Posted on: Sunday, August 17, 2003
Price a factor in video surveillance systems
By John J. Fried
Knight Ridder News Service
Electronic surveillance is in.
While the government watches airports, harbors and other sensitive installations subject to terrorist attacks, big businesses watch their employees, warehouses and offices.
But the folks who sell surveillance products that combine video cameras with simple software that enables remote monitoring via the Internet are thinking even bigger.
Well, smaller, really: They want to bring video surveillance to the small business that could not otherwise afford it, and to the home, where few now think of using it.
They say their products are the best way the guy with the little shop can protect his inventory or the home-office worker out on a call can keep family members away from the desk or the PC. They also pitch their products as ideal for keeping a remote eye on the nanny or on the elderly parent who is using a spare bedroom.
The arguments that video surveillance has a place in the small business and, especially, the home may be having an impact.
"There is a very nascent movement to put video cameras in the home, but right now it's among the engineering types, the guy who goes to Radio Shack on Saturday morning," says Joe Freeman, president of J.P. Freeman, a security and automation consulting firm in Newton, Conn.
That fascination with home surveillance is already leading homeowners to spend about $100 million a year on video surveillance systems, according to Freeman, who says that businesses, by contrast, spend about $1.9 billion a year on surveillance systems.
But the movement could spread to people who spend their Saturday mornings at less geeky places, such as Circuit City and Best Buy, at least if two systems I tested — Encore's Safeworld PC Surveillance Kit and Veo's Wireless Observer Network Cam — are any indication.
Both systems monitor the area under surveillance, and, via the Internet, let you watch what is going on as it is happening.
Or, if you do not care to keep a beady eye on things on an ongoing basis, both systems will watch for intrusions into a private space and will notify you with, among other things, an e-mail if an intrusion is detected.
If you prefer, the cameras will record the happenings on your hard drive for your review when you get home.
Follow instructions carefully, and setting up a home surveillance system is a 30-minute job.
In some critical ways, the efficiency of a surveillance system is a factor of price.
Safeworld's system is $79.99.
At that price, you get a decent camera, but one that always has to remain tethered to your PC by way of a USB cable. That means you can monitor only areas of the home or office that are inhabited by a computer.
Moreover, to gain real-time access to the camera, you have to establish an account with Visec.net, a Web site affiliated with Safeworld's vendor. The service is free; however, if you are the impatient sort, you may not appreciate having to go online and log on to Visec every time you want to dip in to take a look at the place or people you are monitoring.
The star of Veo's $299 system is a Wi-Fi, or wireless, camera.
Because it is wireless, you can set it up in the kitchen to make sure the scullery maid is not fooling around with the butler, or place it in the nursery upstairs to keep an eye on the children.
The Veo will communicate with a PC — or directly with a DSL or cable modem outfitted with a Wi-Fi access point such as a router — at distances up to 300 feet.
Unlike the Safeworld camera, the Veo camera gets its own IP address. Thus, it can be accessed directly from any remote computer with a browser.
Because the Veo cam has a built-in microphone, you can also hear what is going on at the locations you are monitoring. For good measure, from your remote vantage point, you can tilt the camera or have it pan its surroundings.
The Veo, though, is not without its blemishes.
For your $299.99, you do not get a motion sensor, a crucial component if you are not monitoring, but want to be notified of intrusions. To add that capability, you have to spend an additional $29.99.
That the Veo can transmit wirelessly is nice. But that does not make it totally mobile. It has to be plugged into an electrical socket to function. As a result, using it outdoors is likely to be difficult.
You may also run into one important obstacle using its remote monitoring capabilities.
When I accessed the Veo set up in my home from a remote free-standing PC, I had to accept the installation of an Active X plug-in on the PC before the display would begin.
When a friend tried to access the cam from a remote computer on a network behind a corporate firewall, nothing. The firewall, protecting the network, refused the Active X control.
Thus, if you pine for the Veo but will do your remote peek-a-boo from your company's office, you may be out of luck.
