VIDEO surveillance is in the midst of a
revolution that will change the nature of CCTV. But while there’s a lot of talk
about the technology and its benefits, it’s not always easy to pin down the
facts. What percentage of systems installed are IP and which standards will
prevail in the world of networked video? And just what are the keys to high
performance?
More than that – just what is an IP
camera? Is it a CMOS-based IP camera delivering 4CIF of H264 compressed video?
Is it a CMOS HD camera working at 1020p? Is it a CMOS-based megapixel camera
delivering a potential image of 16 Megapixels? Or a 3-sensor CMOS Megapixel
camera giving an atmospheric view? Is an IP camera only a full digital camera
or is it a network-enabled analog camera with an onboard encoder? Not
surprisingly, the answers depend on who you talk to.
According to Bosch Security’s Sean Borg,
the percentage of IP capable CCTV cameras his company sells is running at 30
per cent of total sales. That’s a high percentage and one he says is growing
fast. You might think Bosch, with its market leading analog gear would be
hesitant to endorse IP cameras as representing the immediate future but Borg
does so, suggesting IP will supersede analog with 5 years. And Borg believes
both improvements in compression and network infrastructure are vital to the
future of IP video.
“I think IP technology definitely needs
to move to an MPEG-4 Part 10 or H.264 algorithim supported by video analytics
to reduce the volumes of data sent over infrastructure,” Borg says. “Switchers
are going to need to have PIMDense technology rather than Sparse and be capable
of handling larger bandwidth accepting topologies.
“This future proofing is due to the
needs of the end users maturing and driving requirements for more technology.
We’ve seen this with hard drive requirements, it was not that long ago when 1MB
of memory was a lot but now my kids have 1TB external hard drives.”
Another question end users and
installers are asking is which IP Video standards their providers should be
meeting. Onvif (the Open Network Video Interface Forum) and the PSIA (Physical
Security Interoperability Alliance) both have their allies and Borg says he
believes Onvif is the gold standard, being supported by some of the world’s
largest IP video players.
When it comes to low light performance
there’s a general feeling that IP cameras have a harder time that CCD-based
analog rivals. Bosch’s position on IP is shaped by the fact that many of its
network capable cameras combine CCD-based analog Dinion cameras and an IP
encoder in a single camera body. IP Video purists would argue an IP camera must
be digital from nose to tail and that means CMOS, while others would say if a
camera can be plugged into a network, then it’s a network camera. Then there’s
Sony’s very capable CCD-based IP range. It’s a delineation that underscores the
fuzzy technological characteristics of the times.
“IP cameras that offer all the
wonderfully evolved features of the analogue era as well as the flexibility and
accessibility of networkability can not be overlooked,” Borg says. “And I think
it’s nice to see that some manufacturers have not sacrifice low light among
other features to achieve their mark in networked environments.”
According to Borg, there are a number of
important factors to take into account when choosing IP cameras.
“Buyers should look at the history of a
brand’s IP camera, how has it evolved?” he asks. “They also need to look at the
picture quality, ask about their national support, ask about their technological
roadmap and ask if new software will be backward compatible. Other issues
include built-in ISCUSSI and measures to reduce bandwidth costs – these are all
major issues.
“Important issues for installers include
establishing mean time between failure (MTBF), considering technical support
and the total cost of an installation balanced against the benefits of a given
technology.”
“I think IP technology definitely needs
to move to an MPEG-4 Part 10 or H.264 algorithim supported by video analytics
to reduce the volumes of data sent over infrastructure” Sean Borg, Bosch
Security
Borg says Bosch’s flagship IP camera
offers 540-lines of horizontal resolution, a default shutter speed of 1/1000
with an auto iris lens, on board video analytics, on-board ISUSSI reducing the
need of a server, bandwidth throttling, an auto black feature to see through
fog, tri-streaming with 2 streams of MPEG-4 and one stream of MJPEG. The Bosch
IP camera also has a composite output at the same time for hybrid applications
and a claimed minimum scene illumination of 0.024lux.
One of the huge issues for any networked
IP Video solution is storage and Borg believes video analytics and VMD should
be used to control recording. Importantly too, he feels the future will involve
leveraging of server farms to guarantee redundancy and security of data.
“Bosch has a healthy roadmap with many
exciting and at this point in time, confidential, technological breakthroughs
to be announced,” Borg says. “This is a key. Another key is training and
installers should get as much training in IP as possible. Bosch offers it
free.”
