What is the biggest roadblock to widespread use of video analytics technology?
“ROI. Understanding how to design and implement solutions that work with the analytics system—and not against it—make the difference. Campuses offer a diverse environment with a range of challenges. Proper design and deployment can yield a measurable return on investment.”
—Jammy DeSousa, senior product manager, security products, building technologies and solutions, Johnson Controls
Link to main story: College security: Detection alert!
“Since analytics are often looked at as additions to the video surveillance system, they are often one of the first items to be value-engineered out of a system. There is also a shortage of qualified system integrators to properly install and configure these analytics.
“We would recommend that higher education leaders look past the initial capital investment and realize the impact video analytics will have on operational costs over time. This includes reducing investigation times and mitigating risks proactively so that security personnel can respond earlier.”
—James Marcella, director, technical services, Axis Communications
“Analytics are just one solution that makes up a university’s security infrastructure. Information gathered from video analytics must then be correlated with other sensors and platforms before security leaders are able to understand what is happening on a daily basis and prepare for unique threats that evolve over time.
“Intelligent tools, such as video intelligence and situational awareness solutions, should be utilized before higher education facilities can realize unprecedented visibility and insights to enhance security and safety efforts.”
—Kevin Wine, vice president, marketing, Verint Systems
“There are a couple of video analytics roadblocks—configuration and camera placement. Extra effort is needed to accurately place and configure the analytics, which raises installation costs for universities.
“Additionally, understanding the real benefits of the additional costs can be difficult. Easy configuration and running the analytics engine on the camera itself rather than on separate server can lower costs and help overcome these roadblocks.”
—Sean Dickinson, video offering manager, Honeywell Enterprise Video Solutions
“Although it is possible for a VMS or supplemental software package to apply analytics to images that were collected by analog systems, it is not nearly as effective as when used with higher-resolution cameras. Some newer camera models even have some analytic capabilities built in.
“So, these capabilities are usually added at the time of a system upgrade.”
—Robert LaBella, business development manager, Pelco by Schneider Electric
Mark Rowh is a Virginia-based writer.
