Digital Video Surveillance and Security
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About this ebook
The use of digital surveillance technology is rapidly growing as it becomes significantly cheaper for live and remote monitoring. The second edition of Digital Video Surveillance and Security provides the most current and complete reference for security professionals and consultants as they plan, design, and implement surveillance systems to secure their places of business.
By providing the necessary explanations of terms, concepts, and technological capabilities, this revised edition addresses the newest technologies and solutions available on the market today. With clear descriptions and detailed illustrations, Digital Video Surveillance and Security is the only book that shows the need for an overall understanding of the digital video surveillance (DVS) ecosystem.
- Highly visual with easy-to-read diagrams, schematics, tables, troubleshooting charts, and graphs
- Includes design and implementation case studies and best practices
- Uses vendor-neutral comparisons of the latest camera equipment and recording options
Anthony C. Caputo
Anthony C. Caputo has been a senior technical consultant since 1998, with eight years of hands-on DVS and CCTV experience, and over eighteen years of networking and digital video experience. Worked as a DVS Architect and system engineer in public transportation, education, retail and municipals having worked on homeland security and surveillance projects including City of Chicago; New York City; Dallas; Rochester; and Basra, Iraq. He is also the published author of McGraw-Hill’s Build Your Own Server and has presented at conferences on the importance of a network security plan, and his multi-dimensional view for troubleshooting networked video. Caputo also provided the Keynote Speech "The Future of CCTV" at CCTV World 2011 Conference in Sydney Australia in December 2011. He is a subject matter expert and is certified in a number of technology disciplines, including project management with PMI (PMP), CCNA, CWNA, Genetec Omnicast and Security Center, Firetide Mesh Network Engineer, object-oriented analysis and design for business process improvement, and a Microsoft Certified Professional. He holds a certification as an IBM e-business Solution Advisor, helping IBM write the exam for certification and in encryption and security from the University of Chicago.
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Digital Video Surveillance and Security - Anthony C. Caputo
Digital Video Surveillance and Security
Second Edition
Anthony C. Caputo
Table of Contents
Cover image
Title page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Preface
1. Introduction to Digital Video Security
Deterrence
Efficiency
Capable Guardian
Detection
Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV)
Big Brother Is in the Restroom
Convergence
Digital Video Security (DVS)
Physical Security
Case Studies
Lessons Learned
Part 1: Choosing the Right Equipment
2. Digital Video Overview
Analog to Digital
Analog vs. Digital
Worldwide Video Standards
Interlaced Lines
Progressive Scanning
Resolution
Digital Color Depth
The Wonderful World of Pixels
Digital Video Surveillance Resolutions
Digital Video Formats
Analog Camera and Digital Video Encoder vs. the IP Camera
Megapixel Cameras
Chapter Lessons
3. Digital Video Hardware
The Evolution of Video Surveillance Hardware
How Cameras Work
Choosing the Right Cameras for the Job
Analog vs. Digital vs. Megapixel
How Weather Can Affect Cameras
Fixed vs. Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) Cameras
PTZ Protocols and Communications
Two-Way Audio
Configuring Digital Video Encoders and IP Cameras
Commissioning Digital Video Encoders and IP Cameras
Resetting to Factory Defaults
Digital Video Cables and Connectors
DVS Troubleshooting
Chapter Lessons
4. Understanding Networks and Networked Video
The Power of the Network
Getting Wired
Ethernet Equipment
Broadband Over Power Lines (BPL)
Setting Up a Star Network
Video Networking
Networked Video Delivery Methods
Lessons Learned
What Usually Can Go Wrong
Chapter Lessons
5. Wireless Networked Video
Introduction to RF
Without Wires?
