What changes with EN 62676?

The video security standard is a tool for practitioners. The reason for the change to EN 62676-4 is that the European CENELEC standard (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) has been reissued as a global IEC standard (International Electrotechnical Commission) and thus adapted for international use. In contrast to other parts of the standard, the content of the "Application rules for video surveillance systems" part has not changed significantly and the statements from previous publications on this topic are still valid.

More opportunities, but also more risks due to competition

With the adoption of the standards series by the IEC, the world has become a bit more open, especially for manufacturers in the field of video surveillance systems and components. This offers opportunities through a significantly larger market and, at the same time, risks through increasing competition from non-European manufacturers. For some time now, it has been observed that Asian suppliers have been pushing into Europe in order to take market share from the established top dogs. The battle is correspondingly fierce and prices are eroding. Initially, European manufacturers were able to score points with the high quality of their products, but here too the competition is catching up.

Series of standards is adapted

In order to maintain equal opportunities across all manufacturers, it is positive to note that new parts are being added to the EN 62676 series of standards and existing parts are being adapted to current requirements:

• Part EN 62676-2-3 Video transmission protocols - IP interoperability based on web services is already a very extensive document with over 1300 pages in the English version, and it is correspondingly difficult to keep track of it all. The plan to split up this document can therefore only be welcomed.
• A standard for evaluating the image quality of video cameras in security systems is expected to be published at the end of this year in the form of EN 62676-5. Until now, no uniform regulations existed, which meant that the measurements carried out by manufacturers on their own products and their results were often not objectively comparable The new part in the series of standards will remedy this situation.
• Professional video surveillance is now inextricably linked with video analysis. Only intelligent algorithms can efficiently separate the essential from the unessential in the flood of video material and link it to an analyzable event. But it is precisely here that there is still a lack of a generally applicable standard to objectively compare analysis systems. Only recently, a vote was held by the members of the IEC on a New Work Item Proposal with the aim of creating a new standard here. As everyone involved in international standardization work knows very well, several years pass from the idea to the publication of a new standard. In this case, the work on the standard will hopefully lead to the publication of EN 62676-6 Video Analysis Performance Testing in two to three years.

Conclusion

Video Security is a topic that is still in motion. The technologies used are constantly evolving and the video surveillance system of tomorrow will have little to do with the one of today. Standardization is struggling to keep pace with all the latest developments. Nevertheless, a lot has been set in motion in recent years, especially in this area, and this process will continue in the years to come. The author can only advise you to see standardization as an opportunity and, in particular, to use the standards of the EN-62676 series as a tool for the successful planning, installation and operation of your video surveillance systems.

For the video security standard EN 62676-4, a further SES Practical Seminar scheduled for January 30, 2018.