The Top Tech Takeaways From the 2010s
Security stakeholders from Hanwha, Genetec, Bosch, Axis and SIA highlight some of the most important security technology advancements from the past decade.
Soon we will usher in a new year, and with it a new decade. SSI asked five to glance in the rearview mirror and highlight some of the most important security technology advancements during the past decade.
TOM COOK, HANWHA TECHWIN: Getting to a higher camera resolution really impacted the industry from 2010 until now. Our resolution desire has become greater and greater — this decade seems to be the resolution decade. We’ve gone from the first 2-megapixel camera in 2010 to now where we’re at 32 megapixels. Our industry thirsted for higher resolution cameras complete with all that video data, which translated to a demand for compression. What we’re seeing now are companies that focus on R&D are now on top of the leaderboard due to their focus on the market and quality of products.
ANDREW ELVISH, GENETEC: When we go back 10 years ago, analog was still a thing. IP was there but nowhere where it is today. The sophistication and advances put on integration companies were incredible. IT was coming to the table for security purchases. A new buying group, aside from the analog to IP journey, is the standalone independent systems to networked unified system. Now access, video, LPR, etc., are all tied together. You can now understand the movement of people from the moment they set foot on a premise, and it’s more than just having a video or access record. It’s what can you do with the information to improve the operational success.
PAUL GARMS, BOSCH SECURITY AND SAFETY SOLUTIONS: Over the last decade, we saw sales of IP cameras take over sales of analog cameras, and in the middle of the decade, widely reported news stories on the Mirai malware brought the topic of data security for networked cameras to the forefront. It underscored the importance of securing network devices, and made many integrators realize that primary components of modern video surveillance systems are subject to the same scope of cyber and data security threats as any other device attached to a network.
Now, at the close of 2019, we find that data security topics come up in the majority of security sales discussions. Important data security measures include assigning every component in the video surveillance network an authentication key, securing data from hackers by encrypting it at the hardware level with a cryptographic key stored in a built-in trusted platform module [TPM], managing user access rights and supporting the setup of a public key infrastructure.
JOE GITTENS, SIA: Cloud solutions have had a tremendous impact, as the amount of storage and processing of data for situational awareness can be moved offsite and systems can be expanded at scale.
RYAN ZATOLOKIN, AXIS: If we look back to 2010 to now, we have much higher resolution cameras that allow us to capture more detail. High megapixel cameras and multisensor cameras are capturing more details. People used to put in p/t/z cameras and an operator would have to move it around. And while p/t/zs are still valuable for things like investigating, you can now use cameras to cover more areas with more details. There have also been improvements in low-light technology.
At the start of the decade, you’d be hard pressed to find high-res cameras that did well in low light. There’s a lot more of that technology out there now and a lot of megapixel cameras perform well now in low lighting. And better compression technologies, per pixel, we’re much more efficient in how that uses bandwidth on a network and because of that how much storage it actually requires. People can now view video remotely form their phones with increases in public bandwidth. We can get a lot more through those systems and that’s very exciting.
Erin Harrington has 20+ years of editorial, marketing and PR experience within the security industry.
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