Radio Frequency
Access Points
Interference
Line of Sight (LOS)
Fresnel Zone
Antennas
WLAN Standards
Wireless Mesh Networking
Wireless Is Half-Duplex
Full-Duplex Wireless Backhaul Radios
Cellular and 4G LTE
Wireless Security Options and Considerations
Channel Planning
Configuring Radios
Wireless Antenna Coaxial Connectors
Wireless Troubleshooting
Chapter Lessons
Part 2: Approaching The Project
6. An Architectural Design Approach
The Lead Architect
The Importance of Architectural Design
Area of Coverage
An Iterative Approach
Implementation Processes
Project Management
Chapter Lessons
7. Site Surveys
License Plate Recognition
Human Recognition
Power = Camera, No Power = No Camera
Surge Protectors and Suppressors
Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS)
Camera Site Surveys
Network Infrastructure Site Surveys
Wireless Site Surveys
Chapter Lessons
8. Choosing the Right Software
Make the Technology Work Around You
Video Management System Software (VMS)
Using Dual VMSs
Video Analytics
Troubleshooting
Chapter Lessons
9. DVS Archiving and Storage
DVR
NVR
The Digital Video Appliance
Cloud Computing
Virtualization
DVS VMS Requirements
Storage Space
Power
Portable Observation Device (POD)
Edge Recording
Security
The Anatomy of a Computer
Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)
Memory
The Network Operating System (NOS)
Scalability
Network Accessibility
Firewall
Malicious Software
DVS Remote Viewing
Terminal Services and Remote Desktop
Hard Drive Preventative Maintenance
Troubleshooting
Chapter Lessons
10. Project Implementation
Project Management
Planning Process
The Project Plan
Closing Process
Chapter Lessons
11. Physical Security Integration
Superhuman Command and Control
Physical Security Interface Management Software
Security Integration
Centralized Security Management and Monitoring
Integration Using I/O
Electronic Relay Connections
Alarms and Events
Event Responses
Input/Output Ports
Video Motion Detection
Active Tampering Alarm
Electronic Access Control and Management
The Access Control Market
About Access Card Technologies
Biometrics
EAC System Topology
Integrated Access and Digital Video
Social Media Integration
Troubleshooting
Chapter Lessons
Appendix A: Site Survey Readiness Checklist and Survey Forms
Index
Copyright
Acquiring Editor: Brian Romer
Editorial Project Manager: Keira Bunn
Project Manager: Punithavathy Govindaradjane
Designer: Russell Purdy
Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier
225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA, 02451, USA
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1 GB, UK
Copyright © 2014 Anthony C. Caputo. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to seek permission, further information about the Publisher’s permissions policies and our arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.
This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).
Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods or professional practices, may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information or methods described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Caputo, Anthony C.
Digital video surveillance and security / Anthony C. Caputo. -- Second edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-12-420042-5
1. Video surveillance. 2. Digital video. I. Title.
TK6680.3.C37 2014
621.389′28--dc23
2013045588
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-12-420042-5
For information on all Butterworth-Heinemann publications, visit our website at http://store.elsevier.com
Printed and bound in the United States of America
14 15 16 17 18 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to my family for understanding that these things don’t write themselves!
Gratitude to everyone who gave me the opportunity to play in this technology: Jim Coleman, David Coleman, Darrin Lipscomb, Mark Jules, Dennis M. Zaslavsky, Umberto Malesci, Gerry Comeau, Roger Rehayem, James Sara, Anthony Testa, Timothy Herlihy, Jim Lautenbach, Jodi Samsa, and Ladislao Delgado.
Grand thanks and appreciation for the company of the very smart people I’ve worked with over the years. I was listening.
About the Author
Anthony C. Caputo has been a senior technical consultant since 1998, with eight years of hands-on DVS and CCTV experience and over 18 years of networking and digital video experience. He worked as a DVS architect and systems engineer in public transportation, education, retail, and municipal organizations, having worked on homeland security and surveillance projects, including in the City of Chicago; New York City; Dallas; Rochester; and Basra, Iraq. He is also the published author of McGraw-Hill’s Build Your Own Server and has presented at conferences on the importance of a network security plan as well as his multidimensional view of troubleshooting networked video. Caputo also provided the keynote speech, The Future of CCTV,
at CCTV World 2011 Conference in Sydney, Australia, in December 2011.
Caputo is a certified and subject matter expert in a number of technology disciplines, including project management with PMI (PMP), CCNA, CWNA, Genetec Omnicast and Security Center, Firetide Mesh Network Engineer, object-oriented analysis and design for business process improvement, and Microsoft Certified Professional. He holds a certification as an IBM e-business Solution Advisor, helping IBM write the exam for certification and in encryption and security from the University of Chicago.
