Hi-Tech-Consulting

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As security is increased throughout the United States and the world, does it automatically follow that a loss of personal civil liberties is inevitable? Consider that perhaps the safest man is the one in an isolation cell in a maximum security prison. He is completely alone and immune from bomb threats, terrorists, robbery, and kidnapping. While this is an extreme example, it is certainly evident that personal freedoms have been curtailed in recent years.
 

But we would counter that security has no more effect on the loss of civil liberties than many other politically correct causes.  Smokers have lost virtually all right to indulge in their habit. Women cannot wear a fur coat. It is difficult or impossible to build in some areas due to environmentalists. Animals can no longer be used in potentially life saving experiments. Driving large vehicles is discouraged in many areas. Political correctness itself has resulted in the loss of free speech about many subjects. Databases are constantly stuffed with all sorts of personal information about every one of us.
 

Recent developments in facial recognition, object video analysis, and more and more powerful computer processors –combined with the omnipresent video surveillance will certainly mean systems that can track a person anywhere. Companies have already demonstrated systems that can capture a face image of an unknown person and search through network connected digital video recorders anywhere in the world for that same person. Imagine someone passes a bad check, they are recorded doing so, their image is loaded into the system, and then an alarm is generated when that person walks into another store.

 

So called digital video can either mean analog video converted into digital and stored on DVRs or NVRs or IP cameras which are digital in nature. Digital cameras-that is IP based- are still relatively expensive compared to analog. There are inherent problems with IP cameras such as distance limitations (300 feet) and they are bandwidth hungry. While it is true that these problems can be overcome, one wonders — why?

Ethernet itself has a distance limit of 300 feet. Data signals must be rebroadcast through switches every 300 feet or run fiber hubs in order to extend the distance. The exact same scenario applies to IP cameras. Worse, due to the extreme bandwidth required by video, it isn’t wise to use your existing network- negating all the savings you might have enjoyed to begin with!

The only viable way of implementing many IP cameras is to put them on dedicated networks which eventually connect directly to an NVR Network Video Recorder.