Analytical Intelligence for Intrusion Detection Systems

You may be asking yourself, how does an alarm system integration to ip cameras with analytics help secure a building or area with higher confidence and security?

Below we will explore the most popular applications of these new capabilities. The possibilities are many and security professionals are just scratching the surface of the unique ways these capabilities can be utilized.

New_G_series_integrated_solution The integration between an intrusion detection system (IDS) alarm control panel and an IP camera can facilitate many new options that have not be available until now.

Here is the nuts and bolts and some of the things you can accomplish with this new IDS and IP camera integration.

PROBLEM: Let's say a site utilizes opening/closing reports. Until now that business owner had to trust that the employee who was provided a passcode was actually the same person that was opening or closing the premises. That passcode could have been shared or lost/stolen and the only indication received was an open or close report identified by that passcode.

SOLUTION: With camera integration you can easily have an opening or closing report trigger a system event that sends a virtual output to the camera to send an email or text with a video snapshot of who actually used that passcode to arm or disarm the alarm system. You now have video verified opening and closing reports.

The new B9512G and B8512G as well as their little brothers, the B4512 and B5512 intrusion detection systems panels from Bosch can now integrate directly with Bosch IP cameras.

PROBLEM: Need video verification of a door or motion alarm.

SOLUTION: Setup the alarm to trigger the camera to send email/text messages of video snapshots of the zone or area when alarms occur.

PROBLEM: You have a camera looking at the front entrance of a store or a driveway or a parking area or an open loading dock door. You want to know when someone enters or parks or approaches the loading dock. Typically no one will be looking at the security camera monitors all day and might miss this event.

SOLUTION: Tie that camera to the intrusion alarm system via the virtual output of the camera, program it as a door point in the alarm system, turn on the watch mode, then the camera will ring the door chime on the alarm system keypads to alert the occupants of this event.

No relay magic required. No wiring of any external buzzers or sounders. Just the IDS panel and the IP camera talking to each other across the network. Is it possible that camera might cause false alarms when the system is armed? The new B9512G allows the creation of up to 63 custom point/zone indexes, that means you can create your own point type for the above example and the only thing the camera will do is ring the door chime or create another type of point index and literally turn the camera into a motion detector within the alarm system. Your choice.

NEW APPLICATION IDEA: Another relatively new use for this integration is the physical security and protection of data. Data you ask? Yes, data. In the past IT professionals have been consumed by the network threat. Hacking and denial of service attacks, etc. They have come to understand that the physical protection of data is just as important. Servers in racks can be compromised by disgruntled employees or any number of potential wrong-doers that wish to steal data or cripple a company. These servers are typically housed in shared spaces. Shared by electrical panels, HVAC equipment, Fire alarms, etc. That means many people have access to these shared spaces. Install a B4512 or B5512 with a few contact switches on rack doors, maybe a DS150 curtain motion detector and a camera and all of the sudden the IT staff receives email or text notifications with pictures of who is violating their server rack space. We have a local school district that deployed this solution in their main server room to great affect.

Familiar with HIPAA regulations? The Healthcare Sector is required by law to protect patient data. This integration of alarm and video capabilities is the perfect solution to physically protect that data that is housed in those server racks.

We published a blog post about securing data rooms. Click here.

You can now create alarm system response locally using a camera, or have it report to a central alarm monitoring station. The system can also send email/text messages of motion detection, line crossings, object left behind, object removed, object in field, object leaving field, object entering field, loitering, crowd detection and even camera tampering.

The list is long and only limited by imagination.

All of these solutions are implemented without connections between the alarm panel and the camera other than both are on the IT network. No relay magic, no complicated and confusing wiring, no additional parts, and much less labor and hassle than ever before.

The alarm panel and cameras communicate with each other over the network using a protocol called RCP+. This is what allows the communication between the two devices and eliminates all the relay magic and wiring we used to do to try and integrate disparate systems.

VIDEO RECORDING: The integrated cameras can also be a part of a larger video surveillance system. The cameras can still be connected to a NVR such as the Bosch Divar IP 3000/7000 or 3rd party VMS while at the same time are integrated into the alarm system. Bosch IP cameras also support edge recording to an onboard SD card as well as to a Dropbox account or FTP server. These IDS panels now directly integrate into Bosch Security Systems' BVMS which is an enterprise class video management system. BVMS can now pull all alarm points from multiple IDS panels into the device trees, display alarm points on the maps, trigger camera pull-ups, and more.