It's IP All the Time, Every Time
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- Oct 01, 2011
In September, I traveled to Copenhagen to participate in
Milestone Systems’ Integrated Platform Symposium. I’ve
been fortunate to participate in previous forums in the United
States, and this event was a continuation of Milestone’s sharing
a knowledge base with integrators, dealers and some end
users. Such events allow journalists to get a rare peek at
activity behind the scenes.
Part of my duties at this event was to speak on the 15th anniversary
of the IP camera. As a matter of note, this year also is
the 15th anniversary of Security Products magazine, the parent
vehicle that delivers Network-Centric Security every other month.
The security world has been a fascinating journey for our
team, and especially for me.
When we started this expedition 15 years ago, it was under the
direction of a talented visionary, Craig Stevens, who had spent a
lifetime in the publishing industry and who had the vision for a
product tabloid in the security industry. I think there were many
who thought it wouldn’t last. They didn’t know or understand
Stevens’ passion for publications.
Stevens started with a pretty raw group of talented people,
who gave the publication all they had in desire and willingness
to succeed. After a few years, it became apparent that a change
from youth to experience was necessary. Security Products
surged and grew, and today we have a companion in Network-
Centric Security, which addresses the activity of the IP camera
revolution, the IP network and how end users benefit from this
state-of-the-art technology.
“Just as major technological shifts have impacted the music
and telecommunications industries and the corporate setting, a
major shift is now also happening in the physical security and
video surveillance markets,” writes Fredrik Nilsson in his book
Intelligent Network Video. Nilsson is the general manager of
the Americas for Axis Communications. “Video surveillance
emerged as a viable market about 30 years ago, and the technology
has matured year after year. The introduction of the DVR in
the mid-1990s started to clear a path for a digital solution, but it
was really a replacement for the VCR and multiplexer.”
The DVR was a major player in the industry, but it was an
evolution in technology, not a revolution.
In 1996, the world’s first network camera was introduced. It
was the Axis 200, which could send a low-resolution image at one
frame per second. By today’s standards it’s antiquated, but this
camera was poised to take over the video surveillance market and
remote monitoring. Though the camera wasn’t built for security
applications, we can get a better glimpse of the security world
today and tomorrow by looking back at its evolution.
Martin Gren and Mikael Karlsson saw the potential for the IP
camera early. Their work, as well as their vision, continues today.
While the Swedish men improved upon their first venture in the
IP camera world, a few miles to the east in Denmark, Henrik
Friborg and John Blem saw that their experience in developing IP
technology for real-time data systems in the European financial
sector also could be applied to handling video images.
At the time, digital video technology was not part of the security
surveillance industry. Like their Swedish counterparts at Axis
Communications, the Danish company Milestone had to overcome plenty of skepticism. As is generally the case, people didn’t
recognize the vision of such industry revolutionaries.
As was the case with Security Products magazine and Network-
Centric Security, those who doubted were in for a big surprise.
Now, 15 years later, that surprise is the strong demand for
IP video in the surveillance market. Milestone and Axis set up
their business plans with international scope so they could reach
customers in distant markets effectively. Cameras and software
were sold through regional and local partners who believed in
the dream.
The dream has become reality, and reaching distant lands
has become part of the daily routine. Earlier this year, Milestone
reached out to its customers in Asia by holding an MIPS seminar
in Thailand. The company has held the same symposium for
years in the United States, as well as in Europe.
The dream also has become essential. Again, quoting from
Nilsson’s book:
“One of the benefits of an IP-based video surveillance system
is the ability to scale. Although a 50-camera system was considered
large back in the 1990s, it is small compared to what an IPbased
system enables.”
The fact is, an IP-based system will work plenty well for thousands
or even tens of thousands of cameras on an integrated
system. London, well known for the Beatles and Buckingham
Palace, also is well known for having more than 2 million analog
cameras lining its streets, and this is where video management
systems come into play. VMSs—and even cameras—can monitor
and alert an operator on certain types of events, including when
a camera has been tampered with or if someone has entered the
subway or track.
The intelligent video market, though young, is growing and
will be a key driver in the marketplace for years to come. It is scalable
and is critical in the success of the network camera. One of
the greatest benefits of a network camera is that once images are
captured, they are digitized inside the camera and remain as such
throughout the system.
This provides consistent high image quality and makes a powerful
companion to network video because it gives users the ability
to monitor and record video, as well as audio, from an IP
network. In a network video application, digitized video and audio
streams are sent over wired and wireless IP networks, which
enables video monitoring and recording from anywhere on the
network.
The IP revolution has been an incredible ride so far. I’m looking
forward to the next 15 years, if for nothing else, to see where
the technology goes.
I’m not sure what my friend Craig Stevens, now retired, is up
to, but I bet he would be just as amazed as I am at the prosperity
of the security industry, Network-Centric Security and Security
Products magazine.
This article originally appeared in the October 2011 issue of Network-Centric Security.
About the Author
Ralph C. Jensen is editor-in-chief of Security Products magazine.