Digital Surveillance a Boon to Smaller Banks

Small banks that found it hard to pay for the expensive analog surveillance systems that were the backbone of bank facility security for years can benefit from the latest in video surveillance: digital video recording. Digital is less expensive, but provides clearer pictures and broader viewing and storing flexibility.

Instead of video tape, digital video brings images directly into the computer. Systems such as one offered by Automated Video Systems, LLC, allow a PC user to configure the settings of the cameras, set recording times (which can be periodic or motion detected), and remotely view the results. Most computers using such systems can store about 60 days of recording. Automated's system allows recorded clips to be viewed from any PC with Windows Media Player software. In addition, the system provides high-resolution recording, zoom capabilities, audio recording, and alarm monitoring.

Digital video is also changing the way recording is done. Many of the more recently manufactured digital systems, such as one by Alpha Systems Lab, can tie specific transactions at an automated teller machine with recordings of the event to cut down on fraud. In some locations in the country, such as Seal Beach, California, banks are working with law enforcement to develop a way to allow police to view the inside of a bank live during a bank robbery or break in by having the bank send images to police computers or a hand-held viewing device.

The new video systems also are encouraging development of new ways of storing recordings. Kanguru Solutions, a data storage company, announced recently that it had established a relationship with Panasonic Security Systems to create a system that uses removable hard drives to store larger quantities of recordings and to provide the capability of viewing from many different computers. When the recordings are no longer needed, the hard drives can be reused.

Copyright © 2004 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 14, No. 4, 7/05