IBM Targets Digital Video Surveillance Market

Tech giant Tuesday rolled out a new digital
video surveillance and security service, and vending consulting and deployment
services for IP-based systems that will replace aging analog videotapes.

Big Blue’s move into the space comes as enterprise customers have been
beefing up videotape-based surveillance systems to take advantage of the
capabilities on newer, digital technologies.

Tape-based systems require video recorders for each camera and searching
through recordings is “time consuming and labor intensive,” IBM said, noting
that digital systems can be integrated with a company’s other security
measures like badge-readers, intrusion detection systems and alarm
monitoring.

IBM’s new service will be targeted to corporate clients in the
government, travel and transportation, and retail sectors and will offer
consulting, integration and deployment services for digital video
surveillance systems running on Internet Protocol (IP) networks.

In addition to consulting, IBM will be offering system design, hardware
and software installation, ongoing maintenance, and integration of digital
video systems into an enterprise’s overall IT system architecture.

The Armonk, N.Y.-based firm said the digital video surveillance security
units should be a hit among corporate users because of the many advantages
over older systems. For instance, digital video images of a crime in
progress can be instantly transmitted over a wireless local area network to
the local police
headquarters.

The company said the systems can be programmed to automatically notice
irregularities and, without human intervention, it can zoom in on individual
faces to improve the chances of identification. “A searchable index of
digital images may be created, enabling authorized users to query the system
to, for example, display every person who stopped in front of a certain door
on a specific day,” the company said.

More importantly, from an enterprise standpoint, business applications
can be integrated with a digital surveillance system to expand its
functionality.