Storage - Cloud or Premise

CCTV is all about Storage.
 
Footage is of essential importance for Video Forensics or Evidence. This is the one reason that has driven CCTV Technology forward. People wanted more in terms of quality of pictures. People wanted better forensics. People wanted durable storage medium's and eventually people now want to access these pictures or videos on the fly.
 
To understand this technology one needs to look at the evolution so to speak of Storage.
 
Let’s look at Evolution of Storage Technology.
 
To begin with CCTV Cameras were recorded on VHS Tapes based on Video Recorders. These Recorders were Time lapsed so that many hours of footage could be stored on a single 3 hour tape. However, VHS Tapes had issues not just resolution but also with storage and quantity. The quality reduced when it was played back a number of times plus the tapes itself were prone to due to fungus accumulation etc.. Finally managing a large number of tapes became a nightmare to a security manager. 
 
The next evolution came about when Digital Video Recorders were introduced and CD /DVD Disc’s were used to store evidence. The quality was better and also durability was better but again management was an issue in terms of number of disc's to be stored. Even today crucial evidence is exported to CD / DVD disc.
 
The next natural progression came with increased capacity in terms of Hard Drive Storage being available and thus today almost of recordings are stored on SAN/NAS based Storage devices. With larger pixel density cameras being available storage sizes have risen dramatically over the years. A decade ago Security Managers looked at 8GB storage as being massive, while today most system would need around 30 for 40 GB of Storage to begin with.

In terms of Technology earlier in what was the Digital Video Recorder days All Management in terms of Recording Resolution, Frame was done locally on the DVR and number of days were restricted by size of the Hard Drive. Event back up’s were taken on CD / DVD Drives and in some cases you could export the event to a remote computer for back up over the Network.

IP CCTV evolved in the same manner but instead of the DVR came a server which got connected and all management was done at the server level and as technology evolved Storage Size became only limited by financial constraints of cost of the storage and typically these days people even prefer archiving the important events onto a remote Cloud.

Today Cloud based Storage for Archiving is becoming popular with a number of Small Business (SOHO)  and Distributed Small Businesses looking to store data on the Cloud. Video Surveillance Companies are offering Cloud Storage and Video on Demand or Video as a Service based on Cloud Storage. Residences are turning to Cloud Computing for Remote access and view of their homes.

Let's face it Cloud Based Storage does have some real strong advantages.

It allows you to

1. Reduce your IT Infrastructure footprint.
2. Allows you access to highly scable IT infrastructure on the go or on demand.
3. Extends the functionality of your on premise Security system
4. Reduces the indirect costs of managing your IT infrastructure ( Servers, Cooling, Power etc.. )

Finally as far as a Security Manager is concerned -- REDUCES THE RELIANCE ON CORPORATE IT TEAMS.

 Now let me not give you the feel that I am all for Cloud Storage..

Cloud Storage has serious problems which most vendors will not admit on record.

Most VMS platforms have still not evolved to handle multiple site cloud based server storage streaming... ( I can hear hundred's of voices already protesting ) and most will not admit this.. Secondly due to the huge bandwidth requirements involved if we have a large system it would become quite an expensive affair in the end not just from the size of storage but also managing the streams and the uplinks etc couple that with High Megapixel Camera streams and it can become a huge problem.

Finally with all the security concerns which exist today Cloud Storage is still a major problem. Most IT companies will never admit this as a problem but the problem exists and its only after a breach has occurred that people say a breach has occurred.. Only a couple of days ago did we hear of the data leak at Zomato.. The number may have been reduced but the fact is the breach occurred. Similarly if the network fails due to various issues down the line you would lose a lot of data (and if your luck is bad) of critical importance.

So what is the answer?

Well in my experience there is no real straight forward answer.. The answer lies in the Honesty of all people involved in the organization to the various questions asked by the Security Audit teams and the ability of people to rise and raise their hands up when required.

Can you accept a data breach?
How many days / hours of data can you afford to lose in a day?

In large systems I recommend a Hybrid approach. Store on premise and archive important footage on the cloud. 

I guess as of today I would say from my personal opinion that Cloud Storage is strictly for non serious storage / redundancy.

All comments / brickbats welcome..



 

Security Automation Consulting

Well, Its been a while since I wrote anything worthwhile.
 
The process being called laziness!
 
Finally after much delay and thought I finally decided to jump into the arena and become the dreaded Consultant.
 
The thought process being that if I can, I should change the process from within the system.

 

Our Industry has plenty of Consultants, surprising most of them survive, Most have very little / actual knowledge of the Systems they recommend and yet they survive.

Why do people appoint Consultants?

  

1.To be able to get advice on picking the right system for the application
 
2.To be able to create a common benchmark for vendors to submit competitive bids
 
3.To be able to create the correct Bill of Quantities
 
4.To get an informed view on the systems and technologies available
 
5.To ensure the security automation is done to industry standards

 
What do most Consultants do?

