WASHINGTON—The Washington Navy Yard shooting on September 16th which resulted in 13 deaths segued into a sea of scrutiny over the surveillance and security in the shipyard which, according to McClatchy Washington Bureau, includes poor entrance controls, video dead spots, inadequate lighting, malfunctioning alarms and other problems.
Was poor security and surveillance to blame for the shooting? Of course not. But it still raises the question that if the shipyard had a more effective surveillance system, could the gunman have been stopped sooner?
The Navy Yard shooting is just the latest incident associated with the increasing occurrence and nature of security breaches and security attacks. Globally, robbery, theft, shoplifting and terrorist attacks are increasing. In order to curb such anti-social activities, governments as well as large enterprises across the globe are increasing their adoption of video surveillance cameras which is a key factor driving the Global Video Surveillance Market at a CAGR of 14.33 percent ultimately reaching a value of US$ 28.94 billion by 2015.
Many governments have also passed stringent regulations to install video surveillance cameras in places such as hypermarkets, hospitals, airports, railway stations, hotels, malls, etc. These regulations are aimed to provide enhanced security and to curb anti-social activities. But video cameras are just one segment in video surveillance and in order for a security system to function effectively, governments must ensure that they cover all their bases.
As you can see, there are several cogs that help video surveillance systems run smoothly. So how can end-users make the most out of video surveillance solutions?
The key is to make sure the surveillance vendor is an end-to-end provider, meaning that their products cover solutions with both video surveillance hardware and software.
There’s just one problem.
End-to-end video surveillance is expensive, which is why many end-users opt for pure-play solutions, where vendors provide a single product or service.
To cope with this problem, vendors have begun offering cloud-based video surveillance or video surveillance-as-a-service (VSaaS) to ensure that customers have the appropriate amount of security without curbing profit margins.
As you can see, companies can benefit from numerous advantages of using VSaas such as pay-per-use, low initial investment and maintenance, easy deployment, and instant access. VSaaS is currently in high demand among companies ranging from small to large enterprises and governments.
In addition, due to the low entry of barriers, a large number of vendors are entering the market providing VSaaS solutions such as on- and off-site storage, remote video monitoring, cloud-based video content analytics and real-time monitoring through the internet.
Providing less expensive products has helped bridge the gap between vendors, emerging countries such as Brazil, Russia, China, and India (BRIC) as many SMEs worldwide are now able to afford effective video surveillance solutions. As more companies adopt video surveillance technology, lower crime and anti-social activity rates will hopefully follow worldwide.
For more information view our 2011-2015 Global Video Surveillance Market and 2012-2016 Global Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) Market reports.
