Analog to IP: Charting the Course to Migration

As end user expectations for enhanced, more useable video continues to accelerate, more enterprises are embracing IP-based video solutions. Migrating to higher quality IP image capture comes complete with a host of other benefits, making the transition from analog to IP an attractive one for end users across many industries.

Although IP has been around for a long while now, some end users have made their migrations slow and scaled, usually because of budgets. But, the good news is that the cost of current IP cameras has come down substantially, enabling many users to opt for a complete overhaul and full blown transition to all IP. But whatever the path looks like, the journey’s end to a complete IP-based networked system is well worth the trip.

The higher resolution, high-definition video that IP cameras provide can be leveraged in ways that analog video simply can’t. Crisp and clear footage translates into improved, more accurate alarm response, and provides superior evidence that can significantly speed up investigations.

And while early release IP cameras enabled electronic Pan / Tilt / Zoom (ePTZ) for wider coverage than analogs could deliver, recent advancements have resulted in IP cameras with multi-imagers that allow for an alternative to many pan/tilt/zoom (p/t/z) applications for an ever fuller coverage area.

Another major perk of IP cameras over analog is their ability to process, compress, record and store video for extended periods of time. The features IP cameras provide are impressive and include, among other things, audio and the ability to send text and email messages. And, very importantly – video analytics. These computer algorithms can provide a better understanding of what’s happening in locations being monitored by video cameras. They’re fast becoming standard in surveillance devices and solutions, and have matured enough to a point where they can provide more practical and reliable functionality than ever before.

In fact, the video analytics functions built into today’s leading surveillance cameras not only improve overall security and situational awareness, they can also be leveraged to deliver a valuable source of business intelligence. They include facial recognition capabilities, which can identify people in real time by cross referencing distinct characteristics against a number of private and public databases and/or watch lists of known perpetrators. Other functions, which became glaringly meaningful in the fight against the spread of COVID-19, include people counting, mask detection, social distancing adherence, and reporting tools.

New developments in video analytics are providing security executives with new and unprecedented ways to apply surveillance technology beyond traditional security, making it a very valuable asset for business intelligence. The viable data gleaned from video analytics are allowing end users to make better informed decisions on space usage, employee productivity, and customer engagement. These capabilities derived from IP surveillance is enabling security management to justify the costs to upgrade to IP video by proving that it delivers tangible ROI when applied across the enterprise. And, for added security, the thermal IP cameras with advanced video analytics that are now available can send alarms directly to central monitoring stations via the IP network, making response times even quicker.

An IP network becomes a platform for much more than video system connectivity. It enables connected systems, such as access control, intrusion detection and intercoms, to integrate with each other and deliver greater value for end users, and not only across a site, but across a user’s multiple sites.

And there’s more good news – it’s predicted that the number of advanced functions that IP cameras will be able to perform by leveraging the IP network, will only increase moving forward.

Migrating from analog to IP video surveillance is delivering countless benefits to users. Beyond the initial investment, an IP-based video surveillance system actually provide a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) over time and delivers myriad benefits that an analog based video surveillance system simply cannot.

Netronix is expert in specifying, designing and installing IP-networked surveillance services to provide users with a higher level of security and the operational efficiencies that come along with it.