With all the hype surrounding so-called 'Talking CCTV' now being rolled out as part of public space surveillance in Britain's cities, that allows control centre operators to speak to people picked-up on camera, one would be forgiven for thinking that this was some radical new form of security that had just emerged, particularly as the coverage from the non-specialist broadcast media seems to point inexorably to this conclusion.
The reality however is somewhat different. Those outside the security industry may be surprised to learn that the capability for control centres to speak to potential lawbreakers has been around for at least 15 years. The trailblazer in this regard was the DVST from Dedicated Micros, which supported, for the first time, transmission of CCTV across telephone lines and a dual audio link enabling a remote operator to talk to monitored sites via a loud speaker.
Since then a plethora of products have come to market offering similar functionality and today installers have considerable experience installing CCTV with an audio challenge capability. This is particularly true in the commercial arena, tied-in with remotely monitored, detector activated CCTV, with results on the ground showing that an audio challenge can act as an effective deterrent in over 90% of cases to protect premises out of hours from costly losses. So much so that UK Police requirements for providing Level 1 immediate response to a remotely monitored detector activated CCTV system specifically state that audio challenge facilities must be present.
What perhaps the high profile reporting of 'Talking CCTV' illustrates most, is the continuing need to educate and inform the media about the reality of CCTV on the ground, specifically the major successes which are being delivered every day to protect commercial sites which can be lost, all too easily, in the continual focus on town centre/public space surveillance.
It is also important that the ability of an audio challenge, which has been demonstrated to deal effectively with criminals, is not trivialised by being viewed too narrowly as a technology that, as one report puts it, simply tells people off for dropping litter or committing anti-social behaviour. An audio challenge, as real security professionals know, is about much more than this.
