Subscriber Discussion

Standardization For Electronic Security?

EV
Eduardo V. Duffrayer
May 11, 2013

Ref. Certifications such as COBIT, ITIL, PMBOK, etc

JH
John Honovich
May 12, 2013
IPVM

Eduardo, please expand. What are you looking at? Something equivalent to those for electronic security?

EV
Eduardo V. Duffrayer
May 12, 2013

John,

Standardization for Electronic Security, such as PMBOK for project management...

Tks,
Eduardo

JH
John Honovich
May 12, 2013
IPVM

For electronic security, there are a few rough equivalents to the Project Management Institute (the group behind PMBOK and the PMP) but nothing that similar. There's SIA, the ESA, NICET, etc.

Can you please elaborate with a few sentences? It's very hard to make recommendations with just a few words input. It makes us have to guess what you are looking for.

What do you want to do? Are you looking for a certification? Do you want some standards to follow in your work?

EV
Eduardo V. Duffrayer
May 12, 2013

John,

I'm referring to conceptual certifications such as ITIL, COBIT and PMBOK for IT.
Something like good practices to install electronic security systems.

Tks,
Eduardo

JH
John Honovich
May 12, 2013
IPVM

Eduardo, I am not sure what, if anything is used. I see two challenges. Electronic security is pretty broad. Even if there was something good in intrusion, it might not be good in video. Secondly, technology changes which impacts best practices.

Is there a specific segment within electronic security you are particularly interested in? Intrusion? Access? Video? etc.

EV
Eduardo V. Duffrayer
May 12, 2013

Hi, John

My main interest is CCTV. End users encounter many difficulties in Brazil to hire installation services for CCTV. It is very difficult to know what is the real technical ability of the installer. If there was a quality of service parameter think it could help a lot.

The end user also does not know if the product that is being installed is of good quality.

Thanks,

Eduardo

JH
John Honovich
May 12, 2013
IPVM

It's a global problem. I don't know of any CCTV/surveillance standard or metric that would reliably indicate quality products or integrators.

BH
Bohan Huang
May 13, 2013

"The end user also does not know if the product that is being installed is of good quality": Unfortunately products change very fast and to many products are just rebranded products. Also, a good manufactuer makes duds sometimes too (e.g. Arecont had a batch batch some years ago). This is one reason why its good to have an integrator involved - the integrator can "underwrite" the warranty/responsibility of making sure the system works.

Regarding licensing - one other way is for force investment/commitment into the industry. For example, in Australia a security integrator has to obtain and maintain both licenses and trade association subscriptions amounting to thousands of dollars per year. Now most integrators that are willing to spend this money are also most likely commited to really learning the trade properly either in DIY fashion from optics and security textbooks or to attend courses. in Australia for example there are many providers of optional CCTV training which is not required but probably necessary if the integrator has no prior knowledge and have no one to know from. I remember 10 years ago when I was involved in my first CCTV job - when you actually engage in the act it was quickly apparent the whole project was much harder then one would assume as an outsider (that was only a 8 camera install) - just trying to pick locations form cameras can easily do you head in. I had two choices - was my thousand plus security license registration charges and run or go an do a 5 day $300 course - it was an easy decision. The optional third party course taught most of the required optics and security knowledge to get things going - experience taught the rest.

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