Credit crunch to stop CCTV industry?

The credit crunch is hitting companies hard at present, but how much are security companies being impacted?

Certainly the IT sector is taking things badly, with regulation, budget cuts, and new technology threatening a number of companies on the one hand - though on the other, green IT is seeing improved investment.

So which way will all of these CCTV security companies go that are offering IP Networks for surveillance and security to power their spy cameras?

Well, the verdict seems to be - not very far, because technology is more accessible.

Simply put, despite the credit crunch, companies are looking for cheaper solutions, and the technology exists to already provide that.

We’ve already seen the CCTV security industry move towards IP surveillance, and a key drive behind that technology is the improved costing by running a network.

While not yet a mature technology, we could see cloud computing help reduce costs further, as new technologies already existing to support emerging technologies.

The sad fact is, that while the credit crunch is crippling most industries, the surveillance industry is not one of those.

In fact, with increasing unemployment, more adverse economic conditions, one would be tempted to think that security is one area that will see further investment, not least where the “haves” protect against the “have-nots”.

Britain Spies the Most

If you are in Great Britain and you feel like you are being watched, it’s because you are. There is one CCTV camera for every 14 people. In a perfect but eerie “reality imitating art,” there are over 30 cameras with in shouting distance of George Orwell’s home (the author of 1984 - the “big brother” book).

It seems to me that this could be too much of a good thing. With ever success that the government has (catching criminals, getting leads, and other more preventative actions) it seems that more cameras pop up. What started out as a deterrent to crime is quickly becoming the eye of “big brother” aiming to keep the citizens in line and on track with the government’s ways.

I would hate to be they guy who has the job of monitoring all these cameras. Keeping an eye on 4.2 million CCTV cameras has to be mind boggling (not to mention the amount of space the screens take up).

Maintaining order and peace is important. There just has to be a better way of going about it. Is the public use of money best spent spying on the every day lives of ordinary citizens in the hopes that MAYBE something bad might happen?