Preface
I was a toddler when John F. Kennedy was shot, but it affected everyone around me so profoundly and was so dramatically shown on our black-and-white television that it continues to be etched in my childhood memory. I always wonder if my children, the youngest only five years old on 9/11, will also be haunted by the horrific visions of that day for the rest of their lives, as am I, or are they so bombarded by media nowadays that it won’t affect them the same way? How could it? How could they know what we lost that day—the concepts and delusion that we, the United States of America, the land of the free, are the most powerful country in the world; that we were untouchable; that our children and their children are safe from the chaos of the world’s zealots. Here in the United States of America, those zealots can protest, run for government office, and manipulate the media to push their ideals, good or bad, to the masses. Elsewhere, it may have been a different story, but that seemed somewhere far away, until September 11, 2001.
It hit me hard, like a two-by-four upside the head. I was working for an information technology consulting firm at the time, and although my co-workers and friends were as shocked as the rest of the world, they’d seen acts of terrorism before in their country. Suddenly, the armed soldiers at airports, seaports, and tourist traps in every foreign country I’d visited in my youth made sense to me. We see them in the United States now, too.
Once my initial shock subsided, I thought I could look at photos, documentaries, or even movies about 9/11, but I couldn’t and I still can’t. In my youth, growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, I learned to denounce war and instead chose to be a hippie child. My young idealistic view of the world was that we should focus on protecting what we have at home and not whatever
in a country few had ever heard of before. I swore that if I was ever drafted (highly unlikely at 10 years old), I’d run to Canada, pledge an allegiance to the imperialistic revolutionary running dogs (whoever they were), and preach about peace, love, and togetherness. I would fight for my life only if they
ever attacked us at home, like at Pearl Harbor (big in our social studies class that year) and World War II. As a child, I was so antiwar, antimilitary, and all about peace before I knew what it all meant, and that same mentality spilled over into my teen years in the 1970s and was buried into my unconsciousness in adulthood, while I was too busy with life, liberty, and the pursuit of the American Dream.
Well, many years later, that security that was ever-growing in my subconscious as I grew older was shattered in a single act of terrorism on 9/11. I remember people trying to tell me what was going on, but I was in denial. I was busy working and didn’t have time for such nonsense. The Internet was jammed, and at a standstill; all the television stations suddenly stopped their normal broadcasting, and in a blink of an eye, the fortress that I believed my country to be was smashed. Sure, the United States has its problems, its deficit, its slew of corruption, deviates, and issues, but we are the land of the free and the home of the brave. We are the strongest, most powerful country in the entire world, and no one would be crazy enough to punch us in the face on our own playground.
I recall people going home to be with their families, and parents picking up their children from school (as did my wife at the time). I was in denial. I worked all day and wondered why people were looking at me funny. I wanted it to be just another secure, safe day, but it wasn’t. Everything changed, not just for me, but for everyone.
What could I do? Now how could I give my children a small inkling of the untouchable strength and security of the United States, that I believed this country had, real or imaginary, prior to that day?
I wanted to do something. I wanted to go to a survivalist store and pick up supplies and go hunt down Bin Laden and hurt him. I wanted to strangle his twisted, zealot throat. But Rambo I’m not. I was too old to join the military, and the responsibilities at home made that impossible. Years went by, and the fantasy of contributing anything to the safety of this country, and its people, fell to the wayside.
In 2005, I was given the opportunity to join the Chicago homeland security initiative focused on potential terrorist targets throughout the downtown area. This was a very innovative approach to digital video surveillance using high-end security cameras and equipment interconnected on a redundant fiber optic ring, with centralized storage for video forensics, redundancies, and failovers (in the event that one of the locations was destroyed) and video analytics.
The technologies were exciting and allowed my experience with digital video, networking, wireless, software, mechanics, and electronics to converge into a single project. I enjoyed being part of the team, even when discussing malevolent topics such as full functionality if whole skyscrapers were to fall. I’ve contributed and learned, and I have grown along with the project and its many offshoots.
In 2010, I was invited to take my experience to New York City to work on their digital video surveillance and security projects. I commuted to New York every Monday and Friday for months. Although this wasn’t the first time I’d ever been to Manhattan, it was the first time since 9/11. During my travels, I stayed in the downtown area, within walking distance to the Counter Terrorism Bureau Lower Manhattan office. It had been a decade since 9/11, so Ground Zero was a construction site of giant cranes, scaffolding, and closed streets. Throughout my first month there, I stayed across the street from where the Twin Towers once stood, and unknown to me because my mind was focused on the overwhelming projects at hand, the nice, clean hotels with their scaffolding, where I lived out of a suitcase, had been recently renovated because of that dreadful day. That thought finally hit me on May 1, 2010, when a Nissan Pathfinder wired with a car bomb was discovered unexploded in Times Square, where I had been doing a site survey just the day before.
