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By William Van Winkle |
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Little Brother Done Right We like to make cracks about Big Brother in the SMB and enterprise workplaces, but what about smaller environments, such as homes, SOHO, and very small businesses? While the head count may be low, don’t underestimate the potential of this group, because this is the segment that’s liable to have no security installed at all. They may have a motion detection alarm system, such as a home system installed by Brinks, but this old guard of consumer surveillance still appears oblivious to IP technology. With analog systems, you have no video, two-way audio, remote management, or anything else. Just a few dumb sensors tied to a monitoring service that may or may not get a timely response from the police. We’ve tried a lot of consumer-oriented cameras. Even the best Web cam models, such as Logitech’s Orbit, can be disregarded because USB cameras almost never have multiple-camera monitoring or remote management capabilities. And as mentioned above, we’ve rarely found a sub-$200 network camera we thought was worth noticing, both for image quality and feature reasons. Product issues aside, network cameras are notoriously common returns for retailers because their setup is just too complex and convoluted. Router port adjustments? Dealing with wireless congestion? Handling DDNS configuration? You must be kidding. Panasonic’s marketing of the $350 KX-HGW600 Camera Management System—a wireless gateway for up to 16 Panasonic cameras with customizable firewall, VPN pass-through, and SD card recording—as a “consumer” device is absurd. Forgive the author intrusion, but allow me to tell you about my personal experience with a company called Wi-Life (www.wilife.com). I’ve installed Linksys, D-Link, Hawking, Panasonic, and other network cameras designed for smaller environments, and while there was a broad range of qualities and results, none of them was something my wife or dad could have set up. These are cameras that descended from the IT world, and the baggage they carry as a result will prove too bulky for the average consumer. WiLife is the very first network camera setup I’ve seen that remedies this.
“We talk about five buckets of cameras on the market right now: analog wired and wireless, network wired and wireless, and USB cams,” says Evan Tree, president of WiLife. “People see our systems and try to place us in one of those buckets, and we just don’t fit. We designed this system from the ground up based on my 22 years of working with homeowners and small businesses and took all of the hassle and complexity out of it.” Tree sent me a WiLife LukWerks Indoor Camera Starter Kit with the promise that it should set up in 15 minutes or less. The LukWerks system uses HomePlug technology, meaning it passes video stream data over the AC power lines in buildings. I took the kit home, set the camera up in my living room, and ran its only cable (RJ45) down to an adapter that converts the camera Ethernet to an AC wall plug. Back at the PC end, there’s another adapter that converts from AC to USB, and the USB cable plugs into the PC. I’ve tried planting Wi-Fi cameras on the living room bookshelf before, and the reception there is terrible. Through HomePlug, all connection problems vanish. The LukWerks software saw the camera, configured it, and up it popped in the PC client UI. At 640x480, the color, contrast, and overall image quality were very satisfactory. There were a couple of minor hitches worth noting. When this house was built, I had two electrical circuits run to the home office for all of the computing gear. HomePlug adapters work best if running on the same power panel, which is why the technology is usually recommended for buildings under 8,000 square feet. At first, with the USB adapter plugged in next to my computer, the LukWerks software couldn’t find the AC adapter. So I used two USB extension cables (about 10 feet total) to reach across the office to the other circuit, whereupon the camera popped up just fine. (According to WiLife, buildings “with multiple sub-panels may experience weaker signals as the RF signal is required to make multiple hops.”) The remaining installation then seemed to hang, but a reboot solved the problem and up came the surveillance stream. For those with larger distances to cover, WiLife has its “Pro” platform, which uses the same cameras and software but replaces the USB element with a power injector for running Ethernet over an 18V powerline connection. Conceptually, this is Power-over-Ethernet (PoE), only it’s a proprietary solution WiLife devised in order to keep the transformer bricks from becoming, well, bricks. Note that the WiLife Command Center software will recognize and display up to six cameras coming into one PC even if they reside on multiple networks, i.e., USB, Ethernet 192.168.1.x, Ethernet 192.168.15.x, etc. You can also combine both WiLife Pro and HomePlug for a hybrid solution. “We use powerline on everything instead of wireless because it’s more reliable, more secure,” says Tree. “It’s always encrypted, not like something a customer has to do manually with Wi-Fi. And it avoids all that spectrum competition on the 2.4 GHz band. The camera needs power anyway, so it seems like a real no-brainer to us. We use the exact same power supply that powers the camera to bridge the Ethernet data to the electrical lines.” Remote viewing is part of WiLife’s standard package, but for $80 annually, users can get the Platinum package, which allows for scheduled time slots when alerts will be active, online storage at WiLife’s servers, the ability to perform remote camera management, and other features. Because WiLife cameras don’t integrate a Web server, users must either be at their surveillance console machine, using remote desktop software to access this machine, or employ WiLife’s Platinum service.
