Book Review: Digital Video Surveillance and Security

Digital Video Surveillance and Security, published in 2010, is the newest and only one of a small number of books targeted at video surveillance. In this note, we review the book and compare it to Intelligent Network Video and CCTV, Second Edition.

While Digital Video Surveillance has a standard textbook structure, the quality and depth of its content is quite uneven:

• The most unique and insightful parts of the book are the infrequent sections where the author discusses his practical experience and projects as an IBM employee on video surveillance projects.
• Large sections of the book are fairly basic overviews that can be found on Wikipedia or other generic tutorials (such as sections on video basics, IP networks, wireless / RF, project management, etc.)
• An interesting aspect of the book is that the author discusses costs tradeoffs and specific real world products. On the downside, the range of products is limited and skewed to the evidently small number of products the author has used.
• The book lacks depth on engineering and technology issues specific to video surveillance.

Contrasting to other book, we note:

• The Intelligent Network Video book (from Axis) covers a broader range of video surveillance topics.
• The CCTV, Second Edition book covers much more in depth explaining detailed engineering aspects of surveillance.

For IP Video Market Pro Members, the Digital Video Surveillance book offers little novel information. However, as mentioned above, there are some sections that are interesting and if you choose to purchase it, we recommend the lower cost ($31.88) Kindle edition as it is not the type of book that is needed in print format (as it is a weak reference guide).

Finally, there are two free PDF IP Video training guides that are worth reviewing. While they are published by vendors, they do a solid job of covering the basics - Axis's Technical Guide to Network Video [link no longer available] and Vivotek's IP Surveillance Handbook.