When I returned to Manhattan that Monday, I was in a New York deli where I saw two photo enlargements gracing the wall. One was of the Twin Towers, burning and smoking; the other was of a NYPD police officer leaning against the deli counter, head down, eyes closed, covered head to toe in gray dust. He was holding a bright orange Gatorade in one hand.
That’s when it hit me. It was at that very moment when I suddenly realized I am doing something to help my children, everyone’s children, to feel safer in this new United States of America. Somehow, either fate (or a relentless subconscious pursuit since that horrific day) has given me the opportunity to ward off complacency and do something.
I was helping. I am helping. I may never be able to give my children the idealistic view of the United States that I had perceived as a child, because I can’t change the past, but I can contribute to changing the future, even if what I’m doing is just dropping a DVS pebble in a pond.
My time as part of the New York City project represented one of the most monstrous workloads I’ve ever encountered, within an environment of high intensity soaked in an intimate sense of urgency, and the overwhelming project plan pulled me into many directions at once for very long days, but it was worth every New York minute because I was there, contributing to protecting what is still the greatest city in the world.
1
Introduction to Digital Video Security
Abstract
This chapter describes the origins and theory behind video surveillance and the same four key founding factors that are prevalent even today. General physical security of lives, property, and equipment is still important and explains the evolution of visual surveillance, digital video surveillance, and how smarter systems help operators follow the four key factors. This chapter also presents case studies at various levels.
Keywords
CCTV; closed-circuit television; surveillance theory; deterrence; efficiency; capable guardian; detection; physical security; convergence
Visual surveillance began in the late 19th century to assist prison officials in the discovery of escape methods. It wasn’t until the mid-20th century that surveillance expanded to include the security of property and people. The astronomical cost of these first security camera systems, based on traditional silver-based photographic cameras and film, limited their use to government buildings, banks, and casinos. If questionable activity was discovered, the monitoring security firm would develop the films in a secure, private darkroom laboratory to analyze at a later date. Live television was occasionally used during special events to monitor a crowd, but law enforcement was usually limited to the television studio to view the output of the multiple cameras.
The theory behind visual surveillance was founded on the same four key factors that are prevalent today. These factors are:
• Deterrence
• Efficiency
• Capable guardian
• Detection
Deterrence
If a potential criminal is aware of the possibility of being watched and recorded, he may determine that the risk of detection far outweighs the benefits. Visual surveillance as a deterrent is used from casinos to retail settings to public transportation. Countries all over the world use video surveillance, focusing its use mostly on public transportation (planes, trains, and autos) and select public areas. Based on an Urban Eye study (www.urbaneye.net), 86% of these international installations are intended to prevent and detect theft, and 39% also serve as a deterrent to violent crime. The amount of crime prevented by using video surveillance is based on the environment and whether the system is solely passive, active, or both. A passive system uses video recordings after an incident to help solve a crime. An active system is monitored by security personnel who are dispatched at a moment’s notice. Historically, the most effective crime prevention video surveillance systems do more than record crime in the background. One dramatic example is installed at Chicago’s Farragut High School, a public school notorious for its major acts of violence, locker thefts, and vandalism, all of which nearly disappeared within a year of the installation of a closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance system, all clearly monitored by trained personnel. Many U.S. cities have likewise seen reductions in crime due to the addition of a video surveillance implementation and strategy. In 2010, I had the opportunity to contribute to development of a new standard for the Chicago Public School system, upgrading the CCTV standards of technology to digital video surveillance. The two primary requirements were (1) facial identification at 30–40 feet, and (2) near-100% corridor coverage.
Historically, the monitors of these systems were able to see a person of interest but not necessarily recognize that person due to the limited resolution and frame rates of the existing cameras and limitation of the video management system software. I provided an evaluation and conceptual design using megapixel cameras and increased coverage, along with new video management system software that provided more intelligence and archive review capabilities that dramatically increased effectiveness and efficiency. The success of the implementation led to its integration into more schools and to it becoming the standard moving forward.
