Myth #1: DVRs are the latest, greatest CCTV security technology

Reality: In addition to people perceiving digital video recorders to be latest and best technology, many people also believe that the DVR is an all-digital networked technology—it is not.

A DVR does have a lot of advantages compared to a VCR (video cassette recorder): no need to change tapes, consistent image quality, and quicker search capabilities. But you still have all those analog cables, which first of all can distort image quality, but are also very expensive to run throughout a facility. IP-Surveillance has all the advantages of a DVR and many more:

• Scalability. IP-Surveillance scales from one to thousands of cameras in increments of a single camera. There are no 16-channel jumps like in the DVR world. IP-Surveillance offers any frame rate for any camera at any time—no limitations.

• More cost efficient infrastructure. Most facilities are already wired with twisted pair infrastructure, so with IP-Surveillance no additional wiring (a major expense of a CCTV install) is required. Only one type of network (IP) connects and manages the enterprise for data, video, voice, and others—making management more effective and cost efficient.

• Remote accessibility. Any video stream, live or recorded, can be securely accessed and controlled from any location in the world over wired or wireless networks.

• Intelligence at camera level. Motion detection, event handling, sensor input, relay output, time and date, and other built-in capabilities allow the camera to make intelligent decisions on when to send alarms and to whom, when to send video, and even at what frame rate or resolution to send the video. 

• Lower system cost. For many installations, the IP-Surveillance system has proven to be a lower cost alternative. Open and standard network, server and storage equipment enables market competition between choices versus the single vendor locked-in approach of a DVR. And that's just hardware—add lower installation and maintenance costs and all the performance benefits, and it's clear IP-Surveillance saves substantial sums.

• Contrary to some popular opinion, the DVR is not an end-point solution, but rather one milestone in the continuing development of CCTV technology. As the marketplace assesses DVRs more carefully, it is emerging that the DVR represents outdated, solution-in-a-box thinking. IP-Surveillance technology has quickly proven to be superior to DVR technology. There is an enormous difference between the two technologies and the marketplace is only just beginning to understand this critical point.

Myth #2:
IP technology is unproven. If it's better, why aren't security solution providers selling more?