 1.They use a  one size fits all scheme and merely change legends for different clients

 2.They prefer using a bunch of systems and products due to various reasons

 3.Hardly ever take responsibility for the systems installed

 4.Never ever do an Audit of the systems they specify and recommend.

 
So What is it that I do which is different?
 
Well to begin with .. Since I have been on the other side of the table for the past 30 years I possibly know more about systems than any of the present lot of consultants
 
Secondly here is a list of activities I propose to do to begin with

  

•Site Visits for Risk Assessment & Design Consideration
 
•Creating a recommendation documentation for Client
 
•Drafting of Performance Specification & BOQ
 
•Short list Vendors for Bidding post Due Diligence Process
 
•Strategy & Design for Security Systems, Lighting & Control
 
•Create a Tender Document “RFQ”
 
•Evaluations of Tender based on RFQ and provide detailed analysis.
 
•Project Management
 
•Submit variations and compliances to the Client based on Tender RFQ
 
•System Trails / POC and commencement of the installation
 
•Audit Installations & Provide Consultancy on Upgrades
 
•Create and Audit Training program for Client
 
•Audit System for Gaps based on Initial Recommendations & Variations

What is my USP?

1. I am the only one possibly who has installed systems.
2. I am the only one has certifications from various OEM's.
3. I am the only one who  specializes in CCTV.
4. I am the only who has worked with OEM's.
5. I am the only one who has introduced Technology to India Security Market.
6. I am the only one who understands the viewpoint of a System Integrator and Client

I am completely independent and technically qualified to go through various technicalities of systems.

I propose to only propose systems and designs based on client needs.
 
Let me try and see if I can make a difference..
 
SO HERE GOES.. GOOD LUCK TO ME!!!!!

Survey on Video Management Systems

Would you guys take 5 minutes of your time and do this survey please! 

Much Appreciated! 

Thanks!

Video Management Systems Survey

Smart Cities & City Surveillance

These days I meet people and generally talk about perceptions and requirements. Invariably the talk veers towards “Smart City Programmes”…. Mostly I guess the Term “City Surveillance” is losing its sheen.

Sales Guys!!!!!! The Lengths they will go to try and bring something new on the table even when they don’t have a clue as to what they mean!

City Surveillance began as a Pilot project at a few intersections at Jaipur in 2002 -2003 under the guise of Traffic Management. This Pilot project was carried out of India’s premier R&D centre C-DAC Trivandrum under the leadership of Shri. V. Muralidharan, Director, C-DACP & Shri. P. Ravikumar, Deputy Director, CIG, C-DAC. Later this was repeated at Pune. A paper on this can be found at

http://www.webelmediatronics.in/ATCS/CDAC%20writeup%20of%20Pune%20survey.pdf

I was associated with both these projects and in a way can take some amount of credit for being the first to start implementing surveillance which could have a positive impact on our daily life and make travel and commute safer and better. I am proud of this achievement.

However I am not here to TOMTOM my achievements but the thought which comes to me is

Are we Indian’s doing the right thing by trying to do stuff which is neither here or there and which in the long will not benefit any of us?

What am I talking about?

Let’s face it…. We are happily going about selling City Surveillance and Smart City Projects across the country.

I am also aware of a number of Large Multi National Organisations who are happily meeting various Governments with offers of financing schemes as long as their systems are installed. Come on you Sales Guys this is your country! The Country deserves systems and processes which we can provide to fulfill our objectives without compromising on quality of surveillance! Sadly our Truly Fantastic Sales Guys are happy doing their numbers, grabbing their sales incentives / bonuses and forget that they sell stuff that their country doesnot deserve.

A truly smart city approach would be integration of all possible video feeds from all public surveillance feeds to be really effective since this would actually enable transfer of data between agencies. After all the Law Enforcement Agency is the one which comes into operation the moment an incident takes place.

I don’t want to sound like the proverbial guy with the Pin to prick the bubble but the truth is that this is not possible in today’s scenario and there is no thought process that the road to be taken needs to have a destination of commonality!

Now this is interesting..Spare some of your time and think…

What if we have a common platform across cities which would be truly SMART!

We can achieve

• A Common Database of Criminals which can be shared and updated online on the go across cities

• Video Feeds could be accessed across cities from any location across the country

• A nationalized database which the centre can access and step in for priority requirements

Face Recognition options for the Law Enforcement Agencies for online recognition and updation of Database right from the streets to Police Stations to Check Post at borders to Jails and Various Public Locations across the Country!

Will we ever get to being SMART from a Technology point of View?

We are as a race extremely SMART!

By the way I was speaking about CCTV! ☺☺☺☺

Access Control

Most Corporates install systems which are based on global standards and policies, however what’s interesting is that Global Pricing standards are followed in India as well for systems and features which are not relevant or used in India.

