Flashback ... flash forward

Dec 1, 2000 12:00 PM, CHARLIE R. PIERCE

A look at CCTV developments in the last five years ... and what to expect in the next five

As we approach the new millennium, it may prove enlightening to look back to where we have been and forward to where we are going. The CCTV industry continues to evolve at rates comparable to those of the computer industry.

First, let's take a walk down nostalgia road, and go back in time five years or so to see where we were.

The year is 1995. Chip cameras have finally taken hold. Service centers of the world have seen tube replacement business drop from 60 percent to less than 30 percent of overall repairs. Smaller and smaller formatted cameras have been introduced, pushing the lens industry to take notice and catch up. The 1/4-in. camera is on the rise and rumors are circulating of a 1/8-in. or smaller camera on the drawing board. Vertical smear in images has been corrected through Hyper-Had technology, and we are finally being introduced to better resolution and reliable color images.

Pan/tilts are smaller and being built with limited intelligence to improve pre-positioning techniques. Housings are being developed to counter the smaller camera's mounting needs and it appears that the various methods for mounting small cameras with large lenses are finally coming to an end. Manufacturers are designing and producing, complete, fully enclosed dome units with built-in pan/tilts, cameras, and lenses. Not yet born, but on the horizon, are Auto-Domes. Once the controlling receiver/driver boards are brought inside the dome enclosure, the pan/tilt industry will be resurrected.

In 1995, coaxial cable is still the foremost mode of video transmission with fiber optics accounting for a large second portion of the industry. However, two-wire transmission has been redeveloped and is becoming a viable competitor in the video transmission world. With the replacement of coaxial cable by two-wire systems on the U.S. space shuttles, there is a new contender for the title of primary video transmission method.

Five years ago, microwave is still around but has been pushed aside by emerging technologies. Last in line is the RF field, being promoted primarily as a tool of covert and temporary installations. Telephone transmissions are starting to be promoted as viable and reliable. However, such systems continue to sit in the background as issues of balanced or specialized telephone lines, along with their high costs, are breached. The Internet is a new scratch and 90 percent of the security industry is just waking up to its existence.

Circa 1995, we see sequential switchers lose pace to quad and dual-quad viewing systems. Multiplexers, although around for several years, are just beginning to be accepted as viable technology for security-based CCTV. Primarily locked out of the competition due to high costs and limited compatibility with recording systems, multiplexers are making changes. This boon continues as costs dive and versatility soars. Matrix systems are starting to evolve from glorified, expandable, programmable, high-priced switching systems to overall system management interface units. However, in the shadows outside the door lie the digital management systems. Although considered to be high-priced science fiction, digital management systems fully embrace computer technology. Bringing IBM-based computer servers into place, these units reinvent and design video management into new, unrealized levels.

Time-lapse and event recorders have proven inadequate for the new-world multiplexers. Modern business and industry require 72 and 24-hour, continuous recording with higher frame rates. Consequently, 24 and 72-hour, high density recording systems have been developed. Although based upon 1/2-in. video tape formats, these new units are able to interface with wide varieties and styles of multiplexers. Providing for three times the previous frame rates as their predecessors, these new, high-priced units are extremely popular. However, right on the heels of the new video tape technology, digital recording introduces itself. Entering as clumsy, over-rated, under-supported technology, these new pioneers brag 30 to 300 minutes of continuous video on DAT tape, floppy disk or hard drives. In reality, the only thing the early models offer is enhanced video search capabilities with lower resolution. Time, however, proves a happy bride to these units and ultimately increases their capabilities, lowers their costs, and turns them into viable recording units. Pushing up behind these units are the digital management systems. With their jukebox arrays of tapes, DATs, or hard drives, they show that, with the right amount of cash, any amount of visual information can be handled, searched efficiently, and stored forever. However, now the battles are open to public scrutiny. Acceptance in court becomes a battle, and debate rages from inception to current times and into the future. Standardization of recording and compression formats becomes an industry joke ... remembering, of course, that Americans tend to joke about things they fear, can't control, or find hard to accept.

Monitors continue to be placed in the foreground for viewing, but in the background for technological advances. Awkward, low-cost, analog CRT technology's only competitor is the LCD screen until the late 1990s. Unfortunately, even LCD technology is being held back by price, availability, and overall screen size until after the start of the new millennium. However, now that we are current, we have all sorts of new technology available to us for consideration. Plasma screens and rear projection units are moving fast into the pool for visual replication in our CCTV central stations.

Five years ago, video central stations would poke their heads up above the horizon. More industrial customers work to bring their various visual needs from around the country and the world, to a central point each day. Working with fast scan system on ISDN lines, a new application for an old technology emerged. Today, the same results and better are being achieved through a wide variety of transmission methods such as Internet, satellite, wireless, and advanced digital telephone transmission.

OK, so where are we and where are we going?

We are currently in the middle of a mess - a huge mess. The cooks, far too many of them, have been in the kitchen for the past five years, putting together a perfect dinner. The problem is that they have all been working on their own recipes and they have not been talking with each other or those of us that will be at the dinner. The dough for the buns hasn't risen yet and the carrots are still raw and there are crumbs all over the place. The bottom line is that we, the CCTV industry, are in the middle of a last-minute scramble to put it all together and serve it to the public as done. However, we have yet to set standards on digital recording formats, transmission formats, encryption techniques and formats, compression rates, screen size and replication formats. We have not established set regulations and guidelines concerning the moral and legal uses of our tools in public and private applications. We have no accepted set standards for the testing and verification of equipment and manufacturer claims of production. The worst part of all ... We have more and more cooks coming into the kitchen with new recipes each day.

Where will we be in the next five years?

Simple! Our systems will be 100 percent digital-based. Mechanical pan/tilts and zoom lenses will be obsolete. Intelligent video systems that recognize individuals within the walls of our offices and on city streets will be the norm. Cameras will continue to grow smaller and recording systems will hold more information with faster and better search criteria capability. However, if we continue to work as we have been, many corporations will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, possibly even millions, on equipment that will become obsolete in the next five years. If we, as an industry, do not stop long enough to set standards and moral goals, sometime soon we will be at the mercy of government legislation. This is a cause where individual actions and efforts can make a difference.

My personal projections for the next five years can be summed up in two words ... Buyer beware!

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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