Discussion on:

Don't ignore physical security: Cameras and surveillance systems for the SMB

How about spelling out your acronym?

A very common term. Read a little more widely

I use to work for said big name security provider for over 5 years, doing everything from home, small business, and corporate, both as an installer and sales. Now I am in IT security, and it seems that only large companies worry about physical security, and I am not sure why. People lock their house, but not their server rooms. Plus, think of having records for law suits, since our world has become that. One $1000 system can alleviate so much headache! I think that if people thought of secuirty systems like system logs, as in "we have it so when, not if something happens, we can find out why", then they will see the true value of these. And to top it off, phyiscal security is part of the CISSP certification.

I think that many SMB's consider this a set-it-and-forget-it system, to be paid attention to only in response to an event. Budget DIY doesn't always work that way. Anecdotally, a friend had such a surveillance system set up, but no plans to store, backup, or copy off the video files from filling up the DVR's drive. It filled up after a few months, and effectively stopped recording.

So, either: A) follow through the setup beyond, "yep, it's recording" and into automated archiving to another storage system periodically to free up space on the disk, or B) set it up to record to a much larger storage system, or C) implement a maintenance schedule to manually clear storage space. Success is in the follow-through over time, not an instantaneous and transitory result.

Considering option B, does anyone know of a security system that uploads its data to a (secure) cloud provider, or is that generally only what the professional services would include?

ZoneMinder can be setup to automatically overwrite the oldest data. I believe it can be setup in a client/server type environment so I would imagine that it would be possible to use some sort of hosting service to provide storage space. It would even be possible to spin up a EC2 linux instance and then have encrypted video streams going directly to that. It would eat up bandwidth though so network connectivity would have to be looked at and it would be good to have some sort of QOS on the link.

Personally I would say that cloud services would be more professional just because they tend to be a monthly payment and more complex (spinning up an EC2 instance). The easiest DYI setup I personally see would be to purchase a several terabyte hard drive, put it into a PC and install your recording software. Configure it to overwrite, but leave a chunk of free space and then check it when necessary. If you needed more space you could go to a multi-drive RAID array, but that just adds complexity.

Bill

There are three ways to roll:

a) pro-grade DVR (new or used on ebay). These are rock solid reliable and most can be setup in ten minutes or less. Set and forget. Searching for and/or downloading video data can be at best slow and at worst like oral surgery....

b) PC-based systems are the most flexible and user friendly. ESPECIALLY when it comes to searching/finding/viewing/downloading captured video. These are only as good as the PC, so a no-name PC with a $5 power supply may be sitting there dead when you need to playback the bank-robber video. You need to build a server-class machine, the OS (typically Windows) needs to be as stable as possible, and things like RAID mirrored drives are good if you want it to work when you need it to work.

In terms of software, there is commercial stuff like GeoVision or Nuuo, or ZoneMinder. ZoneMinder is neat, but to me it's like soldering together your own smoke detectors vs just buying something that works....it's a good learning exercise, but not for everybody.

c) cheap off-the-shelf DVRs. These are the garden-variety Q-See, Lorex, Clover, Gadspot units that cost about $200. Hit or miss. May run for 20 minutes or 20 years. Software tends to be buggy and typically the video retrieval process can be painful (they don't have much of a processor). But they are cheap and do the job.

I have recently been playing around with ZoneMinder which is a linux app that provides video monitoring software. I have just set it up so I don't have any real feedback on reliability or anything, but I will say that getting a streaming web cam to work on Fedora was not straight forward. I ended up moving to Debian Sarge and then to Wheezy which seems like it is going to work very well.

Bill

And........600 * 480 is simply not enough. The blurred video does not really serve the purpose.

I'm a physical security consultant with 3 decades' experience as a consultant, locksmith, hardware specifier and security systems developer & manager. There are some good points raised in the article but I dispute CCTV being a physical security device. It's in the same category as an alarm system; it can report something untoward happening but can't stop or slow the attack/event. Security video rarely deters anyone these days. If you want a perpetrator to notice or care that you have video surveillance, you have to use a lot of signage and use live monitoring tied to guardforce dispatch (demonstrated active deterrence). Even then you'd better have the analytics programmed for each camera so the event can be popped up on the central station display. Someone watching cameras can't notice what's going on after 20 minutes viewing because their brain won't let them continue to pay close attention to a single field for longer.
Real physical security consists of effective structural design and implementation, properly spec'd and installed doors & frames, appropriate door hardware, key control and staff training. If you have network or power problems, good physical security should continue to protect your staff and other assets. Electronic and network based cameras and electronic access control have vulnerabilities that Grade 1 hardware doesn't, though they can make the physical security much more effective by denying intruders time to defeat the physical measures, attack the target and flee before security forces can intercept.

Tesseract Security Consulting Inc.

"you should make sure its an IP-based solution These have become standard.....connect to these cameras wirelessly"

That's not kinda sorta true....

In the marketplace today, about 99% of the low-end DVR systems are still all analog, using standard coaxial cable to feed video and a 12V DC power feed for each camera.

Keep in mind that there are 'wireless webcams' and 'IP-based security cameras'. ...two very different animals.

A wireless webcam is typically not well suited as a video surveillance camera at all, and if you start shopping for a reasonable quality IP-based CCTV camera, these cost upwards of $200 each. Something like a EYESurv, AXIS, Panasonic, or similar camera is going to start at $200, and can go up well over $1000 if you want something nice.

Beware that a 'cheap' cmos-based wireless Webcam will have wonderful video during the day, but forget about low-light, or difficult lighting conditions (e.g. harsh setting sun).

The bottom line here is that for your 'starter' system, from Q-See, Swann, Gadspot, EYEsurv, you get four analog cameras and some plain old fashioned coax cable with an attached 12V power feed. Many cheap $50 color CCD surveillance cameras will provide D1 (broadcast quality) video day and night.

Wireless.....

Wireless cameras are a great idea except....they need power.

So while you saved the bother of a cable run, do you have an electrical outlet where it's needed?

Plus, that camera needs both UPS battery backup and surge suppression, things you put into place when you run a single dedicated CCTV power supply. Ever have to reboot a camera? If it's plugged into an outlet in the attic, or 20 feet up on the wall of your store, good luck with that.

The bottom line is that wireless cameras are great where you absoultely cannot run a cable, but it still needs power.

Professionally installed IP-based cameras, by the way, use POE (power over Ethernet).

With POE there is one CAT-5 or CAT-6 cable from your DVR/NVR and wiring closet, and you provide controllable, filtered, uninterrupted power from your Ethernet switch.

One other comment about 'generating alerts'

Comment: generally does not work.

If you have a camera where there is never any motion or change of lighting, you can use it as a motion detector.

Outdoors? You will get an alert when the wind blows (leaves), when the neighbor cat goes by, when a fly lands on the camera. Even indoors, changes in lighting count as motion events. So if you've heard of the "boy who cried wolf"

Do not mean to be critical, good article, lots of good thoughts.

I am a great fan of GeoVision.
They are very easy to setup and offer a variety of features and make a good surveillance system. The security is very important nowadays. But, there is one question I would like to ask here, what if some intruder hacks this system then?