Sen dec2015

DECEMBER 2015 ISSUE 372

PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGIES OF 2015 l IMPASSA & Alarm.com Review l Geutebruck CCTV School l Dallmeier DF5200HD DN l Monitoring: State of Alarm l Panasonic VL-SWD501AZ Wireless Intercom l Martin Gren: Axis’ Founding Father l Naskam Makes Bold Move

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Security.

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From video surveillance and license plate recognition to access control and intrusion detection, Security Center unifies the security systems that are critical to your operations. So you can see the big picture and make better security decisions – both today, and tomorrow.

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For a free demonstration visit your local branch today. Call 1800 685 487 or visitSurveillance hills.com.au/branches find your nearest Video | Access Control |toAutomatic Number Plate branch.

Recognition Š 2015 Genetec. All rights reserved. Genetec, and the Genetec logo are either registered trademarks or T R U Sof T ED T CH NOLO G Y herein are the property of their respective owners. trademarks Genetec.

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editorial S EC U RI TY E L E CT RO N I C S & NETWO R KS D E C E MB E R 201 5 ISSUE 372

THE SHAPE OF THE FUTURE

E

LECTRONIC security has always been about finding a balance between dichotomous needs; hair trigger sensitivity, yet reliability; easy access, yet high security; low light performance yet wide dynamic range; high resolution, yet low bit rate; low price, yet high quality; ease of installation, yet powerful integration.

Looking back over 2015, it’s possible to see the tension imposed by these improbable bedfellows, to see the ways in which the laws of physics and the forces of the market end up shaping our solutions, rough hew them how we will.

Alongside these conflicting demands, however, it’s also possible to see the shape of a future beginning to emerge. It’s a powerful future.

Integration, which has been a buzzword for many years, is becoming the key operational functionality end users demand. And as digitisation beds down, integration is becoming more accessible. The siloed nature of past solutions, which saw a cluster of subsystems installed on multiple workstations, no longer reflects the intuitive way in which users want to drive their electronic security solutions.

This is an important development. Bringing together CCTV, access control, intrusion detection, intercom, lift control, fire control and multiple sub systems like lighting, HVAC, PA and process control gives security managers and their staff real situational awareness.

Integration offers layers of value. It makes good

By John Adams

Integration means that all the raw power of the latest sensor and camera technologies can be harnessed and put to work.

decisions much faster, empowers clever procedures, and when applied at the enterprise level, introduces economies of scale, while allowing users to cover more ground with fewer staff.

Integration that leverages electronics security technology to empower procedures is the key to this and more and more, we see products and solutions that offer operational benefits. For the longest time, incidents encoded into thousands of image streams and events in the outpourings of thousands of access control doors and thousands of alarm inputs, have been swept away, tumbled in a river of data to the ocean of written-over-after-30-days. The flecks of operational gold they contain have been lost to users, and doubly lost to providers seeking to justify their systems’ expense.

Integration offers another way. Events are now being combined by clever software and presented to operators and managers in multiple parts of a business, to act upon and to learn from. Integration means that all the raw power of the latest

sensor and camera technologies can be harnessed and put to work.

Electronic security is the pillar around which a new and holistic kind of integrated solution is being created – smart homes, smart buildings, smart cities.

It’s the signs of ubiquity in integration that are most inspiring.

Not only do we see high end integrations of consummate power, we are seeing integration in security monitoring centres, in intrusion and access control systems, in video surveillance systems, in alarm and automation solutions. It’s driven by server software, by web browsers, by mobile apps, permeating the industry’s sense of self, inspiring installations and motivating ever more lateral applications. In a very real sense, integration is a journey we all must make to find our technology’s absolute expression of possibility and our industry’s absolute expression of necessity. wzzz

SECTECH 2016 HITS THE ROAD l MORE than other industries, the electronic security industry is a close knit group bound in part by the integration of a multiplicity of technologies and an unspoken charter of protection. It’s an industry of relationships, local knowledge and trust. Reflecting this spirit of camaraderie and alliance, and a hunger for operational excellence delivered by technological brilliance, SecTech 2016 again takes Australia’s leading manufacturers

and distributors on a national tour through 5 state capitals in May next year.

As well as seeing the latest security technologies, including alarm systems, perimeter detection, access control and video surveillance technologies in a convenient venue in the capital city of their home state, without the expense of interstate travel, installers, integrators, consultants and end users will see SecTech’s expanded Camera Shootout.

se&n 03

THE

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INDUSTRY NEWS IN 20 YEARS! SECURITY MERCHANTS ARE NOW DISTRIBUTING INTERLOGIX

EXPANDING CHANNEL TO MARKET. Security Merchants Australia are excited to offer Tecom®, TruVision®, Aritech®, ITI™ and IFS™ into the Australian market.

Committed to delivering best-in-class security products to security channel markets, one of the world’s largest

and most recognised security solution providers, Interlogix, has partnered with Security Merchants Australia. The Security Merchants value proposition complements the Interlogix portfolio well.

SMA holds a strong position in the market for specification, technical support and

delivering the best customer service experience in the industry.

From the 23rd of November 2015, Tecom®, TruVision®, Aritech®, ITI™ (formerly Sentrol) and IFS™ products will be distributed by Security Merchants Australia.

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56

58 46: PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGIES OF 2015

DEC 15 24: IMPASSA & ALARM.COM IN this review we upgrade an existing DSC IMPASSA alarm and automation panel with an Alarm.com compatible controller, cameras and sensors, connect with the Alarm.com cloud service and spend some time living with a cloud-based security and automation solution.

22: GEUTEBRUCK CCTV SCHOOL

What were the most influential products and technologies of 2015? It’s always difficult to find a balance between the solutions that catch the market’s momentary attention and those solutions that go on to have a serious impact on the way we conduct our business.

56: PANASONIC VL-SWD501AZ WIRELESS VIDEO INTERCOM Panasonic has released a new video intercom system that allows homeowners to monitor visitors and control doors and gates via the LCD screen of a portable DECT wireless handset in colour at high resolutions, as well as through a monitor station.

Geutebruck re_porter, GeViScope and GeViStore video management systems combined with 4300 analogue and IP cameras are protecting 52 schools in Sarasota County.

At each school and in the central control center, SpeedView stations allow operators to access all live streams and recorded images.

64: FOUNDING FATHER

36: DALLMEIER DF5200HD DN

68: NASKAM MAKES BOLD MOVE

Dallmeier’s DF5200HD DN is a full body 2MP IP camera featuring a ½-inch CMOS sensor and up to 120ips frame rate. This PoE camera has a motorised 4.5-10mm varifocal lens, and a claimed minimum scene illumination number of 0.002 lux.

IP camera pioneer Axis Communications’ Martin Gren talks about developing the world’s first IP camera, the nature of core IP camera performance, and the present and future of video surveillance technology.

Rapid penetration by telcos and huge ISPs into the security and automation markets with low cost hardware and bundled alarm monitoring services is presenting monitoring companies with an uncertain future. How they respond will be the key.

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78

68

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74: HOT COMPRESS Video compression – it’s all the same thing, right? Wrong. Trouble is, H.264 is a tool box of a standard, not a fixed specification.

Manufacturers’ interpretations of the encoding options H.264 offers are subject to enormous variation and users misinterpret these at their peril.

DECEMBER 2015 ISSUE 372

PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGIES OF 2015 l IMPASSA & Alarm.com Review l Geutebruck CCTV School l Dallmeier DF5200HD DN l Monitoring: State of Alarm l Panasonic VL-SWD501AZ Wireless Intercom l Martin Gren: Axis’ Founding Father l Naskam Makes Bold Move

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10: NEWS

SEM1215_1cover.indd 1

Publisher Bridge Publishing Aust. Pty Ltd ABN 11 083 704 858 PO Box 237 Darlinghurst NSW 1300 tel 61 2 9280 4425 fax 61 2 9280 4428 email info@bridge publishing.com.au

26/11/2015 3:17 pm

Latest business, product and technical news from Australia and around the world.

58: MONITORING The elephant in the room when it comes to the alarm monitoring business is selfmonitoring of security and automation systems by end users. The future of the industry depends on giving users management of systems while retaining monitoring of alarm events.

78: EDITOR’S CHOICE What’s new from our manufacturers.

80: HELPDESK Our team of electronic security experts answers your tough technical questions.

Editor John Adams Advertising Manager Monique Keatinge Customer Service Annette Mathews tel 61 2 9280 4425 annette@bridge publishing.com.au Design Tania Simanowsky e: taniasdesign@ optusnet.com.au Subscriptions 11 issues per annum One year (11 issues)

Australia 12 months $A104.50 (incl GST) 24 months $A188.00 (incl GST) Overseas 12 months $A155.00 (incl GST) 24 months $A270.00 (incl GST) WEBSITE www.securityelectronics andnetworks.com No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form in whole or part without prior written permission of Bridge Publishing.

National Security Network One Stop Shop p.14 BGWT Opens New Queensland Branch p.16 DVTEL Signs QSS as Primary Distributor, Australia p.18 RACV Focuses on Domestic Video Surveillance p.20

NEWS IN BRIEF DECEMBER 2015

NEW TRAINING PARTNERSHIP FOR BOSCH

COMPILED BY JOHN ADAMS

Kristian Speers (l) with Martin Dillon

SECURITY MERCHANTS DISTRIBUTING INTERLOGIX RANGE

■

INTERLOGIX products including Tecom, TruVision, Aritech, ITI (formerly Sentrol) and IFS products will be distributed by Security Merchants Australia from November 23.

Kristian Speers, Security Merchants’ general manager, welcomed the addition of the Interlogix portfolio to the SMA offering, “SMA has grown exponentially in the last 2 years and our investments in staff infrastructure and innovative systems are clearly paying off,” Speers said. “Our focus on providing better customer experience will now be paired with one of the world’s leading integrated

intrusion and access control portfolio.

“The Security Merchants’ value proposition complements the Interlogix portfolio well. SMA holds a strong position in the market for specification and technical support, delivering the best customer service experience in the industry.”

Martin Dillon, general manager of Interlogix in Australia and New Zealand, agrees.

“Interlogix is excited about the addition of SMA to our channel as a focused and successful distributor,” said Dillon. “SMA’s customer focus and approach are a perfect match for our innovative products.”

CSD MOVING TO 3400SQM FLAGSHIP HQ IN TULLAMARINE n CSD is planning to relocate its Melbourne Head Office to a new 3400sqm Flagship premises in Tullamarine.

The new HQ will include an industry leading product demonstration and showroom facility which will provide a professional space to demonstrate CSD’s products to integrators, consultants and end users. CSD’s integrators will be able to pre-book demonstration rooms to

12 se&n

deliver high quality product demonstrations to their customers in a modern professional environment.

The facility will also double the storage space of CSD’s central warehouse.

Planning is in place for the relocation to take place mid 2016 which will place an enormous strain on CSD’s resources and CSD has decided not to exhibit in the Security 2016 Exhibition. CSD will have a presence at the show with

CSD staff on the stands of its major vendors Inner Range, Mobotix, Avigilon and Hikvision. The Security Exhibition returns to Sydney in 2017 and CSD will have a major presence there.

According to CSD, the company has to ensure marketing budget adds value to its customers and the team believes this new facility in Melbourne will be a very practical resource that will help customers and suppliers.

BOSCH Security Systems has announced a new partnership with ASG Integracom, which delivers high end and relevant technical training to the telecommunications, MATV and electronic security industries. From February 2016, ASG Integracom (RTO 20749) will be providing national custom training courses on behalf of Bosch, including the popular Bosch Solution 2000/3000 alarm panel. A full course schedule and calendar will be released early in the new year.

ASG Integracom is one of the largest private training providers focused in the telecommunications and electronic security industry. It owns and operates dedicated training facilities nationally throughout Australia and maintains a close working relationship with ASIAL.

Mark Cunnington

NEWS DECEMBER 2015

NATIONAL SECURITY NETWORK ONE STOP SHOP

n NATIONAL Security Network (NSN) was launched earlier this year in recognition of a market appetite for a one-stop security solution in managing the security requirements of national companies. According to NSN, the challenge for such organisations has been

finding a security provider which can deliver consistent security services, including monitoring in each state.

NSN believed the solution was logical - engage a security company in each state, recognised as being an industry leader and with a reputation in providing high quality security

services; then bring these companies together on a formal basis with agreed SLA’s on how all NSN clients will be managed to ensure service consistency and cost effectiveness.

On this basis, the NSN was formed by 6 like-minded quality security companies: Securus (WA), Yates Security

(NSW), ART Security (Victoria), Instant Security (Queensland), AlarmNet (SA/ NT) and Golden Electronics (Tasmania). NSN provides an alternative to existing security arrangements and has 250 years of combined security experience. Each NSN member is recognised as being a leading provider in its respective states. The NSN members work closely together to uphold the collective NSN reputation for quality security services. All NSN members are ASIAL members, each operates a monitoring centre in its respective state and has in-house service and installation teams.

Clients can select a single point of contact for the management of all their security services nationally, including centralised billing, managed by their

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14 se&n

CLIENTS CAN SELECT A SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF ALL THEIR SECURITY SERVICES NATIONALLY, INCLUDING CENTRALISED BILLING, MANAGED BY THEIR NOMINATED NSN LEAD MEMBER.

nominated NSN lead member. Alternatively, services can be managed on a state basis, allowing direct local contact for all technical, service and monitoring support. All NSN services can be customised to individual state requirements and each NSN member has coverage into regional areas for their respective states.

NEWS

HILLS STRENGTHENS BROADBAND WIRELESS RANGE WITH RADWIN DISTRIBUTION

DECEMBER 2015

BGWT OPENS NEW QUEENSLAND BRANCH n BGW Technologies Qld has relocated to new premises at Northgate in Brisbane.

The move enhances BGWT’s ability to provide a comprehensive product range alongside value-added customer services.

“The move to Northgate has allowed us to double the size of our warehouse and workshop facility and we are now able to offer troublefree parking for visiting

customers,” said Paul Kirby, BGWT state manager, Qld. “The showroom was fitted out with all the latest and greatest Pelco and Panasonic CCTV products for our opening on Melbourne Cup day.

