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Highlights of ISEC 2004 in London

The annual ISEC for 2004 was held in London at the beginning of July, following from its successful conference in Johannesburg last year. Those who attended the Johannesburg conference at the VW conference centre in Midrand will remember the focus was on key developing areas in CCTV. The theme for the UK was similar, although more focused on the particular conditions of the UK CCTV industry at its current stage.

Two main themes came through in the conference. The first related to the human capacity of people operating the systems and developments in the UK which are going to demand the national licensing of competent operators in CCTV schemes. The second theme related to the digital nature of the systems that these people are going to be using, and equipping managers and technical people with the context to cope with these transitions. Since the last conference in Johannesburg, digital systems have had a chance to consolidate their presence and impact. However, as Jim Aldrige, who was responsible for a Home Office document on digital recording systems, pointed out when he joined the ISEC expert panel discussion, digital is still far from perfect.

The initial presentation by myself focused on the need to expand CCTV operator training beyond the simple competencies of how to operate equipment and knowledge of procedures. The importance of being able to observe the nature of criminal body language and the way in which incidents occur was highlighted as a major requirement for the training of effective operators.

Out of South Africa

The content from Leaderware's CCTV Surveillance Skills course developed here in South Africa some years ago has been adopted and used by Tavcom in the UK for some time. Following the training of hundreds of operators in the UK, these concepts are increasingly being recognised and the Security Industry Authority (SIA) will be incorporating many of these competencies in the training and knowledge requirements for the licensing of CCTV operators.

The UK, in its typical systematic fashion, has looked at licensing specifically targeted at certain sections of security. Unlike the broadbrush South African approach which covers virtually every participant in the security industry, the UK has looked at separate licensing for groups such as door supervisors (doormen), vehicle immobilisers (eg, wheel clampers), events security, private investigation and CCTV operators among others. CCTV operators and the competencies they require are seen as vastly different from security guards and the training, examination and licensing provisions being established by the Security Industry Authority reflect this.

In the near future, only licensed CCTV operators will be allowed to fill positions in control rooms in the UK. Sallyann Baldry, of Edexcel, highlighted the current status of the licensing process in the UK in her presentation. Edexcel along with an organisation like City and Guilds will be one of the awarding bodies providing certification for the UK. She outlined the SIA requirements for those who would require a licence. This will include "any person operating CCTV equipment who is involved in the proactive monitoring of activities of members of the public whether they are in public or private areas or on private property. Also "where cameras are used to focus on the activities of particular people either by controlling or directing cameras at an individual's activities, looking out for particular individuals or examining recorded CCTV images to find things out about the people such as identifying a criminal or a witness or how an employee is performing". Clearly this covers all dedicated public and private CCTV schemes, with the exception of schemes where security officials only monitor cameras as part of their wider security duties and do not specifically monitor people as part of the camera operation.

Charlie Pierce (LTC Training), Craig Donald (Leaderware), Mike Tennent (Tavcom), Sallyann Baldry (Edexcel), Jon Laws (Lyndhurst Consultancy), Peter Mason (Oryx Training) and Chris McElhatton (Tavcom)

Do you have a licence?

A major issue is that the licensing process currently excludes in-house personnel. This is causing some strong reactions within the industry. It means that companies providing contracted personnel will have to go through the higher expense of training and certification. On the other hand, internal company CCTV operators are already commenting that they are not being seen as professional as contracted staff are, and are consequently concerned they are going to lose out on the training and career benefits provided to other personnel in the industry. Given these dynamics, it is increasingly likely that the licensing will cover both internal company and contracted CCTV personnel.

The implementation of licensing provisions and necessary infrastructure for every CCTV operator in UK is obviously a major exercise even relative to our SETA and NQF schemes. The need was driven by a variety of factors, according to Baldrey. These included staff turnover of up to 150%, poor image in the industry and a lack of public confidence, competing on price not quality, margins under unsustainable pressure, quality being driven out of the product, and suspect contracting and contract promiscuity. South Africans can also probably relate to many of these concerns, both from a service provider and end-user perspective. Charlie Pierce made some comments on the licensing process in the US in his presentation. Making the point that only two states currently have CCTV licensing in effect, he commented how alarm licensing for service providers is universal across the US and access control licensing exists in most of them. CCTV apparently still has a long way to go.

Digital imaging

Pierce also introduced the digital theme of the conference. Along with this he indicated that CCTV is moving into a new label for the future - digital imaging systems (DIS). He commented that the entire 'theology' of CCTV is currently being rethought because of the upgrades and improvements within the technology of the industry. The presentations of both Peter Mason and Jon Laws, recognised UK experts in digital CCTV technology, highlighted the point that although the industry has developed technologically, end-users and even distributors still have a way to go in coming to grips with the new terms, capabilities, language and requirements of digital CCTV. Mason's focus was on getting people to understand IP as a necessary precursor to successfully implementing digital CCTV over networks. This includes an overall awareness of data handling and networks and how the streaming of video over networks contrasts with the 'burst' characteristics of conventional LAN data. Laws, on the other hand, emphasised the issues of storage, data compression and reliability of systems. He also suggested a couple of relatively novel ways of evaluating the stability of proposed digital systems, including pulling out the plug while the system is recording, and then seeing whether the system returns to what it was doing before, or has to be set up all over again (providing it still works). Other suggestions such as pressing the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys at the same time, or a number of keys together may raise the concern of a few manufacturers, but are intended to evaluate the robustness of the system in the practical setting. With the happy conclusion that the technology you order may be out of date in six to nine months, Laws provided the basis for the conclusions made by panel members including Jim Aldridge - know your needs and buyer beware. Keeping informed about your purchase decisions has never been as important in CCTV as the present.

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