#book on video surveillance
The Big Book on Video Surveillance.
The Russian-speaking community of security television professionals has finally found an industry «superbook».
Security Focus Publishing House has presented the domestic reader with the fundamental monograph by German Krugl «Professional Video Surveillance.
Practice and technology of analog and digital CCTV».
There is one global industry problem, which, judging by the mentions in Western specialized periodicals, remains a «sore spot» for many years.
It was discussed during the times of pre-crisis abundance, it continues to be highlighted in the era of a compressed, highly competitive market.
This problem is the general lack of competence of installers and integrators.
Note that this is in the West, where over the decades of the industry's existence, technological traditions and operational culture of technical protection systems have developed!
Why has the industry not yet been able to satisfy its need for competencies?
First of all, it is a matter of the «maturing» of IP systems.
Although network technologies have been used in video surveillance for quite some time, they are not as simple as they might seem at first glance to a person who is generally familiar with computing technology.
The frivolous euphoria that «nowadays computer scientists will do everything themselves» quickly passed.
Designing and deploying effective and reliable network video surveillance systems requires knowledge in several related areas and special skills that an ordinary system administrator cannot get.
Unfortunately, in Russia, this field of incompetence extends much wider.
We cannot boast of the general literacy of integration engineers, not only in matters of data protection and distribution of computing power, but even in calculating optics — lenses are often selected by eye.
And it would not seem that our installers do not know the laws of physics…
However, it must be admitted that the industry level of professionalism is quite accurately described by Pushkin's «we all learned a little, something and somehow.»
Certification in the field of technical security is not yet widespread in Russia.
It remains to study yourself, from books. And here the publishing house «Security Focus», which publishes the newspaper Security News, has prepared a huge, pleasant surprise for us. Huge, because the book by German Krugl «Professional Video Surveillance.
Practice and technology of analog and digital CCTV» — a treasure trove of unique professional knowledge in the volume of 640 pages of the format 28 x 21.5 cm.
The book is written in simple language and is aimed primarily at integrators and installers — both from the camp of «IT specialists» and from the camp of «security specialists».
Increasingly, the deployment of video surveillance systems has begun to be carried out by IT departments that have never worked with traditional video surveillance and have only vague ideas about it.
Well, a lot has been said about the difficulties of traditional security companies switching to network technologies.
On the other hand, this is a truly unprecedented book in its depth and completeness, which, despite its accessible presentation, can play the role of a specialized textbook for an intensive special course lasting a couple of semesters.
It presents in simple and clear language the aspects of optics, semiconductor electronics, telecommunications and network technologies necessary for understanding the operation of video surveillance systems.
Such a comprehensive, deep and popular approach made the publication accessible and interesting for the widest range of readers.
The quality criterion of a “university textbook” became the defining bar in the entire policy of the Security Focus publishing house in relation to Krugl’s book.
But the responsibility taken on gave the publisher some trouble.
How to solve the problem of terminology adequacy (given that the Russian industry glossary de facto simply does not exist) and eliminate the possibility of technical blunders in translation?
After all, the demand for a book is much greater than for news articles and even magazine articles.
The lifespan of a product is incomparably longer, and therefore the price of an error or even inaccuracy is much higher.
The publisher considered the only possible solution to this problem to be the involvement of a scientific editor.
It was Nikolai Yegorovich Uvarov, a candidate of technical sciences and a lecturer at the Department of Security Systems at MIPT.
The translation of the book deserves special mention.
This titanic work (more than 2 million characters) was completed single-handedly by Andrey Kolomytsev, editor of the Security News newspaper.
Many rightly consider Kolomytsev to be one of the best Russian authors in the security industry.
He also took on the duties of literary editor.
In the process of translation, he, by his own admission, could not do without compromises: in some places he removed obvious redundancy, added logical and semantic connections — in general, he strove to bring the result of his work to perfection.
He succeeded: the final text turned out to be very rich, very transparent and, most importantly, very understandable.
Reading the Russian translation of Krugl's book is not tiring, but, on the contrary, brings pleasure. However, let's give the floor to people who are directly related to the Russian edition of the book.
Anatoly Ermachenko, General Director of Security Focus Publishing House:
– This is the first edition of a book in Russia written by a real professional in the field of video surveillance — an expert consultant, practitioner and inventor.
The simple and understandable language of the author, maximally preserved in the translation, does not require special training.
The IP revolution, which is almost complete, has divided the security industry into two camps — «IT people» who came to this business from the computer industry, and traditional «security guards» whose careers were formed in the physical security industry.
In practice, it is not uncommon for such specialists to barely understand each other.
This book can become an invaluable source of knowledge for both sides and lead to complete mutual understanding for the sake of industry progress.
The end user will also find a lot of useful information on the pages of the publication – in particular, a set and justification of standard system solutions that can be used as a basis for planning.
Murat Altuyev, president of the ITV company – the general partner of the Russian edition of the book:
– The book can safely be called unique.
Until now, such fundamental works on the theory and practice of video surveillance have practically not been published in Russian.
This work combines a reference book, a textbook and a practical guide to creating solutions, covering the subject area as widely as possible — from video cameras and compression algorithms to video analytics and principles of creating monitoring centers.
The book consistently leads the reader from basic concepts to a description of the latest innovations in security television, so it will be useful for both people just starting to learn the basics of the profession and for established IT specialists mastering this industry.
I would like to separately note the presence of a section devoted to network video surveillance technologies, which, in light of the latest market trends, will be especially in demand.
Nikolay Uvarov, scientific editor of the publication:
– Krugl's book is academic, detailed, free of fiction and at the same time relatively easy to read.
This is a workbook for a security professional, which will be useful for broadening your horizons, searching for technical solutions, defending a project to a customer, and, of course, as a reference.
In principle, theoretical knowledge in the volume of a high school program is quite sufficient to master the material — a very positive feature of this publication.
The book provides a wealth of practical material on the hardware of security television systems, as well as advice on installing, adjusting and operating technical equipment.
The prospects for development in many areas of applied television are also disclosed in detail.
Ekaterina Guryanova, director of the company «Security Technologies», owner of the TZ magazine — a partner of the Russian edition of the book:
— I have known the Security Focus team for many years and never tire of admiring the quality and depth of the materials published in the newspaper and on the secnews.ru portal.
As a magazine publisher, I have someone to look up to.
This is always useful and relevant information for the professional community.
It is very important these days not only to get information from within your own country, but also to notice everything new, interesting, and high-tech that the global professional community offers us.
The Security Focus team keeps its finger on the information pulse of this community.
Roman Streltsov, CEO of Navikom, a partner in the Russian edition of the book:
– Until now, there has been no truly large, basic work in Russian that could become a textbook on CCTV.
The need to have at least one “superbook” that is technically verified and describes the subject in detail is exacerbated by the explosive development of digital network technologies.
It is strange, but with the seeming abundance of relevant information, the inertia of users leads to a new wave of information hunger.
And here, qualified guides, pilots in the ocean of information, are especially needed. The book by Herman Krugl is undoubtedly capable of fulfilling this task.
The book «Professional Video Surveillance» by Herman Krugl headed the new series «Encyclopedia of Security».
Security Focus publishing house has big plans: this year and next year, 4 more books on various areas of physical security will be published.