“Customers who attended were provided with product demonstrations on Pelco’s Digital Sentry, Video Xpert, Spectra HD Enhansed PTZ and Optera panamersive

cameras, as well as the new facial recognition system from Panasonic.

“BGWT carries a complete range of CCTV, intercom, access control and security products from a multitude of suppliers for all levels of requirement and specialise as security wholesaler for system integrators and trade customers. We provide genuine customer service, based on thorough

understanding of the needs of installers’ customers.

“Our highly skilled and experienced technical people design tailored solutions that combine the right products with the value services to ensure a cost effective and successfully deployed security system,” Kirby said.

The new BGWT branch is at Unit 5, 116 Crockford Street at Northgate in Brisbane.

PANASONIC APPOINTS DANIEL SULTANA NATIONAL MANAGER – SECURITY SYSTEMS

Daniel Sultana

16 se&n

n PANASONIC has announced the appointment of Daniel Sultana as national manager – security systems.

Daniel will work to further build brand awareness of Panasonic’s growing suite of Security solutions, which now offers so much more than simple video surveillance and includes complete business solutions covering face recognition, 4K recording systems, marketing analytics and mobile surveillance.

“I’m looking forward to working closely with our security integrators and distributors to deliver end to end solutions to our customers,” Sultana said. “Panasonic recently introduced a partner program for our integrators, who are a vital part of our channel, and

I’m keen to ensure that our partners are fully supported with the highest level of technical sales training and resources they need.”

Sultana has more than 15 years’ experience in senior marketing and sales roles in the security, IT and industrial sectors. Most recently he was major account director Asia Pacific at Anixter, a leading global distributor of security, communications and wire and cable products.

“Our latest security solutions offer great business opportunities to our partners and provide strong ROI for our customers,” said Jason Coleman, business systems director and country head.

“Daniel has a key role in communicating these advantages to the local market.”

HILLS has signed a new agreement with RADWIN, a global provider of sub-6 GHz broadband wireless solutions, to promote RADWIN’s wireless broadband portfolio into Australia and New Zealand.

Hills will offer RADWIN’s extensive portfolio of wireless point-to-point, point-to-multipoint and Fiber in Motion wireless mobility solutions to its significant customer base of service providers, enterprises, utilities and public safety entities.

“This partnership leverages RADWIN’s industry-leading wireless broadband technology and Hills’ established market presence,” said Daniel Lee, head of practice at Hills.

“RADWIN’s carriergrade solutions deliver an excellent combination of high-capacity connectivity and robust performance in tough outdoor and non-lineof-sight conditions.

This partnership is in line with Hills commitment to deliver winning technology brands to our customer base.”

Joshua Mony, RADWIN general manager, South East Asia and Oceania said RADWIN was excited about the partnership with Hills.

“This partnership gives us the opportunity to amplify our reach across the Australian and New Zealand markets, where demand for wireless broadband technology is growing at a breakneck pace,” he said.

Daniel Lee

NEWS DECEMBER 2015

DVTEL SIGNS QSS AS PRIMARY DISTRIBUTOR, AUSTRALIA

n DVTEL has announced that Q Security Systems (QSS) will become the primary distributor for Latitude, edge devices and DVTEL ioi Analytics solution range in Australia.

DVTEL and QSS initially

18 se&n

formed a business partnership in January 2014. Impressed by QSS’ commitment, indefatigable work ethic, and excellent customer service, DVTEL moved to make QSS its primary partner in the area.

“At DVTEL, we believe that providing exceptional support to our customers is paramount to offering the best video technologies on the market,” said Yoav Stern, CEO of DVTEL. “The reason we chose to

collaborate with QSS is because they have a clear understanding of our business and our people.

We know that they will make a great partner and play an instrumental role in helping us achieve our goals in the Australia and New Zealand regions moving forward. QSS’ corporate culture related to an uncompromised commitment to an end-toend customer support, fits DVTEL’s modus operandi.”

Prior to QSS, DVTEL worked with Hills Ltd. Serving as DVTEL’s main distributor for the last decade, Hills provided great support to DVTEL, which deeply appreciates the many years of friendship and business partnership.

DVTEL says its customers in the Australia and New Zealand regions will

THE REASON WE CHOSE TO COLLABORATE WITH QSS IS BECAUSE THEY HAVE A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF OUR BUSINESS AND OUR PEOPLE. WE KNOW THAT THEY WILL MAKE A GREAT PARTNER AND PLAY AN INSTRUMENTAL ROLE IN HELPING US ACHIEVE OUR GOALS IN THE AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND REGIONS

continue to enjoy access to the video solution provider’s product line with QSS at the helm. All existing accounts, projects, stock requirements, services, warranties and support have seamlessly transitioned from Hills to QSS.

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CARDS SIFER Mifare / DESfire EV1 credentials include a flexible range of ISO cards and Fobs consisting of: • Pre-Programmed ready-to-use stock credentials • User-Programmable credentials using the SIFER Card Programming station • Custom Programmed credentials programmed to order by the Inner Range factory

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NEWS

HILLS CONTINUES TO BOLSTERS INTERNAL CAPABILITIES

DECEMBER 2015

ALARM MONITORING WORTH $US54.46 BILLION BY 2020 n A NEW market research report expects the global alarm monitoring market to reach $US54.46 billion by 2020 at a CAGR of 6.73 per cent between 2015 and 2020.

The research report, Alarm Monitoring Market

by Communication Technologies, End Users Component and Geography — Global forecast by 2020,

segments the global alarm monitoring market on the basis of communication technology, input signal, end users, components and geography.

The market is segmented based on communication technology into wired telecommunication, wireless cellular, wireless radio technology and IP. In terms of end users, the

market is segmented into equipment monitoring, vehicle monitoring, environment monitoring and building alarms monitoring.

Wired telecommunication networks communication technology is expected to be the dominating technology during the forecast period, followed by IP networks, which is presumed to grow

the fastest because of the high demand for wireless and safe communication.

Among the end users, building alarm monitoring is predicted to be the largest sector, among which alarm monitoring in the residential buildings is expected to be the dominant sector, because of the demand for home automation and rising crime rates.

RACV FOCUSES ON DOMESTIC VIDEO SURVEILLANCE

Aaron Flavell

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nROYAL Automobile Club of Victoria has sought expressions of interest from suitably experienced CCTV equipment suppliers for the provision of domestic CCTV security for its customers in Victoria.

Suppliers needed to have substantial proven Australian experience in the residential CCTV equipment market and the capability to service the greater Melbourne Metropolitan area and major Regional centres of Victoria.

The Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) is a motoring club and mutual organisation, providing services such as roadside assistance, vehicle, home and contents insurance,

personal and car loans, driving instruction, tourism services and home security products.

RACV has 2 million members, monitors 8000 security systems and 50,000 medical alarms.

The organisation has 2623 staff and an annual budget in excess of $A443 million.

At Security 2015 in Melbourne this year, RACV’s general manager Home Services Aaron Flavell said RACV was particularly interested in combining alarm monitoring with CCTV capabilities. “…Intrusion alarms, automation and video surveillance capabilities, give our members an attractive solution,” Flavell said.

AFTER welcoming Phillip Brewer and Matthew Bailey to the Hills team earlier this year, 2 seasoned professionals from Bosch Security, Hills David Lenz says the company has continued to strengthen its workforce with a number of new key appointments.

“Darren Semmens re-joins Hills as vendor business manager and will play a pivotal role in strengthening our security product portfolio,” explains Lenz. “Darren has a strong technical background in product development along with vendor management after spending 11 years with DAS as a national product manager.

Darren has a proven track record within the security industry and will be a great asset to the team.

“Alan Cooke joins Hills as group inventory manager as part of its drive to continuously improve our supply chain operational performance,” Lenz says. “Alan’s key objectives will be to improve our inventory integrity and control processes, while optimising total value of stock within our ANZ network. He has a strong track record as a senior leader in this specialised area of supply chain and his most recent role was national inventory manager at Ingram Micro.”

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CAS E ST U DY

SARASOTA COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT

GEUTEBRUCK CCTV SCHOOL Geutebruck re_porter, GeViScope and GeViStore video management systems combined with 4300 analogue and IP cameras are protecting 52 schools in Sarasota County. At each school and in the central control centre, SpeedView stations allow operators to access all live streams and recorded images.

I

T was a sunny morning when Mick Miller got up to get ready for work at a large school. He had a great weekend and he was looking forward to the day.

Work at the school was fun. However, shortly after, his good mood was ruined: When he reached the school grounds, he saw with dismay that large areas of the facade of the building and the entrance area were once again covered with graffiti. The school gate was broken and that weekend someone had obviously had a barbeque party in the school yard, judging by the garbage. This meant yet again a great deal of work and significant expenses for repairs and renovation.

But vandalism and destruction of property are not the only concerns at schools: Theft, assaults and campus shootings are important issues as well.

According to an FBI study, the number of school shootings in the US increased from an average of 6.4

22 se&n

per year in the period 2000 to 2006 to 16.4 per year between 2007 and 2013.

These factors prompted the leaders of the schools in Sarasota County School District on the Gulf Coast of Florida to take necessary precautions. The safety of students, faculty and staff must be prioritized and the best possible protection provided – a real challenge, considering that the Sarasota County Schools operate a total of 52 schools, educate 42,000 students and employ 5,000 teachers and other employees.

Partner United Security Alliance, certified by Geutebruck, was commissioned to secure 4 high schools and 2 middle schools at various locations. The technical design and equipment for all middle schools and high schools is already in the planning phase and will be completed within the next 2 years.

With United Security Alliance, a professional partner was chosen with many years of experience and deep technical knowledge. This made it possible to provide a solution that is not only fully mature from a technical perspective but that provides additional benefits.

All schools are interconnected and are controlled by a centralized control centre, the Safety & Security Communications Center. A video wall with views from multiple cameras at all the schools is running in real time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This ensures both preventive monitoring as well as quick assessment, response and, in the best case, the immediate clarification of incidents and crimes. At the same time, school administrators and school resource officers on site can check recordings locally and directly follow up on incidents.

To provide these services, multiple re_porter, GeViScope and GeViStore video management systems were put into use with the existing analogue and IP cameras. At each school and in the central control center, SpeedView stations are used as analysis units, from which the security personnel can access all live streams and recorded images. All images are archived for 45 days, placing high demands on storage capacity.

The schools were initially equipped with 16 cameras 11 years ago. Today, there are 4300 cameras in total with more to come.

Tim Butler is an experienced security system engineer who has worked in the security industry for many years. Specializing in cameras and access control, he has been employed at the Sarasota County Schools for the past 13 years.

“Storage was the largest challenge,” Butler said. “State requirements mandate 30 days of storage but the school district’s goal is to keep at least 35 days’ worth.

In the previous system, estimating storage needs accurately was difficult but Geutebruck was able to provide what we needed. There were several systems that were considered at the enterprise level and Geutebruck fitted all the characteristics that we were looking for. In addition, the transition from analogue to the world of IP was made easier using Geutebruck.

All employees are trained internally and the staff can easily handle the equipment in the schools.” zzz

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P RO D U CT REV I EW

IMPASSA & ALARM.COM

IMPASSA & ALARM.COM In this review we upgrade an existing DSC IMPASSA alarm and automation panel with an Alarm.com compatible controller, cameras and sensors, connect with the Alarm.com cloud service and spend some time living with a cloud-based security and automation solution.

24 se&n

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BY JOHN ADAM S

HEN I installed DSC IMPASSA earlier in the year, I was surprised at the simplicity of enrolling devices and getting the system operational. This relatively easy process encouraged me to be positive about the prospects of upgrading the system with an Alarm.com controller, cameras and browser-based cloud account. As it happened, I had support from Hills’ national assistant vendor business manager Matt Bailey and Alarm.com’s global sales engineer, Ian Law, and I was grateful for that as the process had multiple layers that would have confounded me.

The initial challenge was establishing whether or not my existing controller supported Alarm.com’s comms module – once we’d established it did not, the process involved replacing the main controller and re-enrolling all the devices in the system, establishing

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P RO D U CT REV I EW

IMPASSA & ALARM.COM

an Alarm.com account for the panel and enrolling the image sensor and Alarm.com cameras. These addressable network devices access the network via WPS through my home router. IMPASSA also wirelessly connects to a Z-Wave light switch, which is controlled via the Alarm.com mobile app and browser interface.

IMPASSA supports up to 64 of DSC’s 433Mhz wireless devices, as well as 16 wireless keys (without use of a zone slot) and 17 user access codes. Backup power is a 3600Ma Ni-Mh pack. In this solution there’s a WT5500-433 keypad, 2 reed door contacts, a motion sensor, a smoke sensor, a glass break sensor, a vibration/reed sensor, an internal siren and an external siren. I also have a couple of remotes and a prox tag for arming and disarming.

ENROLLING THE DEVICES Aside from the process of hanging the gear on the wall, the key thing with any wireless alarm panel is enrolling the devices and registering them into the controller. Because we’re starting again with a new controller as part of this upgrade process there’s a process of registering Electronic Serial Numbers for our wireless devices and assigning or confirming zone numbers and zone types.

This enrolment part involves fun things like installer codes and zone definitions but it’s a fundamentally simple process involving no more than a couple of keystrokes to enrol each device.

To enrol wireless devices, you hit *8 to get into the installer menu, enter your installer code, then 898 to get into wireless enrolment mode, then the controller waits to get a tamper from a device (or a single on power up) and displays a device’s electronic serial number, which you check by sight to ensure it’s correct, then you hit * to confirm. You then select a zone type for the device. The next step is to activate the device using the tamper, and the controller then tells you in plain English if the location is good or bad from a wireless connectivity point of view.

26 se&n

Making the installation simpler and kind of harder is that my devices are already installed. Of course, in this application I have Matt Bailey handling IMPASSA while Ian Law looks after Alarm.com, so my challenges boil down to making cups of tea and watching what the boys are up to. In terms of the process, we set up the new controller and do a comms test and connect it to the Alarm.com server.

Next, we add all the sensors and finally, the image sensor and the cameras. The process of enrolling the cameras and existing sensors and registering them all with Alarm.com takes a little while to get through but there are no challenges in the process. As part of the overall process, Law has set up my account with Alarm.com and as we go along we register and name all the devices. Meanwhile, I download the app to my iPhone, iPad, and later on my workstation at the office.

