Where IT Security and Physical Security Converge

August 2009

  • Analyze This: Despite previous overhype, video analytics beginning to play bigger part in overall security industry.
  • The Campus Connection:IP-based security centralizes campus surveillance.
  • At the Edge: Can non-IP megapixel fly?


Features

Analyze This

By Brent Dirks

Just like many organizations in these trying economic times, the Miami-Dade County public school system is trying to do more with less, even when it comes to security. And one school in the district, Northwestern Senior High School, is using technology that is beginning to percolate throughout the security industry -- video analytics -- to help make the campus safer.


The Campus Connection

By Carla Saavedra

Brigham Young University has long been an early adopter of new technology. In fact, it established the Technology Transfer Office to facilitate the transfer of university-developed technologies into the general marketplace by protecting any intellectual property with patents, copyrights and other licensing. So it is no surprise that the university started running its security system on an IP network in 1998, when many universities were still using VCRs as their primary recorder.


Departments

Can Non-IP Megapixel Fly?

By Steven Titch

A new standards group plans to publish in September a proposed signaling format for transmitting uncompressed high-definition video feeds over existing cabling or twisted-pair infrastructure. The HDcctv Alliance, created by four manufacturers that represent various segments of the chip-camera- DVR supply chain, intends to launch Version 1.0 of the HDcctv specification at the ASIS International Conference and Exhibits in Anaheim, Calif., according to Todd Rockoff, chairman of the alliance. The organization, which opened itself for formal membership in June, seeks to establish a signaling format akin to NTSC or PAL, but for high-definition video transmission.


Racing to the Edge

By Steve Fisher

While security has raced forward with IP video and digital video management, similar bursts are surfacing in the general access control market. Access control hardware first found its way onto IP networks in the early 1990s, but the movement toward any true functionality beyond the basic data gathering panels running on networks is a more recent trend that poses a certain degree of challenge and understanding.


Joining Forces

By Ralph C Jensen

Are you ready for some interoperability? The Open Network Video Interface Forum has released a test tool and conformance process, which would lead one to believe that the organization has strengthened its position as the leading standardization measure for network video products.