Renowned research organizations such as J.P. Freeman and IMS Research report rapid changes are taking place in the CCTV and video surveillance market. According to these reports the growth of IP surveillance systems is unstoppable and a shift towards IP based solutions will continue in the coming years.

Why the growth of IP surveillance systems is unstoppable:

Live video streams are accessible at any time from any place via any computer, which will lead to saving in costs (travel) and efficient usage of resources. Video streams are easily viewed from remote locations with both higher reliability and picture quality.

A camera can be placed anywhere and connected to a network. The transmission of pictures Network (LAN), via DSL, a modem, Wireless LAN, a mobile network can be implemented over any infrastructure such as the Local Area UMTS or HSDPA or ISDN. It is a virtual, dynamic digital surveillance system

Since the most important components of a system are the cameras and software, users can engineer and design systems that meet more application requirements. Software is continuously in development and new functions will continually be added as cameras and other hardware become even more intelligent. As this technology continually evolves and network infrastructures become more advanced; the Griffid “soft” approach offers continually developing features and intelligence to serve and optimize the needs of network security, quality of service and network bandwidth management.

IP-technology makes it possible to use live video solutions from simple configurations growing to enterprise implementations based upon easy scalable technology. The multi-server architecture of the Griffid software is designed to adapt changing situations where more devices must be deployed. The software platforms can be modified or grow with security management needs.

All the building blocks required to design a digital video surveillance system are simple to install and configure. This ensures lower cost and installation time. Cameras are available that are detected by workstations automatically making installation and configuration more simple. The software is designed to serve customer needs, technology is not the driving force; user needs are.

Both the hardware and the software offer embedded levels of security. Examples are username password authentication, firewalls, VPN technology, and secured access to databases with recorded video information. Additional security levels and technology at the infrastructure level ensure a large degree of reliability and integrity without complicated accessibility.

Digital video IP is the future for surveillance system technology because it is based on open standards. Both software and the hardware can be upgraded with new functions and features which with no change of hardware.

A fully digital video surveillance system contains the following building blocks:

• Network cameras or video servers.
• Network infrastructure (LAN/WAN).
• Server or workstation with hard disks for video storage.
• Video Management software.

An optimized setup of these building blocks will result in a flexible and scalable solution that uses existing hardware. The result is the highest return on investment. The Griffid Monitoring Station and the Griffid Monitoring Center are management tools which in combination with all these elements form a complete digital video surveillance system