And in the current economic climate,
Borg believes IP has the benefit of being cheaper to run than analog, with
benefits including PoE, the accessibility of networked surveillance systems and
the use of video analytics at the edge to keep network traffic and storage
costs to a minimum.
100 per cent IP
Over at VIVOTEK, William Ku, director of
product marketing, expects IP camera revenue to overtake analog camera revenue
in 2013-2014 and he says the percentage of IP gear his company sells is 100 per
cent. VIVOTEK is a pioneer in IP Video with a number of award winning solutions
including the beautifully engineered IP66 rated day/night camera, the IP7142. The
company also has a neat SDK to allow integration with third party systems and
devices – it’s all very nice stuff.
According to Ku, the things a user
should be looking for in an IP camera include reliable and solid operation and
excellent image quality under any conditions. Ku says future proofing and cost
effectiveness are also vital, as well as technological capability.
“We have developed an intelligent
network camera with embedded video analytics and we will continue to develop
products with more advanced intelligent functions – these will be vital.”
Ku says improvements in compression and
infrastructure performance are also important.
“With requirements for camera resolution
rising sharply, megapixel cameras will be a future trend in the surveillance
industry,” Ku explains. “However, this will lead to increased bandwidth
requirements so improvements in compression and infrastructure will become even
more important.
“It’s forecast that storage will be on
the camera in the future, whether in the form of a removable or embedded memory,”
he explains. “What this means is that only important and useful data will be
transmitted for storage so as to save storage capacity.
“I think future development of a
compression format hinges on users’ needs. For example, users requiring more
snapshot information may choose MJPEG; users demanding video clips may choose
MPEG-4; users wanting to have better compression rate may choose H.264,” he
says.
“While I do think HDTV video sequence
will be embraced by many more consumer products like TVs or recorders I doubt
all surveillance equipment will need this feature.”
“In any case we will not focus on a
specific standard or a specific standard alliance. We provide products
compatible with different compression formats to meet customers’ demands,”
explains Ku.
Interestingly, Ku says he believes
low-light performance has nothing to do with whether the camera is IP or
analog-based.
“Light sensitivity is attributed to the
performance of the front-end optical elements rather than the backend
compression elements,” Ku says. “An IP camera can deliver equivalent low light
performance to an analog camera.”
“With requirements for camera resolution
rising sharply, megapixel cameras will be a future trend in the surveillance
industry,” Ku explains. “However, this will lead to increased bandwidth
requirements so improvements in compression and infrastructure will become even
more important” William Ku, Vivotek
When it comes to video management
solutions Ku says VIVOTEK is keen to partner with VMS providers.
“Yes!” he enthuses. “We are very glad to
cooperate with a VMS provider for big projects. Our SIA (Software Integration
Alliance) Program assists partners integrate their platforms into VIVOTEK’s
network cameras and video servers to fit clients’ various needs. We also
provide technical support, SDK (Software Development Kits), and application
components to our partners.”
It’s clear when talking to Ku, that like
many pure IP camera manufacturers, VIVOTEK sees the advent of plug-and-play as
a change that will significantly broaden the market and reduce overall
installation costs.
“Plug-and-play IP technology allows
users or installers to quickly set up and operate the system, leading to
significant labor and cost savings,” he explains.
“I believe installation and maintenance
of an IP surveillance system is more cost-effective than an analog system when
network infrastructure has been well deployed. Wireless connection and PoE
technologies further enhance the cost-saving advantage of IP surveillance.
“And PoE provides significant cost
savings because in some countries cabling must be done by licensed electrician
and hiring a licensed electrician for this duty can be expensive. With PoE,
cabling can be done by regular installer, resulting in greater economy.”
When it comes to quality, Ku reckons
installers should be looking for support for integration and config, as well as
supply and the provision of training and certification.
“Basic knowledge of network
structure/protocols and problem-solving capability for hardware failure is
important for IP Video installers,” he says. “VIVOTEK will provide training
courses and technological certificate problems starting 2009 to help installers
enhance their professional knowledge and skills for IP surveillance.”
Ku refuses to identify a flagship VIVOTEK
IP camera and for a very good reason.
“VIVOTEK does not offer flagship IP
camera models,” he says. “We provide a variety of cameras all of which have with
the best possible features, focusing on reliability and practicability.”
