Digital Video Surveillance
The Gilder Friday Letter, Issue 302.0/July 13, 2007
gilder.com
Abstracts:
Nick Tredennick, Gilder Telecosm Forum (7/13/07): Digital video surveillance will see explosive growth over the next few years. Historically, the surveillance business has used cameras wired to monitors in a system called closed-circuit TV (CCTV).
Going digital
IP-based digital video surveillance, called IPVS (Internet Protocol Video Surveillance), systems are vastly superior to analog CCTV systems. Instead of a dedicated coaxial network and expensive proprietary hardware, IPVS systems can share the office network and use standard computers and peripherals and standard software and operating systems. They are typically Windows based. The server can be located anywhere that's convenient and need not have either a keyboard or monitor.
Operators can maintain the system though a standard web browser from any desktop or laptop computer or even from a PDA. Passwords, biometric authentication, and encryption ensure privacy and security of access to surveillance video. Even though any camera's images can be viewed from any computer connected to the Internet, system administrators can restrict viewing so that maintenance people have access to some cameras and security people have access to others.
A building security guard could call up the view of a surveillance camera, where an alert has occurred, on his handheld device.
For large installations, cameras might page security based on trigger events, such as someone loitering near a perimeter fence at night.
Video resolution can be better, access to video files can be to random time intervals as opposed to the time-sequential access forced by tape recordings, and there are no tapes to wear out. IPVS systems do not need to record all the time as VCR-based systems do. IPVS systems can record at a slow frame rate and increase the frame rate when they detect motion. Using buffering, IPVS systems typically store triggered events (i.e., motion) with a 30-second window on each end of the motion sequence. Time references with the event are very accurate.
CCTV systems require a separate coaxial cable for each camera; in IPVS systems, many cameras can use the same network already in place for computer and Internet access. Video files can be stored at a secure remote location. The ability to add or subtract cameras easily makes IPVS systems much more flexible than CCTV systems.
Where to from here
The transition from CCTV to IPVS is leaving the industry without capable installers. Electricians generally don't have the expertise for network, server, operating system, and application installation and configuration and the computer geeks don't have the expertise for physical installation of the cameras and networks.
In the San Francisco bay area, Angie Wong and Kim Rubin stepped into this breach. Angie's business, Ojo Technology, installs IP-based digital video surveillance equipment. The business was growing too fast to manage, so Angie hired Kim to help streamline and organize all of the businesses processes. Kim reorganized it top to bottom. He wrote detailed procedures for bid submission, organized a menu of equipment options, wrote detailed installation procedures, and documented processes throughout the business. Angie's company went from winning ten to twenty percent of its bids to rarely losing a bid.
This didn't fix the problem; winning more bids meant that the business had to grow even faster. Further, demand was strong and was growing rapidly across the country. But how could Ojo Technology take advantage of latent demand and rapid growth with a business that has work crews restricted to limited geographic areas? The answer is franchising that leverages Ojo's experience and Kim's detailed process documentation. With detailed procedures for bidding, limited menus of qualified equipment, and detailed instructions for computer and network installation and setup, companies that once specialized in analog CCTV systems could begin bidding and installing IP-based digital video surveillance systems.
Angie and Kim's new company, SightMind Inc., is that franchiser. It hopes to be the McDonalds of IPVS installation companies.
Investment
IPVS companies such as Ojo Technology and Milestone Systems, which provides IPVS management software, are privately held and SightMind is a closely held startup, but Axis Communications, which supplies network cameras, video servers, and video management software, is public and is a leader in IPVS systems.
According to IMS Research the world market for networked video surveillance products grew by 42% in 2006 and it is forecast to continue strong growth through 2010, when it is expected to exceed $2.6 billion.
Investing in makers of network cameras, such as Sony and Panasonic, and of video content analysis software, such as Aventura Technologies, might also be a good idea. The problem with investing in Sony and in Panasonic is that network cameras are too small a part of their respective businesses for the growing market to have significant influence on their stock prices. IMS Research expects the world network camera market, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 53%, to reach $1 billion by 2009 and the world video content analysis software market, with a CAGR of 65%, to reach $840 million by the same year.
Of course, video analysis, encryption, compression, and decision-making at the camera means signal processors in every camera. DSP makers Analog Devices, Freescale, and Texas Instruments will benefit as will a raft of multiprocessor startups, such as Ambric, Aspex Semiconductors, Cradle Technologies, Intellasys, and Rapport, that specialize in video applications. Even Altera and Xilinx could benefit as they work to augment or displace DSPs in video applications. A four-dollar Altera Cyclone III chip can process four standard-definition (SD) channels of HDTV simultaneously. [fac: what means this, anyone?]
---
Real-time, Geo-located Data Analysis
Nick Tredennick, Gilder Telecosm Forum (7/13/07): I'm trying to drag George and the forum into a broader range of topics than telecom. Two topics I have spent time on lately are biometrics (fingerprint, facial, iris, DNA) and digital video surveillance.
Gilder Telecosm Forum Member (7/13/07): What about the potential for image monitoring outside the usual spectrum of the human eye? For instance if you had an image chip/processor/sensor in parts of the spectrum that could pickup moisture (or lack of) in farmland or infestation of crops or timber?
Nick Tredennick (7/13/07): What you suggest is called multispectral imaging. It is a big deal in military ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance). I haven't seen it used too much in civilian sectors, but IR (infrared) illumination and IR cameras would be excellent for nighttime monitoring (intruders would be less likely to know they were monitored).
Military systems for collecting iris images use IR illuminators (sometimes at multiple frequencies) to get a better picture. Using an illuminator that the subject doesn't see reduces the liklihood of a blink and it improves collection in a wide range of ambient lighting conditions.
Multispectral imaging is used in farming (one of the few examples I have) with (I think) either aircraft mapping or satellite mapping to analyze farmland soils, crop condition, moisture, temperature, and other indicators.
Gilder Telecosm Forum Member (7/13/07): On the multi/hyper-spectral imaging that is used for agriculture, is that analog that is interpreted by humans or has it made the transition to digital that would enable some of the productivity gains you suggested in your "Digital Video Surveillance" piece?
Nick Tredennick (7/13/07): I have not kept up with recent developments in applications of multispectral imaging to farming. It would be an interesting topic to study. I suggest a Google search for "precision farming" and "multispectral imaging." Using both gets only a few hundred hits. As a further refinement, subtract Australia (-Australia) to leave out descriptions of what seems to be precision farming based on manual analysis of photos in an Australian application.
Precision farming has reached the stage of multispectral digital imaging, but from the few articles I looked at, I did not get the impression that image analysis is automated. Some day we can expect real-time, geo-located data analysis systems that pass information directly to autonomous machines in the field. Machines will deal with issues such as pH in specific areas of the field.
---
Readings /
The Weekly GTI
gtindex.com
Is Icahn Eyeing Samsung?
forbes.com
A New Way of Looking at the Internet
spectrum.ieee.org
Google Lets Users Overlay Data on Personalized Maps
nytimes.com
U.P.S. Embraces High-Tech Delivery Methods
nytimes.com
--
FRIDAY LETTER STAFF
Editor: Mary Collins George / mcollins@gilder.com
Research: Sandy Fleischmann / sfleischmann@gilder.com
--
To become a GILDER TELECOSM FORUM member and read Nick Tredennick's complete report, visit: gildertech.com today.
------ |
