Will standards improve security systems?

One of the most frustrating and costly aspects of security systems is integrating all of them into a common operating picture. This is the unfortunate result of little to no standards for security applications. In the last six months, excitement has built over progress towards IP camera standards. Unfortunately, despite the growing hype, you will see little benefit from such standards for years to come.

For government security managers, interoperability is a critical concern. Most government organizations have:

o Many geographical locations to cover, each of which needs to be accessible;
o A variety of systems, from video surveillance, access control, intrusion detection, radar and others, that need to be integrated;
o Numerous suppliers of security systems.


The traditional solution is the deployment of a centralized software application that sits on top of all of these security systems -- sometimes called Command and Control; other times referred to as Physical Security Information Management.

A key feature of these applications is that they develop custom interfaces to a variety of security systems. This is necessary because there are no standards in place. Unfortunately, this is very challenging given the hundreds of manufacturers (there are more than 100 DVR/NVR manufacturers alone.) This adds significant cost to the system and increases the risk in how well the systems will integrate.

While standards for IP cameras look to be widely adopted in the next three years, it is unfortunately only one small piece of the puzzle. Indeed, little to no progress for DVR or access control standards has been made. One day, this will change but standards take many years from first hype to production-ready. For now, focus on making sure you can integrate the systems and products you have -- despite the limited and costly options.