Syracuse PD – Home Grown Cameras
You’ve heard of baby booms, well the Syracuse NY police department is in the midst of a camera boom. They began installing surveillance IP camera systems in 2011 and the total number has grown to over 40, and counting. If all goes as planned, Syracuse will add 20 more by summer’s end.
IP surveillance camera systems are here to stay. You know it. We know it. Criminals know it. The Police know it. As we mentioned in our last post, the surveillance video can be supremely valuable to the police— or it can be totally worthless. To summon more of the former, and less of the latter, police department after police department has taken to giving advice and offering assistance to citizens wishing to install cameras. They all cite the same three factors that can make or break a video’s forensic value.
Remember when access control was limited to fitting a key into a lock and turning? You know the drill. You probably used one to lock your door this morning, and you’ll use it again when you go home this evening. Turn it one way you retract the deadbolt that holds the door closed and gains access. Turn it the other way, you fit it back into place, denying access to anyone without a key. Unfortunately, the lock and key system is an ancient innovation that is not up to the challenge of many of today’s security needs; this is where we need to upgrade to IP camera systems, electronic access cards, biometrics, and other modern technology.
How do Wide Area Surveillance systems measure up to IP camera surveillance systems?
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department wanted to determine if Wide Area Surveillance would work for them. According to the Center For Investigative Reporting, they chose Compton, an area long plagued by crime as their “lab”.
Continue reading “An LA Experiment in Surveillance”Are IP Cameras part of Major League Baseball’s expanded replay review? It seems like I was just counting the days until Pitchers and Catchers would be reporting to spring training. It would be a promise that the end of the horrendous winter of 2014, and its polar vortex would be coming to an end. Now, all of a sudden, we’re halfway through the 2014 baseball season!
Continue reading “Expanded Replay Review? An IP Thing?”If at first you don’t succeed
skydiving is not for you.
Artificial intelligence is no match
for natural stupidity.
Customer: “I received the software update you sent, but I am still getting the same error message.”
Tech Support: “Did you install the update?”
Customer: “No. Oh, am I supposed to install it to get it to work?”
Network-attached IP cameras and intercoms combine with your smartphone to create the latest technology for door access control.
By: Virginia Fair
BYOD and Convergence are two of the buzziest words around. BYOD stands for Bring Your Own Device and refers to the policy many schools and businesses have adopted of allowing workers and students to work on their own laptops, smartphones, or tablets.
Convergence is defined as the merging of two or more existing technologies to produce a new application or media. For example, the collaboration of broadcast media and online services has brought the internet to TV and TV to the internet. What has made convergence a priority for so many sectors are those BYOD devices.
Continue reading “IP Cameras and Smartphones Provide Remote Door Access Control”
Resolution is a critical metric for selecting the right IP camera for your surveillance system. After all, if we want to be able to read the license plate on a car in the parking lot, we need to have enough resolution. But how is resolution measured? Can we rely on the manufacturer’s specification and what other factors affect the image that you finally see?
In the old days of B/W analog cameras, we used a test chart to determine the resolution of the camera. Today’s megapixel color IP cameras require more complex measurement techniques. This article will help you understand the resolution specification so you can select the best camera for your application.
Continue reading “Understanding IP Camera Resolution Specifications”
Is it just me, or does it seem as if each morning we turn on the news only to find yet another incidence of first responders selflessly putting their lives on the line to remedy a situation? Some days it’s a man-made tragedy like a mass shooting or a hostage-taking, other times it’s an act of nature like a mud slide, sinkhole or a wildfire roaring out of control as it edges ever nearer to hillside homes.
We’re seeing the big picture, the situation from all angles, but have you ever thought about what it’s like for the individual responder, limited to only what his five senses tell him? That’s why situational awareness is of critical importance, and why it is important to make use of IP camera systems and other available technology to facilitate this awareness.
The Bubble