An increasing number of people are using Video Content Analysis (VCA) as a security measure, according to research conducted by the British Security Industry Association (BSIA). In its research the BSIA investigated how often installers and manufacturers supply VCA in their solutions. VCA is the automatic analysis of CCTV images to create useful information about the content. It has a wide range of uses from the detection of intruders, left packages and wrongly parked vehicles to counting people entering or leaving an area.

An impressive 80% of respondents reported that they provide products using VCA with over a quarter of products supplied using the technology. As well as the majority of respondents providing VCA, both installers and manufacturers commented on an increase in the number of supplied products using VCA in the last 12 months. Installers noted a 7% rise whereas manufacturers reported a 4% increase. The research also demonstrates that VCA is used by the transport and retail sectors most frequently, followed by the aviation, utilities and local authorities sectors. The most popular application of the technology reported is external and internal intruder detection.

Pauline Norstrom, Chairman of the BSIA's CCTV Section, comments: "These results are encouraging with more and more people turning to VCA. This is not surprising given that the technology carries many benefits and can be used to increase the effectiveness and return on investment from CCTV systems through enhanced or increased capabilities to detect events and analyse post-event video. VCA technology is now being applied more often in an assortment of businesses and as more and more gain from its many benefits, the hope is that the number of people using VCA will continue to increase."

Last year the BSIA published a guide to VCA, which provides a basic understanding of the technology and can be downloaded by visiting www.bsia.co.uk/publications. For more information about the BSIA's CCTV section, visit www.bsia.co.uk/cctv.