Real-world statistics of the effectiveness and efficiencies include:
• A 79% decrease in arrests (from more than 140 the year before)
• A 59% drop in misconduct reports
• Reduced onsite police officers
• Identification and arrest of burglary suspects: From July to November, 2009, 16 arrests saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets
• Increased test scores
• A 67% reduction in index crimes
• A 6% increase in attendance
• Video analysis reduced from eight-plus hours to minutes
• False fire alarms from eight per year to zero
In a recent U.K. Home Office Research Study on the effectiveness of video surveillance as a crime deterrent, 46 surveys were done within cities’ public areas and public housing in the United States and the United Kingdom. Of the 46 studies, only 22 had enough valid data to be deemed acceptable for publication. All 22 published surveys showed significant reduction (as much as 50%) in burglaries, vehicle theft, and violent crimes. However, it is rather difficult to analyze data on the effectiveness of video surveillance systems due to the many variables in the complexity of the areas of coverage and general displacement. For example, the decrease of crime within an area monitored by video surveillance cameras may have forced criminals to move to a different location, thus displacing the violent crimes. Enclosed areas of coverage, such as parking garages and lots, buildings, and campuses, have better success with video surveillance than large outdoor areas as long as there is a clear presence of a capable guardian,
which can be increased police or security guards or the electronic eyes of security cameras.
Efficiency
Reviewing video surveillance footage at the same time as watching live surveillance provides additional information on a situation, allowing users to make better decisions on deploying the right kind and number of resources. Depending on the number of security cameras and their location, this simultaneous viewing of live and archived video can confirm a sleight of hand or any illegal activity before a patron, customer, or suspect is approached by a security force. In 2007, the Dallas, Texas, police department used video footage from 559 incidents to assist in 159 arrests. Their experience indicated that a single police officer monitoring live and archived video can cover a far greater area than a field officer, including usable image captures of license plates from 300 yards away.
Capable Guardian
In The American Sociological Review’s Social Change and Crime Rate Trends: A Routine Activity Approach,
by Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson, the authors suggest that crime prevention includes the presence of a capable
supervising guardian. That guardian need not be present, just watching, and today not even watching, just archiving but using smarter technology. Today’s video surveillance includes sophisticated software with the capability of monitoring areas for programmable situations (e.g., bookmark all red automobiles), such as abandoned cars or backpacks, circling vehicles, or even specific license plates. This new generation of video surveillance software, called video analytics (see Chapter 8), can upgrade an originally passive security system into an active one. This introduces the capable guardian by giving the passive surveillance system a brain
and allowing it to be more responsive to potential criminal activity.
Detection
Detection is the higher profile success factor, providing tangible evidence that video surveillance works. Britain is well known for its video surveillance system, providing law enforcement with the ability to follow anyone throughout the city of London via the use of over 200,000 cameras (with over 4 million cameras throughout the country). This system helped in the detection of four London-born terrorists, including the well-publicized CCTV frame capture of suicide bomber Hasib Hussain. Likewise, the arrests of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson in the high-profile British murder case of James Bulger were directly linked to images reviewed on the surveillance system. Furthermore, Scotland Yard convicted 500 criminals using its CCTV database of three years’ worth of data on 7,000 offenders (kellysearch.co.uk).
Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV)
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), which uses traditional radio frequency (RF) technology rather than photographic technology, was introduced in the 1980s and provided a more cost-effective and real-time method of video surveillance.
Today’s concept of video surveillance has its roots in the analog world of television. The framework of CCTV is a simple one, using the same analog signal you’d receive from
FAKE CAMERAS AND THE FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY
LIABILITY
There are many options in video surveillance, all of which feed the desire to take advantage of the deterrent factor. A number of companies market fake video surveillance cameras, which in the short run may initially help deter criminal activity; even a fake camera, although a deterrent to criminal activity, also implies security.
Someone walking through the loading docks of a store may believe they are safe because they see cameras and assume a security force is watching. If a criminal incident happens and the cameras are exposed as fake, that false sense of security may provide the basis for a winning lawsuit in today’s courts. Even though the criminal broke the law and/or trespassed on private property, a court may fault a company for installing fake security cameras. This installation could be considered breach of contract for knowingly stating that there was security when there was not; negligence, for lulling the employee into a false sense of security; or failure to heed police recommendation if an incident happened in the same area in the past. Ultimately, fake cameras could cost more in legal fees and settlements than installation of true video surveillance. Based on the Video Surveillance Guide Website (www.video-surveillance-guide.com), once cameras are identified as fake, they have been known to increase criminal activity, sometimes with devastating consequences.
