The problem with convergence is that it makes a mess. Once upon a time, there were analogue CCTV cameras wired to video recorders and everyone was happy.
Well, happy as far as a neat solution included being tied into your favourite, which would soon become your least favourite vendor. Happy as long as you were not the person who had to find a specific piece of video evidence that 'happened sometime last night'. And very happy as long as you did not have to find the tape from last month when someone scratched the CEO’s car.
Convergence changed all that. With digital video and the much touted Internet protocol (IP), storage was simpler, finding stuff these days is also much simpler – providing you have the right software – and your cameras can even be hooked up via a wireless network.
The problem is that while digital is the answer to many problems, even some most companies have not thought of yet, to get the full benefit requires organisations to replace their old cameras with new IP cameras and the associated NVRs – network video recorders. You will also need to ensure that your hard drives are in some type of RAID configuration so that a drive failure or two does not turn out to be catastrophic.
Naturally, most business people would not be all that keen to rip and replace working equipment that cost a fortune. So then the option is to opt for DVRs to record digitally from your existing analogue cameras, but that limits future growth and opens the door to hardware failure – although that could be NVR sellers’ opinions.
What seems to be a popular option is to buy hybrid DVRs that allow for the simultaneous recording and remote access of live video streams from digital or analogue video sources. Although convenient, some vendors will tell you this is an expensive option as you will be pressured to buy NVRs to replace your hybrids in no time at all.
The reality is that you, the buyers need to have your ducks in a row because each vendor out there will sell you what works for them. You may even find one vendor’s DVR is another’s NVR or another’s hybrid. Some insist an NVR is a piece of software running on a server, others offer the box with software installed.
With that in mind, we bring you this year’s DVR Round-Up, a listing of the latest products from leading companies in South Africa. For the sake of simplicity we still call it the DVR round-up.
The 2009 review will provide readers with an overview of the technology available in the market today, allowing you to make the optimal recording decisions suited to your company’s needs. Due to space restrictions we can only offer the basic specifications for the products, but we include the vendor’s contact details in case you want to delve further into the features and functionality of these devices. As always, comments are welcome.
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