A look at video: how consumer electronics are influencing video surveillance.
Every January, the Consumer Electronics Show, one of the largest electronics shows in the world, takes place in Las Vegas.
Five years ago, manufacturers presented visitors with innovations such as a megapixel camera, next-generation DVD players using the latest H.264 compression technology, large flat-screen TVs and monitors, and new wireless technologies with improved throughput.
Fast forward to 2008 and security vendors ISC West and ASIS are showing off megapixel cameras, H.264 compression, higher-bandwidth wireless technology, and huge flat-panel monitors.
In the 1970s, the military and government drove technological advances.
In the 1980s and 1990s, it was the manufacturing sector that drove them.
Today, the unimaginably large consumer electronics market is driving new technology.
This shift should come as no surprise, given that the Consumer Electronics Association reports that the global consumer electronics market has grown to $700 billion.
Video surveillance manufacturers (a $10 billion market) are realizing that it makes sense to take the innovations developed for consumers and repurpose them for security purposes.
Here are just a few of the consumer electronics trends that will be used in video surveillance in the coming year.
HDTV: Images Are Getting Bigger and Better
With the switchover to digital television by February 2009, CRT televisions with a resolution of 480×720 will become history in electronics.
HDTV technology with resolutions improved to 1920×1080, guaranteed 30 frames per second, exceptionally sharp images and vivid colors and flat screens is advancing at an amazing rate.
This in turn reduces costs and makes products more affordable to the masses.
The success of HDTV will also spread to the CCTV market in 2009, as the 16:9 aspect ratio is ideal for large flat-panel monitors.
In addition, high resolution provides clear images, which is especially important for real-time surveillance, and the stored data serves as excellent evidence in criminal investigations.
In just a few years, 1920×1080 resolution could easily become the standard resolution in most CCTV cameras.
H.264 Compression: Reduce Storage or Increase Frame Rate.
The issue of competing compression standards began to «gather dust.»
MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (and all their versions), and H.263 each had their merits, so the plethora of incompatible compression standards created confusion among consumers.
The competing factions finally joined forces in the 1990s to come up with a single, comprehensive standard that would provide the best compression without compromising image quality.
The result was H.264 (also called MPEG-4 Part 10 or MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding), which was ratified in 2003.
The product has seen widespread adoption, and today numerous consumer electronics products use the H.264 standard — from Quick Time players in computers and Blu-Ray discs in home video systems to the iPhone in your pocket.
Because H.264 was the product of collaboration between telecom and IT standards organizations, the technology has the pedigree to become a de facto open, licensed standard for video compression.
In the past year, several manufacturers in the security market have released products that support the new compression, and they've been met with immediate success because the technology gives users choice.
They can either use H.264 compression to reduce storage costs and thus reduce overall system costs by 10 percent or more, or they can maintain the same cost by doubling the frame rate or image resolution.
In the coming year, expect to see more high-resolution video cameras taking advantage of this superior compression technology.
Wireless: Cell Phone Surveillance
Wi-Fi is now everywhere: on the street corner, in the neighborhood coffee shop, in the airport terminal, even on commuter buses and trains.
As part of the rollout of the 802.11 standard, many public venues are providing laptop users with 50 Mbps of bandwidth.
Even cellular is improving its bandwidth from the 9.6 kilobits it was originally designed for to the more common 0.5 — 5 Mbps of today.
Now manufacturers are discussing releasing next-generation (4G) bandwidths in the 10 to 100 Mbps range.
The video surveillance industry is already beginning to reap the benefits of wireless technology.
For example, mesh networks based on 802.11 technology make city center surveillance systems much more flexible and cost effective.
With the advent of large-screen, 3G-enabled smartphones — such as the Apple iPhone — users can inexpensively monitor online video surveillance remotely from anywhere.
Storage devices: plentiful and inexpensive.
Our appetite for storage is growing bigger and bigger.
Every year, our PowerPoint presentations become larger and more complex.
We continue to store ever-increasing numbers of photos, music, and video files on our home computers.
Hard drive manufacturers, hearing our call for more space, continue to double the size of hard drives while lowering prices.
Even flash drives have become attractive in price to consumers, given that they are not subject to breakdowns, as hard drives are, due to the lack of moving parts.
Customers are pushing video surveillance manufacturers to quickly catch up with the pace of development.
Most video surveillance systems today have a frame rate of 7.5 to 15 frames per second, with video saved every few days or weeks.
This option is due to system limitations and cost, and not to the customer's wishes.
If customer preference were the main thing, then the usual requirements would be 30 frames per second, HDTV resolution, and archiving video every few months.
Improving the efficiency of storage technology and reducing its cost, along with the H.264 compression standard, will soon give security agencies what they want.
Flash drives will be another advantageous component of this system, as they are a small, reliable recording solution.
When do customers and manufacturers need different things?
Not everything that is good for the consumer works in the video surveillance industry.
For example, today's basic digital cameras have a resolution of 10 to 20 megapixels.
This high resolution is convenient when you are taking a single photo or up to at least 6 frames per second on a professional camera.
But in the video surveillance industry, where situations often require recording up to 30 frames per second, high-resolution image sensors cannot be used.
Only cameras with HDTV technology (maximum 2 megapixels) can guarantee 30 frames per second. If you choose a higher resolution, you will have to sacrifice frame rate.
In search of the next big thing.
Manufacturers continue to push technology to satisfy our endless thirst for better — smarter cell phones, computers, televisions, video, games and other as-yet-imagined electronic devices.
With video and audio now accounting for 90 percent of network traffic, we can expect many innovations in this area that will inevitably benefit security and surveillance.
So how soon can we expect to be able to watch live video from anywhere in the world through our wristwatches?
While it is difficult to predict what the next big breakthrough in consumer electronics will be, we can be sure that it will impact the security and surveillance market.