Setting up the cameras is managed via WPS on my router, which Law informs me is offering good support. You activate WPS on the router and then press the WPS button on the camera and the router finds the camera. Importantly, once the system has learned the camera, the home owner can move the camera around to cover different areas by simply unplugging it and then plugging it back in elsewhere.

We then add the cameras into my Alarm.com account and the system links them together in the app.

Finally, we install the Z-Wave switch, which is another relatively simple process. There were

P RO D U CT REV I EW

IMPASSA & ALARM.COM

...all the flexibility of the system’s functionality is delivered to my smart devices and workstation and I find myself using the app regularly. concerns my narrow 3-storey house would make it hard for the top floor panel to communicate with the bottom floor switch – but no problems at all. With the switch enrolled into Alarm.com, the system is completed and ready to roll.

LIVING WITH THE ALARM.COM APP My Alarm.com footprint includes my smoke sensor, PIR, 2 reeds, 1 vibration/reed combo, a glass break, a camera sensor, an external camera and an internal camera. My system is set up differently than it would be for a domestic or small commercial end user. In this case, the system is not being monitored by a central station – that’s not how the system would operate if a user approached an Alarm.com dealer and obviously, Alarm.com only works through its dealers. However, for the purposes of reviewing system functionality, this set up is fine for me.

Along with the app (available on iOS and Android devices) that lets me control all my devices, I have the option of away and stay arming and disarming the system using the controller keypad, the remote wireless keypad and a prox keyfob I carry on my keyring. However, all the flexibility of the system’s functionality is delivered to my smart devices and workstation and I find myself using the app regularly.

Alarm.com’s app is simple and easy to use.

There are smarts under the surface as Alarm.com’s

28 se&n

software combines your alarm panel inputs and events with video streams and presents them in a seamless dashboard.

In terms of browser layout, there are a series of tabs along the top of the home page which include Security, Video, Image Sensor, emPower, Notifications, History, Mobile and Profile.

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The first tab, Security, has 3 drop down tabs including System Summary, Sensors and Users. On the Summary page there’s a panel for issues the system might be having – camera power loss, or monitoring comms failure, etc – next comes a bar indicating how comprehensively the app’s features are being used, as well providing access to relevant tutorials, then there’s an icon group showing current system status and underneath all this, the event history with a slider for scrolling. Under each of the other tabs along the top of the page is a similar group of drop-down tabs that allow you to access relevant functionality. It’s very easy to manage.

In typical usage on the browser, I spend most my time between the Security Summary page and the Video pages, with forays into Image Sensor, emPower, Mobile and History. I also check out the Sensor subnav, which gives a snapshot of system setup, including the status of sensors and the nature of activity monitoring being undertaken. But because of the level of control I have over system setup, I find myself quite regularly fiddling about with

30 se&n

IMPASSA & ALARM.COM

settings. I’ll muck about with the GeoFence rules in the Mobile tab, change the automated settings of the lounge room light in emPower and adjust reporting in multiple ways. Finding all this functionality is very simple – it’s a matter of selecting options. It’s different with the app – simpler and designed for intuitive management but with great depth.

This is primarily a security system – I’ve only got one Z-Wave switch programmed and it’s driving a lamp. Having more switches – perhaps another 3-4 to manage other lights and the washing machine and dishwasher cross my mind at various times. A wiredin Z-Wave switch for air conditioning is probably the one extra thing I really wish I had – the ability to program lights and air conditioning to switch on when you cross a GeoFence is one of the coolest things about Alarm.com – the smallest GeoFence is 1.5km, which I find to be ideal. Alarm.com calls this feature Geo-Services and it can control a range of devices automatically.

There are other nice things about Geo-Services is that you can have the system notify you if there’s a door open or if you forget to arm your system as you pass a particular distance from home. Notifications are an especially good feature of the system and they are sent as emails, text messages or push notifications.

Even though there are cameras, they can’t cover all common living areas and you may not want them to, but you can ask the system to log image sensor events and PIR events in the event log – that allows you to ascertain if there’s someone moving around at home even when the alarm is disarmed. You can also have the cameras save a minute of video around each instance of movement when you are not inside the GeoFence.

There are layers and layers of functionality in Alarm.com – I found myself surprised by the simplicity and usefulness of it and surprised by my desire to know more about the things going on at home, to have more sensors and more cameras. In my case, the cameras are located in areas where there are multiple doors and greatest vulnerability, as well as looking across a rear courtyard. Something that may be an issue is that the CCTV cameras are powered by DC transformers – that means you need an AC outlet nearby. It’s no hassle inside but externally this might be limiting.

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P RO D U CT REV I EW

IMPASSA & ALARM.COM

One of the great things about a system that has remote accessibility is that you can hop in and check events you are notified of – even just simple domestic things.

History tab’s huge event list can also include video if cameras are set up to record on movement. I simply click an icon in the event list to access the 2 minutes of footage my cameras are set up to record. This is another feature I find myself using and appreciating a lot.

The image sensor, which is a PIR with an integrated camera, is a different thing. It’s designed to grab a snapshot in the event of movement so as to give visual verification of alarm events. Resolution is perhaps QCIF and resistance to backlight is minimal.

This said, it’s a compact wireless sensor that can be located anywhere – mounted fixed or moved about as you like. The image sensor is designed to handle

The image quality of the cameras is reasonably good, all things considered. There’s barrel distortion and with my cameras set to find the best balance of image resolution and frame rate, both resolution and frame rate are modest. Alarm.com optimizes live video for quality real-time delivery to a browser or mobile app, and recorded video clips are delivered in higher quality HD. I try the HD setting for real-time streaming but the pay-off in improved image quality is not worth the loss of frame rate and I switch back. These cameras are fit for purpose – they’re not meant to be high resolution and their modest levels of detail – 4CIF-ish on the HD setting – is clearly optimised for low bitrate. This is only present when viewing live view, and not in the recorded clips or SVR playback.

Regardless, I never have any drama with the internal and external cameras in terms of situational awareness. Integrated IR means you get useful images at night at close ranges, too. As well as viewing cameras directly through the Video tab, the

32 se&n

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P RO D U CT REV I EW

the task of confirming an intrusion, which it does.

Mine is set up to snatch a shot if it detects movement only after an alarm event.

AUTOMATION Of course, it’s not only about security. There’s automation. Open the emPower tab and there are multiple additional tabs for Lights, Locks, Energy, Rules and Devices. The level of remote and automated control the functionality contained here is profound but there’s also power management capability – the ability to monitor power use, compare it to different time periods, set up goals and look at current usage. The more Z-Wave switches you include in the system, the more useful this functionality becomes. Something I don’t have in the system is locks but these can also be included, monitored and controlled remotely.

One of the great things about a system that has remote accessibility is that you can hop in and check events you are notified of – even just simple domestic things. Alarm.com is nothing if not communicative and the system will keep you endlessly posted of happenings. Depending on how much communication you program the system to give you in the Notifications tab, you can be notified of every instance of arming or disarming, doors opening or closing, sensor triggers. You can be notified every time a camera senses movement even when the system is not armed. You can also be notified if there is no movement.

You can also have a camera record a clip of footage if there’s an alarm event, or record a clip on movement after a period of no movement, or always record on movement but only when your phone is outside the GeoFence (as my system is set up to do) and to notify you each time. The system will text or email notifications of events and event data is stored online for 60 days in the History tab.

Do I find myself taking advantage of the ability to sneak a look at my house while I’m away – yes, absolutely I do. I find myself wanting more coverage

34 se&n

IMPASSA & ALARM.COM

Matt Bailey (left) and Ian Law.

not less and moving cameras to try to satisfy this demand. Every time I start wondering what’s happening at home, or worry whether or not I closed the back door, I just duck into Alarm.com on my phone or work station and reassure myself.

Interestingly, this happens multiple times every day.

I did not expect that.

Would I want to return to a security system that did not allow remote access and video coverage?

That did not actively notify me of events? Not a chance. I really appreciate the control and the video capability. Do I find myself self-monitoring the IMPASSA using the Alarm.com app? Sometimes if I’m at work with nothing vital to do I’ll take a look at door open too long events (mine are set to notify me at 30 minutes), or activations of glass breaks or smoke sensors, or instances of recorded movement. But I find there are simply too many times self-monitoring is impossible – there’s so much else going on. You need the 24-hour support of a serious monitoring station – preferably with video verification.

The DSC product is robust, with plenty of really useful security devices to choose from, all manufactured by a company that knows intrusion detection solutions. Meanwhile, the Alarm. com app is as seamless as a third party cloudbased management app possibly can be, offering simplicity and depth of function at the same time on a wide range of devices. Latency is never an issue once the app is open. Setup is intuitive and re-tuning setup is so simple I find myself doing it all the time. In short, I like IMPASSA with Alarm.com a lot and take advantage of its cloud management capabilities multiple times each day. zzz

P RO D U CT REV I EW

DALLMEIER DF5200HD DN

D DALLMEIER DF5200HD DN Dallmeier’s DF5200HD DN is a full body 2MP IP camera featuring a ½-inch CMOS sensor and up to 120ips frame rate. This PoE camera has a motorised 4.5-10mm varifocal lens, and a claimed minimum scene illumination number of 0.002 lux.

36 se&n

ALLMEIER makes nice cameras and this DF5200HD-DN, distributed locally by C.R. Kennedy, is no exception to the rule. It’s a full body camera with an alloy housing that doubles as a heat sink. It’s compact – measurements are 71mm x 66mm x 176mm and the camera weighs in at just 300 grams. The DF5200HD-DN is part of a family which includes IR bullet and dome variations, and the findings of this test are likely to apply in good measure to those cameras as well.

Every camera boasts its strengths and in the case of the DF5200HD-DN, those are low light performance, thanks to that large 1/1.9-inch CMOS image sensor size and what Dallmeier calls the “most advanced sensor and encoder technology”. Dallmeier also suggests the camera is strong against blooming and smearing and is good with backlight. We’ve looked at some strong performances over the past couple of years, so it will be interesting to see how Dallmeier stacks up.

BY JOHN ADAM S

8m at 5mm

12m at 5mm

The DF5200HD-DN is only suitable for indoor environments out of the box, making operating temperature of -20 to 50C perfectly suitable. The camera draws 6W and has a microSDXC card slot that can handle from 64GB to 2TB. The onboard storage can be used by the EdgeStorage function for storing the video stream in a network failure and SmartBackfill function ensures a fast transmission to the SMAVIA recording system after network restoration.

Unlike many modern cameras, there’s a clutch of rear ports including BNC, stereo audio in and stereo audio out, an RS485 serial interface, 3 contacts in and 1 out, RJ-45 and a power socket. The camera’s 4.5-10mm motorised varifocal lens looks to have a standard Magnesium Flouride coating in the red 550nm range to guard against flare and ghosting and this works very well. I see no sign of flare with the naked lens in our harsh district application during the day. I don’t put the sun in the image but it’s never

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P RO D U CT REV I EW

DALLMEIER DF5200HD DN

Lack of motion blur is a real strength of this camera – not just in live video but in snap shots. It’s great with faces and number plates. noise filter is at 6. I increase brightness to 55 per cent as the afternoon wears on. I also reset preset preview to internal from external when I move the camera inside the office at night. There’s pronounced yellow shift otherwise – it takes me a while to work out what’s causing it.

4m range at 5mm daylight...

CAMERA PERFORMANCE

And in 7 lux.

easy for cameras in the rear courtyard facing 75,000 lux on a 41C afternoon.

Other features include Day/Night (ICR & ambient light sensor), P-Iris control, zoom, focus and iris control via web browser, enhanced noise filter and automatic switching of presets for different day and night modes. The camera delivers an HD video stream at a frame rate of 30 fps (1080p/30) and the optional high speed encoder board allows the camera to offer a frame rate of up to 120 fps at full resolution.

Video compression is H.264 and MJPEG with simultaneous dual, tri or quad streaming, there’s privacy zone masking, digital flip function, wide dynamic range function (WDR), 3D digital noise reduction (3D DNR), exposure compensation functions, image processing functions and alarm notifications via DaVid protocol, e-mail and FTP image upload.

SEN’s same-old Dell 9020 server is in charge of handling the camera, with i7-4770 quad-core (8 threads per core), a clock speed of 3.4GHz, 8GB of RAM and an AMD Radeon R7 250 graphics card (2GB of RAM). We’re using a Netgear GS108P ProSafe 8-port Gigabit switch with 4-port PoE for power and comms. There’s only one other camera on the network at the same time – a Uniview IPC542E-DUG 2MP starlight.

My settings are default as much as possible.

Brightness, sharpness, saturation at 50 per cent exposure compensation, hue are at 0 per cent. White balance is on auto, colour temp is auto, local tone mapping is auto, auto contrast is user-defined, auto contrast strength is at 24,

38 se&n

Rear ports

My first impressions of the Dallmeier DF5200HD DN viewing the district scene during the mid-afternoon are that resolution is unexpectedly strong. Set to full frame rate and 5Mb I do see some stepping, though my settings are at 30ips. Later, I change my lowest shutter speed from 1/25 to 1/50 and frame latency is altered with very little impact on image quality. I think the latency at 1/50th is about 400th’s of a second.

At a 5mm focal length outside in the afternoon the 2MP image is oddly detailed. The naked lens handles flare well.

Against extremes of backlight performance is not quite as solid but the lens is completely exposed with the sun about 20 degrees above it. I note typical scene darkening.

But when I turn the camera away from the sun, the image is very nice indeed, with excellent colour rendition, acuity and the appearance of high resolution. Depth of field at 5mm is very strong, with good detail deep. Performance in and out of deep shadow is less strong. Lack of motion blur is a real strength of this camera – not just in live video but in snap shots. It’s great with faces and number plates.

