Question for dealers about consumer-grade technology

[SIW Editor]

http://www.securityinfowatch.com/art...on=430&id=2873

In this case, the USPS is testing out consumer-grade surveillance. Does the availability of cheap technology directly to the end user, that's getting increasingly more function (this one has IR and wireless video transmission) worry you in terms of what you can sell?

[Snidely]

Re: Question for dealers about consumer-grade technology

As an end user in the gaming industry, I've seen a disturbing trend that seems to stem from the bean-counter vs. security and surveillance debate we're all familiar with. While the latest and greatest installations get the limelight, many existing facilities both in the US and Canada seem to get "margined" to death. In a lot of the sites I've visited, both large and small, obsolete or failing commercial grade equipment is being replaced with consumer grade. While the "gee whiz" factor may be there, is this really a smart move in the long run? Have the liability issues been discussed in your jurisdication, post incident or not? I'd like to hear of challenges faced in this respect, and how they were successfully (or not) addressed. Do you have $50 per unit for VCRs in your 2005 budget? Are expensive PTZs being replaced with mail-order mini-domes? Did you lobby for the right equipment, only to get a carton of bubble packed Fisher Price?

[bblack]

Re: Question for dealers about consumer-grade technology

The troublesome trend that I see, is that most of the people in positions responsible to purchase this and other technology equipmnent are not trained to distinguish between consumer grade and commercial grade. In fact, the simplicity of consumer grade would be alluring. If these people were not frittering away my tax money, I would be less concerned.
So many schools that have made a hard-to-part with investment in CCTV equipment have purchased the least expensive (low resolution, lousy image, poorly installed and basically useless) equipment they could find, because they do no understand how much difference it makes to purchase the correct equipment. The architectural and engineering firms that design special systems for schools often do not have the expertise in-house to specify the appropriate equipment for the application. Somehow, we must inform those responsible for purchase, in the correct applications.