As a reseller play, WiLife has several compelling elements to it. Unlike D-Link, for example, WiLife limits you to six cameras per console instead of 16, and you have to pay an annual subscription for remote camera management. On the surface, that’s bad, but keep the target audience in mind. If an end-user wants to move a camera, the HomePlug arrangement makes doing so a snap. The DHCP server built into the WiLife client automatically handles address assignment, and there’s no LAN reconfiguration hassles—which means fewer support calls for you. Neither do you have to deal with DDNS or port configuration issues for remote viewing because WiLife’s servers deal with all of that and pump video through a browser. Resellers can charge for consultation on camera setup and positioning, alarm configuration—my test alarm had a text message on my phone in under 30 seconds—and client software tutorial. For instance, with Platinum you can configure five digital PTZ presets for each of the six cameras. This is a slick little feature many end-users might overlook unless an installer helped them to set it up. Note that WiLife Command Center used about 10% of my Core 2 Duo CPU while in live view, so I wouldn’t recommend this for an underpowered system. Also note that WiLife offers a range of add-on cameras, everything from an outdoor model to indoor infrared (night vision) kits to spy cameras disguised as various home electronics devices. My favorite is the SpongeBob CD boom box, and for $499.95, I hope the radio works. I like WiLife because it’s rare to find a consumer-friendly product line with so much reseller potential and so few headaches. Moreover, the buyer appeal is immediate. My wife has seen IP cameras come and go and never given them a second thought. With WiLife, I spent 30 seconds showing her the ease with which she or I could monitor the kids from any PC or notebook as well as rewind and play back alarm footage. And it was like a little miracle. Her eyes got big. She straightened up and said, “OK, that’s really cool. Get more cameras.” Radius Security’s Jeff Sandine had originally turned the RAM staff on to WiLife, but I didn’t know how strong of a sales play the product could be until that moment. WiLife isn’t perfect. The UI could use some tweaks, live streaming is prone to stuttering as powerline conditions fluctuate, and the add-on cameras are relatively expensive, which could also be a plus depending on your viewpoint. But we believe that WiLife’s technology and willingness to embrace resellers with everything from Web site dealer listings to monthly webinars is exactly the kind of solution needed for pushing IP physical security into the small business and home. WiLife certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on this category, and other, possibly better, options are sure to follow. This is just the best consumer play for networked security we’ve seen to date. We wouldn’t advocate replacing something like Brinks with WiLife, but putting the two together makes a lot of sense.
