Analysts estimate that by 2013, more than 50 percent of all video surveillance deployments will be managed by IT on the IP network in order to support the coming deluge of bandwidth-heavy video data.
Similar to the evolution of telephony, physical security is becoming an IP-based solution to optimize scalability and reduce complexity and costs.
To support this evolution, Cisco has announced Video Surveillance Manager 7.0, the industry’s first solution built from the ground-up and certified to run in virtualized computing environments, making it possible for customers in healthcare, public sector and retail to move beyond traditional basic safety and security surveillance deployments and use video to transform the way they run their businesses through hyper-scalability and ease of configuration.
Ed Christmas understands the potential complexities that bringing high-definition video onto the network can entail.
As the managing principal of Sology Solutions, one of our Premier Certified safety and security integrators, he’s worked for the last couple of years to define a video strategy for his customer Dallas County. The plan involved recommending the newly re-architected Cisco Video Surveillance Manager 7.0 as the cornerstone of a business transformation project that goes far beyond just simply improving safety and security for citizens and employees. It aims to help improve the way that services are delivered to citizens.
A key factor in Sology’s choice as a partner lies in the ease of deploying this new video surveillance solution, which was completely rebuilt from the ground up for very large scale video deployments. In this video Ed describes how he was able to go into the customer at 10am in the morning, deploy the software in a virtualised Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) environment, set up the IP video surveillance cameras and have the whole system up and running and providing operational HD video feeds back to Dallas County’s Tax Assessor office within hours. His team were on their way back to the office by 2pm that afternoon.
By taking advantage of another key Cisco innovation, the Cisco medianet proxy service, Ed’s engineers were able to automate the configuration of cameras on the network. MSP is a function of the Cisco switching infrastructure that builds on innovations such as SmartPorts. Using MSP, the network automatically recognizes the new device plugged into the switch port as a video surveillance camera, allocates it an IP address, places it into the correct VLAN, reserves the right amount of bandwidth for delivering video streams to operators and prioritizes the video traffic automatically.
Today, about half of the video surveillance cameras sold are IP (versus analog) cameras. Manufacturers are using video surveillance to ensure safety and security on plant floors and to reduce shrinkage in warehouse and retail locations.
Neil Peterson, the senior manager for wireless marketing at Emerson Process Management was recently quoted in a Control Engineering article, saying that “process plants identified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as critical to the country’s infrastructure must be secured against all threats: cyber and physical”.
In support of the growing demand for IP-based video surveillance in industries including manufacturing, Cisco recently introduced Video Surveillance Manager 7.0 with a suite of hyper-scalable connected physical security solutions. These can help manufacturers support their video surveillance deployments and configurations in a hyper-scalable and flexible manner.
Cisco’s Guido Jouret, General Manager Emerging Technologies and CTO, discusses Video Surveillance Manager 7
Video Surveillance Manager 7.0, along with Cisco’s related end-to-end Connected Physical Security Solutions give plant and IT managers access to robust video surveillance scalability, network aware intelligence, streamlined implementation and simplified management.
For more information, please see Cisco’s recent press release or contact your local Cisco account representative.
Global government agencies are benefiting from video technologies to help ensure safer communities, reduce costs, and deliver more efficient services for citizens.
National security, public safety and emergency response organizations face challenges and increasing demands to help ensure safety and security. In a crisis situation, every second counts. Potentially life-threatening situations change in a heartbeat, and decisions must be made in seconds. Video surveillance technologies enhance situational awareness and act as a force multiplier to scale critical resources.
Video technologies are also helping government organizations scale and increase efficiency and to better serve citizens.
Video can help protect people and communities, it can also help improve the delivery of citizen services and streamline traffic flows on congested highways. Linking the intelligent network of real-time video sensors helps government agencies capture intelligence and deliver services for citizens.
Video and education are a natural pair in many ways. With distance learning on the rise, it’s no surprise that more universities are turning to video as a way to scale their faculty and brand in ways never before thought possible. But what about K-12 education? Does video make sense in this learning environment?
To answer this question, we decided to take a look at one of our most innovative K-12 education customers, Mobile County Public School System (MCPSS) in Alabama. With 91 schools, 60,000+ students, and 8,100 employees spanning 1,200 square miles, MCPSS needed a comprehensive solution to help connect and share knowledge across campuses.
Campus communications, professional development, inter-school collaboration and lecture capture were just some of the areas that MCPSS was looking to address with Cisco’s Video solutions. With this in mind, MCPSS installed digital signs in the lobbies and cafeterias to help keep students, parents and teachers informed, while also helping to spark “incidental learning”.
