Posted by Chris Irwin
on 06/4/2010
The Pledge: An IP camera surveillance system and a card access solution. Two completely independent systems. One assists covering the details you missed while you weren’t watching and the other guards access physical entry into or around your facility. Most of the setups I’ve come across traditionally stand alone, are separately managed and a link between the two is nonexistent.
The Turn: Enter your friendly systems integrator. The power to link separate entities into a single being of “productiveness”. Perhaps the first spectacle will consist of a valid card read paired with associated video of the person making the request for entry. Maybe the integrator will harness the latest and greatest video analytics to save the approaching person the trouble of swiping their card because it recognizes their intended direction and opens the door for them. These are realistic ideas completely feasible with a skilled integrator.
The Prestige: This is where the integrator brings it back to the customer. The true skill of the integrator is being able to make non proprietary equipment and systems work together as one. Some manufacturers are capable of linking their camera system to their card access solution. They’re also capable of locking people into unnecessary licensing schemes to provide such services. The power of the network is the ace hidden in the integrators sleeve. A Sony or Pelco camera most likely doesn’t (ok, lets be serious, they don’t) have a direct interface to a Honeywell or Intelli-M card access system. Yet a simple direction based motion trigger mapped to a relay output on the camera that feeds an input on the card access device can open a door. Provide a GUI via some simple HTML coding and the end user now has a means to watch this chain of events on their web browser. The possibilities are endless. The integrator listens to the customer’s objective, devises a plan, and out pops the ace onto the customers table: trick complete.
