pleased with the variety of QUALITY wireless solutions available, analog or IP, until the past year.  This area promises significant growth in the coming years, since we are continually moving towards a wireless world.  Could you imagine your iPhone, Android device, Blackberry, or iPad being wired to another device?  Basically, NOT wireless?  Absolutely not!  This is the mindset that most end users are thinking with, as we are becoming a more wireless society.  On the dealer and installer side, there are some significant profit advantages to wireless security camera solutions, as well, such as ease of installation, increased range and reduced human resources.

Ease of Installation: Wireless solutions offer an ease of installation, when compared to wired solutions.  This can reduce the amount of time that installers are on the premises, making for less interruptions and a happier customer.

Increased Range: Wireless camera solutions offer an increased range, when compared to wired solutions. This can allow you to cover larger premises that previous wired solutions may not have been able to handle.  The increased range of wireless will allow installers to handle 30-40 foot ceilings, cement walls and multi-tenant installs, among many others.

Reduced Human Resources: Wireless solutions require a reduced amount of human resources, when compared to wired solutions.  Since there is no cable pulling, line testing, etc., this will allow installation companies to have more installers at more sites.

Here’s to wishing you a Happy New Year and continued success in 2012!

Turn the Holiday Frown Upside Down with Security Cameras

Well believe it or not the fall and winter Holidays are just around the corner and for most people, this reminds them of Family, Friends, Great Food and Gifts Galore. But for others this reminds them of the best opportunity to steal from those overcrowded stores. With some many Holiday Specials and traffic increasing tenfold, the opportunity for theft most certainly increases.

This especially within the retail business, has them ramping up holiday hires in hopes of maintaining the traffic and minimizing the lost inventory. But eyes on the ground can only do so much and many times with the amount of traffic that increase around these holidays it’s not even enough.

So it only makes sense to get ahead of the Black Fridays and Christmas Eve Savings and invest in a security system that will provide the eyes in the air and allow your associates to focus on all the Holiday Shoppers at hand. Many retail stores lose a ton of money on stolen merchandise especially during these holidays, so having Cameras can also work as deterrent and keep those pesky shop lifters at bay.

10 Different Uses for Security Cameras

Security cameras are often used for many different types of applications.  Some for home use and some for small and large business use.  Below, you will see how you can make security cameras work for your application, whether it is for personal use, work-related use or something completely different.

1. Protect your property and deter theft, day or night.
2. See who’s at the front door from the TV in your bedroom, living room, kitchen, etc.
3. View cameras from work or while on vacation to make sure your kids aren’t having a party, the babysitter is taking care of your kids and  anyone performing work on your property is doing so.
4. Watch your kids in the backyard, front yard or around the pool, while you’re in the living room, kitchen, etc.
5. Watch your baby from your bedroom, living room, kitchen, etc.
6. Set up a camera to only record when there is motion detected in your liquor cabinet, room with a safe, garage, etc.
7. Reduce liability claims at work.
8. Keep employees honest and improve their productivity
9. View cameras while on vacation or at home to make sure operations are running smoothly.
10. Use cameras to see the back, sides and front of a yacht or large boat.

These are just a few of the many uses for security cameras.  As technology continues to get better, I believe we will see more uses for cameras in the years to come.  If you have other uses for security cameras different than the ones shown above, please leave a comment with how you or your customers use them.  We would love to hear from you!

New York beefs up World Trade Center site security for September 11th anniversary

“Without question it is a target, because it has tremendous symbolism,” said James Kallstrom, a former top FBI official who headed the New York City office in the 1990s. “Going back and attacking a landmark that was already attacked once is the ultimate challenge.”

The site isn’t the target of a current known plot, but it “remains squarely in the terrorists’ crosshairs,” says Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Fears of a repeated plot against the site years ago resulted in its signature skyscraper being redesigned.

An original plan putting 1 World Trade Center 25 feet off a state highway near the Hudson River raised concerns by the NYPD that it could be vulnerable to car or truck bombs. A redesign moved it farther off the street and incorporated a windowless 200-foot base.

Developers and law enforcement also have grappled with how to best police the anticipated steady flow of tourists, workers and commerce at the site without turning it into an inhospitable, armed camp.

Kallstrom, while the top counterterrorism adviser to former Gov. Gov. George Pataki in the mid-2000s, was an architect of an ambitious security plan for 1 World Trade Center – scheduled to open in 2013 – the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and other office towers and transit at the site.

The measures – combining architectural innovation, hi-tech gadgetry and good old-fashioned manpower provided by the NYPD, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police and private security firms – will make it “a very, very secure site,” Kallstrom said.

Police plan to use a vehicle security centre to screen tour buses, trucks and cars before they enter the site and park or makes deliveries using an underground roadway. Pedestrian traffic, including visitors to the museum, also will be screened before they can enter the central plaza.

