Video Monitoring 2021: Your Guide to Video Monitoring
Video Monitoring (also referred to as Video Verification) is the practice of remotely observing sites for security purposes. When we receive an alarm from your security system, the camera that’s mapped (i.e. that corresponds) to the detection device that activated, presents live and recorded video for us to review. It’s an essential service that can save businesses time, effort, and money while increasing their security coverage.
The concept has come a long way since the days of CCTV rooms and control rooms with a wall of screens. Today’s Video Monitoring solutions leverage your existing video surveillance system, cloud technology and artificial intelligence to reduce the human cost of surveillance.
For this article, we’ll be diving into how the video monitoring landscape looks in 2021. Along the way, we’ll paint you a picture of its benefits, requirements, and examples of how modern remote surveillance helps to increase operational efficiencies.
What Does Video Monitoring Look Like Today?
When the average person thinks of video surveillance, the image that comes to mind is usually that of a person sitting with their eyes glued to row upon row of monitors.
Clearly, this is an outdated model, and the industry & technology has moved a long way past total reliance on human observers (and the risks of human error that they bring) and increasingly uses video analytics to process video streams, to detect and classify objects including people, bikes, cars and trucks.
Between now and then, we saw the introduction of time-lapse feeds and video motion detection replacing continuous recording — fixes that reduced the amount of data that needed to be stored and led to a boom in the viability and effective use of video monitoring.
More recently, IP cameras and cloud technology (using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer) have led to another renaissance for Video Monitoring.
Today’s CCTV deployments are intelligent: software and machine and AI-based analytics make it possible to identify and remotely respond to security events as they happen in real-time.
Cloud technology also allows businesses and organisations to use powerful technology without investing in costly transmission infrastructure. Using our Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Video Monitoring platform, you can integrate with video management systems, network video recorders, encoders and cameras from over 170 leading manufacturers like AXIS, Genetec, Avigilon, Milestone & Geutebruck. The platform will turn your reactive video management system into a proactive security imperative.
What Can Video Monitoring Do for You?
Video monitoring offers several distinct advantages for its users. Just take a look at the following benefits and scenarios:
Stop Wasting Time with False Alarms
Naturally, we begin this list by illustrating how Video Verification, the number one benefit of Video Monitoring, can lead to better security.
The core promise of remote surveillance was to enable faster response times to alarm events. Detector and video-analytic driven Video Verification and live video streaming were always supposed to work in tandem with professional security personnel to get boots on the ground as quickly as possible in an incident.
Today, video monitoring makes good on that promise of value. It makes it possible to cover large areas without the need for guards — the integration of security systems with CCTV cameras, network video recorders and video management systems and monitoring them remotely maximise your Monitoring Centre and your teams’ efficiencies.
Features & Benefits
- Quickly verify if an alarm is false or real
- A detector-driven event can trigger a video clip for review by an Operator
- A video-analytic rule on a camera or VMS detects an object and triggers a video clip for an Operator to review
- Reduce false alarms caused by faulty detectors, animals & insects, wind and rain
- Reduce costs by stopping security staff responding to false alarms
- Improve OH&S compliance – by stopping nominated security contacts being woken by calls about false alarms
Camera Health Monitoring-as-a-Service
The as-a-service payment model allows customers to avoid capital-intensive equipment purchases and instead pay for services on a subscription basis (usually monthly, quarterly or yearly in advance).
Camera Health Monitoring is no exception to the trend. We proactively monitor & report CCTV faults that may take your staff days, weeks, or months to notice and report.
Sometimes an unexpected power loss, network or hardware failure can result in loss of video at a time when you might need it most. Our Camera Health Monitoring service remotely connects to your CCTV and video surveillance systems and retrieves and analyses diagnostic information detecting common problems such as:
- Camera Uptime – any time a camera loses connectivity we receive an alarm – camera off-line notifications can be escalated to our Service Team for follow-up or for a service technician to attend
- Network failure notifications
- Hardware failure notifications
- Fully remote access with highly secure permissioning & connectivity 24/7
- Full connectivity to door stations and other critical access points
This allows us to serve as a single point of contact for a range of essential service and maintenance services.
Enhanced Employee Care
We’ve established that the latest tools are good for your organisation. But the benefits trickle down to your people on the ground as well, in many meaningful ways.
Your on-call security contacts can enjoy better sleep and reduced workplace stress courtesy of our Video Monitoring services. Because we can view the causes of false alarms in real-time, they can conserve their energy and turn up for work rested, instead of being woken during the night to make decisions about false alarms.
The average member of your staff can also work with greater peace of mind, knowing that their office’s security systems are watching over them. This translates to benefits like:
- Remotely escorting staff (particularly those late shifts)
- Early notification of fire, flood and other emergencies
- Reliable and responsive alarm services for security incidents (ex. hold-ups, robberies, thefts)
Significant Cost Reduction
Moore’s Law suggests that the efficiency of technology is growing exponentially over time — and you can see proof of that at work when you look at today’s video monitoring solutions.
Adding Video Monitoring services is easy when you’ve got a compatible video surveillance system or cameras already installed and on your network. Video Monitoring services provide cost reductions on multiple fronts, including:
- Stop security staff responding to false alarms
- Improve OH&S compliance & reduce costs
- Reduced need for ad-hoc physical mobile patrols
- Greater incident prevention and reduced costs
- Eliminating the cost of a doorman or concierge with remote verified access for deliveries
Conclusion
Regardless of the size and nature of your business, there’s always a compelling case for video monitoring for your locations. Considering the power, convenience, and effectiveness of the technologies behind modern systems, today’s security investments are more cost-efficient than ever before.
Contact us today if you have any questions about physical security services or would like to learn more about the kinds of solutions that a professional integrated security provider can offer.
Our long history serving businesses, organisations, and local governments across Australia has taught us how to integrate complex security technology.
Taking your specific needs and circumstances, we will map out ways to help reduce your security expenses and protect your valuable assets.
The future of security technology is shaping up nicely, but the truth is that there’s no better time to invest in your organisation’s safety and well-being than right now. The future can wait — Video Monitoring is already doing a superb job.
Call us on 1300 556 334 or email [email protected] to learn more.
Customers in New Zealand call 0800 345 677 or email [email protected].
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