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State Office Improves Surveillance Technology

Software-based network video recorder in place at New Jersey complex

DALLAS -- AXCESS (www.axsi.com), provider of electronic security surveillance systems announced it installed a new security video surveillance system solution in the offices of the Monmouth County, N.J. government office complex. The system sends digital quality security video directly over a computer network to increase efficiency, effectiveness and improve security response. The Prism Video system places security video directly onto the network at the camera location, enabling transmission to software-based recorders and displays placed anywhere on the network.

In traditional security video tape recorders, suspects are very hard to search for, and their faces are often unrecognizable when found. Although Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) solve this problem in part by making searches easier, using a Network Video Recorder (NVR), video from within or between buildings can be easily connected to an existing computer network. The use of this system will save on video cabling costs, the number of recorders needed to do the job and make fast-motion live video available to any authorized PC on the network.

NVRs can be placed logically wherever the quantity of video warrants a recorder, bringing efficiencies that the video cabling constraints of a DVR cannot provide. The use of a software recording application running on a standard PC, instead of a dedicated piece of security hardware further reduces the cost to the county. Live and recorded video is available anytime and anywhere an authorized person can access the network, even at home. The solution also includes the ability to e-mail alerts and video clips for security alarms.

"This approach offered us a number of benefits over a traditional solution," said F. Robert Williams, chief information officer for Monmouth County. "We are able to place security cameras more flexibly at our countywide network at any connection point, and we are able to record and view the video independent of building geography. We can access the digital quality video anywhere, giving us the ability to respond quickly to trouble."
Miriam Jones is a former chief copy editor of Government Technology, Governing, Public CIO and Emergency Management magazines.