In this early part of the test, I also note some chromatic aberration in high contrast areas when the motorised lens is wide open but at 5mm this almost disappears until the sun is at an acute low angle and then it reappears on the edges of a nearby building and powerlines. I estimate barrel distortion at 5mm to be no more than 5 per cent,

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P RO D U CT REV I EW

DALLMEIER DF5200HD DN

The image seems to strengthen, even brighten as light drops off – how this is possible, I’m not sure. which is very good. There’s a light level that sees many cameras look a bit gloomy and with the DF5200HD-DN that’s about 11.7EV (7200 lux). CA seems to increase as light falls. However, detail remains high in 10.6 EV (3600 lux) at 6.40pm. At 6.50pm I increase brightness to 55 per cent. That leads to the merest thought of noise reduction smoothing but it’s worth it.

At about 7.15pm its 7.8EV (475 lux) and I note oddly strong resolution. I can nearly read the Memocorp logo.

The resolution is an unexpected standout quality of this 1080p camera. I can’t understand it. The street lights in the lane are on and I note CAs around them. No blooming yet. The 5200 is not a bright camera as light levels fall. But the image remains strong at 7.25pm in 7.4EV (440 lux) and below. The image seems to strengthen, even brighten as light drops off – how this is possible, I’m not sure. I think I am starting to see a little noise creeping into some of the surfaces in this scene but depth of field is still very strong indeed and blooming remains well controlled. Not many cameras cope with having the low pressure sodium streetlights in the lane in their field of view.

At 7.37pm light is falling faster – we are at 6.5EV (225 lux) but the image still looks surprisingly tight. There’s perhaps a little more blooming around the light. Not much, though.

No noise at this time. At 7.47pm we are at 5.3EV (100 lux) and I’m starting to lose detail in the dark areas of the image. At 7.55pm we are at 3.5EV (28 lux). Fine detail is being lost in most the image but situational awareness remains good. The image gets a little smokier under this light level but from about 15 lux to sub-2 lux at the lens, I can’t see any change in the image. There’s no sign this camera is going to go into monochrome. Blooming around the streetlight has increased but it’s nothing that harms the overall situational awareness.

Out front in 7 lux the camera stays in colour. The scene is soft where light levels are lowest but good where there’s sufficient light. Perhaps the most surprising thing is the quality of the rendering of the target at the further distances. At 8m, Norman’s face is in the shadow of a tree but you can see the target with full clarity. All the lines are distinct. At 12m you lose the A-line but with light now falling on Norman’s face, identification is court admissible – in fact, it’s excellent.

The same high quality performance from the C-line down is visible at 16m, with 15 lux of sidelight measured at Norman’s face and adjacent license plates recognisable.

This is excellent work from a 1080p camera. And at 22m, there is still distinction from the C-line down and colour rendition visible on the target. Looking down the hill to Foveaux Street, the strong depth of field gives excellent situational awareness.

The Dallmeier DF5200HD DN is good in low light – we

40 se&n

8m at 5mm in 5 lux at face

12m – 8 lux at face

16m – 15 lux at face

22m – 8 lux at face

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P RO D U CT REV I EW

DALLMEIER DF5200HD DN

Turning the camera away from the sun and looking down the lane, facial ID is excellent at 5 metres and there’s good depth of field for situational awareness and number plates.

Lane during day at 5mm

100 lux

20 lux

Sub 1 .5 lux

42 se&n

never approach 0.002 lux, which is starlight on a clear night, so it’s impossible to say what sort of performance the camera would offer under such conditions. But in urban environments between 1.5 and 7 lux, this camera stays in colour. It gives excellent situation awareness at the lower end of the scale and court admissible face recognition past 12 metres at a 5mm focal length with ambient streetlight falling on a face. Along with low light performance, resolution is the standout feature so far. In good light it feels more than 1080p.

Next day, I take Norman out first thing – it’s glaringly bright at 8.30am, with deep shadows. Performance is stronger on the light side than the dark, where it looks a little soft. But with harsh light on my side of the street at 8m I get a lovely image of Norman – it’s arguably the best day time image I’ve had of the test target, with excellent delineation of lines and wonderful colour rendition.

There’s a lot of movement at this time of day and I note again that motion blur with this camera is very low.

At 12m, Norman is in tree shade but performance remains very strong with face recognition and clarity of everything on the test target below the A-line. I snatch a shot as a truck goes by again note the comparative lack of blur in the image. At 16m I think I’m on the boundaries of court admissible facial ID and we are just starting to lose the B-line on the target. At 22m we’ve lost the A and B-lines but license plates remain and confirmation of a known face is definitely possible. Digital zoom at this comparatively short focal length is more valuable for larger details than small but it’s still quite good.

Turning the camera away from the sun and looking down the street, facial ID is excellent up to 12 metres and there’s good depth of field for situational awareness and number plates. Fine detail and texture are apparent and there are no noticeable aberrations or distortions in the image I can see with the naked eye.

Later, I test WDR performance looking through the office in the late afternoon with 75,000 lux on the top window and glass door. There’s good face recognition at the kitchen door but there’s blooming behind Norman. I muck around with the settings to get rid of this but can’t.

However, looking through the kitchen, performance is miles better, with some darkening of the foreground made up for by excellent face recognition. At close range with loads of sun behind him, the image of Norman delivered by the DF5200HD DN is right up there with the best of them, while depth of field is strong for tens of metres.

When it comes to the important combination of WDR and low light capabilities, the DF5200HD-DN is among a small group of 1080p cameras that contrive to balance

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contradictory capabilities extremely well.

Dallmeier’s DF5200HD DN is a solid performer. It’s not the best 1080p camera we’ve tested in all of the applications we subject it to but it’s certainly in the top group for most of them. This camera does well unassisted in low light, remaining in colour and resisting extremes of blooming. There’s little noise in low light but there is some noise reduction smoothing in dark areas of low light scenes. The DF5200HD-DN does well against backlight, too. In some cases, it’s not as good as we’ve seen and in other applications it might very well be the best.

Strong WDR performance at closer ranges is not its only strong suit. The camera has notably good levels of detail for a 2MP camera and when it comes to motion blur, the DF5200HD-DN really does stand alone. Something else I notice day and night, is how well the DF5200HD-DN performs when it comes to the target. This performance in relation to Norman – particularly between 8-16 metres at a 5mm focal length - suggests that a clever balance of low light and WDR capability, along with high levels of sharpness, contrast and colour rendition, are delivering excellent levels of acuity across a range of operational conditions at near default camera settings. zzz

Looking through office at 5mm

Kitchen

Features of the Dallmeier DF5200HD DN include: l 2MP 1080p resolution l Fast optional encoder delivers 120 fps l 1/2-inch CMOS sensor l Day/Night filter and P-iris control l Motor-driven 4.5-10mm varifocal MP lens l Zoom, focus and iris control via web browser l Enhanced noise filter l Integrated microSDXC card slot up to 2TB l Compact and lightweight at 300g.

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PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGIES OF 2015 What were the most influential products and technologies of 2015? It’s always difficult to find a balance between the solutions that catch the market’s momentary attention and those solutions that will go on to have a serious impact on the way we conduct our business.

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BY J OHN ADAM S interface with security systems is going to be pivotal in terms of the underlying nature of the systems themselves. Combined with the ongoing swing towards the NBN, the trend may shift or blur the nature of revenues streams – not so much with larger security solutions but with residential and small commercial systems.

When it comes to changes in security system management, it’s not just in the electronic security industry we should be looking at. Cloud services at the corporate level are beginning to make inroads into traditional networking models and it’s certain we’ll see greater adoption in the future. Something that’s noticeable too, is the fact that services like Microsoft Office 365, Apple, Google and Amazon represent a change in the way networking is being done by everyone. True, at the moment, cloud services are in their infancy and not every organisation has developed a cloud strategy but this is an area that bears watching closely.

To my mind, the fall in hardware costs, the idea of security solutions as a service, the broadband enhancements offered by 4G, by the NBN, by more advanced symmetrical network links and widespread Wi-Fi, the fall in the cost of high quality network area storage devices, the way core systems are being developed that funnel users into networked environments – all these things shape the networking ecosystem of the future. These changes collectively facilitate a different level of functionality and a different level of interaction for all users – whether home owners or the managers of smart cities.

Ness Mezzo

K

EY trends in 2015 and by association, key products, include mobile app management of security and automation solutions, improvements in CCTV camera technology – particularly increased resolution, reduced bitrates and larger sensor sizes - and the ongoing process of developing management solutions that allow single-workstation management of multiple subsystems, locally and globally. Other trends include falling costs, the elevation of risk for law enforcement agencies and other government departments, as well as protection of public spaces.

Managing systems using mobile applications or remote browsers is a trend that has been building for some time and while it’s not yet come to a head, the impact of this new way users prefer to

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Gallagher’s mobile client is part of Command Centre v7.30. Using an Apple iPhone running iOS8, users can monitor and acknowledge alarms; and check and override door and zone status remotely.

Axis with Zip Stream

It’s not easy for security people – end users or integrators – to know how to respond to changes of the underlying network stratum. But strategies are needed. We are on the fringes of a paradigm shift that offers opportunities and presents threats at multiple levels. Electronic security cries out for an increase in user access to key aspects of vital data, yet a less certain world highlights the need to keep security networks closed tight. How this dichotomy of threat and remote management will play out is not certain.

When it comes to products in the remote management space, it’s hard to narrow it down. DSC and 2GIG use Alarm.com’s very polished app, there’s Ness Mezzo with the Ness app and new Nessosphere cloud. CSD’s Paradox panels are app-supported, RISCO is arguably the market leader in this space.

There’s new product coming from Inner Range in access control and alarms. There’s a Tecom app, there’s a new Gallagher app, Security Merchants has a Yale app.

Gallagher’s mobile client is part of Command Centre v7.30. Using an Apple iPhone running iOS8, users can monitor and acknowledge alarms; and check and override door and zone status remotely.

With security management on the move, Gallagher’s mobile client enables security personnel and small business owners the flexibility to travel around or off-site, with after-hours visibility to protect their property anytime, anywhere. The idea, according to Gallagher, is to give users useful access to existing data in order to assist the management of business and security trends.

Meanwhile, Tecom Mobile works on iOS and Android devices and connects directly to any IPenabled Challenger10 series of panels. Users can control and view the status of Challenger devices via

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the intuitive interface, allowing them to open doors, arm/disarm areas, isolate inputs or control lighting.

Users can quickly view and reset outstanding alarms with events displayed from the panel in a friendly, easy to read format. It’s possible to program PIN codes or access control cards via the Tecom Mobile app and also edit other user details including access groups and expiry dates.

Honeywell too, has a large and expanding ecosystem that covers its entire range, from domestic alarms to enterprise management.

Things are as comprehensive on the CCTV side, with multiple systems and cameras coming with the capability to integrate with mobile devices. I’m repeating myself, but the biggest thing here is not remote access of system function but the potential change it heralds. Security electronics as a service.

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Ness Mezzo App

That’s what we’re leaning towards.

Alarm systems themselves are looking different.

Ness Mezzo is a smart home controller that combines spread spectrum wireless, Z-wave and IP technologies to handle multiple security and automation, energy management, intercom, CCTV and medical alarms and reporting into one batterybacked wireless control unit. The system has massive expansion. It will support 128 Ness 2-way wireless security devices, 247 Z-Wave devices from any Z-Wave manufacturer, as well as 8 Ness vuHoo cameras and one Ness uHoo intercom. The system is managed by MEZZO App via a dedicated WiFi router with a backup 3G path. Meanwhile, spread spectrum gives a secure 2-way radio protocol between the MEZZO hub and wireless security devices. Unlike some other solutions, there’s no web browser in MEZZO. Instead, the app does everything and communicates directly with the controller via local Wi-Fi. Meanwhile, Inner Range’s SkyGuard is a Z-wave security and automation panel that Inner Range is developing in conjunction with an overseas partner. Physically, SkyGuard looks like a networking device – a standard domestic vertical router fronted by a neat LCD keypad and an app.

SkyGuard is expandable to 96 433MHz alarm inputs and 8 Z-Wave automation devices, as well as a Bluetooth keypad. Along with a 3G module option, the panel also has an integrated Ethernet port.

A new player is from Security Merchants - Yale’s Professional Series Alarm, which features 2km RF range coupled with integrated IP, 3G and GPRS reporting. The integrated transceiver supports up to 40 devices from a range of Zigbee and RF-433/ F1 devices including, locks, temperature sensors, power relays and outdoor PIRs.

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Unlike some other solutions, there’s no web browser in MEZZO. Instead, the app does everything and communicates directly with the controller via local Wi-Fi. Another example of the security and home automation trend is 2GIG Go!Control, which offers 48 security zones, as well as the potential for 232 Z-wave devices. That big Z-wave capacity means the system expands considerably, should you want it to. Go!Control can be used with Alarm.com but it’s also perfectly capable of being used in a more traditional way and linking to monitoring station receivers via PSTN/POTS or 3G linked.

Interlogix ZeroWire system supports up to 64 zones and can accept more than 250 users. It has context-sensitive keys and voice-guided menu for simple installation and operation and supports door/window, glass break and environmental sensors; motion, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. The system can also handle up to 20 key fobs that can be used locally for arming/disarming the panel, turning on or off a Z-Wave-enabled light, or activating the panic feature from a compact, remote device.

In the monitoring space this year we have SCSI DirectConnect, a secure and reliable 4G FixedIP service that connects CCTV, access control, Inner Range SkyGuard

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BMS, medical alert, in fact any IP device, via SCSI’s VPN and makes it available for remote access.

DirectConnect is deployed through a standard 4G router that connects to SCSI’s private and secure network from any location with 4G wireless coverage.

Filling another role is Inner Range’s T4000 Lite, which is compatible with most alarm panels and simply connects to the panel via its telephone port, eliminating the need for a dedicated alarm panel phone line connection to the street. T4000 Lite handles all alarm communications via its fast 3G dual-SIM and 10/100Mbps Ethernet-polled communications paths.

Networking and system interaction is also changing and integration is becoming intrinsic at multiple levels of the market. Security and automation providers are alarm management and CCTV notifications to domestic and small commercial end users in event histories collated in apps on mobile devices. At the same time, large end users are investing in integrated solutions that combine video surveillance, access control and intrusion detection with multiple sub systems on single workstations.

