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Banking on security

Banks do not like spending money unless they are going to get a good return. The ability of any bank to secure 2 or 3% above what they can borrow from the Reserve Bank gives them a warm and fuzzy feeling that allows them to plan well ahead, produce amazing profits, and offer a plethora of services and new branches. Security is anathema to them, as it is a one-way street and does not provide any return on investment apart from the safety of their patrons and the protection of their cash. Security in the banking environment is thus a grudge purchase, so if the offer is a cheaper system then this normally brings a smile to the decision maker's face.

Vision Catcher has been involved in a number of bank trials and has therefore seen a range of cameras and methods of recording and storing information. The first problem for any bank is how to secure the latest technology so that should they choose to go ahead, they know that they are getting the right equipment. To do this, the bank will invariably utilise the services of a consulting engineer, who for some time has sold his security expertise as part of his services, even though his strength is in the degree that he obtained at university and the subsequent engineer skills he then learnt. As a result there is a tendency for consulting engineers to rely upon a supporting company that will provide the technical expertise and hopefully unbiased opinion. The theory is great, but sadly the practice is never so easy. We have often argued on the merits of a PC-based system versus an embedded system, and depending upon whom you ask you will get an assortment of answers.

The question that we should surely be asking is what is best for the banking community? They want to be alerted when there is a problem. They want to be able to see what that problem is with as clear a picture as possible. They want to make a decision based upon what they see so that action can be taken. Forget about all the bells and whistles that various suppliers and distributors offer with their systems, the fact of the matter is that they want to capture a picture that is of sufficient clarity so that they can make a decision. It is great if we can remotely view that image in a control room, but unfortunately the cost of bandwidth is still a limiting factor in being able to bring all systems to one central location. This, therefore, does not leave us with too many options. There are some great products that provide excellent streamed video into central control rooms, there are some great products that provide a beautifully clear recorded picture on-site; the trick is to combine the two as best we can.

Telkom has the exact same problem with its Customer Service Bureaux (CSB) as they want to monitor all sites from Pretoria. Even with their ability to access bandwidth they are still limited in the number of cameras they can monitor at any one time and therefore tend to work from recorded material. The key here, is to ensure that the recorded material is of sufficient quality to identify what is going on and to clearly identify the person involved. Yesterday, a major blue chip corporation had a costly incident thrown out of court because the person recorded could not be clearly identified. In fact, the digital recorder used 'recorded in JPEG' and is a well known superior brand, the cabling is fibre-optic, therefore the problem was with the camera and lens installed or simply the focal point of what the camera was capturing.

With the ever increasing number of digital recorders being offered, the option is surely not to only look at what is within the budget and if we can get a system for cheaper then let us go for that. Careful consideration needs to be made of the reasons why we want to capture the information in the first place and the manner in which we will retrieve the information in the event of an incident. This leads us in a number of directions that the decision maker will need to weigh up to ensure that the best solution for the scenario is chosen.

Considerations need to be given to the recorded material so that it is checked in demonstration, long before the decision to purchase is made. How that material is retrieved and can it be simply downloaded over a WAN covering just the incident? What is the quality of the camera and lens, is it capturing the correct field of view within the range of light available at all times of the day and night? Having captured that information is it in sufficient detail to allow software zoom or are we able to use auto tracking and presets to automatically zoom in and capture the view we need? There is a large range of factors that need to be taken into account and it is often frustrating from the supplier point of view when we see that short-cuts are perhaps being taken for the saving of money, when we know that the system installed will not lead to a conviction as the final captured image will not stand up in court.

Vision Catcher has been actively looking at ways of offering a selection of options to support the banking industry and as a result has been involved in final shortlists within the banking sector. Our digital recorders are stable and provide quality playbacks and our preferred choice of cameras are best of brands. We have extended our range to include high resolution mega pixel cameras to offer you full software zoom that will allow number plate and facial identification at substantial distances. More importantly we have a full range of IP solutions including the market leading DVTel solution that is scalable and offers the banking sector an excellent tool that surpasses all other IP offerings. By utilising DVTel we can offer integration options for MIS and for our high-end solutions such as ObjectVideo which offers a total solution.

The banking sector has implemented a number of solutions over the past few years and moved in particular directions. We at Vision Catcher want to ensure that at all levels, the banking community is correctly informed and aware of what is available in the market place. Detailed and well documented situations that have been experienced in other countries can assist with our local banking industry to provide a level of security that will forewarn and allow prosecution as we capture those that are threatening our daily livelihoods.

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