Cisco launches IP-based surveillance cameras

Networking giant Cisco Systems has moved its push into the market for physical security one step further, introducing its first-ever IP-based video surveillance camera.

The company is betting that large enterprises will soon be ready to reinvest in their facilities management infrastructure in the name of linking cameras, door readers and other location-based security systems back into their IT networks.

Ultimately Cisco believes that most large firms will move to replace their old-school analog security hardware with devices such as its new Video Surveillance IP Camera in the name of advancing applications for transporting, sharing and analyzing the footage that such systems collect.

Door readers and other physical locking systems will be linked to IT networks to help provide multi-layered authentication, the company maintains, such as through integrating on-premise and computer ID applications.

Much of the company’s video focus is based around technologies it inherited via its March 2006 buyout of SyPixx, which specialized in video surveillance software and hardware that allow existing analog surveillance systems to operate as part of an IP network.

Those technologies essentially serve as a bridge that will help firms begin to adopt new network-based security applications without replacing their old gear all at once.

Enter the new Cisco Video Surveillance IP Camera.

Launched at the ongoing ISC West conference in Las Vegas, the camera promises to provide an expandable video recording and storage platform that can be linked directly into IP-based neworks either via cable or wireless connection. The device carries software that is meant to allow it to integrate quickly with both legacy and newer surveillance and storage systems, and to help ease migration from analog to network-based infrastructure.

“Our vision for physical security and access control is to unlock video using IP networks so that you can view live video or playback from anywhere in the network,” said Mark Farino, general manager of Cisco’s Converged Security Infrastructure Business Unit. “Customers have been asking us to help them deploy IP-based cameras to replace analog, so this is our first effort to address that.”

Available in May 2007, the first Cisco-built video camera boasts D1 (720 x 480) resolution using MPEG4 encoding, along with 802.1X authentication and power-over-ethernet (PoE) connection capabilities.

Cisco also announced a new Storage Services Platform for linking video recording devices to external storage arrays, and a handful of upgrades to its Stream Manager Video Surveillance Software package, including links for alarm systems, synchronized multi-camera playback, and support for higher video compression ratios.

“We’ve been successful with our efforts thus far based on the momentum built by the SyPixx acquisition — they had built products that allow network-based video surveillance systems to be dropped into any analog environment,” Farino said. “We wanted to add services to build an intelligent information network that can scale to as many cameras as needed; it will take us time to convince customers to invest and to build an end-to-end solution, we’re laying the groundwork but still have more work to do.”