your old pre-digital television. A single camera monitors one location and sends it to a cathode ray tube (CRT) television monitor at another location using a coaxial cable (see Figure 1.1). Usually the system has a single command center where security personnel watch black-and-white and/or color monitors of various cameras. Multiplexing technology provides the ability to watch more than one camera on a single monitor or automate a cycle of various camera feeds on a single monitor to expand the area of coverage. Though it’s true that many security professionals and companies still use CCTV and the concept of a centralized command center,
not everyone has the space, money, or resources for such a system. Wiring a house, office, building, or campus with coax cables from every camera to a control unit and then to each CRT monitor is costly, time consuming, and, thanks to internetworking technologies, unnecessary.
Figure 1.1 depicts an example of a CCTV installation that monitors select areas of coverage. The first installation was designed and developed for the separate parking facility. This implementation included several fixed-position cameras on each floor of the parking garage, stairwells, and exits, all connected directly to a primary control unit (PCU) for management of each video stream. The PCU is a simple device for managing the input and output of video feeds through the coax cables. Ancillary utilities and devices can provide simple integration of some alarms, but this technology is limited in its capabilities and has a complex and costly integration into third-party systems.
A single monitor in the parking garage management office was connected to the output for monitoring cameras. The PCU offered shuffling of each camera feed at select intervals and a keyboard to input the call number for each camera or to scroll through the cameras, one by one.
Several years later the campus was expanded, but unfortunately, the previous CCTV installation wasn’t designed with the foresight to extend the system into other buildings. An underground site survey uncovered various fiber, Ethernet, and power connectivity, but the conduit was either full or damaged over time. Feeding new runs of coax required trenching and/or boring to replace poor conduit runs between buildings; thus the plan to run coax cables (for video) between the parking facility and the main building was abandoned due to cost. Another isolated CCTV system was designed and developed within the main building. These cameras were installed inside loading docks, exits and entrances, main entrances, and service corridors. A new model camera was introduced into this system that required more connectivity than coax cables for video. Many pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras were installed, requiring separate wiring interconnectivity with the new PCU for camera controls using a proprietary protocol.
FIGURE 1.1 A typical CCTV topology.
In addition to this phase of the expansion, a primary command center was built to house a new security office, with a CCTV control console for several CRT monitors to view the cameras and a new model keyboard with a built-in joystick to access and control the new PTZ cameras.
The main building did not have any existing conduit or spare conduit pathways to run coax throughout it and into the new buildings on campus. Video Balun transceivers were used to transfer the coax video signal to existing telephone twisted-pair wires between locations as each building was interconnected to each telephone interim distribution facility (IDF), or actually a secured closet with twisted-pair terminals for the telephones and a network switch for the computers. The plain old telephone service (POTS) lines were linked into each IDF, the main distribution facility (MDF), the command center, and any room with a telephone. Although the use of Balun can affect the video quality, it made possible the installation of dozens of cameras where they were originally deemed too costly.
Multiple monitors were installed within the new command center, with a single monitor assigned alarm displays. Once any alarm system integrated into the PCU was activated, the nearest camera to that location would be displayed on that sole monitor. The chance that the fixed camera would be pointed in the direction of the incident depended on the initial requirements for area of coverage. If there were three select emergency exits, panic alarms, or door sensors, a single fixed camera could only watch one. So there was a one in three chance of catching a specific incident on video (either live or recorded). The command center also included a computer designated for filing incident reports online. These reports could be accessed by management personnel at a later date, from a database via the computer network.
Big Brother Is in the Restroom
Twenty-five years ago, general and business communications were primarily synchronous. To accomplish almost anything, someone live
needed to be on the other side of the table or telephone line, especially when dealing with national and international business. The same holds true for security and video surveillance. Typically, CCTV is most effective as an active system, with a security guard monitoring the corridors and someone else, somewhere, watching video surveillance monitors for support. Everything is synchronized and everything happens in real time.
Today everything moves quickly, and technology has added to life’s complexity the magic of fax machines, computers, tablets, and mobile phones, all capable of delivering multimedia through multiple channels to a mass of recipients, without having to synchronize with anyone. The message is received and the response happens when it happens. The world has changed dramatically since the invention of the analog television over a century ago, yet it’s been only recently that television has caught up with our faster mail, faster computers, faster networks, and faster foods. The information overload has forced this asynchronous world. Yet there is too much information and not enough time and resources for absorption.