Market leader
Wai King Wong heads up the Australian
operation at Axis Communications. Axis has only ever built IP so 100 per cent
of Axis sales are IP and Wai King says Axis is not only the number one player
in the IP video market with 33.5 per cent, it’s also the 6th largest
CCTV manufacturer in the world. Impressive numbers!
Wai King says the key elements of IP
camera performance are ease of deployment, compression technology and
reliability. He explains Axis’ latest generation of cameras take performance to
another level with the integration of onboard intelligence.
“The new ARTPEC-3 chipset not only is
designed to perform now and in the future. As for on-board parameters, these
have been possible with Axis products since the very beginning,” Wai King says.
“Axis also now has management software (Axis Camera Management) that can create
templates of camera range to be deployed across all cameras. This will ease the
installation by just using a few clicks.”
“Our strongest performing camera has a
minimum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels at a frame rate of 30fps using your
choice of MJPEG, MPEG4 or H.264 compressions,” Wai King says.
All IP cameras get talked down on
backlight and lowlight performance but we’ve seen Axis cameras in a recent
external application handling both conditions with aplomb – even getting colour
in the presence of mercury vapour lighting in a large courtyard – that’s good going.
It’s not like analog in extreme conditions but these cameras are more than
capable in typical applications.
In terms of a changeover from analog to
IP, Wai King isn’t certain about the exact moment of parity but he’s sure it’s
coming.
“Based on a comprehensive IMS report, IP
surveillance is growing at 40 per cent annually,” he says. “Taking that rate
into account, IP surveillance will certainly exceed analogue growth which is
only 10 per cent annually.”
Importantly Axis is a company that has
gone out of its way to meet SMPTE HDTV performance specifications for its
latest 16:9 HD network camera.
“As the market leader in IP
surveillance, Axis strives to lead and provide the best solution in the
industry,” Wai King explains. “SMPTE compliance is critical in video
surveillance as it provides real time video with wider color spectrum over TV.
By having SMPTE compliance, we are guaranteeing the images and accuracy of
color coordination with high resolution images.”
Wai King makes the important point that
compression improvements are important if today’s systems are going to
successfully use current infrastructure.
“The current infrastructure is
sufficient to run on H.264 compression that reduces the bandwidth compared to
MJPEG compression by around 80 per cent,” he says.
“Axis’ new generation cameras are based
on H.264 compression and can deliver superior images with lesser bandwidth
requirement. The development of ARTPEC-3 chipset has enable Axis new generation
products to provide multi-stream
of H.264 and future
upgrade for intelligent video.
“H.264 is the first and only compression
standard that converged on various industries,” says Wai King. Whether it’s business
with video surveillance, telecommunications and broadcasting or consumer with
HD-DVD/Blue-ray, IPOD, Playstation 3, video cameras, etc, it’s all H.264.
“SMPTE compliance is critical in video
surveillance as it provides real time video with wider color spectrum over TV.
By having SMPTE compliance, we are guaranteeing the images and accuracy of
color coordination with high resolution images” Wai King Wong, Axis
Communications
“Axis supports ONVIF’s focus on IP
surveillance in order to have a global standard that simplifies installation
regardless of brand and supports the shift from analogue to digital
surveillance.”
Wai King says Axis believes in open
source and he says that by having an open solution, it enables customers to
have more choices now and in the future.
“An example in a casino environment,” he
explains. “A VMS has been deployed and the management would like to know how
many people are at the premises at any one time. In order to collect such data,
a possible different system that looks into the images via the camera to do the
people counting.”
Like others, Wai King recognizes the
high cost of storage and he says it’s crucial to reduce storage requirements.
“Storage is a continuous cost because
any moving objects like HDDs, have a life span,” he says. “The life cycle of
storage relies heavily on the hard disk manufacturer so it’s crucial to
optimize the storage utilization. VMD does reduce the amount of require storage
but H.264 is the only global standard that enables a full reduction of storage
but yet provides the best image quality.
“With H.264 technology, the rest of the
add-on technology will assist in reducing storage requirement or usable images
– such as intelligence software to filter required images only.
Like other IP Video people SE&N
spoke with, Wai King believes IP Video and functionality like PoE will give installation
teams and end users real benefits.