EDUCATION AND PARTNERING Today, there are over 200 manufacturers of network cameras. Competition is healthy, and options are always welcome, but you don’t want to work with a dozen manufacturers in a narrow product category like IP surveillance. You want to work with two or three and develop a deep relationship that will aid you with sales, support, and technical education. If you’re new in network camera systems, education should be your top priority. Definitely get trained on the product lines you choose, but keep in mind that security hardware fits into a much larger mesh of hardware and network considerations. We got a taste of this in the bandwidth and storage discussion above, yet there’s far more to it. For obvious reasons, Cisco would be the first to try and convince you about the importance of being a trained networking professional before tackling security. “We have a whole suite of existing certification courses for systems engineers, field engineers, so they can become certified on network architecture and design,” says Cisco’s Mark Kolar, director of worldwide channels for physical security. “In there is a plethora of knowledge and training that helps them come up to speed to a point where not only are they credible but they have the accreditation they can provide to end-users. This incorporates a large part of our physical security offerings because so much of it is actually based on the network as a platform. Then we have additional courses on specific components, like recorders or cameras. But we’ve built our physical security program on top of that CCNA [Cisco Certified Networking Associate] structure. We expect folks who already have physical security experience to come up to at least that level before we bring them into the channel program around our enterprise solutions.” To sell Cisco physical security products, you have to pass through a sequence known as the Authorized Technology Provider Program. This entails being able to demonstrate product proficiency, becoming versed in case studies, having already deployed physical security solutions, and so on. There are also a couple of mandatory networking foundation courses pulled from the CCNA program. The point of all this training, of course, is to make sure that resellers can troubleshoot in the field and understand how plugging in devices over here can impact the network over there. “You don’t have to be a mechanic and know how to build an engine in order to drive a car,” says Kolar. “But it is nice to know some of the components and functions of a car in order to be more effective as a driver. So an end-user should have some knowledge. A reseller should have a slightly higher degree of knowledge. And if you’re going to sell converged network applications with physical security systems tied to point-of-sale with event tagging synchronization, that’s going to take yet more experience and knowledge. So here’s an opportunity to not only be of more value to your customers but differentiate yourself from your competitors that may be slower to react or choose not to invest in the education.” No matter how good and fundamental Cisco’s training is, though, it’s still going to be Cisco-centric. As an alternative or adjunct to this, consider turning to resources like the SANS Technology Institute, which offers a wealth of network- and security-related courses for both live and online attendance. The school runs over 200 training events around the world every year. Resellers interested in video surveillance would benefit from classes like Perimeter Protection In-Depth (502) and Assessing and Securing Wireless Networks (617), which is essential if you plan on deploying wireless cameras. The class will teach participants how to shut down a wireless network, break encryption, and so on. School president Stephen Northcutt notes that, in a classroom environment, there’s a proctor right there not only to teach concepts but help apply them to your shop’s specific products and vendors. In contrast, people who take online courses tend to just click through to the next section when they get stuck on something.
Beyond classes, we can all relate to a common truth: Nothing beats experience. And when you have no deep experience in a field, one of the best strategies is to partner with someone who does. “Network guys are not used to opening the door and working outside,” says Radius Security’s Jeff Sandine. “And in that world, you outsource to the electrical guys and people that can deploy up the side of a building. The security business quite often is something that is sub-contracted. If you can successfully build those relationships and design a partnership with an electrical contractor, then I think you’re going to be successful. The major distributors who are into security pretty much know who those contractors are. Just ask them.” Sandine quips that to partner with another reseller on a $500,000 or $1 million installation, Radius will parachute into just about anywhere. Your customer may balk at adding liability insurance for skydiving on his contract, but the basic point is sound. There are different skill sets required to be successful in security, and there’s almost no way for you to be fluent in all of them when you start. You need to understand the principles of surveillance that analog installers have perfected for decades, including not only how to place cameras, switches, and servers, but also how to install and maintain them. This could mean partnering with a retired cop who’s spent the last 10 years doing security systems. It could mean that you make yourself available for contract work to security installers who have no idea how networks operate. If security becomes a core business for you, it might even make sense to move from contract partnership to outright merger. “The IT side has an easier time figuring out the security side and certainly doesn’t have a problem with the technology, but the security side is operating in a different realm entirely,” says iSupply’s Mark Kirstein. “It’s a big technological change for them. On the IT side, among the challenges is just understanding the physical security market and how to influence the physical security customer, because while the customer’s IT group will be involved in specifying and deploying the network for IP-based surveillance, the buying decisions will still be driven largely from the physical security side. And those existing physical security dealers are used to putting in just analog cameras. They don’t know how to do or manage networking. So until they become educated on the benefits of this technology, it limits the market.”