Integration is a change that’s being reached for in hundreds of different ways. Access control is a case in point. There are software drivers for hundreds of CCTV systems being incorporated into access control solutions. There are changes in user interfaces. There are also layers of networking capability. There’s Inner Range’s Inception solution, which gives installers and end users remote access.

There’s Paxton Net2 plus, which is IP-based with door controllers managed over a network. At the same time, CEM Systems, Inner Range and Gallagher offer powerful enterprise access control solutions with layers of networking capability and profound functionality which incorporates the

Panasonic 4K

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Fulfilling another role is Inner Range’s T4000 Lite, which is compatible with most alarm panels and simply connects to the panel via its telephone port, eliminating the need for a dedicated alarm panel phone line connection to the street. ability to integrate with multiple sub-systems.

When it comes to CCTV, we are seeing the ongoing evolution of holistic management solutions from software developers like Genetec and Milestone, and locally, Camvex. We are seeing integration within monitoring platforms, integrations of CCTV and intrusion detection into intercom devices, we see it in alarm systems that incorporate Z-Wave everything, we see it in cloud-based access management of remote door controllers.

CCTV is not just for security but for process control, for retail marketing, for smart cities, for remote access events. At every level, the

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expectation of what is possible is changing. There is no chance anyone is going to want to go back to the old days when they communicated with their electronic security system in clunky ways.

CCTV camera technology keeps improving.

Given that video surveillance is becoming central to so many integrated systems and is vital not just to first response teams but to investigators and for video verification of alarm events, improvements in resolution and bitrate from 4K camera technologies were one of the major trends of 2015.

We are seeing 4K from Dahua, Hikvision, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Uniview, Bosch, DVTel and others.

Of these, Panasonic’s new WV-SF781L dome camera and WV-SPV781L 4K box cameras can effectively cover a field of view 4 times larger than 1080p cameras and a view 9 times larger than 720p cameras. They can also cover 2 and 3 times the distance of 1080p and 720p cameras respectively.

And the thing is, 4K really does make a difference, especially in external scenes. It’s a technology that empowers camera inputs, empowers operators and empowers police investigations and prosecutions.

There’s an efficiency in 4K as well. Fewer cameras, better coverage. Low light performance is the trick and the trend to larger BSI sensors could be what’s needed to lift pixel and pixel lens diameters to the

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Something we can’t get away from in 2015 is a changing threat level, which sees local police stations and other government organisations and their staff at potential risk of terror attack. size needed for stronger low light performance.

Another interesting development is the Avigilon HD multisensor camera, distributed locally by CSD. Designed with 3 or 4 individually configurable 3MP camera heads, HD multisensor cameras enable users to easily monitor environments in high resolution image quality with multiple viewpoints from a single imaging platform. The camera allows complete coverage of wide areas with the simultaneous ability to digitally zoom in on any movement that occurs within the field-of-view.

Higher resolution and more camera heads means more bandwidth. In CCTV, bitrate is a key area of importance and improvements in compression and camera design are conspiring to reduce bandwidth and storage demand, while retaining resolution where it’s needed. This year we saw ZipStream from Axis and SMART H.264+ from Hikvision and there are also H.265 developments from a range of manufacturers, including Vivotek and Samsung.

Axis’ Zipstream technology analyses and optimizes the network camera’s video stream in real time. Scenes containing interesting details are recorded in full image quality and resolution while other areas are filtered out, to optimally use available bandwidth and storage. Important forensic details like faces, tattoos or license plates

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are isolated and preserved, while irrelevant areas such as white walls, lawns and vegetation are sacrificed by smoothing in order to achieve the better storage savings.

Meanwhile, Hikvision’s proprietary smart codec H.264+, reduces bandwidth and storage requirements by 50 per cent compared with standard H.264 systems. The H.264+ smart codec combines features like background-based predictive smart encoding, enhanced noise suppression, advanced video content analysis and optimized bitrate control for long-term periods in order to save bandwidth resources and reduce storage requirements. These sorts of technologies are vital if CCTV systems are to attain levels of resolution that allow court admissible face recognition out to say, 20m from the lens, using relatively wide angles of view. The beauty of 4K is both situational awareness and digital zoom that really works. In good light – above 15 lux – 4K is brilliant.

Encapsulating the meeting point of electronic security, networking, storage and cloud are products like Synology Surveillance Station 7.0, which work with Synology NAS systems to give users control of any camera installed on their network, with the option of full cloud support for alarm events, as well as for CCTV and access control integration. Surveillance Station 7.0 has

Tecom app

a panel that lets users easily review, play back, or save suspicious events. There’s automated eventlinking for dynamic surveillance environments and to facilitate task automation. When paired with the Axis Network Door Controller solution, surveillance personnel can monitor, lock and unlock, or view access logs of connected doors — all from the familiar Surveillance Station interface.

Something we can’t get away from in 2015 is a changing threat level, which sees local police stations and other government organisations and their staff at potential risk of terror attack. There’s a visible trend for the hardening of these targets, physically and with electronic security solutions, and this seems to be taking place in every state.

There are times when it feels Australia is a long way from such troubles but the need for vigilance and the duty of care is a real one.

Another key trend in 2015 was an increase in spending on public surveillance systems, which seem to have reached a tipping point in terms of their acceptance by the general public. This expansion of public surveillance applies to IP upgrades, as well as to greenfield solutions. Locally, these systems vary in size and complexity from a few dozen, to hundreds of cameras, generally managed in partnerships between councils and police. zzz

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N EW P RO D U CT

PANASONIC VL- SWD501 AZ

PANASONIC VLSWD501AZ WIRELESS VIDEO INTERCOM Panasonic has released a new video intercom system that allows homeowners to monitor visitors and control doors and gates via the LCD screen of a portable DECT wireless handset in colour at high resolutions, as well as through a monitor station.

P

ANASONIC’S VL-SWD501AZ wireless video intercom system, distributed locally by EOS Australia, uses a camera and intercom mounted outside the front door or gate, and a fixed monitor station with a 5-inch colour touchscreen and up to 6 wireless video handsets with 2.2-inch LCD screens inside the home. Users can view, communicate with and open doors or gates from monitor station or handset.

According to Andrew Cho of EOS Australia, the VLSW251AZ is Panasonic’s top of the range intercom – combining door station, camera unit and a wireless handset.

“The VL-SW251AZ comes as a kit and you can have up to 2 door stations one main monitor and 6 handsets,” explains Cho. “Wireless handsets are more flexible than wired systems, as the long range DECTbased wireless handset allows users to see who’s at the door as they move around a home. They can also control door and gate locks from the handset.”

According to Cho, the distance between the main monitor station and the wireless handset is up to 100m and this can be expanded to 300m using an optional DECT repeater.

The angle of view is stupendous – about 170 degrees.

While this introduces some barrel distortion at the edges, it’s brilliant in this intercom application, which is all about confirming identity of friends or allowing access to delivery people. The image is nice quality – better than many other intercoms. I have a play 56 se&n

with the system outside to see how it handles WDR conditions and it manages this well, too.

When Cho demonstrates the wireless handset, I can see the image quality is good. DECT wireless technology not only gives faster transmission speeds, it offers longer ranges, too. This handset allows users to open gates remotely and you can transfer calls to another handset in the system.

It’s handsome hardware and driving the functionality is intuitive. The monitor station incorporates a touch screen and all configuration of door stations, handsets and camera settings, are handled through this interface. There’s internal memory up to 50 images and an SD card slot offers another 64GB of storage giving the ability to record 4 frames from 3000 visitors – you play these back via the built-in touchscreen or on a PC. Panasonic’s VL-SWD501AZ is easy for a professional installer to set up and it expands easily. Each monitor station supports 2 door stations, 6 handsets, as well as 4 wireless sensor cameras. These optional wireless sensor camera features motion and heat sensing capabilities for added security.

The Panasonic VL-SWD501AZ comes as a kit comprised of an outdoor camera door station, a fixed touchscreen main monitor station, and a wireless video monitor handset, priced at $999 RRP. Panasonic offers 2 other models in the range, the VL-SW251AZ, priced at $549 RRP, and the VL-SF70AZ, priced at $299 RRP. zzz

A VL-SWD501AZ wireless video intercom system kit includes: l Wireless Portable Monitor l Wide-angle 170-inch camera l 5-inch touch panel l 64GB SD card recording

l Electric lock relay output l Voice changer l IR for night vision l Intercom call l Optional wireless sensor cameras.

ALARM M ONI TORI NG / SEGM ENT

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HINGS are hotting up for central stations and installers, who are collectively challenged by the changes in the market that put enormous security automation management capability into the hands of end users through browserbased apps. It’s the power of instant notifications and video verification to smart devices that shifts the industry into a position where a delicate balance must be found. Simply put, end users now have considerably more control over their security systems than many monitoring solutions offer operators.

Something else that needs to be managed is the need for monitoring stations and installers to be presented at the front of third-party cloud based services. What’s to be done?

According to James Layton of Bosch Security Systems, it is possible

Products need to be so easy to use that end-users feel an immediate familiarity with the product, yet complex enough so that a professional installer is still required to put the system in and program it.

James Layton

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for quality alarm panels to offer capabilities like app-based management and reporting, while also supporting traditional monitoring stations. And Bosch, same as a number of other quality manufacturers, is delivering solutions that allow installers, end users and monitoring stations to find the best possible balance of features and services.

“It’s a difficult balancing act that manufacturers are performing,” explains Layton. “Products need to be so easy to use that end-users feel an immediate familiarity with the product, yet complex enough so that a professional installer is still required to put the system in and program it. They also need to offer a full range of selfmonitoring options, while still offering value through a centrally monitored service. If you burn any part of the market, you reduce the total market that you can address with your product.

“We are certainly working in this part of the market. Our Solution 6000 has recently seen the launch of the MyAlarm.com.au cloud service. At this point in time, MyAlarm.com.au provides cloud based connectivity and app control of the panel. In the future the service will be updated to include a premium model with a monthly charge that will include additional features such as video verification and push notification.”

Over at Hills, Matt Bailey agrees.

“Definitely - alarm panels that offer these security and home automation choices to end users, while supporting installers and monitoring stations will do well, such as DSC’s IMPASSA with Alarm. com,” he says. “Through the Alarm.com App, the end user can understand the status of their alarm panel, arm/disarm and interface to ZWave devices as well as having the system reporting alarm events to a monitoring station 24 x 7.

Alternatively, they can use the base DSC Impassa without Alarm.com and only have alarms monitored by a monitoring station.

Through the Alarm. com App, the end user can understand the status of their alarm panel, arm/disarm and interface to ZWave devices as well as having the system reporting alarm events to a monitoring station 24 x 7.

Matt Bailey “The Alarm.com service provides a cloud service to connect the alarm information, home automation and visual verification together in the DSC Impassa and PowerSeries NEO alarm panels. It provides the ability for devices that would not normally work together to be seamlessly integrated for additional end user functionality. These additional functionalities help installers make sales.”

At Ness, Neil Morgan believes that finding a necessary balance between user control of security and automation, and retention of monitoring business is vital.

“This is exactly what we offer with the SmartLiving system,” he says. “It has the ability to dial 15 numbers with a combination of voice dialling and monitoring Stations as well as via IP and GPRS paths. And if the system has the SmartLanG (IP communicator

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1 ALARM M ONI TORI NG / SEGM ENT module) then app and web browser management on top of the previously mentioned monitoring methods are available as well.

“Not only are we supporting cloud applications in future releases but we have built our own cloud service, the Nessosphere, which will support Ness Mezzo and other existing Ness products all at extremely competitive subscription rates.”

QSS offers the market the 2GIG security and automation panel supported by Alarm.com’s app in this space and Rob Lucas points out that people will always want professional monitoring if they can see intrinsic value for money in it.

Not only are we supporting cloud applications in future releases but we have built our own cloud service, the Nessosphere, which will support Ness Mezzo and other existing Ness products all at extremely competitive subscription rates Neil Morgan

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“So, yes – it’s important that manufacturers and distributors in the security industry support the key elements of the installation and monitoring industry,” Lucas explains.

“There are plenty of opportunities in the market, and many applications that cannot do without real time monitoring. Consider the care of elderly people - monitoring stations can certainly tailor offerings to include vigilance over aging parents in their own homes and many other services besides.”

Honeywell was an early adopter of security and home automation technology and the company has strong offerings across this space.

Like others, Honeywell believes the best security and automation solutions combine user management and professional 24-hour monitoring.

According to Honeywell, traditional monitoring stations will continue to play their role in the industry, providing professional security services to those clients who require a higher level of protection.

“Today the homeowner is asking for more information from their security system, (EG: notification of when kids arrive home from school), without wanting to pay an increased monitoring fee for Arm/ Disarm reporting,” says Honeywell.

“This is where a modern solution like the Honeywell Vista series comes into its own. Unlike some APP-based systems, where there may be an additional monthly charge for remote connectivity, Honeywell Vista can provide the end user with additional non-critical information (such as when the system is armed/disarmed etc), and still allow them the peace of mind, knowing they are still being monitored by a professional monitoring station.

The Vista control does not require cloud support, as the system is easily connected too from a user’s smart device wherever they are around the globe.”

There are plenty of opportunities in the market, and many applications that cannot do without real time monitoring.

Consider the care of elderly people monitoring stations can certainly tailor offerings to include the vigilance over aging parents in their own homes and many other services besides Rob Lucas

Meanwhile, Paul Knight of CSD says that while the company’s product range is not currently supported by cloud applications, CSD is working on some exciting opportunities.

“Nothing is going to replace all the benefits of a professionally monitored 24/7 security system,” he explains.

“However, consumers are demanding more remote management products, which enable them to remotely access and control their security system from any smartphone.” zzz

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T RU ST E D T EC H N O LO GY

T H E I N T E RV I EW

MA RTI N G R E N W I TH JOHN ADAMS

FOUNDING FATHER IP camera pioneer and Axis Communications’ founder Martin Gren talks about developing the world’s first IP camera, the nature of core IP camera performance, and the present and future of video surveillance technology.

Q: Martin, you’ve been with Axis since 1984 – it must be highly rewarding to have been so successful – was there a point at which you realised the company was going to grow so fast and become so large? Does the business still give you moments of wonder, of pleasure?

