The DVR era as we know it is over, claim manufacturers DVTel.
In the beginning, there Was the VCR
Analogue CCTV systems for security and surveillance applications gained popularity back in the 1970s. As security challenges increased and technological innovation grew, analogue systems proved ineffective and inefficient for all but the smallest security environments. As end users sought a more high performance, cost-effective alternative to the limited VCR, digital video recorder (DVR) technology emerged in the mid-90s. The DVR offered a number of highly compelling benefits over analogue recording including: image superiority, increased storage space, near instant access to key information, reduced maintenance time and costs, and highly flexibly recording control.
The DVR Reaches its Apex
According to the 2003 J. P. Freeman and Co., Inc. CCTV report, DVRs now comprise approximately 75pc of all new installations. DVR technology did represent a major improvement over analogue in cost and performance. There are now hundreds of manufacturers each with a proprietary DVR architecture and the number seems to be growing every day. In the last few years, end users with analogue CCTV systems hastened their migration to DVR technology because it seemed to represent the newest, best technology. From today’s vantage point though, DVR technology is rapidly becoming obsolete and over-priced and is increasingly seen as unable to meet the changing needs of today’s enterprise level systems, and certainly those of tomorrow.
Examine DVR technology closely and you’ll find it’s actually a hybrid—part digital, part analogue. The DVR is a PC and hard drive-based VCR replacement, and it still requires all those analogue coaxial cables. In other important ways, DVR technology doesn’t support the real needs of end users in the market for a multi-site, multi-building enterprise solution. Why? The vast majority of DVR’s have a limited number of control inputs and outputs for interfacing and integrating to various systems and devices. Most digital video recorders today have no matrix switching functionalities for security communication and surveillance control centres. The DVR industry, as yet, has no clear software standard for digitalization and compression, and most manufacturers use closed source codes that limit third party application development and high-level integration with other systems.
Because the DVR is not a total digital system, it has built-in inefficiencies that further demonstrate its limitations: Why do a digital-to-analogue conversion in the camera, transmit the signal over an expensive coax cable, just to make an analogue-to-digital conversion at the DVR? These multiple conversions slow down performance and increase total system cost. Clearly an alternative to the DVR was needed, and that next technological evolutionary step is the Network Video Recording System (NVRS).
The Next Step after the DVR: Enter the NVRS
Video surveillance over Internet Protocol (IP) uses private and public networking to allow access to real-time video, anywhere there is a network connection.
The DVR and network video share a number of beneficial features and functions: recording to digital hard disk; no tape maintenance; consistent, high-quality images; fast, easy image retrieval; access to recorded video over IP networks; and more. However, a more comprehensive comparison of the two technologies reveals that network video technology offers a number of significant advantages over today’s DVR.
How the NVRS Compares to DVR technology
As we’ve seen, DVR technology is not a destination; rather, it’s one stage in the continuing evolution to more flexible, cost effective security and surveillance technology. How does NVRS technology compare with a typical DVR solution?
DVR Functionality and more
A network video recorder (NVR) offers all the features of legacy DVR’s—recording of video and audio; fast image retrieval time; encryption of all the digital information; wireless viewing from cell phone or PDA; system control via a map or a camera list; and automatic, event-driven pop-up screens and audio clips—but as we’ll see below it offers so much more: complete matrix functionality; a software only solution; virtual redundancy using the network; and the ability to add a single camera simply by adding a software license.
Uses the Existing Network
Connect an NVRS system in two ways—through an existing Ethernet network or by leveraging the existing telephone infrastructure—to create a dedicated security network. Either way you eliminate the need to pull wires or lay new fiber, and there’s no need to run additional coax cabling. A typical, high-end NVRS system lets you use your existing networking infrastructure, computer hardware, analogue cameras and matrix keyboards to create a fully digital system that replaces a DVR, matrix switch, and multiplexer.
Matrix capability
Unlike a DVR-based system, the NVRS camera and/or video source is all-digital, so the network becomes a true virtual matrix switcher, complete with all the capabilities of a analogue matrix switch, and it’s part of the network so it can share information and resources.
Scalability
What happens with a DVR if you want to add two cameras after initial installation? You have to order a new DVR that usually comes in increments of eight inputs. That’s expensive and time-consuming. With an NVR system, adding cameras is as easy as ordering licenses—no major expense, no technician, and no downtime.
Reliability
Unlike a DVR, a NVR can have complete redundancy simply by redirecting the video to a new destination over the network in case of server failure. What’s more, with the NVR’s single port encoders you eliminate the single point of failure problem common to most DVRs.
Frame rate and image quality
With top-of-the-line NVR solutions, you can view all cameras at one rate (25 fps PAL) as you would do on your matrix system and record them at a different frame rate (from 1-25 fps per camera)—enabling maximum efficiency in managing bandwidth demands for transmission and storage.