“PoE does save money but most
importantly, IP surveillance using Ethernet cabling consolidates a variety of
functions into 1 cable structure. i.e. video, audio, PTZ control, I/O control
and Power to the camera (PoE),” Wai King says.
“Benefits of PoE include centralizing
the power backup, simplify installation and flexibility in installation.”
According to Wai King, Axis offers
installers what he describes as a “real partnership program (AXIS Channel
Partner Program)” supporting customers in order for them to succeed.
Megapixel is the key
According to Pacific Communications’
product manager Kieron McDonough, in terms of IP camera performance, megapixel
is the most important element.
“IP cameras are not bound by the
limitations of the PAL standard so it easily lends itself to Megapixel
technology,” says McDonough. “Customers are demanding greater amounts of detail
from their CCTV image, which Megapixel can achieve.
McDonough has an engineer’s heart and for
him picture quality is king.
“Quality of image is first priority,
without this the results will be disappointing. Installers and end users should
make sure they have a choice of products and brands,” he says.
“Buying from a reputable
supplier/installer that understands your requirements and has the knowledge to
get the system design correct is very important.”
And McDonough also believes IP camera’s progressive
scan technology does solve the interlace issues of analogue cameras.
“On fast moving objects in particular,
the interlace jitter between two fields from an analogue camera is apparent
resulting in persons or objects being hard to identify. Some manufacturers have
devised various ways to reduce jitter but
this can result in loss of vertical
detail.”
McDonough says when it comes to low
light performance many camera manufacturers have overcome this low light
performance with IP.
“In many cases they have done this by
having an analogue front end to the camera and an IP back end.”
System performance is not only about the
camera – it’s about all the components of a network. That means storage is a
key issue and a major cost. McDonough believes leveraging VMD and remote
storage in LANs and WANs will play their part in IP video solutions in
alleviating some of the cost and load on network infrastructure.
“We feel that as compression methods
improve, access to bandwidth improves, storage cost/real-estate becomes less
and processors more powerful, VMD and remote storage will continue to have
advantages,” he says.
“Of course the major advantage of
storage at the camera will be if the network fails and then local buffering of
the video can then take place.”
Another key to performance is onboard
software functionality – not just relating to camera functions but also
analysis of video streams.
“Some of our cameras already have
adjustments for onboard parameters and I expect more manufacturers will develop
and release these features over time,” McDonough says. “Panasonic has already
made some headway in this area with ‘advanced analytics’ in the WVCW970 outdoor
dome camera.
“The camera features auto tracking but it’s
auto-tracking that can identify the human form. The camera can lock on to a
person and continuously track that person even if another person walks in front
of the person being tracked. I believe this trend will continue and is very
exciting for the industry.”
McDonough is a fan of PoE but he says it
comes with a caveat and may not be ideal for all applications.
“In some situations yes, POE can save
time and money,” McDonough says. “The install is quicker and easier and cable
material costs lower. But in fact, currently most PTZ dome cameras cannot use
POE. A fixed camera installation using POE would be difficult to convert to a
PTZ dome as an extra power cable would have to be run. Also cable distances
need to be watched as there are limitations.”
Doing the business
Pacific Communications is right at the
coal face of the analogue to IP switch and that makes the company’s position
all the more interesting. While Pacom’s range leans towards analogue, the
company’s new distribution agreement with Panasonic takes Pacom right to the
top of the class when it comes to IP surveillance thanks to Pana’s strong i-pro
range.
According to Pacific Communications’ Rob
Meacham, Pacom turns over about 5 per cent IP but he says the company sells a
large number of network encoders with it’s analog cameras. And Meacham says he
believes it’s only a matter of time before IP dominates.
“As customers demand greater and greater
performance I think there will be a push to IP,” Meacham says. “It’s a fact,
however, that sales of analogue cameras are still strong and encoders continue
to dominate as a method of creating an IP solution. I would estimate within 5
to 8 years IP cameras will be over 70 per cent of camera sales.”
Meacham also believes that there’s a
strong relationship between improvements in compression and infrastructure and
take up of IP Video.
“We think they both go hand in hand and
as we have seen compression and bandwidth improve so has the take up of IP
based Video,” Meacham explains. “Further improvements are required or IP Video
will be held back.”
In relation to the current push for
unified standards for IP Video Meacham says that as a distributor Pacom has
little influence over these decisions.