Education and partnerships will not only grow your business directly, but the ripple effect of partnerships will help to grow the IP security market as a whole. SEIZE THE SURVEILLANCE According to iSupply, there are roughly 10,000 system installers in the U.S. Of these, only 1,000 work in the surveillance space, leaving tons of room for small players to target niches. In an age when Columbine and Virginia Tech are still ready buzzwords, schools are one of today’s most avid surveillance buyers, and you should be quick to add network cameras into any K-12 or university bid discussions. Healthcare is another key security vertical. In reality, though, every business needs security. It won’t be long before everyone from the tier-one OEMs to the major ISPs are offering IP surveillance. The challenge for resellers will involve how to go beyond basic hardware and installation by adding more value through services.
Creative resellers can offer to store video streams and make them available to buyers as needed. This way, the end-user doesn’t have to worry about storage capacity or bandwidth. If you’ve taken the step of doing off-site backup/storage hosting for clients, then you’ve already got much of the infrastructure in place to do surveillance hosting. Why not derive two sets of recurring services revenue from one set of hardware resources? “Especially on construction sites,” says Axis’ Fredrik Nilsson, “I’ve seen companies go out and say, ‘We know there’s theft at building sites. Here’s a cost to put 15 cameras on this building site for the next 12 months. We’ll record and store everything and alert you if there’s any activity between 10:00 at night and 7:00 in the morning.’ Companies doing that are doing very well.” As a loose ballpark number, Nilsson believes that a charge of $300 per camera per month is acceptable here. And it’s not like you have to hire monitoring staff to sit and watch screens 24x7. (This doesn’t work anyway. Experiments run at Sandia National Laboratories 20 years ago for the U.S. Department of Energy found that a human staring at surveillance monitors ceased to be acceptably effective after only 20 minutes.) Your staff only needs to perk up in the event of an alert trigger. Besides this, services might include daily checks for camera failure or network issues. If a customer is only doing weekly or less frequent checks, then the security solution isn’t doing what the buyer paid for. Another prejudice we discovered in the security world is that SMBs are often ignored. All of the talk is about enterprise, enterprise, enterprise. For resellers, this can be an advantage because it means there’s less competition focused on your market. “There’s huge money at the enterprise level still,” says Tech Data’s Bob Shouse, “but I think there’s tremendous opportunity in the SMB world. IP surveillance is just an extension of the network, just like adding telephony. The ability to manage and monitor your security systems using the network makes it so much more open, easier to facilitate, to the point where you can manage everything from your PDA, both looking at video and managing access. In fact, most security vendors want me to grow our SMB market more than the high-end enterprise stuff." “It’s good to be able to train end-users on these products,” Shouse adds, “but it’s even better to be able to go there and say, ‘Look, for a monthly fee, I’ll manage this entire thing. I’ll monitor it. We’ll provide the alarms and do the upgrades to the software as they occur.’ That’s a great opportunity. You’ve got switches and network products. You’ve got software from the OS all the way through the NVR software. Storage products. The whitebox or branded server. All of those are sales opportunities.” In a way, Cisco’s entrance into IP physical security is a validation that the space has finally hit prime time. For Cisco to call something an “emerging technology” implies the expectation that there is an incremental billion dollars of revenue to be had from that particular discipline or product group over the course of several years. Eventually, that technology is expected to generate at least $1 billion on an annual basis. And that’s $1 billion annually just for Cisco, never mind the 200-some other IP surveillance vendors in a space that iSupply says will generate less than $700 million in IP camera sales this year. The growth in IP surveillance is going to be staggering, and there’s still time to jump in ahead of the heavy hitting competition. Few companies have the expertise to handle all of the hardware demands in this market. Become one of the few, master the software needed to turn that hardware into an effective security solution, and watch your sales soar. |
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Copyright © 2007 RAM Magazine. All rights reserved.
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