After the recent announcement of a new partnership between UK and Ireland-based distributor to the video surveillance market GVD and Dell EMEA OEM Solutions, we spoke with GVD’s UK Sales Manager Steve Jones and Dell EMEA OEM Solutions’ Video Surveillance and Storage Division’s Business Development Manager Lee Cauchie, to talk about what both companies are looking for from working together in the UK and Ireland.
GVD is a name in Ireland where it has a reputation as a value added distributor (VAR) with cemented partnerships with key IP video vendors including Milestone Systems and Avigilon and some of Ireland best integration businesses as partners. As such it has been central to a range of IP video-based infrastructure projects across Dublin and throughout other cities in Ireland.
Projects have included providing a video and traffic analytics system to National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) and City of Galway as well as the know-how and integration skills to complete video surveillance projects in Dublin Airport, in Dublin’s city centre and road network.
After success there, it has decided to take the IP video expertise and network it has built up over the last ten years, across the Irish Sea into the UK. GVD’s partnership with Dell EMEA OEM Solutions’ team means that both companies will work together to offer end to end video surveillance solutions for selected systems integrators serving medium to large enterprise IP video projects throughout the UK. It has already begun work to build up to 20 key IP video specialist systems integrators throughout the country.
Steve Jones, UK Sales Manager at GVD says: “What we are discovering when we meet these integration firms, our potential partners across the UK, is exactly what we expected: one of the biggest challenges they face is specifying the hardware for IP video systems. All too often the server hardware which VMS and video analytics are running on are inadequate or just incorrectly specified.
“By working together with Dell OEM Solutions, we know we can offer integrators the right software and hardware solutions which will prevent systems integrators from having installed systems that have performance issues. They want tried, tested and correctly configured solutions which is what we know can deliver by working together with Dell.
“The other big problem that integrators face is getting disparate security systems talking to each other. We are at the very start of a security systems convergence trend which will eventually see intruder detection, smoke and fire alarm, access control and CCTV systems all working together to help tighten security and improve response times. Again, having the know-how and vendor relationships of both Dell OEM Solutions and GVD behind you, helps accelerate this convergence journey.”
Video surveillance systems are more complex and require more networking and IT systems and data storage knowledge than ever. Pooling Dell OEM Solutions’ video surveillance storage expertise and storage product range with GVD’s systems integration knowledge and contact-base means that it becomes possible to put together an end to end offering in which systems performance and scalability is assured, Lee Cauchie says: “Today, we are now having to spec up video surveillance storage from 1 Terabyte up to hundreds of Petabytes. We understand that different video surveillance systems demand different levels of data retention and robustness and we can gear the hardware and network infrastructure to meet these needs.”
To give a flavour for the growth of video data storage in recent years you can look at surveillance industry analyst IHS’ numbers. In 2013 IHS Inc announced the rise of HD video surveillance was leading to an astonishing 413 petabytes of data a day being produced by newly installed video surveillance cameras.
Today, the proliferation of higher resolution cameras means that the data deluge continues so that in 2015 we were producing 566 petabytes of video surveillance data a day, all being generated by surveillance cameras installed worldwide. That’s an average of over 18 per cent growth per year right now. Factors likely to continue stimulating this level of data growth over the next few years include:
•HD compliant 1080p 25/30 fps cameras have established themselves as the minimum expected from new cameras. This is not now limited to network cameras, HD CCTV has emerged as the replacement for many remaining standard definition analogue cameras.
•Panoramic and 4K cameras are two further storage hungry high growth product categories.
•When video surveillance footage is being stored it is generally being retained for an increasing period of time. Aside from out-and-out security purposes, video surveillance footage is being increasingly retained longer for anti-litigation, insurance and operational purposes too.
Dell’s Customer Solution Center in Limerick can be used to build and run Proofs of Concept for IP video projects. Dell OEM Solutions’ specialist team has the domain knowledge, and over 20 years of experience in this area to enable the right equipment to be specified and optimised for the customer’s specific requirements. And after the system goes in, it does not stop there. Dell can underpin four hour on-site response for integrators who need to offer this level of support to some customers.
Lee Cauchie says: “We recommend enterprise class SAS hard disk drives (HDDs) to minimise disk failure so that video systems keep recording around the clock. By configuring RAID-6 we increase robustness to ensure data retention.”
HDD manufacturers have recognised that the write intensive/read rarely profile of most video surveillance systems means that ordinary HDDs geared for PC use are inadequate. They have launched a range of drives designed for video data storage. These drives also help deal with the growing use of video analytics software.
GVD’s Steve Jones adds: “We recognise the need for solutions which offer much more certainty to integrators that they will work with their VMS of choice, access control system, or video analytics software suite. This tight relationship with Dell OEM Solutions, combined with its close working relationships with the likes of Milestone Systems, Avigilon, Indigo Vision and March Networks, means that many bases are covered, while systems can be configured and tested in any one of five Dell Solution Centers across EMEA. These services offer terrific peace of mind for larger customers building complex, mission-critical systems.”
GVD adds that it puts emphasis on designing and engineering systems correctly so that system constraints are not felt by the integrator, and by extension, the customer. Steve says from his meetings with integrators in recent months that the leading integrators are crying out for a higher level support in this area and that is what GVD and Dell OEM Solutions together will offer them.
GVD has been exhibiting at all this year’s Professional Security Magazine’s Security TWENTY16 regional conferences and exhibitions. The next in the series of four shows is ST16 London on Wednesday, November 2 in the Park Inn by Radisson Hotel at Heathrow.