“There are many different applications
and products to suit those applications and as such we take an approach of best
fit. That is one of the major benefits of Pacom – choice – it’s at the heart of
what we do” Rob Meacham, Pacific Communications
“However, many of our manufacturers are
members of the ONVIF approach and we certainly believe that a standard and
co-operative approach to protocols is a key to speeding up acceptance and
deployment of IP based video,” he says.
Despite the challenges inherent in the
economy, Pacom believes IP video has a very solid future with massive growth
potential.
“The major advantage with IP video is
scalability,” McDonough says. “In an analogue solution where a customer
requires adding an extra camera to a switcher that is at full capacity it can
be very costly. For an IP solution the extra camera is simply added into the
software. This is major cost saving.
“In addition, cameras in an IP system do
not have to be situated local to the CCTV site, they can be from another part
of the world,” McDonough explains.
“This flexibility provides more usable
CCTV solutions instead of the traditional ‘CCTV Island’ that can be an issue
with analogue solutions. This results in cost savings as IP connectivity is
becoming more abundant and lower in cost.
“Customers can now manage and monitor a
CCTV system that is wide area and along with analytics, is more powerful. In
this way IP Video delivers better results for security and wider use for other
specialist areas such as marketing (human behavior for example) The technology
is very exciting and the opportunity for growth is mind boggling.”
Training
There’s no question that training is the
doorway to success when it comes to IP video. And Pacom’s Rob Meacham has good
advice for installers looking to make the shift.
“Installers need to learn the basics of networking,”
Meacham explains. “Pacom runs various courses on specific products as well as
IP networking as well. Very often with IP video jobs you will be talking to the
IT department and the IT department will assume you know something about
networks so without this basic knowledge you will not get past first base.
“Once you get an understanding you
should start small and treat your first few jobs as a learning process, working
to provide a quality solution, rather than generating a huge profit, those profits
will quickly come once you’re experienced,” he says.
While he acknowledges IT department
involvement in IP video systems, Meacham believes there’s plenty of room for electronic
security integrators in the mix.
“IT departments and IT companies will
naturally play a part in our industry moving forward but IT departments are
very quickly realizing that the placement of cameras, security processes, loss
prevention techniques, chain of evidence along with the need to have 24/7
operations and support is probably not their area of expertise,” Meacham says.
“Public safety and asset protection
comes with massive responsibility and unless people understand it and are
prepared to be held accountable then they should hand it to those who are the
experts,” he says.
“It is becoming evident that IT
companies and IT departments are hiring security experts and visa versa which
is an intelligent approach to providing a proper solution to the customer.
Making choices
One of the toughest things about IP is
trying to work out what’s best to buy. According to Meacham, when installers
think about buying performance IP cameras they should be looking reputable
brands that are tried and tested in the field, and that fit the application
they are addressing.
“The supplier the installer buys from
should have a strong product management team that tests product before it is
released to the market,” Meacham says.
“You want fast and easy access to tech
support, warranty and support is critical. A good supplier should have sales
people and tech support that have previous experience in installation and
service. This speeds up the understanding between the installer and supplier
when problems need to be resolved. Stock at the local branch is critical in
this fast-paced industry.
“At Pacom we have a huge line up of IP
solutions including many brands of IP and specialist mega pixel cameras. DVTel,
Ikegami, Panasonic, AXIS, Pelco and Sony are just a few of the many IP cameras
we carry,” Meacham says.
“There are many different applications
and products to suit those applications and as such we take an approach of best
fit. That is one of the major benefits of Pacom – choice – it’s at the heart of
what we do.”
Sony’s perspective
Given Sony manufactures chipsets for a
large majority of CCTV cameras, the company’s directions and perceptions can’t
be ignored. Sony’s IP video business is built around the excellent Ipela range
and it accounts for 90 per cent of the Australian operation’s sales – half
those sales being megapixel.
According to Sony’s Tony Lagan, the crux
of IP camera function is resolution and low light performance.
“Resolution and low light performance
are crucial and they need to suit the security environment,” he says. “Also important
are flexibility and scalability given we see so many varying applications.”
Lagan believes the problems of
interlacing which have long existed in relation to analogue cameras.
“Interlaced technology is an issue for
fast moving scenes, however, this has been overcome with technology like Sony’s
Dynamic Frame Integration Processing,” he says.