Storage costs
Half or more of a DVR’s cost can come from storage. A NVRS reduces storage demands by employing MPEG-4 compression over the network instead of coaxial cabling. An NVRS solution can save 20 to 30pc in recording and storage costs over the DVR just by moving the video compression to the source (the camera), away from the traditional recording unit (the DVR).
Hardware costs and flexibility
NVR technology adapts to a user’s current infrastructure and hardware. It runs on off-the-shelf computing hardware, not proprietary hardware like a DVR—bringing system costs down significantly. When new PC hardware with greater CPU processing power becomes available, you can add them to new installations with full compatibility with other locations running different hardware because the NVRS software has interoperability with every other location.
Protection
Standard DVRs don’t have virus protection, so each time a virus attacks, an end-user may have to "clean" or re-install all the DVRs. Because the NVR is based on standardized networking protocol and runs on an off-the-shelf computer, it stays equipped with the latest virus protection.
Future Proof
Buy a DVR and you own a box. In two or three years, needs will change, but the box won’t adapt and it’s time for a new one. Worse, your entire system may need upgrading or replacement. Then it’s "forklift" time. The NVRS is a software-driven system; you never have to throw it away. As new versions of NVR software or different compression methods become available, users can upgrade without changing any hardware.
These ten points of comparison effectively demonstrate that Network Video Recording Systems represent a high-performance, cost-effective alternative to DVR technology. There’s no doubt that DVR technology has delivered significant improvements in terms of capabilities and overall security system management. But the current analogue-input DVR box is by no means the final word in the evolution of CCTV recording technology—far from it. If you’re going to go digital, you want the entire system to be digital. For this reason, the DVR Era as we know it has come to an end.
Future Trends for Networked Video Security: the Incredible Shrinking Operations Centre and MISM
As security management increasingly moves to the network, hardware integration has accelerated and many hardware components we’ve grown accustomed to are being replaced by software functionality. The net result is a real "shrinking" of the security operations centre in which powerful functions have been folded into an integrated, user friendly GUI. The NVRS’ flexibility and integration potential offer tremendous potential for applications that radically transform how we view and manage security applications today, and it holds the promise of value-added non-security applications as well. Consider:
Those in positions of power and responsibility for security environments both large and small are faced with the need to make critical decisions on a daily basis. The difference between making the right and wrong decision is fundamentally dependent on having relevant and timely information to support the decision-making process. In the security arena, the right decision can save thousands of lives and billions of pounds.
Yet, in today’s security environment, staff often do not have the time or the resources to efficiently extract from disparate, multiple sources the information that is essential to the decision making process. Without the synergies of multiple sources of information combined and analyzed, essential decision inputs are lacking. Networked-based systems have the power to solve this problem by accessing and correlating information from multiple systems and databases and employing software processes to generate intelligence in real time. We call this technology Multi-source Intelligent Management.
Overcoming Multiple Challenges
Multi-source Intelligent Management (MSIM) systems are the next generation solution for the security market based on the simple premise that video is only one source of information in today’s highly sophisticated, data-rich environment. Once we’ve established that video is but one source of data and that a network-based security system, with network video at the core, is the necessary foundation or platform for accessing and correlating essential data to meet the challenges of today’s security environment—How do we move from mountains of data to actionable intelligence?
The 4As of Actionable Intelligence
To get the right information to the right people when they need it, we’ve recently introduced what’s called a 4A Architecture, an IP-based design that integrates many and varied sources of information. How does 4A Architecture work? The security operations platform acquires raw voice, video and data information from multiple sources over the network. Then the system, utilizing the power of network connectivity, administers and distributes the information to the right people in a highly efficient manner. It also correlates and analyzes the raw data. This last step provides recommended actions to the end user, thus creating an optimal decision making process in minimal time.
Imagine an enterprise-level IP video, audio and data monitoring, recording and analysis solution that brings together in one graphical user interface network management systems, access control, building management systems, point of sale systems, emergency procedure documents and active maps that pinpoint security equipment locations. That is the power and reach of next-generation security management made possible by a network-based platform that breaks down or surmounts the artificial barriers that exist between data storage, people, departments, physical locations, and organisations.
Multi-source Intelligent Management provides a cost-effective way to combine the intelligence of multiple systems is such a way to ensure improved safety and asset protection and vastly improve reaction time to any situation. MSIM will also lay the foundation for applications such as Business Intelligence and other non-security related functions that will further cut costs and offer the promise of revenue enhancement. To meet future security challenges and open the door to a myriad of new opportunities will require an entirely digital system with a software-driven NVR solution that has the flexibility and performance to effectively meet growing security and business demands.
