Box Fan

The other day one of our existing CCTV customer was rather annoyed when we said we couldn't help him to set up a burglar alarm system in his office.


As CCTV gear, software and more importantly customer's CCTV requirements are getting more and more sophisticated, a security generalist simply not good enough to meet the needs of an ever-demanding surveillance market. We rather be a specialist in CCTV than a generalist in the security industry.



I am in this line for more than 10 years and always prided myself a handyman but when I tried to open the front and back covers of my dinning room's box fan for cleaning yesterday, it took me close to an hour! This experience of mine send the same message to us loud and clear; leave a specific job to a specific specialist – a CCTV company not suppose to get involve with burglar alarm system and likewise a non-CCTV specialist like those burglar alarm, autogate, network IT supplier & installer are not suppose to supply & deploy CCTV system.

I Remember

Yesterday a CCTV installer long-time friend told me that he is toying with the idea of quiting the business after Chinese New Year (end January 2009) as the economy had hit his business hard.

I shared with him this quote;

"Believe me when I say we have a difficult time ahead of us. But if we are to be prepared for it, we must first shed our fear of it. I stand here, before you now, truthfully unafraid. Why? Because I believe something you do not? No, I stand here without fear because I remember. I remember that I am here not because of the path that lies before me but because of the path that lies behind me. I remember that for 100 years we have fought these machines. I remember that for 100 years they have sent their armies to destroy us, and after a century of war I remember that which matters most... We are still here!" Morpheus - The Matrix Reloaded 2003

I told him if a line from a movie character is not convincing enough, here is a statement from the wealthiest man in the real world;

"We'll survive current and future recessions just as we've survived past problems" Warren Buffett August 2007

We can't predict the future but by remembering the past we can be optimistic about the future.

Cloud 9

Riding on the Web2.0 trend, Cloud Computing is getting more and more popular. Some optimists even predicted that in a vary near future both software and hardware will be like water & electricity. PC no longer need software or powerful hardware as both are available online as services.

It is a vary exciting and intriguing development. It is convenience, flexible and green as Cloud Computing eliminates all physical distribution & it frees up a lot of redundant resources being tied up with underutilized software and hardware. It opens up new possibilities but at the same time closes doors for many existing IT players.

Wonder if Cloud CCTV could make inroads in the surveillance industry. It could spell disaster to all the small players in the industry as the capital intensive Cloud services is destined to be dominated by a few global giants.

But then again, as long as the privacy issue is unresolved, the great CCTV exodus to the cloud is like heading to a mirage in the sky.

Jellyfish

Overheard my teenage niece talking on her cell that all boys breakup with their girl friends is due to jellyfish. Once she got off the phone I asked her the meaning of jellyfish. She smiled and explained, “ jellyfish means nothing big but petty reasons like jealousy and selfishness.”

Over the years in the CCTV industry we had learned that 9 out of 10 CCTV system breakdowns are also caused by jellyfish, 'petty' gears like connector, adapter, power supply, cable etc. Vary rarely a CCTV system failure is caused by main equipment like DVR and the camera.

In other words, no gears in a CCTV system is petty or less important and only those CCTV installers who pay attention to the small stuff or details will produce stable & long lasting CCTV system.

As the saying goes, ' it's the small things in life that count the most.'

Live Life to the Fullest

A friend of mine says mankind no long has privacy with the first ever surveillance camera rolled out from the production line. I told him if he want absolute privacy, pay with cash, send snail postal mail, search with yellow pages, throw away your cellular phone, don't give blood to doctor and never ever travel by airplane or leave the country for that matter.

Like it or not we must take some privacy risk in life in order to live our life to the fullest.

Minimalism in CCTV

Picked up an ID book the other day about Minimalism.

For the pass few years I am a strong advocate of simplicity. I'd done my vary best to keeps everything to the absolute minimum or simple. My adherence to this single principle had brought me tremendous rewards to both my personal and professional life.

It is also holds true for CCTV system deployment. We constantly strike for simplest possible design and deployment of any CCTV solution without compromising the quality and stability of the system.

After years of hands-on experience, simple design and deployment had resulted in CCTV solution which uses less gear, less downtime, less energy, friendlier to the environment, easier usage and contributed handsomely to both customers and our company's bottom line.

Simplicity is indeed the ultimate sophistication.

The Six Million Dollar Man

The Six Million Dollar Man was my childhood's all time favorite TV series. For those who are too young to have the pleasure to enjoy the TV series in the 70's, here are the background of the story; astronaut Steve Austin was severely injured during a rocket liftoff and his right arm, both legs and left eye are replaced by bionic implants with a price tag of 6 million dollars. Pretty cheap by today standard though. With the implants he can lift heavy load, run 100km per hour for a long period of time and a 20x Zooming and infrared capability eye.

Today you don't need to get involve in a rocket accident & burn a 6 million dollar's hole in your pocket to turn yourself into a bionic man or woman... well not literally but you can have bionic eye by deploying an IP network camera with 3GPP protocol at home. With this deployment you can distant monitor your house with 3G mobile devices anywhere around the globe.