“In the past, Interlaced CCDs produced
better low light sensitivity than progressive scan alternatives. However,
advances in progressive scan CCD imaging technology have made this irrelevant
and now the advantages of progressive scan CCD’s can be fully utilised.”
Lagan believes there will come a time
where IP will out-sell analogue.
“If you look at the majority of large
projects these days, they are being specified IP,” Lagan says. “Analogue still
has its place in smaller applications. However, the flexibility and number of
applications that can be achieved with IP will ensure that it will become the
major focus.
And according to Lagan it’s both
compression and infrastructure improvements that will drive IP video forward in
the future.
“H.264 is a great compression algorithm
that can drastically reduce bandwidth requirement but the trade off is that
they are very processor hungry at the server,” Lagan explains.
“For wireless, H.264 is a great option.
Now that Category 6a has been ratified thus providing speeds of 10 Gbit/s over
copper, it makes bandwidth issues less of a factor.
“With increasing HDD sizes and the
reductions in prices of storage file sizes may not be the issue they once were.
Sony’s DEPA analytics are based on edge device processing thus saving even more
bandwidth and server processor resources.
“Sony supports the Onvif standard as we
are one of the founding members. Our aim is to create a standard that will
benefit the market as a whole,” says Lagan.
“As for compression, it really depends
on the application. For example, H.264 is great for low bandwidth networks like
wireless or legacy systems, however, MJPEG will still give the better quality
still images.
In an interesting new development Lagan
says Sony has recently developed a new CCD that gives a two times increase in sensitivity.
“I think analogue or IP is irrelevant in
relation to low light performance as it comes down to the CCD being used,”
Lagan says. “Sony’s new Exwave pro CCD with twice as much sensitivity is
currently only available on our IP range of cameras. CCDs will generally give
superior low light performance when compared to CMOS. All Sony IP cameras use
CCD imagers and the Sony SNCCS50P is a good example of exceptional low light
performance in an IP camera.”
Lagan explains that onboard intelligence
is a feature of Sony cameras.
“Sony already has onboard camera
adjustment and video analysis capabilities on all of our latest models,” he
says. “For example, with DEPA analytics the processing is done in the camera
therefore reducing the bandwidth required across the network and also takes
load from the server’s processor. For example, the Metadata is created in the
camera head saving the server from having to generate analytics for multiple
cameras.”
And the company has just released a full
HD (1920 x 1080) recorder with HDMI outputs to take advantage of the new range
of Sony 16:9 HD cameras due to be released soon.
Performance is a key for Sony and that
performance is built around the company’s 1.3 megapixel cameras.
“This range includes an indoor colour
dome, an outdoor IP66 Vandal day night dome and a day night fixed camera,”
Lagan says. “One of the major advantages of Sony Megapixel cameras is the Light
Funnel feature. It’s a feature that combats the a disadvantage of high
resolution cameras which is reduced low light performance.
“To combat this, other manufacturers
slow their shutter speeds to improve exposure which results in image blur of
moving objects which is not ideal for a security camera,” he says. “Sony’s
exclusive Light Funnel technology combines pixels enabling the camera to
maintain higher shutter speeds under low light conditions resulting in clear
moving images.”
Lagan says leveraging of network storage
and local storage technologies is going to be the way forward for high
performance IP video cameras and he highlights Sony’s open architecture model
when it comes to supporting third party management systems.
“Sony works with and makes available
free of charge all of our SDK and APIs to ISVs who wish to work with us,” Lagan
explains. “We also manufacture our own recording solutions that are optimised
to work with specific feature sets i.e. DEPA analytics, while our recorders can
also integrate with some other major manufacturers’ cameras.”
Something that has long been a bugbear
of the analog surveillance industry is the vagary of standards. Some jobs are
completed in exemplary fashion while others are studies in sloppiness.
Lagan thinks the move to IP may help
with standards.
“I think moving forward the advent of IP
video will help installation standards as there is a very strict set of standards
for data cabling which does not exist for traditional coax analogue cabling,”
he says.
“Having said this, end user should work
with someone that understands traditional CCTV theory like placement, fields of
view, choice of lens and camera, as well as a strong IP networking skill set.
“And installers need to find a
manufacturer which has well established support structures in place that is
willing to invest the time in training and supporting the installer’s
customers. And they should also look for products that can add a point of
difference to their installation,” Lagan says.
“For example, applications that can add
value to the installation like two way audio or email notification of alarms
including image attachment.
