On 12th November 2013 in Bristol, Global MSC in conjunction with Security New Desk are running a seminar called ‘Making the Most of CCTV‘.  The seminar will be focusing on an international perspective, looking at the key roadblocks, challenges and opportunities the industry faces.

We catch up with Derek Maltby, Global MSC to hear about the thoughts behind the seminar, the opportunities, trends and challenges in the CCTV industry.

Charlotte Britton: Good morning and welcome to the icomply blog and today we’re talking to Derek Maltby about the ‘Making the most of the CCTV’ seminar in November. Good morning Derek.

Derek Maltby: Good morning to you

CB: Do you want to tell us a bit about the event that you’re running in November?

DM: We’re running another educational seminar at Bristol Mariott Hotel where we’ve held previous seminars. We’re running two a year and the last one was in Leeds, close to the icomply offices.

This year we’re moving on the theme ‘Making the most of CCTV’ and we’re inviting some eminent speakers to talk about the lessons they’ve learnt and can impart this to the other delegates so they don’t make the same mistakes. Where things went well they can pick up on the best practice.

CB: So that’s the inspiration behind the event?

DM: We tend to run these shows, which attracts the up to date technology, so people are made aware of what’s available, in one room so they don’t have to search these out.

IFSEC in May is a very big show that is aimed more towards at invited delegates so they can come along and see perhaps, the cameras or control room technology that maybe of benefit to them. Whilst they are doing that they are also sitting in on the seminars, so they can hear from the experts where they need to be pursuing their CCTV system, if that’s what they want to do, or if they want to keep up to date with the technology.

CB: What do you hope people will take away from the seminar?

DM: I know that we try to encourage speakers that have something to impart. At the moment we have got confirmed the security manager from an international airport coming to talk about how they secure that airport, so it’s not just about cameras, it’s about access control and various things and the terrorism threat that’s always present.

Interestingly this individual was previously was a police officer and was in charge of the helicopter surveillance unit for Avon and Somerset. We’re hoping he can also give us a perspective on what cameras can achieve from above a situation and also thermal imaging cameras, because the technology out there now includes drones, which does have some controversy attached to them regards to the Civil Aviation Authority and the impact of noise or where you can get with these and drones could pose a big threat. Not only can they carry cameras so they’ll can get to vulnerable areas, but they can also carry payloads of improvised explosives and getting a perspective from the police and helicopter view would be of interest to many of our attendees.

CB: That sounds good that does. I’ve been reading the information on the email about the event, I’m interested to get your take on what do you see as the roadblocks to making even more effective use of CCTV?

DM: I think we need to move forward. Town centres CCTV have historically been analogue systems and although, IP (internet protocol) has been around for a number of years, many CCTV managers have been reluctant to change to move forward to the new technology.

Due to latency, and other bottlenecks that they perceive to give them an inferior result to the analogue. I think that view is changing, and if we move away from analogue and make systems IP, they become more flexible and you can do more things with the data, interrogate it, use video analytics and pass it to other individuals that need to see those images and that’s the way things are going to go.

Another of our speakers that we have confirmed coming, is a CCTV manager from the South East and they’ve recently decided to terminate all their analogue fibers that they were getting from a third party provider and put their 80 or 90 or so cameras wireless, which has given them a saving of consistent saving of around £80,000 per year.

We want to hear from this person, what were the benefits, pitfalls and what would he do differently if he did it again. If he can impart that, it would be so useful. There’s lots of managers running town centre CCTV systems out there, who would be able to save this ongoing revenue commitment of £50 – 100,000 every year, putting in wireless systems that avoid but they come with draw backs and some risks, so we’re going to highlight those.

CB: I can see that as a key trend coming through. You’ve also put in there, from an international perspective around the CCTV industry, what do you see as the key trends and opportunities there?

DM:  The Middle East is certainly a growing market and the UK, despite the numerous cameras is seen as a leaders in how cameras should be deployed and used.

With the new Freedom of Information Act recently coming into bear and the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice, we have a lot of camera and we also have a lot of legislation than other countries.

With the international perspective we can focus on the terrorism angle. There was an article on the news just this morning that said about terrorists and tackling this in a different way, as they are in smaller numbers with less planning and how do we identify those and look for those telltale signs. Will that be done by the analytics or by the people reading body language?

The Boston bombings is a classic where, within hours of the bombs being detonated at the race, the individuals had been identified, and within 24 hours they had been arrested. So without cameras, these would go undetected or would be very much more difficult to deal with and make it more difficult for the police to investigate and saves them countless numbers of hours and shortens the investigation time.

CB: I think that’s an interesting area to focus on and a certainly an area of opportunity, where like you said the UK are trailblazing on some of this stuff, where companies and individuals can make a difference.

DM: Absolutely

CB: Thinking on other trends, what where seeing from our clients is a lot more software integration into CCTV. Is that something that you’re seeing as well?

DM: Yes, we’re dealing with a number of clients who are doing a refresh and upgrade of their systems from something they’ve always had. One of the problems they experience is just justify this spend and do the cameras that are situated out there doing their job and are they still relevant.

Only anecdotal evidence whether a camera is used or not and if so how much, and what does it contribute. Ensuring that we have some management software that brings the cameras together and manages the incidents and the camera defects. If should be the managers that have to make decisions on upgrading systems, so the information they need to see is around ‘that camera hasn’t been used’ or ‘hasn’t been used sufficiently’ and the validity gets questioned.

We have just done an exercise with a client where we have identified 20 cameras that probably don’t need to be upgraded, and that’s a saving of £50-60,000 whereas anyone else have just gone ahead and upgraded what they had and didn’t question what there is out there and how to get better use of our money. The money that they are saving can perhaps put cameras in places that we do need they and get rid of those which are not required.

CB: That’s a really good point and obviously what you’re talking about there are the metrics and analysis around cameras and the data coming through, it’s a really interesting area as well.

DM: It’s so valid as well, so we need integrated systems to give the management information to make informed choices, otherwise it’s all a bit hit and miss.

CB: Thanks for your time this morning Derek. Not doubt be catching up with you in the run up to the seminar, to get some more insights into the speakers and what people are talking about.

DM: Not at all, good to speak to you.