Management professionals, nimbly doing more with less, are quickly modifying business security systems to function as remote management surveillance systems. Adding these management tools to an existing security camera system is one oversight element used to juggle more direct reports at multiple locations and keep tabs on off-site locations in times of emergency.

Some wearily wonder what more can go wrong when business is anything but usual. That’s an excellent planning question. Let’s look at how  prepared you and your team are to manage a natural disaster onsite or at on or more remote locations.

As most of world witnessed in recent years, careers have been made and lost based on critical performance during severe weather related conditions, natural disasters or other states of emergency. Take steps now to create awareness, readiness, preparation, communication and accurate information gathering, the hallmarks of successful emergency management.

First, don’t assume that your company’s security, safety and emergency policies and procedures are top of mind with your employees. Memories do fade quickly. Create awareness and a sense of urgency to get and stay prepared.  An employee emergency preparation training update can be executed quarterly with a simple power point webinar, though some teams will require live onsite training.

Second, get current. It is important to walk through all elements and documents of the emergency plan with key personnel in place today. Inspect the emergency plan paper binders and make sure they are up to date – staff will go to the hard copy when the power fails or the server is down; clarify emergency procedures and reporting systems. It is critical to make these updates after a staff reduction or when an on-site management position is vacant. Be sure that all contact information for the on-site emergency response team is accurate, well detailed and shared with team members.  Clearly define a communication plan that includes a reporting chain of command in an emergency so they will know what they can handle independently and when to call you immediately.

Finally, getting back to business after an event is the third critical piece of the plan. Update documentation and procedures to include a “before”, “during” and “after” emergency response check list for personnel and facilities. Include a post event inspection checklist used prior to re-opening and ramping up post emergency operations.

Begin your plan now to stay in touch and in control during an emergency. Inspect back-up emergency power for critical systems. Business security systems can continue to provide real time and DVR recorded footage of your site(s) in times of crisis when properly engineered with back-up power support. Cameras can be protected with high impact, durable housing that will often withstand severe weather related conditions, natural disasters or other states of emergency.

Plan to remain calm and informed using your internet remote surveillance system. In earthquake prone greater Los Angeles communities like Beverly Hills and Malibu earthquakes are an expected business occurrence. The only question remaining is how big, when and where. In the Southern California communities of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties wildfires are common during dry Santa Ana wind conditions. Successfully managing a crisis or emergency requires pre-planning, continuous communication and up to date accurate information. A well engineered remote internet security system is an important tool for keeping you in touch, informed and better managed during times of threat and emergency.

About The Author

Teresa Penza, founder and President of NetCam LA, has been in the security industry for more than 10 years. She has designed and engineered  business security systems for a wide range of small business, retail, warehouse, commercial, industrial, government and healthcare applications. A partial list of Net Cam LA clients include Starbucks, Victoria’s Secret, Blockbuster, Taco Bell, Emerson, Closet Maid, Los Angeles County, ML King Hospital, UCLA Hospital and ADP Tax and Financial Services.  You can visit her at the NetCam LA website www.netcam-la.com.

Remote internet security systems can leverage time, travel and talent savings for managers that may now oversee twice the number of distant locations after lay-offs thinned their ranks. An existing security camera installation can be expanded to do double duty as a remote management tool that lets manager’s recession proof their ability to stay in touch and in control of distant locations, especially when staffing levels leave gaps in on-site supervision or a poor performing site requires closer oversight.

Closed circuit television surveillance camera systems, are a mainstay in the retail, restaurant and warehouse sector. CCTV security systems are traditionally used to deter theft and property damage, reduce shrink, prevent fraudulent workers compensation insurance claims and gather incident information. Now CCTV is appearing in professional, sales and management office suites along with other automated productivity measures.

Since the downturn, new security camera installations in Los Angeles and outlying Southern California field offices are increasingly being used to remotely manage performance, and productivity while minimizing face-to-face oversight of multiple small to mid-size teams. Coupled with remote access software key loggers, entrance access control systems and other IT based productivity measures, CCTV now serves as a remote set of management eyes and ears in business offices.

