When it comes to video surveillance systems, security professionals are most focused on maintaining quality at the right cost, simplifying management, and improving reliability. These findings – from a Razberi Technologies survey of more than 100 security systems integrators and enterprise security leaders – highlight the challenges of cost effectively capturing high quality video without making risky trade-offs that can result in lost video.
Use of networked cameras
Given the convergence of physical security on IP networks, the survey respondents also expressed early concerns about cybersecurity threats. Recent denial of service attacks have used networked cameras as an entry point.
“As the number of networked video surveillance cameras increases, so does the strain on IP networks and physical security professionals. It’s difficult to ensure 24x7 operation of cameras and recording as well as harden systems against cyber-attacks,” said Tom Galvin, CEO of Razberi. “Many organisations are hauling megapixel video to centralised, general-purpose storage and servers not intended for video surveillance, which is costly and often requires sacrificing quality to save bandwidth.”
The majority of security professionals |
Main security considerations
The survey found the majority of security professionals are planning to install network cameras for video surveillance and security within the next year (85 percent). Their number one focus for network camera installations is reducing technology and network costs (57 percent). Other top considerations are reliability, quality, and maintenance:
- Improving reliability of video for incidents to lower risks of lost video (51 percent)
- Enabling the use of the highest quality megapixel cameras for surveillance with no resolution or frame rate trade-offs (48 percent). This dovetails with the 66 percent who said they have had to implement a separate network to offload surveillance video from a business IP network due to bandwidth or performance issues.
- Making ongoing management and maintenance easier and more automated (54 percent)
Cybersecurity vulnerabilities
One-third of respondents said that “addressing cybersecurity concerns” is a top consideration. They identified four top cybersecurity vulnerabilities:
- Failing to update to the latest software or firmware
- Weak passwords
- Need for better multi-departmental cooperation between IT and security
- Lack of best practices for routine maintenance
In terms of maintenance and reliability, 58 percent of survey respondents said their organisation receives proactive alerts when there are camera or video recording problems. However, 41 percent said they either do not receive alerts or don’t know if they do.
