Analog Vs. IP Video: An Integrator's Primer

By Patrik Pettersson, business development manager, Axis Communications

It surprises many industry outsiders to learn that 75% of all surveillance solutions installed today are still analog. Those of us from the IT world understand that IP provides better quality, functionality, and scalability, but there are many stakeholders from the physical security side that have been using analog their entire careers. In their minds, they simply need a system that works.

Because of this state of convergence, education is still a hurdle to overcome. Lack of education can perpetuate myths about IP video that can halt any sale. There is an opportunity here to work together with your IT contacts to properly educate the security end-user on the features and functions of IP video. We've lived through a similar analog to IP transition with VoIP, and there are plenty of relevant lessons that can be taken from that journey. Fortunately, IP video is a much more established technology than VoIP was at the time, so the learning curve should be flatter.