When I speak about my work with homeland security surveillance and physical security technologies, I typically get the Big Brother is watching
comment, referring to George Orwell’s omnipresent socialistic watcher called Big Brother in his book 1984. This Orwellian
fear is that someone somewhere may be watching you through a video surveillance camera this very minute and that someone somewhere is abusing the system to violate your freedom and privacy. Fortunately, you’re not doing anything illegal, just reading this book, and hopefully not behind the wheel of a getaway car, idling in front of a neighborhood bank or terrorist target, or speeding through a red light at a high-risk intersection.
A recent article about license plate recognition (LPR) cameras in California described how drivers were suing a city for invasion of privacy. They believed that these cameras were there to document their every move, uncovering personal information such as doctor visits and places of worship. Well, doesn’t your mobile phone do that far more easily with a global positioning system (GPS)? There is actually far more of a threat from spyware or a Trojan virus on your home or business computer, tablet, or smart phone watching your every digital move, reading your files, and looking through digital photos and movies of your family, transactions, bookmarks, and recently visited Websites than the chance of a video surveillance camera watching your every physical move. Although video surveillance monitors the linear world in real time, spyware is software that lives in virtual nanoseconds, with computer farms multitasking trillions of computations against millions of unsuspecting data targets in the blink of an eye, making digital data and transactions far more vulnerable and a truly unnerving threat. (Tip: Turn off the computer when you’re not using it.) This holds true for your mobile phone too, with its convenience of mapping applications that know your exact location at all times—tracking your movements, analyzing your speed, and knowing when you’re driving and texting. A camera is not needed in the digital world. A camera is only visual confirmation.
The security systems I’ve designed and implemented are strictly for monitoring activity of a potential target, whether from a terrorist threat or neighborhood thieves or vandals. The systems are deployed for the protection of lives and property and not to watch individuals as they jaywalk across the street or run a red light (which both are, by the way, against the law). Those are different solutions with different requirements and objectives.
In a recent New York Times article about Chicago’s 911 expanding digital video surveillance system, Albert Alschuler, a law professor at Northwestern University, makes the point that public camera systems do not violate any privacy concerns because they are installed in public locations. They have been implemented for public safety and crime prevention and are not for the exploitation of individuals. An individual with a camcorder, or the paparazzi, may have a more self-satisfying agenda and thanks to digital technology and the Internet can violate privacy laws with far more devastating consequences than video surveillance cameras, which are kept secured and in strict confidence.
Digital video security (DVS) works because human beings can’t be everyplace all the time, and in today’s world very few businesses can afford to have human resources sitting behind a desk 24/7, watching television monitors. Such an active approach would also be very limited when dealing with a large crowd. There are too many cameras and too few eyes watching them, but once you plug your video and security systems into the ever-growing telecommunications infrastructure, DVS becomes a very cost-effective and simple replacement for CCTV. It’s this complete convergence in entertainment and telecommunications that makes digital video security possible. It provides a meaningful solution to video surveillance because you need not be actively monitoring an area of coverage to achieve your goals. DVS archives footage using automated software, and when a programmed event occurs (e.g., motion, door sensor, vandalism), the DVS system sends an alarm using those multitudes of asynchronous pathways that are already part of today’s business infrastructure.
Convergence
DVS is made possible by the proliferation of standardized broadband telecommunications technologies and video compression formats. Once the data pipe reached a level to actively handle heavier loads of data, coupled with the introduction of better video compression quality, algorithms, and processing power, it was possible to deliver hefty video streams from place to place, without the need to be concerned with standardized television signals, DVD players, or game consoles. DVS works much the same way as YouTube, making it possible for anyone anywhere to receive and view a single stream of video without any compatibility concerns—only DVS is not about entertaining or training, but the protection of life and property.
Universal access is made possible by the ubiquitous nature of digital data telecommunications, which can provide cable television, broadband Internet connection, and telephone on a single pipe, whereas a decade ago it was only a pipedream (no pun intended). This technological interconnectivity is brought to you by convergence. Once elusive and now a reality, convergence is the integration of all the separate technologies that run our daily lives. This new universal delivery method makes it possible to watch movies or listen to music on the television, DVD player, game console, computer and mobile phone (see Figure 1.2).
