Page 34 - Security Today, November/December 2021

The Body-worn
Evolution
How the integration of wearable video and VMS is enabling new situational awareness across an enterprise
By Jason Ouellette
What once began as technology typi- cally reserved and embraced by law en- forcement, wearable video continues to find applications and use-cases in a host of new verticals and industries. Adding a body worn camera solution into an existing surveillance sys- tem allows businesses to centralize video footage and manage it all from their Video Management System (VMS), adding yet another layer to security detection and protection with numerous other benefits to reap from adoption.
Police departments, first responders and government security personnel were among early adopters of body worn camera tech- nology, but other markets are moving to take advantage of these surveillance sys- tems for cost savings, training, validation, deterrence, documentation, incident review, and transparency and employee safety.
With many realized benefits to deploy- ment, users are spanning many entities, including retail, private security, commer- cial, healthcare, stadiums/event venues, education, public transportation, casinos and banking.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
These wearable cameras offer various advantages to users, such as simple mechanics, robust design, wide field of view, portability, and functionality to be worn on the body, and providing high-quality videos. Moreover, the technological advancements in sharing options, such as GPS functions and Wi-Fi connectivity enable the users to keep track of their position and speed.
The ability to connect to the internet and enable data exchange between net- work and device is also among the major driving factors leading to the technology’s increasing popularity. In security, safety and other applications, adding a body worn solution to augment an existing sur-
“The ability to connect to the internet and enable data exchange between network and device is also among the major driving factors leading to the technology’s increasing popularity.”
34
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | SECURITY TODAY
veillance system allows users to centralize security video footage and manage it all from their network video recorder (NVR) and VMS. In every market, body worn cameras provide an additional, higher lev- el of situational awareness for the wearer, the user and the facility.
Body worn cameras eliminate the “he said, she said” interactions that occur be- tween customers and employees or work- ers and team members. Audio-enabled video recordings verify incidents and situations, and integrate with other on- site cameras for an even more complete, holistic view of events and interactions. Because they are deployed with on prem- ise servers as a local recording solution or hosted in the cloud, the user has flexibility in deployment and easy scalability.
TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
Body-worn cameras are lightweight wearable recording devices are affixed on clothing or to belts and accessories. The video, which includes time/date indicators and GPS coordinates, directly integrate into NVRs/VMS through open platforms.
Solutions typically consist of cameras and docking station, system controller and the video storage and include a vari- ety of mounting accessories to tailor the
unit to the wearer and the application. The docking station, in single or multiple bays, provides the mechanism for offload- ing video from the camera and recharging the camera battery. The system controller works in conjunction with the docking sta- tion, storing video temporarily until it is uploaded to the VMS for local recording, or sent for cloud storage. The body-worn camera also supports live video feed sup- port through WiFi and cellular commu- nications. The video and audio from the body-worn cameras is encrypted both at rest and in transit to meet security and pri- vacy requirements.
INTEGRATION
CARVES A TOTAL SOLUTION Support for body worn cameras through VMS integration fosters more robust capabilities, scalability and best-in-class cybersecurity practices and yields a holistic, unified solution. In addition to the importance of video quality, viewing, storing and managing recorded video from body worn cameras is critical. It needs to be securely stored and maintained to retain integrity of the video and associated data for future retrieval in line with the expectations of VMS solutions. That is where the importance of the VMS enters.
WEARABLE DEVICES
vittoria_vittoria/Shutterstock.com