In Latin America, despite the coexistence of regulations and the confluence of some international guidelines that are applied severely, there is no regional legislation that strictly regulates video surveillance.
by Santiago Jaramillo Hincapié
The Latin American region, although it has a more than considerable growth in terms of installation and development of projects that include electronic security systems in order to solve the marked security problems that afflict it, has not created clear mechanisms or standards that regulate the installation and operation of the same.
It should be clarified that despite the lack of local regimes, many of the countries in the area, as well as companies that have interference in Latin America, have adopted foreign regulations in order to supply them and be in accordance with international standards that allow compliance with quality parameters in service, installation and operation.
For Jorge Armando Carreño Hernández, one of our special guests in this edition of the magazine VENTAS DE SEGURIDAD and who is part of the company Inalarm, in the region there is currently no strict regulation regarding the installation of video surveillance systems, although there are rules and regulations, it is not common for them to be audited or "checked" to make them effective, "However, due to the convergence with IP systems and given the increasingly strong sales of cameras and IP systems, the security channel has had to adopt and comply with IT standards," he points out.
For his part, Omar Murillo, sales director of Samsung Techwin America, states that in the issue of standards or local regimes that regulate the installation of CCTV systems in Latin America, the globally accepted standards are UL, FCC, CE, etc., which not only give a lot of value to the brand that adopts them, but also allow them to generate quality in the product.
Meanwhile, Cristian Barraza, Manager of Videocorp's Electronic Security Business, says that "I personally believe that our continent is not far from the standards of countries that can be understood as "more advanced". Moreover, in our offices in Chile and Peru comply with ISO standards, we have analyzed projects whose bidding bases or specifications have been designed by Australian, Canadian or North American engineering companies; and always the standard required is a standard known and managed by our company and those that compete with us."
Enforcement of regulations
As to whether standards or legislations are taken seriously and are complied with by manufacturers, installers and end users in this segment of the industry, our guests were categorical in their statements in indicating that despite the absence of initiatives or regulation by governments, international standards are fully complied with, more for delivering additional guarantees of operability and quality, than for complying with a regulation.
"Unfortunately there is no strict regulation in this aspect, and it is also the result of the little dissemination of these practices, this is why the importance of training and dissemination of these standards and best practices, however there have been advances as in the case of fire and access, and in the case of IP equipment because it deals with network systems and these comply with standards and regulations, so it is very important to make and know how to do in detail the data network that will support the system, "says Jorge Armando Carreño Hernández.
Also the representative of Inalarm affirms that it is very important to know that the systems already installed as well as the bandwidth consumptions, all this so that the system does not collapse or wreak havoc on the network infrastructure of the company.
"For this, each manufacturer has its own calculation tools which allow to determine the bandwidth consumption as well as the necessary equipment capacities depending on the project. In this area of infrastructure it is very likely that you will have an interaction with the people who manage the computer systems and networks of the companies, so it is very important to speak the same language in order to maintain a clear channel of the needs and resources of the system, "adds our guest.
He also comments that there are, however, certain market niches where safety standards determine the products, the case of mining, petrochemical and painting, for example, determines that the equipment meets different standards to be installed, but as any standard depends a lot on the end user and his commitment to safety to demand compliance with these standards.
Sales director Samsung Techwin America, meanwhile, points out that the standards are important because they help define and detect whether products can cause catastrophic problems such as fires -due to electrical problems-, radio frequency interference, etc. "This is very important for end users since the above gives them a sense of security that the purchased equipment will not cause any inconvenience."
Risks and problems
Moving on to the topic of the main risks or problems that must currently be faced in Latin America in terms of CCTV and what is the best way to counteract them, our guests contextualize that currently the electronic security market has had an expansion in terms of suppliers, many brands and many products have created different expectations of use and functions of equipment, therefore, it must be in accordance with current standards.
"Points such as after-sales value, quality of equipment, superior functions, integration with other systems and operation have been reduced by price arguments", ponders our guest from the company Inalarm, who also points out that "it is a fact that the value of security systems is determined by the total value of the solution in terms of operating time and real mitigation of risks and not by the value in price of equipment; under this concept it is of the utmost importance to know how to determine the aspects that are added to know the real value of the solution".
Carreño Hernández also comments that the increase in security is not achieved via more equipment, but based on a planning of threats and risks. "The term of the costs on these solutions in economies like those of Latin America will always be an important point, where most companies focus on reducing expenses, quantifying the tangible benefit of investing in security systems is not an easy thing, but it is one of the main sales arguments, quantifying the value of assets at risk is one of the main ways; how much the risk affects the productivity of the company, taking out the value of the loss of a day due to a loss or theft and doing the exercise against the value of the security systems with respect to the useful years of it, this provides a tangible parameter to determine the value of the investment in security", Emphasizes.
Alessandra Faria, regional manager of Axis Communications for South America, complements the above by indicating that "this is a market of wide growth that has led to the analog migration to IP, so the challenge is that all integrators and end users are attentive to the novelties in technology and that they always choose the equipment according to the help they will provide to their project".
As for a problem that constantly arises in this segment of the industry, the representative of Axis Communications states that "when there is a low budget for a project, it causes cameras to be purchased for a price but not for the functionality, which can negatively impact in terms of the quality of the project. The recommendation in this case for the end user is to keep in mind that price is not always the best solution."
Technology and innovation
Moving on to the technological issue that he hopes can be introduced in the CCTV segment to improve the current situation, Faria indicates that "having better and better image quality, technological innovation such as developments that offer the integration of several equipment, analytics, greater visibility in low light conditions, among others". It also indicates that "the technology that is entering this segment of CCTV has increasingly positive characteristics, in the part of Storage, local storage saves costs to projects and offers increasingly immediate solutions, another technology that we can mention that is currently reaching the market is the possibility of analyzing the image from the same cameras, in them you can install software that performs analytics without having to do it with other equipment as usually happens".
Meanwhile, the representative of Inalarm states that the migration to IP systems in the surveillance market is one of the main market niches today. Its integration into more robust systems, the quality of the image, its flexibility of operation, its interoperability and its capacity for growth has given the guideline to more and more systems migrating to IP and being born from conception.
"This has led to the IT market starting to integrate security systems into its projects and the security markets soaking up IT systems, within this convergence of technologies determining how to make the transition and get the most out of the installed systems as the systems to be installed is the main factor", adds Jorge Armando Carreño Hernández.
Regarding the issue of IT standards and the integration of security standards to these standards, Carreño Hernández maintains that companies that have IT departments are accustomed to all their equipment complying with the standards that determine the correct functioning of the equipment and when integrating security systems will not be the exception; that is why the idea of integrating the framework of best practices and electronic security standards into this type of standards is seen as one of the main tools to not only regulate facilities; but also to create trained and certified channels that offer security consulting services rather than camera installation.
"Training in this aspect is fundamental, to the extent that a company that provides security services can offer certified facilities and equipment and complying with standards, it will have an important differentiator in addition to this implying the expansion of business towards the IT systems market," he concludes.
