Security, Surveillance and CCTV

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Admittedly, too many articles discussing the merits of Digital CCTV technologies over Analogue technologies in trade publications today are not expressed in layman's terms but rather technical jargon. Too many of the articles rely on misinformation and hype, usually weighted in favor of a manufacturer's product, rather than on the important issues such as ease of use, operational considerations, cost effectiveness or adaptability to an existing system.

Many manufacturer's rep's are relying on customers' ignorance and are hoodwinking them rather than educating them and allowing them to make an informed decision. Take for instance this scenario; a potential user of Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) had requested a quote from each of two providers, stating they would be recording from 32 cameras simultaneously for 30 days. The two suppliers' price quotes differed by 30%. Based solely on price, the end user was about place their order with Company A, thinking they would be getting the better deal. Fortunately, Company B, who had the higher quote, contacted them prior to their committing to their purchase and asked for the opportunity to explain their offer, being certain their solution could not be that much more expensive than the other. Evaluation showed that Company B had quoted 3 x 120GB hard disk drives to achieve the requirement of the end user. They had also quoted a refresh rate of 3.125 frames per seconds. Company A, however had quoted they could store 32 cameras for 30 days on a 20Gb hard disk drive, an impossible task considering current technology would not allow this at the same refresh rates as quoted by Company B By carefully examining the quotations, it was found in small print on Company A's quotation that their storage estimate was based on a recording rate of 1 frame every 2 minutes. A lot can happen in a 2 minute interval in a security situation so effective historical analysis would not have been possible utilizing this solution. Upon seeing this, the customer asked Company A to revise their quote based on the refresh rate of 3.15 frames per second. They did this and it was found that their DVR was not capable of supporting hard disks with sufficient capacity to meet the specification. To meet the requirements, Company A was forced to utilize and external archive unit which drove up the price of their offer to almost twice that of Company B's original offer. This is typical of what we call "spec sheet selling?? which seems to be prevalent in the CCTV industry at the moment, and seems to follow the introduction of new technology in any market where a buyer can be hoodwinked by misinformation.

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