A: It certainly does, I still work with

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what I like the most, new technology ideas at Axis and meeting many people and partners in the industry around the world. I don’t want to do anything else. It is very rewarding as you say, to have been part of Axis’ successful journey. We started as a small startup data communications company with a protocol converter that enabled

the connection of PC printers to IBM mainframe networks. The company we are today has more than 2000 employees worldwide, is still driven to come up with new, innovative, smart solutions that meet user needs and fit our business model. We’ll expand our portfolio to keep achieving that.

Q: In what ways did Axis’ early development of networked printers set the stage for moving into IP security?

A: Our focus was to make networks smarter, enabling more and more hardware to be connected simply and economically to IP networks. As a print server company at the time, with everyone talking about the dying

mainframe, we knew we had to innovate to survive. This was the culture we built up in the company. Our first shift was to attach printers to networks, then we attached anything to the networks, including printers and networked based optical storage. We called this “Thinserver”, which is exactly like today’s Internet of Things.

This climate and framework 20 years ago led us to the first network camera, which after some years, we focused solely on. But 2 years ago we went back to our roots of attaching anything to the network, such as physical access control and our latest additions like the Network Horn Speaker and an IP-based video door station, which is sort of an intercom - again using the benefits of IoT technology. Our Thinserver technology is known around the world today as the Internet of Things (IoT). In the security industry nowadays, we call it Internet of Security Things (IoST) because that is what it is for our industry.

Q: Do you remember the exact moment you decided that IP cameras were going to be something huge – a moment you decided to invest time, money and creative energy in a technology that at the time was entirely unproven?

A: We received a lot of attention with our CD-ROM servers and printer servers early on. With our first network camera we really didn’t know the applications; we did it because we could. But quickly we realized there was an all-analogue industry waiting to go digital and we found opportunities in remote monitoring and what we called light surveillance.

I had a deal with management: If we could sell more than 10 K units of the original network camera, we would create an independent camera business unit. We did, and I got my camera business unit. Now was the time to make it professional, so we invested nearly all of the company’s earnings into making the first generation of our ARTPEC chip in order to reach 30 fps performance.

You won’t believe what kind of attention our first network camera got with the

While image quality is a core consideration, the real challenge is to optimize image quality for the surveillance task at hand, no matter how bad the light or what the ambient conditions are. In addition, you need to make it reliable, both from a network point of view as well to withstand challenging physical conditions. visionaries of the time. A couple of years ago, Apple’s Steve Wozniak got in touch.

He still had his Axis network camera from back then.

Q: Could you tell us about the greatest challenge of developing the world’s first IP camera – was there anything that really stumped you?

A: The initial problem was the fact we built the camera because we could, rather than having a business case.

Initially our sales organization was confused. We had no clue about the security industry as we were an IT company. But we kept trying and the network camera revolutionized the industry, transforming video surveillance from analogue into digital.

Equally important was our decision to retain our indirect sales model, revolutionizing the way the CCTV industry operates.

Q: From your perspective as a developer of IP cameras, what do you think are the most important

underlying aspects of camera performance? What characteristics of a camera’s engineering really define its potential to offer more useable image quality?

A: It is not very difficult today to put components with great sounding specs together in a casing and sell it as a network camera. The fine art lies in optimally integrating these components so they can truly live up to their high specs. A good network camera is not the sum of its components’ specs but a reflection of how well the camera manufacturer has integrated the different components and what software logic guides the components.

While image quality is a core consideration, the real challenge is to optimize image quality for the surveillance task at hand, no matter how bad the light or what the ambient conditions are. In addition, you need to make it reliable, both from a network point of view as well to withstand challenging physical conditions.

Q: You’ve always been big in research and development. Has that long-term focus contributed to the company’s success?

A: Indeed, it has. The research and development focus and our indirect sales model are core to our success.

This allows our experts to focus on developing innovative products that meet end customers’ needs, while our partners can provide an extra layer of dedicated customer support. Research and development is a core aspect of our DNA at Axis Communications. We have over 800 engineers in our R&D department in Lund, Sweden.

Axis Communications is a key industry driver having introduced not only the market’s first network camera, but also the market’s first network PTZ camera, first HDTV network camera and first thermal network camera. We have great people that are ready to push the envelope as we embark on the IoT age - we are introducing a lot of Internet of Security Things products!

Q: Canon acquired Axis

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MA RTI N G R E N W I TH JOHN ADAMS

Canon really understood our culture and the importance of our business model.

With Canon, we get access to a lot of technologies and know-how and as a Japanese company they think long term.

This is something that really won me over.

Communications earlier in the year and from what I understand Canon is quite hands-off as a parent company.

You are still doing all your own R&D and steering the business in the same way you always have done. Is this true and will it continue?

A: Yes, we are and yes, this will continue.

Canon really understood our culture and the importance of our business model. With Canon, we get access to a lot of technologies and know-how and as a Japanese company they think long term. This is something that really won me over.

Q: For many installers and integrators, price is a big issue – they

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might quote an end user quality product and find the end user takes a cheaper quote from another company using lower quality equipment. Is this something that you think about as a company?

A: Total cost of ownership is something a lot of people forget about when it comes to initial investments in video surveillance. Quickly though, reality is catching up with component failures, high maintenance costs or important details missed due to poor quality images. We are not in this market to win a price war but to provide our partners and customers with quality products and extensive long-term support.

Public spenders especially, tend to only be able to make investments in waves. A city-run public transport company for example may have a lot of analogue video surveillance. They will usually upgrade in stages using video encoders to bridge old and new. They have a long-term view on such a retrofit and can’t gamble with crucial variables such as TCO. Q: Is there a particular capability of Axis cameras you like right now?

A: This year we have introduced our Zipstream technology. As cameras get higher and higher resolution and retention times are increasing, so is the cost of storage. By utilizing Zipstream, you can save up to 80 per cent bandwidth without losing image quality.

Best of all, it is directly compatible with existing VMS systems, PCs and graphics cards as it based upon the current H.264 standard.

Q: Where is Axis right now in terms of developing new IP camera technologies? What’s just around the corner? Do you think the combination of Zipstream and 4K is a potential game changer for the surveillance market?

A: Yes, 4K has already found applications and actually the take up could be quicker in video surveillance than in our homes. In addition, we have

created multi-imaging cameras of even higher resolution which I think is a trend setter. With resolutions as high as 4K, compression technology becomes even more important and Zipstream is a natural ingredient.

Q: Do you think 4K cameras can get over the issue of low light performance? How long is this likely to take?

A: We already see deployments of 4K today in high security environments such as central banks, as well as shopping malls. Low light is certainly an issue, but in verticals such as central banks or retail you usually have enough light anyway, so this is not a challenge.

Q: Looking at the market today, what do you see as the biggest threats to the traditional electronic security business? DIY, commoditisation, economic uncertainty, lack of staff training, poor network infrastructure in some parts of the world (like Australia), stagnation of technological development, other?

A: We see a continued increase in making our societies safer and more secure - this is the key driver. As network cameras are typically operated locally, there is not a need for internet infrastructure unless you really intend to use it remotely. Instead, the issue is in understanding how to use cameras, where to place them and to have a good final integrated solution.

Q: And what are the biggest opportunities? Public surveillance, lateral cloud-based applications for the monitoring of everything?

A: There are opportunities everywhere!

In Australia I have noticed airports are big users of our products, but I also know we are large in retail. Cloud-based security is still taking a lot of time to become a reality although we have seen it picking up quicker in markets such as Scandinavia and USA. But with edge storage technology this can happen everywhere. zzz

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POSSIBLE STARTS HERE

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NASKAM SECURITY

NASKAM MAKES BOLD MOVE Rapid penetration by telcos and huge ISPs into the security and automation markets with low cost hardware and bundled alarm monitoring services is presenting monitoring companies with an uncertain future. How they respond will be the key.

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N

ASKAM Security on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast is a boutique electronic security business. Founded by Maks Maksan in 1986, the company combines Grade 1A monitoring and a security integration business in a symbiotic relationship that has brought decades of growth.

With electronic security integration in the stable, it’s not surprising that Maksan and his team are at the sharp end when it comes to adoption of new technology. Without the large line volumes of bureau monitoring services, Naskam has always had to offer its customers something extra.

A decade ago, the company launched live monitoring of video surveillance systems for remote patrols and video verification, using IndigoVision cameras and IndigoVision software specifically designed for low bandwidth communications paths.

The inclusion of serious video surveillance capability in its monitoring station enhanced Naskam’s offering

BY JOHN ADAM S

solutions provider and this has stood the team in good stead as they’ve worked to move forward on their new monitoring platform.

“We could see the monitoring business was changing fast and we knew we could no longer do things in the way we have done. We needed to do something different, to offer our customers additional services and functionality. These are the core reasons we took on Bold Technologies’ ManitouCS monitoring package – it allows us to meet our customers’ changing needs in a rapidly changing market.”

CHALLENGES IN THE MARKET

and impacted on the mindset of the company, expanding its view of the future. And the future of the alarm monitoring industry is a nebulous thing.

No matter which way control room owners turn, there are threats to the old ways.

There are threats to rusted-on revenue streams, the challenge of the PSTN sunset, the creeping technological hydra of the NBN, the demands of the connected consumer and the challenge of corporates bundling alarm monitoring services with crushing economies of scale. The threats are of such magnitude that they challenge not just business models but the nature of the underlying systems that support them. Perceiving this, Naskam management realised it needed to change and not just reinvent itself but reinvent its capacity to respond to a market segment in which certainty was a thing of the past.

According to Maksan, Naskam is a highly flexible

Speaking with Maksan and Naskam general manager, Chad Wright, the subject of the future is always in the air over the boardroom table, a palpable presence. The driving force here is profound survival and future prosperity - not a languid process of upgrade. The management team displays an intense awareness of the way unfolding changes are impacting on every layer of the business. At the heart of all this is giving customers something they want to pay for – offering them a compelling service.

According to Wright, in order to survive the threats and challenges central stations need to be able to offer customers significant advantages.

“We need to give more to our customers, we need the capacity to give customers more engagement with their systems,” Wright explains.

In our case, we’ve been planning this transition for years when it comes to new services we offer, but you also have to have a plan for your existing customers and this is a challenge facing all monitoring centres.”

Wright believes the demographic central stations will be dealing with over the next 5 years will have higher expectations of improved functions in domestic and commercial applications – this is something else central stations must address.

“Younger residential and business owners have

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different expectations,” Wright explains. “They are very connected with mobile devices and they are used to interacting with technology. Something we find with security systems is that we are selling the interface rather than the functions of the panel itself.

People are invested in the interface – most people don’t want to look at detectors – they care about touch screens and Apps. We can’t sell the same basic system as do other installers – and we have to justify the additional expense.”

And in the background is the pressing challenge of big new players.

“We have a situation where there are powerful new competitors associated with the NBN coming, there is the potential for a negative impact on traditional alarm monitoring markets,” Wright says.

“We knew we needed to offer something special, something different, and something worth paying for. We needed a solution that gives us those abilities, those points of difference – a system that takes security monitoring to another level. We needed alarm panels with video verification, automation,

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NASKAM SECURITY

with the ability to handle any inputs and outputs and any signals and we needed high level bi-directional communication with the control panel.”

SELECTING THE SYSTEM At the core of the process of future-proofing the Naskam monitoring business was selecting a central station software platform that has the power, flexibility, functionality including long-term support necessary to make it a worthwhile investment. Key aspects of the new system included support for Naskam’s video monitoring services.

“We’ve been doing video in our control room for the last 10 years and it’s a key part of the business,” explains Maksan. “We have 2 types of video verification service – we have the basics like Risco and Videofied but we also do live video for major clients in retail, government and mining with IndigoVision. We quickly came to the conclusion that whatever we took on board had to offer more than traditional alarm monitoring and needed to support more than just a few camera systems, more than the

“There’s a move to making systems and monitoring simpler and simpler but that is not ultimately an advantage to a typical installer or monitoring station. And it won’t take too many aggressive players from outside the industry to shake things up.

industry is currently doing.

Bold Manitou gives us the capability to handle video seamlessly, as well as offering many other functions. It’s powerful but flexible so that if we need to, we can adjust the shape of our solution as we go along. And there’s regular interchange between operators and monitoring station owners/ managers with Bold – it allows all of us to stay up to date and to share ideas and efficiencies – that sense of community is important.”

According to Wright, what Bold offers with ManitouCS is a package that does all the things Naskam needed its new system to do and more.

“We’ve got the UniversalConnector, which allows us to integrate with literally anything. It’s a software receiver that turns SMS, Email, ODBC database, FTP, TCP, GPRS, RSS, UDP and simple files into regular signals that are delivered into ManitouCS as GPS, video, or audible alarms events,” Wright explains. “As well as standard GPS tracking, there’s a new service called B Shield which allows us to provide tracking and duress on smart phones. There’s also integration

with the iView and iMix cloud platforms allowing us to do video verification of almost every mainstream CCTV system on the market supported by a full operator audit trail.

“And all this and more is already worked into Bold – there’s no development needed on that front,” Wright says. “There are now so many integrations we can do, future services we can offer, all tied in with the Bold Genius training solution. There’s no other monitoring software we’ve seen that has the level of training and functionality that Bold offers.”

Vital, given the state of the market, Bold functionality goes in both directions.

“What Bold also brings us is interactive auto-text, a 2-way communication with clients and a level of automation that means the operator only intervenes when they need to,” Wright explains.

“For instance, alarm events might only appear to the operator when there is video verification of an event whereas the rest are handled automatically.

All of a sudden you can manage traditionally busy times without additional operators, and when you reduce the amount of work that the operator is doing, you create additional efficiency, allowing operators to work on other things.”

While Naskam has not offered bureau monitoring services up till now, it will in the near future with

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NASKAM SECURITY

Chad Wright (left) with Maks Makson

Our operators don’t have to think about what to do in high stress situations – they just have to act and that’s better for customers and better for control room managers and better for operators. several integrators already looking to change service providers.

“Another important aspect of ManitouCS is that it gives us the power to offer its full capabilities to bureau clients as well,” explains Wright. “Most monitoring centres that bureau, the installer has very limited engagement. But with Bold there’s an app for technicians for commissioning and trouble shooting and there’s also BoldNet, so we can offer bureau installers the ability to remotely access their systems in multiple ways including data input options if desired.”