Today modern access control systems have advanced greatly to lower cost of per door installations plus adding features like integrated photo badging, integration to digital video / CCTV, telephone entry systems and many more features that provide for scaling of access to corporate assets.

While my knowledge on Access Control is limited, I have found that over 60% of the installations in India specifically corporate installations use only a small percentage of the features available in the systems. I haven’t found any of the Security Managers complaining about the lack of feature utilization but the thought has always played in my mind that if a feature to price evaluation was done would the same Security Managers and Commercial Bean bags start looking at installations in a new manner.

Some Security Managers may not even know a feature is available in the system and the fault lies with the installer and OEM for not educating the end user. This is not because they don’t want to educate the end client but most of the time due to lack of information that the local teams have about the systems themselves.

Our Security Managers are some of the best in the world and would probably find a relevant method to use a particular feature of the system to suit Indian conditions and most of them know what will be used and what will not be used in India.

Access control systems which are sold to Corporate Clients use Enterprise class licensing and the OEM rides on this to sell at a price level negotiated for Global Clients in India… So we end up paying for what is never going to be used.. What if the Security Manager had a say and indicated feature to price benefit exercise? It would shake up this market and get prices downwards.. Prices would be re-negotiated on a region to region basis and we would still end up with some of the best technologies at a lower cost.

I may not be 100% correct on this assumption but hey the pressure would be on the OEM to justify the kind of price and service provided in India.

I am actually quite keen on seeing what the experts in this field have to say about this thought process and would anyone actually go about this exercise to downscale feature availability based on installations?

Storage

Storage 

The single question which is thrown at me often is.. How much Hard Disk Space is required for storing x days of Recordings? 

Normally this is thrown at me by the installing technician / engineer / project manager and it often amazes me that these guys can actually operate in our industry without even knowing the basics.

Let me explain why this amazes me..

A system has cameras, a recording system and corporate standards which are to be followed. So to me it becomes simple to provide for storage estimation.

Lets break this down to even more questions to answer this question..

1. How many cameras?
2. Recording Resolution?
3. Recording Frame rate?
4. Number of hours of recording?
5. What’s the type of activity in front of the cameras?
6. Motion Based or Continuous Recording?
7. Compression standard? Normally H.264
8. Number of days to store the Video?

Most times people will answer question (g) immediately and tell you x number of days.

Now why is it important to ask all those questions to answer a simple question? 

Compression plays an important factor and the resolution used then provides the basis for the answer..Infact a number of online tools provide for a simple method to arrive at a answer which would most times be dependable.

Given below are 3 links which are available

http://www.stardot.com/bandwidth-and-storage-calculator

https://www.supercircuits.com/resources/tools/security-nvr-storage-calculator

http://www.atvideo.com/resources/ip-storage-calculator

Once you have gone through the links above you will understand why the question asked to me always amazes me..

While these  links will provide you with the hard drive requirement at most times these estimates will have to be taken with some percentage variations…

These variations take place due to bit rates being considered, image quality during night time due to noise interference and also the kind of activity in front of the cameras. In an area which has very high activity each frame would have higher data and this will impact the storage requirements.

Most times people and here I mean the manufacturer’s sales guy will play around with the bit rate settings to ensure that they provide low figures thus trying to imply and show that their product is the best for bandwidth and storage requirements.

Be aware that what they will not tell you is that 

H264 has a de-blocking filter  which will ensure that fine detail in an image with a great depth of field / view will get lost. Should this be a case where the camera is installed in an atrium area of a shopping mall or in a public surveillance kind of environment the foreground image will probably meet approval while the background objects will lose detail. Worse still H264 is also very poor at handling low light scenes.


In such situations bit rate becomes important and should be applied with due consideration.


Here is an article which actually makes for interesting reading..http://www.initsys.net/attachments/Compression%20and%20DigitisationPDF.pdf


At the end all I can say is that if the Security Manager is clear with what he needs then the installer will have very little room to play with storage figures.


After all numbers are the all important factor. It’s numbers that deliver sales volume, it’s numbers which reduces cost from a commercial manager’s perspective and it’s numbers which the security manager is worried about since he has to have everything within the numbers given to him by the management!


God forbid if the requirement is recording with redundancy then the numbers become even more important!

QUALITY VS PRICE - THE PROVERBIAL QUESTION

The other day during the course of a conversation with someone senior ( still young compared to me ) in this industry, he made a point that the product I was selling was expensive and he would not like to lose a tender due to a price issue. I did not argue since I have long since stopped worrying about the price factor!

 

I tend to follow the thought that those who look at price are only worth the price they pay for a product and the products they choose tell you how much knowledge and worth they carry....

