Not necessarily. Depending on the frame rate, compression method, and the size of the image,a single camera typically generates 200Kbits to 2.0 Mbits of data per second. Any 100Base-T Ethernet corporate network can support this; enterprise organizations with Gigabit Ethernet LANs have even more available bandwidth capacity.

Firewalls, VPNs, and password protection exist to safeguard sensitive data. You can also encrypt digital video to prevent tampering or intrusion. These measures enable you to secure video transmission within your corporate network and even over the Internet. While widely used to share information publicly, the Internet provides adequate security for financial organizations and banks to conduct business on a daily basis. What’s more, it is emerging as a dependable choice for security monitoring and surveillance.

IP video cameras feature high quality image sensors and optics identical to those found in analog cameras (although don’t mistake these for the low-end web cams that do, indeed, yield poor results).But you don’t have to choose between IP and analog cameras when migrating to IP video. You can still use your existing analog cameras. Just add a video encoder to digitize the analog video signal.

You can install a video encoder to digitize the video signals from your analog cameras and make them compatible with an IP video system. Hybrid systems that combine IP cameras and analog cameras with video encoders are increasingly common as organizations choose to adopt the benefits of newer technology while continuing to get mileage out of their existing equipment.

You may spend more on the IP cameras — they have built-in digitalization, image compression, and intelligence capabilities that analog cameras do not — but this cost may be outweighed by what you save on installation. Why? A single Cat5 cable can potentially support video from hundreds of cameras. You may also be able to use existing network infrastructure and avoid running new cable altogether. Analog systems require coaxial cable, which can support only one camera per wire. Also, with PoE (Power over Ethernet) – which sends the electricity needed to power IP video devices over the same Cat5 cable that connects them to the network – you can further reduce the need for wiring and its associated costs.