Real time, well placed camera monitoring tools prevents the “isolation factor” and offsite locations are no longer out of sight and out of mind when multiple cameras continually scan many views of the property, and personnel on one computer screen while working on another.

Off-site management is informed by time of day, work area and even individual staff member if necessary. This DVR recorded information can be reviewed later at the convenience of the distance management team. It can be cued to motion detection points and other relevant searches of recordings to get needed information fast.   Data captured can help guide solutions to reverse productivity problems, getting a poorly performing location up to speed.

Access control systems can be integrated into your remote internet security system to track each time employee’s arrive and depart the location. Access control systems, using access cards rather than keys, can compliment internal security surveillance and improve your dash board of productivity indicators with time tracking of employee punctuality, and attendance.

How do you keep your finger on the pulse of off-site action without making employees feel like “Big Brother” is watching? Typically, employees respond favorably to access control systems and security camera installations that are designed to improve their personal safety and security. In corporate or small business environments, it is advisable to conduct a complete safety and security assessment including a review of all related processes, policies and procedures to screen for gaps, before upgrading or installing business security systems in workplace areas.

Assess all aspects of security monitoring, surveillance, alarms, access control, work flow traffic and gathering points in key sectors of workplace area. Solicit and integrate employee feedback as a part of the review used to plan or upgrade your CCTV and access control systems. Contact Net Cam-LA professionals conduct the assessment and engineer your system design upgrades to meet your customized remote management needs.

Once the new or upgraded security camera installation is complete, take time to educate employees on the overall value of improved workplace security and productivity. National studies show that on average 68 percent of employees perceive their colleagues do not work as hard as they do. Proving this perception right is not likely to achieve quick buy-in from staff, but it may elicit a nervous laugh or two.

Customize your presentation to the location. Work force attendance, performance and productivity monitoring are features of access control and security camera installations that managers are advised to address in a straightforward way with staff, emphasizing improvements to the broader safety, management and sustainability of the off-site location and the long term profitability of the business enterprise.

About The Author

Teresa Penza, founder and President of NetCam LA, has been in the security industry for more than 10 years. She has designed and engineered  business security systems for a wide range of small business, retail, warehouse, commercial, industrial, government and healthcare applications. A partial list of Net Cam LA clients include Starbucks, Victoria’s Secret, Blockbuster, Taco Bell, Emerson, Closet Maid, Los Angeles County, ML King Hospital, UCLA Hospital and ADP Tax and Financial Services.  You can visit her at the NetCam LA website www.netcam-la.com.

Perhaps the biggest issue that NetCam LA security systems in Los Angeles has faced regarding the IP Megapixel cameras to date is how to cope with the volume of data produced, which demands more bandwidth and storage volume. However, improved compression algorithms, more widespread gigabit Ethernet deployments and reductions in storage prices mean that these issues are being addressed.

IP Security  Megapixel cameras have also suffered from low-light performance issues which have limited their deployment and end-user appeal. This issue is being addressed by the sensor manufacturers and the low light performance of IP security megapixel cameras is gradually improving, such that they can now compete in environments where previously lower resolution cameras with better light sensitivity were used.

Many end-users have shied away from IP Security megapixel cameras because of the high cost compared with standard resolution cameras. However, it should be noted that often this extra cost is offset because a single IP Security megapixel camera provides the same coverage as several standard resolution cameras. The price of IP Security megapixel cameras in Los Angeles is also falling and this will likely attract more end-users to ‘spec’ these cameras for their projects.

The market has been held back to some extent by the low number of companies supplying IP Security megapixel cameras in Los Angeles. Over the next two years the industry can expect to see a number of new companies enter the market, particularly some of the larger video surveillance camera manufacturers. This will likely benefit the end-user as improved feature sets will be offered at lower costs as the competition heats up.

“This market has been held back while a range of technical problems have been overcome. However, the market is now poised for a period of rapid growth,” said IMS Research analyst Alastair Hayfield.

