Daily Post 1534
CENTER FOR CCTV RESEARCH
CCTV has been in the thick of things for quite some time. They have found their way into our lives long time back and its intrusion is increasing by every passing day. Contactless and touchless world is what COVID-19 gave us as a gift and CCTV is bound to provide solutions to ameliorate our plight. Using it as a post mortem tool we have grown with, it is time to change gears to make this technology relevant to our requirements. Even as a post mortem tool it has not delivered much because we have invested only money into it. Value and utility does not come out of only money being invested, it has to be skills, expertise and application of mind to find solutions or even to put technical infrastructure to good use.
Video surveillance is the ultimate force multiplier, the proverbial third eye that can unfold the crevices which cannot be seen by the human eye. Given the situation when we are more than happy with the sight of installed cameras, then how far can we go. The return on investment is abysmal and there has barely been any increase in either public domain comfort level or the security stance. The recent Supreme Court judgement talks about the tasks unattended right under the police’s nose. The Mumbai High Court few days later detailed the nature of efforts which needs to be undertaken by the Police to set right the situation with regards to CCTV surveillance in Police Stations.
What has been found really disturbing by the Court is the regularity with which Police officially states that the CCTV has not been working. When that is the case with the Police Stations, it also is a remark on the quality of public domain video surveillance operated by the Police. Given this situation not only Police’s approach to CCTV needs to be overhauled but the whole CCTV ecosystem in this country. In this background a multi-stakeholder effort for the creation of Center for CCTV Research at RV College of Engineering, Bengaluru, is certainly in the right direction. It would iron out the basic discrepancies the CCTV ecosystem to start with.
The stakeholders covers all, from OEMs to system integrators to professors and scientists to practitioners. From camera technical specifications to bandwidth sizing, video command center, to video analytics to video audit is the wide research area. Tech documentation to bid process end to end is within the perview of this center. The whole RVCE expanse covered with cameras and all other requisite wherewithal is the laboratory. For the time being the video audit court directed part can be fully accomplished COM-SUR, an Indian product, an atmanirbar one, owned by one of the stakeholders associated with the research center.
RESEARCH TO REALITY IS EPITOMISED BY THE CENTER FOR CCTV RESEARCH.
Sanjay Sahay