THE UPGRADE PROCESS “Obviously with a process like this, completely replacing a live central station’s software, local support is vital?” I ask.

“Yes, it’s imperative and Bold and local distributor, SCSI, have been excellent in that regard,” says Maksan. “It’s great to have such strong support from Bold as well as having a local distributor making sure we have what we need. SCSI has demonstrated that they are fully committed to the system and has invested in training staff – you need to have someone in Australia you can talk to about the product so

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they are championing what you need from the manufacturer. That was a big thing – we needed to make sure we were not on our own. Taking on Bold is a significant investment and we needed to be sure we would get the ongoing support we needed. You want to be able to ring someone in Australia and get immediate support and that’s what SCSI has been able to offer in conjunction with Bold.”

How long has the process being going on – you and JD Security are the first local control rooms to install Bold under the new SCSI partnership – are you fully operational on Manitou?

“We started running signals into Bold in May – all our data is now converted,” says Wright. We are actioning from Bold right now but also running our old system in the background – we have signals going into both systems. From a grading perspective, we need to access historical events so we need to retain that capability to allow operators to access event archives and we always over specify everything in our control room. We’ve not needed to fall back on the old system – Bold has been very stable and is working well.

“Was it a difficult process switching to Bold?” I ask.

“We came into this process with our eyes wide open,” explains Wright. “A lot of control rooms when switching software, often leave things as they are – they change platforms but not the way they do things - they don’t change their processes or functionality.

We had a different approach – we knew Manitou was very different, we wanted it to be different. There have not been any stand-out challenges as it’s been a whole of business process. We have been going to a select group of our clients saying – these are the new things you can do, this is a new level of access you can have, this is the level of automation we can build. We now offer the full capabilities of ManitouCS as our standard monitoring service and that was the whole point of the change.”

DRIVING THE SYSTEM Given Bold Manitou’s flexibility and power, you’d expect the functionality in the monitoring station to feel different and it does. From the operator’s perspective, ManitouCS is an active component of the monitoring process.

“With some monitoring systems when an operator receives an alarm they read notes with multiple options telling them what to do but there’s room for operator interpretation and error – in Bold the response is programmed in,” says Wright. “The operator receives the alarm event and goes to action it and there is one choice. There may be additional choices but the system has already decided based on a range of factors, what the correct choice must be.

“This leaves no room for error or misinterpretation, no long list of options to make sense of – in this case, do this, in this case, do that, which makes response times faster. Our operators don’t have to think about what to do in high stress situations – they just have

to act and that’s better for customers and better for control room managers and better for operators.”

“The pace of the world is faster and when business people are out of the office they don’t want to have to make decisions relating to security events – the automation process follows agreed procedures and customers do not need to be interrupted from sleep or family time in order to decide whether or not to send a patrol. Often people will not even answer a call from a number they are not familiar with and the process of ringing through a list delays operator response. ManitouCS automation resolves that dilemma - what has been designated to happen in a given event, always happens in a given event.”

Maksan agrees.

“ManitouCS works very well,” he says. “Things going on in the background the operator does not need to be bothered with – basic entries and exits and general notifications that can fill up an event log – there’s none of that. Instead the operator only sees the events that are important and is told how to action those events – the priority for the operator is action and this frees up time for other responsibilities.”

TOURING THE CONTROL ROOM Next, we take a tour of the monitoring centre, getting in through the mantrap double doors. The space is open, there are 3 dedicated workstations, a compact server rack along one wall, offices and other facilities at the rear. The atmosphere is quiet as the operators get on with their work, part of which is monitoring customer video feeds. The workstations view video walls and each desk has multiple screens handling different systems in real time. It’s a functional space that allows easy communication between supervisors and other operators.

We take a look at a workstation which is running ManitouCS, IndigoVision and administrative functions on 3 separate screens. According to Wright, the consoles have been designed to allow operators full peripheral vision of the monitors so events on any screen will be drawn to their attention.

They might see an alarm and then the IndigoVision system will pop a video alarm up onto an adjacent screen so they can manage multiple events at a time.

The third screen allows operators to be working on emails or upload/downloads when dealing with technicians or customers over the phone.

I pay attention to the video coming through on the workstation screens from shopping centres – 1080p IndigoVision cameras coming in on 4G and other links. The performance is strong – good depth of field, colour rendition, sharpness and WDR. The image streams are running at 12.5 frames per second. There are three 20Mb pipes coming into the control room to assist handling the remote video, which seems quite modest, given the quality of the image streams.

“Bold is currently doing a high level interface for

us so the hundreds of IndigoVision cameras we monitor live will come directly into the monitoring software via our VPNs,” Wright explains.

“How long did it take to learn the new monitoring software?” I ask the operators.

“It didn’t take long – a couple of months to get completely across it,” says Peter the shift supervisor.

“We did a lot of training online. It’s definitely more capable than the old system.”

CONCLUSION Maksan and Wright are proud of the Naskam central station’s history of over-specification and I get a strong sense the company’s investment in Bold ManitouCS is an expression of this cultural willingness to re-invest in the business. And as they run through the specifications of their new solution, it’s impossible not to agree that the future is already demanding levels of flexibility and support many in the monitoring industry are not equipped to deliver.

Talking with the boys, I also get a sense of their caginess. Maksan points out that while they believed in the Bold product, they chose not to go to Bold’s Headquarters and user conference in Colarado Springs so as to ensure they didn’t become emotionally invested in the system. Instead, they wanted to make their decision with clear heads.

Revelations like this show the importance of ManitouCS to Naskam. It really is their entire future and they know it. This deep engagement with what will work best is good news for Naskam customers.

“If we don’t go to our clients and offer them all the functionality of Bold, the entire exercise of moving to a new software platform is meaningless,” Maksan says. “The best interaction and integration functionality Bold offers will be our standard monitoring service and our customers and our operators are coming with us. The result will be far more capable security solutions and far greater levels of efficiency.” zzz

Features of Bold Technologies’ Manitou CS include: l Process alarms and signals quicker through standard features and add-on modules l Increase accuracy and reduce training times with action patterns and workflows l Handle customer base efficiently, whether 5000 accounts or over 5,000,000 l Maintain control with standard Windows conventions, easy keyboard and mouse use l Protect users from getting lost under a shower of windows with Manitou Navigator l UL 1981 Certified for Central Station and Control Rooms l Includes the SnapReporter module to easily create custom reports.

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VIDEO COMP RESSION

HOT COMPRESS Video compression – it’s all the same thing, right? Wrong. Trouble is, H.264 is a tool box of a standard, not a fixed specification. Manufacturers’ interpretations of the encoding options H.264 offers are subject to enormous variation and users misinterpret these at their peril.

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BY JOHN ADAM S

O

NCE upon a time, life was easy. When you wanted the best possible performance from your video surveillance system you went out and bought Panasonic fixed cameras.

Pelco Spectra domes and S-VHS timelapse recorders and all was good. But things have changed. Performance, which over the past 20 years morphed into a paper specification based on 3 easy to remember numbers (resolution, minimum scene illumination, dynamic range), now makes a mockery of our human cognitive biases. We desperately want there to be 2 or 3 simple numbers to cling to so we don’t have to switch on our prefrontal cortices. Trouble is the specs we cling to are now utterly subjective.

It does not matter what your optical solution and chipset are doing up front – viewing and recording performance now come down to the capability of video coding coming out of a camera’s tailpipe or being laid down by the encoders in DVRs, NVRs or servers. Is the communications path now central to that? You bet it is.

It goes without saying that for many years now, people have been buying H.264 without really knowing what they are buying. What they are buying is a label that describes a list of encoding options compression developers might use.

Whether they take 1 of these options or all 12 will dictate the quality of the video produced and recorded. So while H.264 provides a broad palette of options, it does not specify which options should be used – that selection is entirely up to the manufacturer.

We need to talk about H.264 and to comprehend that H.264 is not something that can be blithely written into a tender specification as a guarantee of compression quality, because it can’t be. Instead H.264 is a general label in the same way the word hybrid might be the label on a car. H.264 says nothing whatever about the performance of a given compression solution.

BASELINE PROFILE Let’s begin by outlining the 12 encoding options that can apply to H.264. They include: I and P Slices, B Slices, Multiple Reference Frames, InLoop De-Blocking Filter, CAVLC Entropy Coding, CABAC Entropy Coding, Interlaced Coding (picAFF, MBAFF), 8x8 vs 4x4 Transform Adaptivity, Quantization Scaling Matrices, Separate Cb and Cr QP Control, Separate Colour Plane Coding and finally, Predictive Lossless Coding.

Of these 12 encoding options, Baseline Profile H.264 might include poor interpretations of 3 or 4 parameters, Main Profile might use 7 encoding options and only High 4:4:4 Predictive Profile will use all 12. At the start of this discussion you want to understand the difference between profiles

and levels with H.264. Put simply, an H.264 ‘profile’ defines a box of coding algorithms (I-Frames, P-Frames, B-Frames, etc), that a developer can deploy in order to build a bitstream said to conform to the H.264 standard.

At the same time, an H.264 ‘level’ actually constrains physical parameters of that bitstream and defines real things like resolution and data rate.

There are a couple of key profiles that apply to H.264, and in this feature we are going to talk about the primary Baseline Profile. At this stage of the game, the H.264 compression most the manufacturers are talking up is this Baseline Profile.

It has benefits but comes with some technological burdens that users and integrators need to be aware of them.

The key feature of Baseline H.264 is that it’s 30 per cent more efficient than MPEG-4 in terms of bandwidth consumption and storage requirements. This is nice and if all you have to do is appease the network administrator, then Baseline Profile will suit you nicely. In terms of its rule set, Baseline with generally use I Frames and P Frames, there will be an In-Loop Deblocking Filter and there will be Multiple Reference Frames. That’s about all you’ll get.

With Baseline Profile, De-Blocking filters are important as they soften the compression variations between the encoding block sizes. This variation is important as there are areas in a scene that need little compression and areas that need a lot of compression. De-Blocking allows a device to achieve this while retaining a natural looking image.

This profile’s use of Multiple Reference Frames.

H.264 uses the image or two before a frame to establish whether or not there was a difference between the images and then uses the earlier images as a reference to make new images. It’s a smart reference that increases efficiency in terms of bitstream but it takes a lot of processing power in the chipset to pull off.

Also valuable with Baseline Profile is Context

It goes without saying that for many years now, people have been buying H.264 without really knowing what they are buying. What they are buying is a label that describes a list of encoding options compression developers might use.

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VIDEO COMP RESSION

The key feature of Baseline H.264 is that it’s 30 per cent more efficient than MPEG-4 in terms of bandwidth consumption and storage requirements.

This is nice and if all you have to do is appease the network administrator, then Baseline Profile will suit you nicely.

Adaptive Variable Length Encoding – the variable length allows tailoring of the image quality required.

CAVLC allows reduction of file size and bandwidth but this too, requires heavy processing. However CABAC is considered to be about 15 per cent better quality that CAVLC for the same data rate.

But there’s another complexity in this discussion.

The general standard for video is MPEG-2 and many devices employ it. The way such devices deliver H.264 is to take this MPEG-2 compression and convert it to H.264 after its capture by the camera at the DVR or NVR and they achieve this using transcoding. Typical H.264 Baseline is a 2CIF encoder (720 x 240) – which is no different to good MPEG-4 in terms of quality.

This 2CIF signal will be transcoded to 4CIF in order to achieve the current perceived gold standard of H.264. Trouble is, the process is undertaken with little regard to what’s happening behind the scenes.

Yes, with Baseline Profile H.264 you get 2.5x better compression but you generally wind up with

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blockier images that are of poorer quality. Latency is another issue. When image streams are being transcoded from the camera to the server the server is doing more work as it battles to handle conversion of the bitstream being stored.

The simplest and most common method used is to completely decode the MPEG-2 bit stream and then re-encode it with an H.264 encoder.

And the quality of transcoding with this simple approach will not be high. The PSNR numbers (the measure of mean square error between input and decoded output) are obtained by averaging the results over 18 different sequences of varying content type and complexities. If the product you buy is transcoding MPEG-2 at 4Mb/s into H.264 this means you will lose 20 per cent compression efficiency.

Suffice to say, end users and integrators need to think hard about all the parameters of the modern networked surveillance system and ensure they only buy H.264 products that meet all their complex requirements. zzz

CREATING THE FUTURE OF SECURITY . . . TODAY

The Security Professionals’ first choice for today’s security infrastructure, from one room to multi-location complexes around the world. Our reputation is based on a time-honored tradition of rock-solid quality, premium reliability and the integrity of DSX and our network of factory-trained, authorized dealers and support.

When you are staking your reputation on a solution - choose the most powerful and intelligent access control systems in the world, choose the total security relationship with DSX.

• No “Per Seat” Licensing In System Pricing

DSX Access Systems, Inc.

• LAN/WAN Compatible

• Alarm Text Message/ E-Mail Notification

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DSX CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS | 10731 Rockwall Road | Dallas, TX USA 75238 | 214.553.6140 | sales@dsxinc.com SEADAN SECURITY & ELECTRONICS | Unit 7, 170 Forster Road | Mt Waverley, VIC, 3149 | (03) 9263-0111 | seadanvic@seadan.com.au | www.seadan.com.au

Quality. Reliability. Integrity. The Security Professionals’ First Choice.

S P E CI AL RE P O RT

NEW PR O D U CT S H OWCASE / NEW P RODUCT SHOWCASE / NEW P RODUCT SHOWCASE /

EDITOR’S CHOICE

WHAT’S NEW IN THE INDUSTRY

HILLS HD-OVER-COAX

GEUTEBRUCK’S G-SCOPE/8000

l Hills has released the powerful range of Pacom HD over coax

l GEUTEBRUCK has added 2 powerful devices to its

recorders coupled with an extensive range of high quality EVOHD cameras. The Pacom HD-over-coax recorders support both HD-TVI and 960H analogue cameras while controlling camera OSD-overcoax. All recorders are capable of recording real time at 2MP (1080p) per channel and comes with a 2TB hard drive (2 x HDD capacity for 4-channel and 4 HDD capacity for the 8 and 16-channel DVRs).

