Video surveillance reaching beyond traffic systems

State transportation departments may have led the adoption of IP-based networked video surveillance systems, but the technology is now poised to move into corporate environments in a big way, key industry suppliers say.

The most familiar application of video surveillance remains the traffic management center, where a large display wall often incorporates video feeds from dozens or scores of remote cameras focused on potential traffic trouble spots throughout a region.

But private industry uses of the same technology are starting to pick up, says Hans Dekeyser, market manager for traffic and surveillance systems at Barco Projection Systems.

“We''re trying to put this on the agenda for the big guys,” Dekeyser says, while conceding, "It''s still in the development stage.”

Among the prime corporate uses of video surveillance tools is process management. Dekeyser reports that Barco has installed display products in mining operations, allowing a central control room to monitor both security and safety considerations. “Often, two-thirds of a display wall is a graphical map of the operation, and the rest is camera displays keyed to the map,” he says.

Dekeyser sees potential growth in such areas as pharmaceutical manufacturing and electric power companies, which require not only process monitoring but campus-wide security systems.

Mike Savic, director of marketing at VBrick Systems, cites recent uses on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, which give managers on the mainland a way to monitor conditions at the drill head. Other applications are being developed in fields as diverse as auto manufacturing and chemical processing, where video surveillance enables engineers to manage complex functions without being present on site.

Both Dekeyser and VBrick''s senior director of product management, Pat Cassella, see opportunities for AV systems integrators in this soon-to-be-booming field. “AV integrators are doing a lot of these installs,” Cassella says. Often, they''re working with network specialists who lack AV-specific knowledge.

“This is a key market for systems integrators, something the AV integrator could be expanding into,” says Dekeyser. But a fundamental change of mindset might be in order. “We either see traditional AV thinking or traditional IP thinking,” he says, “but the winners are going to be the guys who understand that they have to be able to do both.”

Cassella says VBrick prefers to market to this niche through its traditional channels, relying on 60 to 70 resellers and backing them up with project-specific expertise as necessary. AV integrators adding surveillance systems to a more general-purpose control room often have questions about IT and network issues, he adds.

The key factor driving this growth is the widespread adoption of MPEG-2 video tools. “MPEG-2 has become a de facto standard for when people are looking for high quality,” says Cassella. Despite the high-quality video playback, he adds, the 4Mbps data stream that MPEG-2 typically requires “is not really a lot of bandwidth on modern networks.”

Moving video distribution to IP networks creates a variety of advantages, says Savic. “You can be a lot more flexible with the video, in how and where you can view it,” he says, adding that thanks to the DVD-like quality of MPEG-2 video, much more detail is available in camera images than was the case with earlier technologies.