The Best of Streaming Media East 2004 Part2

Streaming for Security & Surveillance: Successful Deployments

The last Business track session of the day was Streaming for Security & Surveillance. Speaker Dun Chau, VP, business development at Advanced Concepts Solutions, Inc., made the most of the small group environment and targeted his talk to the needs of the group after a general introduction to the way streaming for surveillance works. Members of the audience were interested in streaming for retail environments, high school security, industrial management, retail applications, home security, and use in the Chicago police department.

Chau touched on some difficulties of surveillance via streaming, particularly the fact that many areas most in need of monitoring are the most complicated and expensive to run wires to. This segued into a brief talk about the problems with wireless surveillance; though wireless might seem the most logical and fiscally and environmentally responsible way to supervise a remote location, other issues such as interception can actually make the site less secure.

After Chau's discussion of drawbacks, the audience member from the Chicago PD brought up what he views as the largest hindrance to effective use of streaming: a lack of general knowledge about what is possible on the most basic of levels. Too often, he said, a detective will come in who has "watched too much CSI" and simply does not understand that a surveillance video can not be zoomed in to read the license plate number on a car that sped past at 40mph. This led to a discourse on the importance of understanding the storage and compression needs for each unique application.

Chau also explained the legality issues surrounding streaming--namely that until recently no video surveillance could be submitted in court because of tampering concerns. Recent watermarking technology has alleviated much of that concern.