Businesses have continued to face an ever-changing security landscape, and technology has been playing a lot of catchup over the past several years. Accountability is more important than ever before, and taking advantage of modern-day technologies can not only ensure that company assets are being watched, but provide intelligent insights faster and more effectively than ever before.
Let’s break down some of the major differences between older security systems and their modern counterparts, detailing just how much value a business can get from upgrading.
Modern Security is Much More Than Recorded Camera Footage
Going way back, older security cameras were basically nothing more than deterrents—similar to having motion-detecting lights on the side of your home or business. They give potential criminals an incentive to move on, but in actual practice, they were not all that helpful when it comes to solving a crime, identifying a thief, or giving you a clear picture of a security event.
Most criminals have tricks up their sleeves to get around older systems, and the lack of detail and clarity was always something a criminal could rely on. These older systems all have a number of ways they can be bypassed, from drowning them out with flashlights and laser pointers, to tagging them with spray paint. It doesn’t help that older cameras are usually much more obvious, too.
Let’s assume that a criminal simply decided to ignore your cameras and robbed your business. Unless you get lucky, the authorities might not be able to identify the subject caught on your security footage. If your system is older and has limited storage capability, and you don’t realize you’ve been robbed until a few days later, you might not even have footage to work with in the first place.
In other words, old-school security cameras weren’t as effective as they probably should have been.
A Clear Picture is Everything
Did you ever own one of the early camera phones? Back then, they were pretty impressive, but looking back, the images they captured were comically bad. Images were washed out, grainy, and very small, and low-quality. If you were to print them out on a modern printer, they’d scale to about the size of a credit card. Compare that to modern smartphones, some of which can take incredible shots that are near cinema quality, day or night, with 100x zoom.
The smartphone camera I use to take pictures of serial numbers on the back of computers while they are obscured in cables and dust rivals expensive, professional camera kits that were thousands of dollars a decade ago.
Digital camera technology has come a long way over the last decade, and it shows when you compare the footage of an older security camera with the footage of a newer one. Plus, one of the limitations has always been storing the footage. You would need special hard drives that were designed to write data constantly, and higher capacity drives would cost a lot more money, so most businesses would opt to store less footage for a shorter period of time.
Modern security footage is a much higher resolution, with cameras recording at high-definition (HD) and even ultra-high-definition (UHD), which means it requires more hard drive space to store, but hard drives have gotten bigger, faster, and more efficient, and you can securely store your archived footage in the cloud.
Finally, and in a lot of cases, most importantly, modern cameras can often get a much wider viewing angle and actually pick up a lot more detail. This could enable you to make out the license plate numbers of cars that pull into your parking lot, capture the faces of other people in the scene, or make out details of a scuffle.
On top of that, specialized cameras can be equipped with night vision and infrared capabilities, allowing businesses to monitor their premises at all times, even in low light.
Digital Surveillance Isn’t Just About Stopping Criminals
Physical security systems are all about accountability and can not only protect your assets, but also be useful for making informed decisions about activities and occurrences that happen on your grounds. Take schools for example—modern security systems can go a long way in detecting smoke or vapors in bathrooms, pair with access control systems so you know who gains access to certain areas and when, and evaluate situations between students and faculty.
Older camera systems often don’t offer a lot to situations like these unless the situation happens to occur at just the right spot, at just the right time, and at just the right angle.
Some Recent Camera Systems are Potentially Dangerous to Own
We’ve mentioned this on our blog before, but there is a growing list of security camera brands that are banned by the FCC due to potential security risks. There has been evidence that certain camera brands from certain Chinese manufacturers may have the ability to send information overseas without your consent or knowledge.
Your organization shouldn’t be relying on these cameras, as they pose an active threat to your security. It’s worth reviewing and auditing, just to be on the safe side.
Modern Security Has Come a Long Way
We’ve only just scratched the surface! Be sure to stay tuned to our blog, and if you want to discuss the security of your organization, be sure to reach out to us at (410) 531-6727 today.