IP Megapixel Surveillance Cameras: Worth the Price?

Why are so many end users switching to IP security megapixel camera technology, or at least examining this technology at tradeshows and in project bids? The main reason is price. That probably sounds confusing since the conventional wisdom is that a reliable, industrial-quality IP megapixel network surveillance camera is three or even four times more expensive than comparable low resolution (4CIF) security cameras. How can the IP megapixel surveillance camera be cheaper?

Video Surveillance Goals in Los Angeles

Before we take up price, let’s first discuss why an end user would even consider the IP security megapixel camera? This is the most important question because in some instances IP megapixel security cameras may not be appropriate. Before you look at any camera or NVR/DVR combination you have to initially define the goals for your video system. For simplicity, we narrow the security goals down to three categories:

1. General Surveillance in Los Angeles: These are applications; often live viewing, where you don’t need detail on recorded video. For instance, you may be watching a road and looking for traffic jams but do not need to read license plates. Or you may be looking to see what a crowd is doing but do not need to recognize faces. You may simply want to detect when someone is in a restricted area so you can respond immediately.
2. Forensic: These are applications where you need to see, record, and recognize images like license plates and faces, so you can go back “after the fact” and determine exactly what happened.
3. High Detail: Applications where you need to read a license plate but also read the model of the car. In a retail or banking context, you need to clearly see the customer’s and employee’s faces as well as identify the currency in their hands.

By assigning a category to your application you are, in fact, defining the resolution requirements. With older surveillance system technology, resolution was defined by its TVL (television lines, a.k.a. total video lines). Over the last few years the market has evolved to defining resolution by the total number of pixels. This is more objective when comparing products that have different resolutions.

So, when an image is 640 x 480, that is actually 640 (horizontal or columns) pixels x 480 (vertical or rows) pixels, for a total of 307,200 pixels, or approximately 0.31 of a megapixel (million pixels).
IP CCTV has been around for a number of years now and it’s interesting to just pause and consider who is committing to it as their chosen surveillance technology. Megapixel IP security cameras will become the standard for CCTV applications  in Los Angeles as the market trends and patterns are already developing.

Of course there are many other factors that we can debate; bandwidth, storage, cost, compression standards, etc. But for article one, let us just consider that the analogue versus IP debate should fizzle-out soon simply because analogue CCTV cameras cannot improve significantly on 540TVL resolution; which in turn means that each camera should only view a scene width of 4.3m or 14ft.

People have greater expectations now, they can do so much with cheap digital stills cameras and their PCs (not to mention what they see via the internet). They are often disappointed with analogue CCTV performance; currently conscientious surveyors, consultants and installers have to take time to brief their clients properly and spend most of that time explaining the limitations of CCTV, what it won’t do, setting realistic expectations, explaining why a camera can only cover a small scene width effectively.

In truth there is no way that the public was ever going to persist with VHS VCRs once DVD players became affordable, and in time we will all move on to blu-ray and HDTV, it’s just a matter of price performance ratio.

IP megapixel security cameras and multi-megapixel surveillance technology in Los Angeles

Megapixel Surveillance Camera (2MP) – Gas Station

Below is a sample video from a high-end, standard analog camera installed at a gas station. This clip was taken right before the camera was removed and replaced with an Arecont Vision AV2100 – 2 Megapixel Camera. A clip from that camera was shot immediately after installation approximately forty minutes later.

Analog Video Footage

The conversion to a hosted flash video takes away the actual ability to read every license plate and see every face. The original video was shot at 1600×1200 lines of resolution from the Arecont camera. The analog camera that was replaced shot in 640×480 lines of resolution. Just imagine the high-def clarity of the Arecont camera at nearly eight times the recorded image size and field of view.

Arecont 2MP High Definition Footage

The advantages of this technology hardly need to be explained. The security inherent in capturing recognizable facial details and 100% of all license plates goes without saying.

Here is a still shot from an Arecont 2MP camera taken in a similar automotive environment but shot from much higher up.

Click on the image below to see it full size, and you can easily see detail unlike any other camera…