Ticketed visitors to the memorial will be funnelled into a security screening room with airport-style metal detectors and X-ray machines. Employees and frequent visitors will be pre-screened so they can bypass regular checkpoints.

The security plan also calls for 400 closed-circuit surveillance cameras in and around the trade centre site. Live feeds will be monitored around the clock at an NYPD command centre located in a private office building near Wall Street.

A computer security camera system in New York uses “video analytic” computer software designed to detect potential threats like unattended bags, and retrieve stored images based on descriptions of terror or other criminal suspects.

Final touches are also being put on another ambitious piece of the plan: Screening every car, truck and other vehicle for radioactive materials – evidence of a possible dirty bomb – and other potential threats as they enter lower Manhattan. To achieve that, police are installing cameras, radiation detectors and license-plate readers at the 16 bridges and four tunnels going in and out of Manhattan.

In addition to NY police, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police officers are also on the site; the agency wouldn’t disclose how many for security reasons.

Originally posted on telegraph.co.uk

Should Security Cameras be Hidden?

I have had many people coming to me in the recent months asking about covert cameras. If you are looking at implementing a new CCTV system into there are two ways you can go about doing it walk around your property and find the vulnerable areas that need to be more secure that could use a camera placed on or around a certain area. You want people to be able to see the cameras, there are many cameras on the market know that are small but visible and will not become a eye sore on your home. Letting people know there is a system in place can certainly play in your benefit, let’s say you spend a solid amount and have a system installed on your home. If somebody walked up to your home wanting to break in, would you prefer them see your cameras and decide maybe I should pick a different house, or would you rather them be unaware of your surveillance system, and they break in maybe your family is home or they steal valuable items. I would have to say I would have rather prevented the situation then have to be reactive of the situation and perhaps place my belongings or family in a situation. Business surveillance is a different case, most situations do not require covert cameras in businesses unless there are internal theft issues. Again typically you want your system to be seen and know, to prevent theft or other crimes from occurring. Use signage as another form of prevention to help stop unnecessary issues.

Video to go: The applications and components of mobile video

When mobile video is referenced, it falls into one of two general categories.  One is the ability to view video from a mobile device (e.g. a smart phone)  or  the ability to record video from a moving vehicle.

In the first example, the uses include the ability to view video streams from your home security video surveillance system ( examples might include checking your camera feed on the front porch to see if a package arrived from a delivery service, or the feed from the camera checking on the new puppy, or giving you piece of mind to check on your home while on vacation).  Or as a business owner or head of security for a commercial interest, you might want to check in on your video surveillance system from any location with an internet connection.  As a parent, imagine the ability to view your child at a care center to see how their day is going.

What components are required to have this ability?  First on the side of the video system, the hardware needs to be connected to the internet.  Also the software that resides on the video recorder needs to have the ability to provide remote viewing.  The software may have the ability for viewing only from a pc with an internet connection.  To view from a smart phone requires that an application exist on both the smart phone and on the video recorder.   Generally supported platforms include the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry devices.

What applications drive the need for recording on the move?  These would include monitoring of a vehicle fleet such as school or city buses, law enforcement vehicles or taxis.  In addition, the capture of live video feeds is important for storm chasers, law enforcement, and the news media.   In this example, the components required would be cameras and video recorders designed for mobile environments.  Some applications will add the integration of GPS and GIS systems.  The video is then uploaded via a device that provides connection to a Wi-Fi, 3G/4G or satellite network.   The future will bring expansion of the capabilities of wireless networks and devices that bring mobile recording into the hands of the average consumer as well.

Wireless: Only if absolutely Necessary.

With technology changes occurring daily, you would think that the wireless solution for CCTV cameras would have come around by now. Well, in reality, it has come a long way. Just not as far as some would have liked. If you are looking into a CCTV system and are thinking about wireless, there are still many things to consider.

First of all, if there is anyway that you can use a wired system, use it. One thing to remember is, you still have to power the camera and if you are powering it from a central point why not just have the second wire pulled and be done with it. And if you are using IP cameras, you are using Cat5 cable that will power the camera anyway. If you must use wireless cameras, and have a way to power the camera locally, there are a couple of things to remember. Most wireless cameras are designed to connect at a range of up to 100’ LOS (Line of Site). And remember, if you are trying to go through walls, that signal could be reduced by 25-50% depending on the type of construction. Well in most cases, just that restriction will make most people reevaluate the wireless camera. If not, there is one other thing I tell people, and that is how reliable is wireless? Well have you ever been watching a TV problem on satellite or cable during a weather storm? Need I say more?

Well, the good news is, if you do have a legitimate reason to go wireless, there is technology that can help. But keep in mind, you still must have power at the camera to use it. There are several models of Long Range Antennas on the market. The ones I have used and are familiar with will carry the signal .62-1.86 Miles. Now that should get the job done for most applications. Just remember, there is cost involved with this solution, but if it is a necessity, it might just be worth it.