Historically CCTV security systems have been forensic in nature. The majority of cameras have not been reviewed in real time, the data has been stored, normally for 31 days and is used to try to find out what happened after an incident has been reported. Digital Video Recording is always specified in terms of the amount of data required to be stored. We need to move away from the concept of recording data, most of which has no value, to the concept of acting on and recording useful information.

It is also normal to expect the security officer to monitor all of these cameras for the duration of an eight to twelve hour shift. This is despite the fact that the ASIS International in its CCP examination syllabus contends that

“A human can effectively watch 9-12 cameras for only 15 minutes.”

It is clearly impossible for a security officer to maintain an effective supervision of the environment without the assistance of technology to filter out the mundane and uninteresting data.

Security is becoming a vital part of doing business and is moving away from the concept of a “grudge” purchase where the cheapest possible solution is bought, to a system that is designed to provide the required information in a form where it can be used to its maximum effectiveness in order to provide measurable business benefits.