Re: Portable Wireless Covert Video System

[David Gillett <gillettdavid () FHDA EDU>]

  I've experimented a little with a wireless camera made by Swann.  It sends
the video
stream over a 2.4 GHz channel -- recording/watermarking it at the receiver
is left as an
exercise.
  The picture quality and range both stink.  Wireless for the video signal
does nothing
to address the *power* requirements of the camera -- adding a 9v battery
triples its size,
and adding a solar recharger eliminates any claim that it's "covert".
  I've been happier with a couple of alternatives that record to local flash
media, but
the units I've played with don't do watermarking; there's no way to monitor
in real time,
and if someone walks off with the camera, the media is gone too.

  My guess is that any affordable[*] system that addresses all of these
deficiencies is
going to be bigger and more obvious than you'd like, or will need wiring for
power and/or
stream (in which case PoE does both and you just lose the "wireless"
requirement).
  I believe that a significant part of the security contributed by cameras
is before the fact,
as a visible deterrent, and that while surveillance can be useful after the
fact, truly *covert*
video with wireless transmission is going to rely heavily on camouflage to
avoid detection.
That probably doesn't meet their notion of "completely transparent".
  (And if it does wireless, equipment exists that will detect it as an
interference source
even if it can't tell what content it's transmitting.  In the 2.4GHz band,
such equipment is
already a cheap consumer product.)

[*] -- I have no knowledge of what various TLAs (Three-Letter Agencies)
might have
access to....

  If you should discover a system that does meet your requirements, I'd love
to hear
about it.

David Gillett



  _____

From: Dave Koontz [mailto:dkoontz () MBC EDU]
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2007 11:32 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: [SECURITY] Portable Wireless Covert Video System


Our Security Office is requesting a portable Wireless Covert Video system
that can be easily moved and setup in various campus locations and would be
completely transparent to anyone in that area.  Most of what I've seen on
the Internet are the cheap home type of systems. ala "nanny cams" and such.
Ideally the system would have it's own DVR and the ability to send an
encypted video stream both with a watermark that would hold up in court to
prove no tampering of the images has occured.

Has anyone had any experice with such systems?  I would appreciate any
suggestions or advice you could share.

Thanks in Advance.


---
Dave Koontz
Mary Baldwin College
Staunton, VA