 

Long time back Hindustan Lever ran a brilliant series of ads for their detergent brand Surf.. The Ad showed a woman buying Surf and when asked why she chose Surf she said there was a difference between buying good stuff and cheap stuff. Eventually that Campaign saw Surf become the market leader in its segment.

 

I am similarly always asked why not a cheaper product? What's wrong with a cheaper product?

 

I really don't have an answer to this other than the fact that if you know your stuff one would never ask such a question.

 

I am also asked about Quality Vs Price and most people say Quality is relative..

 

I am very clear on this one.... Ask anyone to identify good stuff and they will chose a good product 10 times out of 10... they may differ on its valuation but never on the quality.. I always state that Quality is always seen.. Price is Relative!

It is this relative factor which makes people chose the cheaper stuff because the knowledge base does not exist to make them chose the quality product!

 

Let me explain this from a relative point of view... A person has a requirement to monitor an area just to see what's happening and nothing much more is needed.. he will chose the cheaper product since his need is only to monitor and the rest of the stuff from identification & recognition is not important.. so the product he buys is relative to his need.. He possibly knows that he is not buying quality but his need ensures he does not invest on a quality product. That's why I say Price is relative because he can then further reduce his investment by asking his vendors to fight price wars!

 

Question now.. should I be put in such a situation what would I buy.. Simple I would choose Quality! As the lady in the ad said... "Aache cheeze kareedne mein hi samajhdhari hai" in other words only an Intelligent person with Knowledge will understand the Difference!

Video Analytics

The Role of Video Analytics in everyday surveillance is increasing on a daily basis.

The fact is that Simple Video Analytics has been in existence for years in the form of Motion Detection and today any advanced Video Analytics is purely an extension to the Video Motion process.


All Consultants talk about advanced systems and sell their knowledge based on CCTV surveillance and implementation of Analytics to their clients or the End User. This fills up their resume and Track Record and gives them some amount of credibility. How many will actually admit to these systems working or have actually done what they were supposed to do is another question for debate. Very rarely in India do you see a consultant who is open / willing to Audit his own design post the installation of the system he designed.


Video Analytics is hugely debated, excessively pushed by integrators to give them an edge over others, overhyped by consultants and over sold by OEM all for the same reason…. gives them an edge over the others.. We can while another may say quite honestly we can but…….


10 times out of 10 the End Client who brought the system at the end lives with it and the system is far from what he thought would do for him. The Gap between his expectation / what was sold to him in terms of performance and what actually got installed is so huge that he endures the system for the life cycle of the system.


There are a few basic rules which need to be followed when one sells the concept of Video Analytics to the End User.


In my Opinion

• Always short sell the expectation. Don’t promise the Moon
• Indicate the issues with Analytics
• Indicate all practical geological issues
• Indicate issues based on application.
• Finally use Tools to accurately calculate the necessary parameter.

As far as Analytics is concerned and as I always say PIXELS MATTER!

The Child Labourer’s Lament

by

Sridhar Menon

How I wish I could go to School
Said the Child Labourer
I would have been a person better
without my tools
without an employer
So much like a wrecker


Oh,how I feel jealous
When I see them at School
Learning,reading, playing
Having fun and frolic
I say to myself I want to go to school
without my tools
without an employer
So much like a wrecker


How I want to be an engineer
Become a great pioneer
Of all the things that with electricity work
But alas, how I wish I would not end up doing this work
Every now and then I say to myself
I want to go to school
without my tools
without an employer
So much like a wrecker
 

But I,I keep on boosting my confidence
As they say that a pot of gold
Lies at the end of every rainbow
And I have made up my mind
I will go to School
without my tools
without an employer
So much like a wrecker!

PARADOX

Paradox called CCTV!

 

This is the paradox when it comes to system specification and purchase of the system.

 

Most Security Managers will put down the following as a wish list

 

a) Areas they want to be covered.

b) Critical and Non-Critical Areas

c) Number of days of Recording

d) Ability to be Stored / Viewed remotely

 

When this wish list goes to the commercial teams somewhere down the line a factor which is critical goes out of the window..... That critical factor is the Resolution of the Recordings.... 

 

The Security Manager feels its obvious that when he wants a CCTV system it is but natural that the recordings should be of high quality but never puts it down as a must in his wish list since he feels its the most obvious thing..... I mean why would he want a CCTV system which does not provide a good enough recording quality?

 

The commercial guy will look at this and interpret as ok..

a) We need x number of cameras..

b) Can we reduce cameras

c) Can we get a system to reduce storage and thus price

d) Do we need additional client machines??? Why not use existing infrastructure.

e) Did we budget for this process

f) Can we reduce the overall price so that I can show my boss the savings I was able to achieve

 

In the whole process the quality of recording is never discussed and in steps the consultant who listens to the commercial guy because he doles out the money and will come up with this seemingly perfect solution.......which over the years the Security Manager will curse and scream about but can do very little about...

 

Paradox......