Opinion: Analogue Surveillance is a thing of the Past
By AxizWorkgroup and Jacques Liebenberg
AxizWorkgroup, a leading South African IT infrastructure distributor, says that an intensified shift to more comprehensive surveillance and security systems are finding companies moving from analogue surveillance systems to IT based solutions that are increasingly incorporated into the CIO’s bouquet of responsibilities.
“Motion detection, fingerprint identification, heat sensing cameras as well as voice, face and number plate recognition is not just something you find in movies anymore,” says Jacques Liebenberg, the surveillance product manager at AxizWorkgroup.
The IT industry is moving towards virtualisation, with cloud solutions opening doors that provide a means to make information mobile and available from any device in any location, why not your security? Liebenberg says, “The biggest growth in the security industry is currently taking place in Europe and countries such as Dubai, with South Africa still a little slow to catch up on IT based security solutions, as the industry is dominated by an analogue mindset.”
The trend that sees CIOs taking up the responsibility of IT surveillance has a direct impact on IT budgets. “A solution that can be architected to suit the specific needs of a business, within a specified budget, provides the perfect answer. Armed with mpeg, jpeg and H.264 compression rates, it is pertinent that the IT department identify the exact IT surveillance requirements that the business needs. This will dictate the amount of data storage space the system will occupy. Images and footage can either be streamed or recorded onboard the camera, utilising Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) 32 GB non-volatile memory cards to save on bandwidth utilisation,” says Liebenberg.
IT surveillance equipment provides the user with options to regulate the system. “An IT manager understands how the internal IT system works and will be able to optimally integrate a surveillance installation, utilising best practice protocols to make it efficient and effective,” Liebenberg elaborates.
The system can be as simple or as sophisticated as needed. “One of our clients has synchronised Supermarket till points with IP Surveillance Camera footage, which allows them to pinpoint exact events on a timeline. A shipping yard in Hamburg has implemented an IT surveillance system that allows for the recognition of ships that enter the shipping yard in their efforts to document movement. The intelligent technology even allows the user to tell the system to avoid Objects, for example a fan running in a room, and it also allows you to focus on movement coming into a room. The sky is quite literally the limit when it comes to the design of an IT surveillance system,” concludes Liebenberg.
