Scaling Down IP Surveillance

Now, after intense work and good results by a number of companies, it can also mean scaling that surveillance capacity down, making it more flexible and—important in this economic environment—budget friendly. Two companies in particular, Lorex Technology Inc. and Yoics Inc., have brought software and hardware solutions to IP surveillance that now make it possible to install a solution on a budget, scale video and data to handheld devices or enterprise storage, and put a limit on man-hours needed to get it up and running.

Call it surveillance on a budget, video in a pinch, realtime, on-the-fly—whatever. While the technology is not as robust as many larger institutions might be used to or require, the products and technology examined in the CRN Test Center Lab can work fine for smaller enterprises, workgroups or for individuals.

We took a look at Lorex's wireless, day/night remote surveillance camera, the Wireless Easy Connect Network Camera (LNE3003).

At 4 by 1.25 by 2.5 inches and weighing 6 ounces, it's mountable and bracketable. It's white, and it's not going to be an incognito solution, but it's small enough to blend into a wall or ceiling. It hooked up to our wired network in fairly routine fashion, and its management console allowed for a quick transfer to our wireless 802.11g network within minutes—and only cursory networking knowledge was needed.

In a Windows configuration, the Lorex camera supports viewing, recording and playback, but Lorex notes that only viewing is available on a Mac OS X client. The camera worked on both Yoics' software and its own browser-based console. Lorex, Markham, Ont., also provides a neat little service—its own DDNS support that allows for Web-based remote monitoring configuration to also be established within minutes, and again with only cursory networking knowledge.

The camera supports motion detection, two-way audio via integrated microphone and speakers (which work as advertised) and night vision as a one-off solution to a larger enterprise surveillance deployment or workgroup surveillance (for a small, secure work area, for example).

Lorex lists the LNE3003 at $299, but street pricing can range down to about $229. The company has a range of surveillance solutions, including higher-end and more robust hardware and IP video; the LNE3003 was at the lower end of the price scale in that lineup. Yoics lets you scale down even further.

The longer into the life span of the iPhone as a platform, the cooler the applications are that are built around or support Apple. For example, using both the Lorex camera and a $79, off-the-shelf Logitech Webcam, we were able to stream surveillance video from our lab to a first-generation iPhone over IP.

Yoics, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based company founded by a group of industry R&D veterans, has put together one of the easiest IP surveillance solutions that requires nothing more than a PC, a Webcam and an iPhone to get up and running. The upshot is yet another way to imagine the iPhone as a platform for solutions, apart from its position as a standout consumer device.

Using Yoics' technology, to get started, one needs only to download Yoics' software client to a PC, install a Webcam if one isn't already installed and integrate the camera with the software client. After clicking on the Webcam, a user can remotely take out an iPhone, log in to the streaming video feed via the Safari Web browser and see the realtime, live-motion feed over the Internet.

What makes this unique is that the number of live video applications that work with the iPhone is a small one; in fact, no additional software even needs to be downloaded to the iPhone itself for the IP cam to get up and running. Yoics itself explains its raison d'etre: "Yoics exists because networking is too hard."

Among the company's executives are CEO Ryo Koyama and Mike Johnson, its executive vice president and CTO, both of whom started Yoics after their previous company, iReady, was acquired by GPU company Nvidia.

There are, of course, some drawbacks to the IP surveillance solution Yoics has put forth. For starters, it only supports one camera per installation. And while it can take archives of still images, it doesn't archive streaming video.

The platform now is Windows-based, but company developers say they're working on supporting additional operating systems. Then again, the software that enables all of this is a free download.

Sure, this may be a configuration that appeals more to people who want to watch their pets at home during the workday than for business owners who have a real security need. But Yoics' IP surveillance solution for the iPhone does work, and it shows significant potential for higher-end deployments in the future.