Coupled with a complete range of full HD (1080p) EVOHD cameras, users are able view high quality live footage which is enhanced with the cameras’ day/night and WDR functionality.

“This new range of Hills HD over coax solutions will give customers the opportunity to upgrade existing sites that require DVR or camera replacements due to failure or purely for viewing and recording requirements at Full HD 2MP (1080p). Given the number of Pacom analogue systems installed to date using coaxial cable, this provides a huge database of opportunities. This new range of Hills HD over coax solutions is compatible with the RASplusIP monitoring software, so for customers already using the Pacom PDR range of recorders along with the RASplusIP, no additional training is required for both installation and setup” says Louis Mavrelis, Hills vendor business manager.

G-Scope/8000 Expert Servers - the G-Scope/8000-IP16SAS, with its integrated RAID system, can accommodate up to 16 hard drives. The integrated RAID controller can not only control the internal RAID systems, it can also manage up to 15 G-Scope/8000-JB16 type external JBODs (HDD enclosure), each with up to 16 hard drives. Database sizes of 256TB can be easily implemented.

But along with size always comes the question of controllability.

Access times are important parameters that greatly affect ease of use. This is where the G-Scope/8000 sets a new standard: Even at the maximum database size of 256TB, images are available again after a restart in about one minute. Searching for events brings up results in just a few seconds. The operator has no reason to notice the size of the database.

A high level of reliability and availability are essential at such a system size. In the G-Scope/8000 series with redundant components and server operating system, they are a matter of course. Configuration of the system with RAID level 6 and 1 hotspare hard drive is ideal.

Distributor: Geutebruck Australia Contact: +61 2 8969 6302

Distributor: Hills Contact: 1800 685 487

WIRELESS RELAY MODULE FOR YALE SMARTPHONE ALARM

VIVOTEK NEW 2 MP SERIES

l YALE has made it even easier to control almost any

The 6B line features all the latest and greatest innovation technologies from Vivotek including Vivotek’s Supreme Night Visibility and WDR Pro for excellent image quality and usability.

There’s a built-in IR illuminator with Smart IR to see in complete darkness, remote focus and video rotation for ease of installation and flexibility, and the camera has built-in analytics capability with Vivotek’s Standard Video Content Analysis.

The range comes in bullet, indoor and outdoor fixed dome form factors to provide flexibility of installation requirement.

electronic device via its SmartPhone alarm with the release of the Yale Wireless relay. This powered 5A relay with N/O and N/C contacts, wirelessly links to the Yale controller, providing independent operation via APP or browser.

Additionally units can be activated on events within the alarm system.

The relay utilises ZigBee technology for wireless signal transmission. Based on the IEEE802.15.4 standard, ZigBee allows a large amount of devices to be included in a network and coordinated for data exchange and signal transmission.

Distributor: Security Merchants Australia Contact: 1300 663 904

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l HILLS has released the new Vivotek V-Pro 6B line cameras.

Distributor: Hills Contact: 1800 685 487

N EW P ROD

DUCT SHOWCASE / N EW P RO D U CT S H OWCAS E / NEW PR O D U CT SHOWCASE / NEW P RODUCT SHOWCASE / NEW P RODUCT SHOWCASE /

MOBOTIX MXMANAGEMENTCENTER

DAHUA 4K ULTRA HD NETWORK IR-BULLET

l MxManagementCenter (MxMC) is

exmor sensor, providing high image quality and low-light effect, its IR range is up to 50 metres, which helps to render clear images in dim or dark surroundings.

The camera supports max 30fps@8MP (3840 x 2160) real-time encoding, producing images of high definition during smooth running.

Meanwhile, IPC-HFW81200E-Z adopts a 3.1-13mm motorized lens, which is able to zoom and focus automatically at the same time, and its speed and accuracy is superior to the similar products on the market. Moreover, the camera provides functions such as ultra-defog, RoI, and intelligent detections, including tripwire, intrusion, scene change, missing/abandoned and etc, making surveillance clearer, smarter and user-friendly.

Equipped with the latest DSP, IPC-HFW81200E-Z consumes much less power, and its bit rate has been decreased to around 8Mbps thanks to high-efficiency compression encoding. This camera is also compact in design and easy in installation—a single screw can fix the camera. The external SD card installation and video output are designed for convenience during installation and maintenance.

a MOBOTIX application for PC/MAC systems designed for intuitive user experience, cost savings and flexibility.

MxMC is included in the Mobotix portfolio, with no extra software, license or update costs.

MxMC can be used in projects independent of the number of cameras or the mix of products including doorstation, MxDisplay, accessories, storage devices, etc. All Mobotix products in the network will be automatically detected and can be configured with the new graphical user interface without any web browser, easy and intuitive. It’s possible to set up a complete system of cameras, home automation and alarm devices in the shortest time without extra software and license fees. Especially the configuration management of MxMC will help to reduce installation, configuration and maintenance costs dramatically.

Additional features include an unlimited number of cameras, touchscreenoptimized operation, camera groups with representation in grid and graphic views, grid views with a focus window and many controls, quick display of particular cameras in the focus window by drag and drop from the camera bar, graphic views with freely definable icons, soft buttons used to execute any URL and live windows, quick switching between grid and graphic views, optical and audible alarming of new events and quick switching to the playback view to allow playback of events and continuous recordings.

l DAHUA’S 4K ultra HD Network IR-bullet IPC-HFW81200E-Z uses a 1.8-inch

Distributor: Seadan Security & Electronics Contact: +61 3 9263 0111 & QSS +61 3 9646 9016

TECOM MOBILE APP l Controlling your Challenger system has never been easier with the new Tecom Mobile

app. Tecom Mobile works on iOS and Android devices and connects directly to any IP enabled Challenger10 series of panels.

Control and view the status of Challenger devices via the intuitive interface, allowing users to open doors, arm/disarm areas, isolate inputs or control lighting. Users can quickly view and reset outstanding alarms with events displayed from the panel in a friendly, easy to read format. Program PIN codes or access control cards via the Tecom Mobile app and also edit other user details including access groups and expiry dates.

Distributor: Interlogix Contact: 1300 361 479

Distributor: Mobotix Contact: +61 2 8507 2000

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RE G U LARS HELP DESK

HELPDESK

OUR PANEL OF EXPERTS ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS.

think 4K. With enough light, 4K will sort out your identification issues completely, even at 2-3mm focal lengths. If you go 4K, try to keep light levels over 15 lux everywhere in the scene you need coverage.

Q: I really need to use digital zoom with a fixed 1080p camera of people coming through an entrance point so as to attain face recognition but with my current settings I’m getting loads of pixellation.

A: You obviously want to get situational awareness around the entry point but for face recognition you need to use a longer focal length. This is going to reduce your angle of view and improve resolution in the target area. It’s hard to know how long the focal length needs to be given we don’t know your depth of field but if you need face recognition then you need to forgo some situational awareness from this camera in order to attain it.

A longer focal length will concentrate pixels/resolution and give you superior digital zooming.

Your reference should be AS 4806.2— 2006: Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV)Part 2: Application Guidelines but it’s worth noting that NSW Police have higher standards, perhaps reflecting variables in lighting and WDR but also suggesting that in practice, police experience many images too poor in quality to be useful for facial ID in court.

NSW Police recommend a resolution level for face identification (120 per cent), as a minimum resolution equivalent to 480 Lines over the height of a person.

For a 1.6m high person, this equates to a resolution equal or better than 3.33mm at the target).

Our experience suggests that when using 1080p cameras at 5mm focal lengths you can get face recognition towards 12m in good light. If there is good light 24 hours – a railway station concourse or a service station forecourt - you could

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Q: I’m having trouble with a glass break sensor mounted opposite a glass panelled entry door. Every time the door shuts firmly, the system goes into alarm.

Same applies if there’s a loud noise in the adjacent kitchen – a utensil dropped into the sink or onto the bench. My clients want to cover the door with a glass break but the regular false alarms are really bothering them. What would you recommend?

A: The first thing the users can do is partially mask the glassbreak with a piece of sticky tape they apply only while the system is disarmed until the issue is addressed. That will allow them to close the front door without worrying whether or not they’re going to set the alarm off every single time.

The glass break will still function, but will be less sensitive. You could move the sensor – it sounds like it’s much too close to the glass.

But the fact dropped spoons are generating alarm events indicates the space has multiple hard surfaces, so this may always be an issue.

In our opinion, you should remove this

zone’s 24-hour status. If the zone is designated Arm/Away, it won’t be active when the front door is being accessed with the system disarmed or during the exit delay. Re-designate the zone to Arm/Away and once that’s done, remind the users to remove the sticky tape mask.

Q: Do you think it’s still necessary to have local keypads if you are using a home automation and security system managed by a smart device? Is there a downside, aside from device battery issues?

A: There are upsides as well as downsides to using smart devices as primary interfaces for security and automation systems. Smart devices can be used anywhere at home you happen to be, as well as allowing you to manage the system remotely. Operationally, there is latency but in our experience, the momentary latency you get when using a quality domestic broadband service and a local WiFi link is not a big issue.

However, the most annoying delay relates to logging into the phone, waiting for the app to boot up and then logging into the app. This can take half a minute or more and for this reason an unfixed wireless keypad can be a better instant interface.

If you wake in the night and the perimeter has gone into alarm, you don’t want to be

Wide angle lenses are often seen on low cost, low resolution cameras but the best wide angle performance will come from higher resolution cameras.

fumbling for your phone and waiting for it to emerge from sleep in order to log into an app, while devastating the neighbourhood with a 110dB siren. But you might not want to fumble for a keypad, either. Personally, we’d use a keypad at the front door and in the sleeping quarters, and a wireless pendant on a bedside table at night to turn off stay alarms.

When it comes to managing automation, however, smart devices are brilliant. They’re also ideal if you want to check out a video camera should you hear a noise in the backyard. In our experience, a dedicated domestic tablet set up to be immediately accessible (without a security password) is quicker than mucking around with a smart phone, but logging onto the app still introduces variable levels of latency into the process.

Q: Do wide angle lenses really spread pixels – what other issues will very wide lenses bring to a scene?

A: Wide lens/short focal lengths don’t really spread pixels, they just share the same number of pixels across a very wide angle of view. What they do is exchange high levels of detail in a small part of a scene, for huge depths of field and very wide angles of view that offer excellent situational awareness on a single image stream.

This is a balancing act and it’s up to the installer and end user to decide how they intend to address the application. We think the best option is often one wide angle

covering the whole area and one or more cameras at key points in a scene that offer identification/near identification.

Wide angle lenses are often seen on low cost, low resolution cameras but the best wide angle performance will come from higher resolution cameras, such as DVTel’s Quad cameras or one of a number of 4K cameras.

You can still get situational awareness with a wide view and 1080p but one roll of the mouse wheel and you’ll lose image quality.

Wide lenses give pronounced barrel distortion, stretching the sides and corners of images, They also exaggerate angles between lens and subject, deepen the field of view by making distances appear longer

than they actually are and other weird things that depend on lens quality. Wide angle lenses tend to be fast, and their larger apertures can make them better in low light.

We think 4-5mm is optimum at 1080p resolutions within 12m of the lens for optimum face recognition day and night.

For deeper fields of view, you may want 6-8mm focal lengths. At the expense of low light performance, 4K changes all this completely. 4K offers vastly superior resolution at focal lengths of 2-3mm and angles of view from 80 to 100-plus degrees.

In this regard, 4K is a real game-changer.

Q: How important is collocation of data with IP-based security systems?

A: It depends. With access control, distributed intelligence resides at each controller. Unless cameras are set up for edge storage, it’s different with video surveillance. We think it’s important to recognize the fact that if you’re serious about video surveillance then you need collocation of some data. In some smaller applications you may not bother with it but in essence this is an admission the surveillance system is not so important that you want to retain images in the event theft or fire leads to the loss of onsite hardware.

Something co-location offers is cloudbased storage of events for relatively lowcost CCTV systems. You might only store footage relating to alarm events off-site. You might store the last 48 hours off-site. One of the great things about using a data centre as part of an IP-based security solution is that the cloud-based component can be set up any way you want. And as cost comes down and bandwidth improves (fingers crossed, everyone), the argument for co-location or even dedicated cloud-based CCTV systems becomes stronger. zzz

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events DECEMBER 2015 ISSUE 372

PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGIES OF 2015 l IMPASSA & Alarm.com Review l Geutebruck CCTV School l Dallmeier DF5200HD DN l Monitoring: State of Alarm l Panasonic VL-SWD501AZ Wireless Intercom l Martin Gren: Axis’ Founding Father l Naskam Makes Bold Move

ISC West Date: April 6-8, 2016 Venue: Sands Expo & Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV Contact: 1-203-840-5602 With more than 26,000 industry professionals and more than 1000 exhibits, ISC West is the largest security technology event in the Americas. ISC West’s attendees represent more than $US50 billion in buying power.

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SecTech Roadshow 2016 Date: May 4-18, 2016 Contact: Monique Keatinge on 612 9280 4425 SecTech Roadshow takes up to 20 of Australia’s leading distributors and manufacturers on a national tour – a simple and highly targeted touring tradeshow covering 5 state capitals over 2 weeks during the month of May. In 2016, SecTech Roadshow will visit Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

IFSEC 2016

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Date: June 21-23, 2016 Venue: Excel Centre, London Docklands Contact: www.ifsec.co.uk IFSEC International which took place in London in June 2015, is one of Europe’s largest security expos. The event was a huge success and we're looking forward to 2016, when we’ll be back at Docklands once again.

2016 Security Conference and Exhibition Date: July 20-22, 2016 Venue: Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre Contact: +61 3 9261 4500 Put it in your diary now: 20-22 July 2016. Australasia’s premier security industry event, to be held at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre.

China International Exhibition on Public Safety and Security

= DAILY, WEEKLY, MONTHLY.

Date: October 25–28, 2016 Venue: China Internation Exhibition Center Contact: 8610-68731710 The 13th China International Exhibition on Public Safety and Security 2016 is the biggest security distribution and procurement event in China, and focuses mostly on the big market in North area of China.

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