As the world turns digital—from analog television to high-definition TV (HDTV), telephones to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and mobile cellular phones, analog magnetic security access cards to smart cards, and videocassette recorders (VCRs) to digital video recorders (DVRs) or personal video recorders (PVRs)—it is no longer a struggle to integrate these separate systems. Once they are digital, there is no need to have a single access point for live video or recorded surveillance footage, since DVS provides a means of not only sharing pertinent information but also sending immediate alerts to management, security, and/or the local police department using the already existing information technology infrastructure in place, from security access management to cable modems to mobile phones.
FIGURE 1.2 Convergence.
Digital Video Security (DVS)
Digital video security is intelligent networked digital video surveillance: the integration of all new and existing security assets, including cameras, alarms, networks, archiving, and analytics, with managed accessibility to monitor those assets from anywhere at anytime. DVS builds on and/or extends current surveillance, security, and IT infrastructure and investments.
DVS is made possible by the interconnection and digitization of the world. The digital video formats and the delivery method ignore the traditional analog video methodologies. Digital video is not made up of radio frequency waveforms (as with traditional analog video, either through the air or via coax cable) but instead is a structured universal data file of zeroes and ones. There is no National Television Systems Committee (NTSC) or Phase Alternating Line (PAL) in the delivery mechanism (see Chapter 2), only in its creation, and only if that is a requirement in the delivery method (NTSC or PAL), such as for a DVD player (but even many of the newer DVD players no longer need the differentiation). However, unlike analog video or television, which have been around for over a century, DVS necessitates serious computing power, and the better the imagery, the higher the power requirements (see Chapter 2). The microprocessor, or central processing unit (CPU), has reached a level of speed and power that can generate high-quality, live, and recorded video using the same sensors inside today’s more sophisticated digital camcorders (see Chapter 3), which a decade ago were in the thousands of dollars and are now available in high definition for a few hundred dollars.
Figure 1.3 depicts our CCTV example converted into a complete DVS solution. Our previous site surveys uncovered one simple fact that opened the door to a number of possibilities, all of which will encapsulate the entire system under one video management system (VMS). The difference between the PCU from the CCTV example and the VMS is integration and interface—more software and less hardware. A PCU outputs video to traditional CRT analog monitors; the VMS can accomplish this on a computer desktop, laptop, or server because it’s already set up for digital feed. That includes any traditional CRT PC monitor or a widescreen HDTV LCD wall-mounted monitor. VMS speaks the language of digital, making integration with other digital systems more accessible.
The key factor in this convergence is the already existing Ethernet network that interlocks all the buildings on campus using highly efficient fiber optic cable and/or copper wire (Ethernet). The existing analog cameras, both fixed and PTZ, are plugged into a digital video encoder (using the existing coax for video and twisted-pair for PTZ), converting the analog signal into digital video that is capable of being transmitted through the existing computer network. New network switches are introduced to isolate the DVS system from Internet and intranet traffic, and these switches ride the fiber and/or copper between facilities through a virtual local area network (VLAN). VMS software is installed onto a new, dedicated VMS server, and the client software is installed on the select desktop computers and/or laptops, giving secured access into this new DVS network.
Video management system software and physical security interface system software also offer dynamic mapping interfaces with GPS coordinates of mobile phone, integration with access control, gunshot detection, perimeter intrusion, and facial and license plate recognition. The POTS telephones and twisted-pair lines are replaced by a new VoIP teleconferencing system, which, being on the same Ethernet network, can now deliver event messaging and alarms to the telephone LCD screens, both landlines and mobile phones. The video surveillance system is now smarter, having been transformed to a new pair of sharper glasses.
This is digital video security.
FIGURE 1.3 The typical CCTV topology, converted to DVS.
Physical Security
An important point to remember is that DVS does not replace your alarm system, keys, deadbolts, encryption, or unique login authentication. It enhances it by giving you the ability to physically see what’s happening from anywhere online into a single interface. Recording 30 days of video of your property is pointless if someone can break in and steal or damage your hardware or reach up and cut the video cables (see Figure 1.4).
General physical security rules still apply. Never underestimate the need to protect your new DVS investment with alarm systems, environmental benefits, and even conduit to protect those cables from exposure to the elements or wire cutters. Fiber optics are the most vulnerable because, unlike copper wire, they can actually break like glass.
Anyone who has designed and implemented security cameras or systems will tell you that there is no such thing as 100% security