Let the Games Begin
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- Apr 01, 2010
I’ve been waiting for the IP revolution to take shape as much as I’ve
been looking forward to getting snow in Dallas. When it snows in
North Texas, the city comes to a standstill, and the story monopolizes
the evening news. I experienced the same kind of excitement
and flurry of activity at the Milestone Integrated Platform Symposium.
After attending the MIPS in Hollywood, Calif., in February, I
can heartily report that IP integration is well under way. Known
as the open-platform company, Milestone has been preaching
this message for years.
Martin Gren, the founder of Axis Communication, offered
a commentary that brought the thinking full circle and into the
spotlight.
“Beginning in 2001, the shift to digital began; this is when
analog started falling off,” Gren said. “Axis continues to spend 15
percent of its revenue on research and development. We’ve experienced
growth and continue to see network growth by as much
as 40 percent per year. In 2009, we saw IP grow at a rate of 15
percent while analog fell by 15 percent.”
Technology has been a key contributing factor to the growth
and sustainability of Axis Communications. Ever since the company
adopted H.264 video compression, it has become known as
a pioneer in the field of video compression. According to Gren,
bandwidth issues no longer plague the security industry, which
has helped Axis in recent years. Other factors that led to the company’s
growth include the new thermal imaging camera offerings
and its commitment to green technology.
Gren said the functionality of IP cameras will continue to
increase. We’re already seeing that on the technology side with
analytics being installed on the camera or at the edge and with
storage devices being placed in the camera.
Technology also means standards, a topic that is quickly becoming
part of the IP revolution. Lars Thinggard, president and
CEO of Milestone, opened the symposium by stating the company
welcomes standards and is playing a key role in establishing
well-defined protocols in the IP security networking world. After
a tough economic year, Thinggard also projected that the IP industry
as a whole could grow as much as 40 to 50 percent.
“Milestone has added 5,000 channel partners over the past
five years,” Thinggard said. “These people come from the analog
world; they are from Russia, Brazil, China and India. The IP network
has a strong background.”
Thinggard laid out a business plan that included several vertical
markets that will receive Milestone attention by 2014: commercial
security, transportation security and retail security. Milestone
also will focus more on manufacturing security operations.
Part of the company’s approach will be to defend small business
growth, help mid-sized companies achieve their growth goals
and continue its investment in protecting large business assets.
Thinggard also said that the video analytics movement is
here to stay, and the technology will likely be at the edge of
security solutions.
Vertical markets are making the difference in the IP networking
world. During the Milestone event, two case studies were
shared with attendees. Barbara O’Conner, director of public
safety and chief of police at the University of Illinois, detailed
how the university is charging forward with IP cameras and support
technology.
“University administrators have no concept of security and
what should be done,” O’Conner said. “It’s my job as chief of
police to educate and inform the chancellors and others about
security systems. It’s critical to bring campus IT on board as part
of the team.”
In the transportation vertical, Steve Miller, an intelligent traffic
system project manager for the Harris County, Texas, Toll
Road Authority, said his team is replacing analog cameras with
IP video and adding bandwidth to the network at each toll plaza.
IP cameras also are being added in the toll booths to monitor the
flow of money.
I was surprised to learn that the conversion to IP is happening
much differently than I had originally thought. And I’m not the
only one who feels that way.
“In 2003, we thought the IP conversion would go one way,
but the way this conversion is happening is completely different
than the way any of us predicted,” said Geoff Anderson, marketing
and brand manager of the physical security division of JVC
Professional Products Co. “It’s happening on its own. Originally,
we calculated the analog versus digital conversion would happen
based on cameras, not on people getting access through the Internet
to video surveillance. We didn’t realize the DVR would be
a major player in the convergence process.”
The IT/IP-savvy employees are making all the difference in the
true convergence and through distribution channels. Distributors
of security products are seeing the revolution get underway and
are gearing up to meet its challenges and needs.
“We think IP is a major opportunity for us this year,” said
James Rothstein, senior vice president of Tri-Ed Distribution.
“We have a three-legged approach, which is a tenor of excellence
in Dallas, where we have IP specialists and a lab set up with all the
key solutions. We have a national training initiative to train 1,000
dealers across North America. And, finally, we have IP champions
in each of our branches to help dealers and guide them to our
IP solutions to get deeper solutions laid out for them.”
Distribution will play a key role in getting the IP message out,
but moving products and solutions to the end user will be a different
story. In the future, a distributor will need more people
in place who have expertise about IP solutions. Clearly, the big difference in IP from a distribution point of view is solutions,
not boxes on the shelf. From the distribution side of things, it’s
people with the expertise that round out the solution. Rothstein
said that’s why Tri-Ed’s approach is “to redefine IP and the infinite
possibilities.”
The economy also plays a key role, even in the security market,
where growth continues at a slower-than-expected pace.
“The strength behind the economy in our industry right now
is IP because people want to invest in a forward trend,” said Steve
Fisher, president and CEO of Open Options. “People are suffering
from a budgetary standpoint, but what money is available is
being invested in forward-trend technology, such as IP video and
IP access control.”
Fisher said Open Options is already moving quickly in the IP
market, educating potential customers to stay a step ahead of
their expectations.
“We see strength in this market, and all of our growth last year
was in IP-centric applications and solutions that we brought to
the market,” he said. “Partnering with Milestone, we leverage our
advantage in this sector with an excellent toolset. The product we
put out there is a leading-edge product.”
Partnerships are the critical mass and synergy that leverage
success in the IP video world. Alex Bratton, CEO of Lextech
Labs, said convergence is assisted by unlocking video from the
back room.
“Video has historically been stuck in the back room with
an advanced IT or security user who has been able to find
forensic data but is really focused on what happened yesterday,”
Bratton said.
Unlocking that video allows the other 99 percent of the organization
to view and understand their needs from a security or
operational video perspective. This was not possible before the
IP revolution, and moving that kind of data around securely was
simply unheard of. The IT security side has become more sophisticated,
which is critical. Locking the network down and making
it more accessible to the right people has been the lynchpin of
success on the network fabric. The right applications make all
the difference.
At Milestone’s symposium, I learned how critical partnerships
will continue to walk in stride with leading-edge technology.
Yes, the technology is pretty incredible, including Milestone’s
new release of XProtect Corporate 3.1. Its functionality as an
investigation and independent playback tool significantly increases
efficiency in security operations and investigations.
That’s what MIPS is all about: functionality, open access and
user-friendly solutions.
This article originally appeared in the April 2010 issue of Network-Centric Security.