ANSI/BICSI 005-2013 ESS Standard

Luis, I scanned through the table of contents and the first few chapters and it seems incredibly basic.

The whole thing is evidently under 100 pages, with 6 total pages on video surveillance and 7 on access control. For that, the least expensive price to obtain it is $155.

Am I missing something here?

John, you´re right. It´s not so big and not so cheap but I bought it and enjoyed a lot because here in Brazil we don´t have a security / video standard and it´ll help us a lot. Our customers (structured cabling installers in general) are moving to cctv market and are going to use it. In the cabling chapter there is a new method named "Direct Attach" whrere the horizontal cable is attached direct to the device through the RJ-45 conector. In the structured cabling standards the horizontal cable is connected to an outlet RJ-45 and it to the device through a patch cord RJ-45/RJ-45. In the video chapter it´s mencioned that the resolution shall be measured in pixel per meter (ppm) or pixel per foot (ppf) and the minimum resolution shall be 131 ppm (40 ppf).

As for the minimum resolution being 40ppf, is that for any camera or specific applications? 40ppf is quite good for general activity monitoring but try to get facial details and you will likely be disappointed. We have an in-depth PPF guide that can help.

John, thank you very much. It says..."The minimum resolution shall be 131 ppm (40 ppf) using imaging standards like HDTV to achieve a VSS forensic review function".

If that's all they say about PPF / resolution, it's poorly done and worse than even manufacturer marketing recommendations.

The PPF level should match the objectives / level of detail one needs for a given task / scenario. Typically you see something like 10ppf for object detection, 50ppf for facial details or license plates, 100ppf for tattoos / fine print on cards or money, etc.

John, sincerely I didn´t read the standard. There is other part that says..."The minimum resolution as measured in pixels per linear distance shall be 262 ppm (80 ppf) using imaging standards like HDTV to achieve a VSS recognition function".

In that case, their standard is actually fairly conservative. I am presuming then 'forensic review' means something like 'general activity'.

Using PPF can be tricky. The higher you go, the more likely you will have the detail you need but the more it drives up costs, often forcing more cameras or the use of 5MP+ cameras that have significant drawbacks of their own (typically worse WDR, worse low light, lower frame rate, etc.).

John, once again thank you very much for your attention.

I am curious to know what the practical outcome of the BICSI / ASIS MOU will be. ASIS also signed one recently with SIA, so I am not sure if there is real meat in this or just a PR effort to link big associations together.