https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • Microwave/RF
    • T&D World
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Wireless Networks


Video surveillance technology offers plusses and minuses

Video surveillance technology offers plusses and minuses

High-resolution cameras capture license plates from great distances, but eat up a lot of bandwidth — and money
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 17th December 2009

Surveillance videos are getting sharper, and the systems that produce and manage them are growing smarter. Megapixel and high-definition cameras, thermal imaging, video analytics and other advanced technologies are giving safety and security professionals greater power to protect property and lives.

For surveillance systems that operate on wireless networks, these new technologies also pose new challenges. It takes a lot of bandwidth to move high-resolution digital video or thermal images. And, of course, it takes a lot more bandwidth to transmit from 200 cameras than it does from 20. As surveillance systems grow more capable, they’ll start appearing in more locations, putting new pressures on available wireless capacity.

It’s easy to understand why the technologies that bring bright, clear episodes of Dancing with the Stars into the home also are making inroads in the surveillance market. Video recorded with a megapixel or HD camera contains much more information than conventional video. So when you’re viewing a high-resolution video image and you drill in on an object, that image won’t degrade into a pixilated blur.

“You can zoom in 300 feet and see license plates,” said Ksenia Coffman, marketing manager at Firetide, a Los Gatos, Calif., firm that develops wireless mesh networks to support video systems.

Alan Salmon, special investigator/forensic video analyst at the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and president of the Law Enforcement and Emergency Services Video Association International (LEVA), first got a look at high-resolution video in action three years ago. The megapixel camera he observed at LEVA’s annual meeting had recorded a wide-angle view of a parking lot. Viewers who zoomed in tight on vehicles were able to read individual license plates.

Try that with a conventional camera, and you won’t learn much, Salmon said. “A lot of times you can’t even tell what make of car it is, let alone the tag number,” he said.

While these high-resolution cameras have been around for several years, the technology is only starting to make an impact on the security market. One reason is cost.

“The big problem initially was that a megapixel camera was something like $10,000,” said Salmon, recalling the units he saw three years ago. Prices for conventional video cameras range from less than $100 to about $4,000, depending on their features, he said.

Another reason that high resolution technology has been slow to catch on for surveillance is the difficulty of deploying it for wireless applications. “It has not been widely adopted in public safety because of the capacity requirements,” Coffman said.

However, better compression is easing the way for high-volume surveillance systems on wireless networks, said Steve Surfaro, strategic channel manager and industry liaison at Axis Communications, a Swedish provider of network video systems with U.S. headquarters in Chelmsford, Mass.

“More efficient compression technologies, like H.264, allow for a much lower amount of bandwidth, often one-tenth of the bandwidth used by conventional Motion JPEG [M-JPEG] compression cameras,” he said.

Ratified in 2003, H.264 is used in consumer products such as Blu-Ray discs and Apple iPhones. It’s fairly new in the surveillance market, but it’s growing popular, Surfaro said. “H.264 is rapidly replacing all the existing compression technologies in the security industry.”

The less you need to compress a video stream, however, the more valuable that stream will be as evidence in a criminal case, said Grant Fredericks, a forensic video analyst based in Spokane, Wash. “Using a higher-end camera, but then attaching it to a low-end upload or compressing it is kind of pointless.” But higher-speed wireless networks allow law enforcement and the courts to take better advantage of the detailed images that high resolution cameras provide, he said.

Editor’s note: View “The impending explosion,” an expanded article on this topic, in the January edition of Urgent Communications.

Tags: content Wireless Networks

Most Recent


  • Sesame Solar leverages mobile solar, hydrogen to power efforts beyond the grid
    Michigan-based startup Sesame Solar recently launched the latest version of its easily deployable nanogrids that promise to deliver electric power indefinitely—without the need for diesel-powered generation—via complementary solar and hydrogen-fuel-cell technologies, according to company co-founder and CEO Lauren Flanagan. “What we’re announcing is the world’s first 100% renewable, mobile emergency-response nanogrid,” Flanagan said during an […]
  • Video surveillance technology offers plusses and minuses
    Newscan: On front lines, communications breakdowns prove costly for Ukraine
    Web Roundup Items from other news organizations On front lines, communications breakdowns prove costly for Ukraine Recording between dispatcher, firefighters gives new insight into human-smuggling tragedy Updated digital forensics database speeds criminal investigations Frontier Communications facing questions after rural Arizona 911 outage 911 center software can interpret any language used in text message CISA: Switch […]
  • Samsung fills its 2G hole in new challenge to Ericsson and Nokia
    “If you can make gigabit speeds through software on vRAN, how difficult can 2G be?” said Woojune Kim, Samsung’s global head of sales, when confronted at this year’s Mobile World Congress with the 2G hole in its product portfolio. Three months since then, “not that difficult” seems to be the answer, although the virtualized 2G […]
  • Militarized drone swarms coming
    The effectiveness of drones in combat has been proven with deadly effect in the war in Ukraine, where single, unmanned aerial vehicles have been used for observing the enemy or deploying weapons against them. The effectiveness of multiple drones working together in combat, however, has yet to be seen, due to the technology’s current limits, […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • U.S. telecom groups warn of network construction delays from chip shortages
  • Rakuten says chips crunch 'much worse' than expected
  • The battle over connected cars drags on
  • UK officials revamp ESN plans again, target Airwave-to-LTE transition for end of 2026

Commentary


LTE and liability: Why the fire service must move forward with digital incident command

  • 2
6th May 2022

Partnership and collaboration must be the foundation for emergency communications

18th April 2022

FirstNet success means no hypothetical ‘shots’ need to be fired, Swenson says

22nd February 2022
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

Sesame Solar leverages mobile solar, hydrogen to power efforts beyond the grid dlvr.it/ST8m3K

1st July 2022
UrgentComm

Newscan: On front lines, communications breakdowns prove costly for Ukraine dlvr.it/ST7fnC

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

China-backed APT pwns building-automation systems with ProxyLogon dlvr.it/ST6q7m

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Samsung fills its 2G hole in new challenge to Ericsson and Nokia dlvr.it/ST6hBK

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Militarized drone swarms coming dlvr.it/ST6dNz

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Take American City & County’s budgeting survey dlvr.it/ST6Yxb

30th June 2022
UrgentComm

Final cases made about Airwave, ESN, before CMA issues provisional decision on Motorola Solutions dlvr.it/ST4Q6X

29th June 2022
UrgentComm

Polaris Wireless: Manlio Allegra talks 911 Z-axis tech, future IoT opportunities dlvr.it/ST1384

28th June 2022

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • Microwave/RF
  • T&D World
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X