Subscriber Discussion

How Often Do You Replace Your Cameras? And What Is Your Business Case Memo?

UE
Undisclosed End User #1
•Jul 18, 2018

I'm writing a business case memo to replace most of the cameras in both of my buildings. They are all 10 years old. They mostly work ok, very few issues. But the way I see it, replacing them all now in a planned way will prevent them all crapping the bed in rapid succession when they do start failing. That is one business case. Secondly, going from mjpeg to h.264 decreases storage and bandwidth resources. Thirdly, the image quality of cameras today compared with 10 years ago is much better, along with other features, analytics, and compatibilities for convergence with other physical security systems. This is a data center and office space environment. 

What about audit compliance? Doesn't SOC and/or SOX and/or PCI require some sort of ongoing due dilligence to keep your surveillance systems up to date and spiffy? My buildings are audited for those things, although I'm not involved in that process. If so... that's really all I would need. A one sentence business case. 

 

U
Undisclosed #2
•Jul 18, 2018

Does your IT/S department already have a dev lifecycle plan? You have every case to piggy back on their qualifications and use the same script.

Example: Plan>Procure>Deploy>Maintenance>Upgrade>Repair>Recycle>>>>>>Plan.

Good Luck!

UE
Undisclosed End User #1
•Jul 18, 2018
In reply to Undisclosed #2

Yes, the official lifecycle is no physical hosts are allowed anymore, everything has to be cloudified unless you get very high level exceptions. Obviously you can't cloudify a camera so this would be a special case for which an individual business case memo has to be written. 

(2)
UE
Undisclosed End User #3
•Jul 18, 2018

I try to use the rule of thumb of replacement every 5-7 years. Like computers, are you really going to rely on a computer that is 7 years old? It's technology and needs to be replaced earlier than most things.

(1)
UI
Undisclosed Integrator #4
•Jul 18, 2018

Most manufactures only offer up to 5 years on the warranty for CCTV equipment. So the 5-7 year mark is when my company usually recommends upgrading CCTV Systems. 

Just a general question UD1. Is you system analog, or digital, and how many cameras are you planning on replacing?

 

UE
Undisclosed End User #1
•Jul 18, 2018
In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #4

106 being replaced, and three or four more being added. We're also adding an additional server to handle the increased processing load that will be caused by going to h.264. 

 

It's all IP and POE based with a 120 day motion-based retention policy.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #4
•Jul 18, 2018
In reply to Undisclosed End User #1

That makes things much simpler. My next questions would be to ask if you have a segmented network, or if you are piggy backing off your IT Department.

If you have your own segmented network then you can pretty much do whatever you want. If you are using IT Departments equipment then I would talk with them about how they roll things out and copy and paste whatever they do. Just my two cents. 

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Sean Patton
•Jul 18, 2018

We recently surveyed integrators about replacing cameras for upgrade purposes versus failures: IPVM Survey: Replace vs Upgrade

I don't know of any specific "due diligence" to upgraded a system required from an compliance aspect, but our survey showed that 60% of integrators are upgrading cameras when they replace them, versus replacing them when they fail.

A response that is similar to your situation:

"We upgrade lower resolution cameras, lower frame rate cameras in critical area. they simply were older and the technology wasn't there. with the price of cameras, it is a no brainer to replace critical surveillance area cameras with modern cameras with better resolution, frame rate, and night vision."

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