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Beyond DVR and NVR

Decoupling the hardware from the software reveals the heart of the matter: open platform IP video management software (VMS) is the key to an optimal, flexible, cost-efficient and long-term system.

Decoupling the hardware from the software reveals the heart of the matter: open platform IP video management software (VMS) is the key to an optimal, flexible, cost-efficient and long-term system.

One of the big drawbacks of the traditional CCTV world is the proprietary systems that have left so many customers with out-of-date surveillance technology. By choosing one manufacturer’s DVR or NVR, here is what happens:

* Future expansions and integrations are limited to products from this one manufacturer. But no one manufacturer alone is able to keep up with the pace of innovation across the full spectrum of security technology. The freedom of choice provided by a best-of-breed open and independent video management software assures that you can always add components or integrate other systems that become available with new and better functionality.

* In the long run, the total cost of ownership for a one-vendor product will always be higher than the cost of owning an open platform solution. When estimating the full cost of an IP video solution, the cost of the management software is no more than about 10%. So a relatively small saving at the time of initial acquisition of a one-vendor, combined offering can prove to be immensely expensive over the lifetime of your installation.

Confusion about NVRs versus VMS

There is a lot of confusion in the market over the difference and functionality of a network video recorder (NVR) versus a video management software (VMS) solution. Milestone Systems provides the latter of the two and the difference is significant. An NVR and VMS both support analogue and network cameras, which are commonly referred to as hybrid systems. A true open platform VMS is what decouples the hardware from the software to give the end user a better solution that lasts much longer.

An NVR is an appliance and a VMS solution is a non-appliance. When purchasing an NVR it is like buying a common household appliance with the software preloaded on to the hardware. This means that what you can do with an NVR is limited because the internal elements to the appliance have already been chosen for you by the people who designed and built it. While this works great for common appliances and might even suffice for some security installations, it is not the best you can do. In fact, many times a predetermined vertical solution limits how you can use your appliance. Despite what your intentions are for an installation when buying an appliance, you are accepting a series of decisions made by the makers of that particular piece of hardware.

The biggest complaint among end users about DVRs is the low mean time between equipment failure – just like what the University at Buffalo has discovered. Due to the fact that an NVR basically is a DVR with digital video management software embedded in it, it will have the same hardware limitations as a DVR at a comparable price.

Future-proofing your surveillance solution

In many cases an out-of-the-box plug-and-play system can be what an end-user thinks they want, and an NVR solution that supports both analogue and network cameras works fine initially because the system is running with a preconfigured functionality. However, as surveillance is moving to a more advanced state of technology across virtually every sector, many end-users over time find they need a system that is much more flexible both at the server and at the edge (cameras). The goal is to get an optimal video solution with flexible options for your needs today and tomorrow. To enable best-of-breed combinations and ensure keeping up with the speed of innovation by integrating technical improvements over time, only true open platform VMS is future-proof.

One of the factors that make a digital video management system the ultimate in freedom of choice is the ability to build the video system to your exact specifications and needs from the ground up – and as things change. You can select just the right mix of cameras, processor, RAM, storage and disk system to deploy and sustain the optimal security system.

For the sake of the NVR vs VMS debate, an open platform holds its relevance by decoupling the software from the hardware to allow free use of standard off-the-shelf hardware components. This lets you optimise the performance of your solution while having the freedom to pick and choose what hardware is optimal for their implementation. You can also select from more competitive pricing.

Separate the hardware and software

IP network cameras (megapixel and otherwise) are essentially a combination of camera and computer in one unit. They have their own CPU and IP address. They capture and transmit live images directly over an IP network, enabling authorised users to locally or remotely view, store, and manage video over standard IP-based network infrastructure and the Internet.

It is no surprise that most security vendors want to create their own camera management solutions inside their equipment. Just like any computing hardware, it is the software that makes them useful. It is the video surveillance management software you choose that makes the hardware components into a cohesive and efficient surveillance system. In fact, not only does this software enable you to monitor and control your cameras and operator access plus archive and work with the video data, but if you choose the right software it can add many other valuable capabilities.

Here is an example of adding valuable capabilities. Using open platform IP video surveillance management software, intelligent IP network cameras can be programmed through video analytics (software technology used to analyse video for specific data such as the suspicious movement of people or assets) to recognise events such as a person entering the scene or a package being left unattended, and trigger alerts that can be sent over the Internet to a desktop computer, laptop, PDA or cellphone.

This opens all kinds of opportunities for cost efficiencies. For instance, instead of using local security staff to view monitors, monitoring can be centralised nearly anywhere in the world. What is more, in many cases, video analytics can be used instead of people to watch over sites. Cameras can even be programmed to only keep video before and after an event to reduce the amount of captured footage and network traffic.

The alerting capabilities of IP video management software are particularly powerful. They can enable you to become more proactive in your response to situations. Imagine a camera filming someone suspiciously moving around parked cars. While it records, it sends an alert that goes to the nearest security officer, who views the live footage on a laptop or PDA and then knows how to respond. If the software offers digital zoom capabilities, then even if the camera is not a PTZ IP network camera, the officer could still zoom in with the software on the image of the person to observe more closely what he is doing and if he is armed.

Integrating video analytics with open platform video management systems gives a flexible choice of hardware and software that greatly expands the potential for video analytics and increases the value of archived video. System maintenance is greatly simplified and daily monitoring is empowered with central or remote console operation, collection and correlation of data from multiple components. Flexibility and scalability are unmatched, with the ability to make moves, adds or changes easily over time, incorporating new innovations as they become available – no matter which companies offer them.

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