Stay Safe - Thieves targeting RED gear

[Simon Dunne]

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techf...cktitle=LATEST-TECHNOLOGY-NEWS&contentID=1151

 

[Peter Stelzhammer]

When in "public space" it's always good to black-tape the RED-logos and brand/type-letters… people who are professionally after this sort of stuff won't be turned off by that but it's always a good idea if not too many people know you're in town with expensive equippment. The nice thing about the DSMC system is that you can pack it up into like backpacks that look DSLR and not prof. cinema!

As for rental-space; I'm pretty sure prof. rental houses have a good insurance policy… pretty tough stuff nonetheless. Thanks for the heads-up and link btw - always good to know about stuff like that!

 

[Justin Chin]

Lately, around Oakland and the Bay Area there have been ENG camera crews that have been targeted in broad daylight. One group was severely assaulted. There are always people who will take advantage of a situation, but now there's seems to be a rash of daylight assaults. Be safe out there.

 

[Saumene Mehrdady]

always keep a 45 in your pelican case for situations like these

 

[Andy White]

always keep a 45 in your pelican case for situations like these

Not possible in the UK.

 

[Peter Majtan]

always keep a 45 in your pelican case for situations like these

So now they can steal your camera AND the gun - which they can then use to steal more stuff, or worse - harm people...
What a brilliant idea!!!

:sifone: Peter

 

[Michael Ou]

Imbedded metadata containing owner identification, camera serial #'s should be automatically passed through down to deliverables, would also help in copyright issues. But all camera and software companies must agree to make this data pass through mandatory, as well as clients not buying footage without it, like a title to a car. Finally steps to make the data hard coded and uneditable, that's the hard part. Think about all the ways we can be guaranteed royalties, or at least credit, and rendering this type of equipment theft obsolete. Wishful thinking?

 

[Saumene Mehrdady]

Imbedded metadata containing owner identification, camera serial #'s should be automatically passed through down to deliverables, would also help in copyright issues. But all camera and software companies must agree to make this data pass through mandatory, as well as clients not buying footage without it, like a title to a car. Finally steps to make the data hard coded and uneditable, that's the hard part. Think about all the ways we can be guaranteed royalties, or at least credit, and rendering this type of equipment theft obsolete. Wishful thinking?

People don't steal cameras to use them, lol. They steal them so they can sell them online and make money

 

[Peter Proniewicz-Brooks]

People don't steal cameras to use them, lol. They steal them so they can sell them online and make money

And by making meta data pass through mandatory, it would raise the likelihood of recovery. People buying cameras would become more careful in checking up on the cameras they are buying. If we give buyers reasons to be more savvy then then the market for stolen cameras will become smaller.


If you can push the effort and risk up on a job relative to its value then you'll find criminals will focus on other less risky more lucrative jobs.

 

[Oje Unuigboje]

Nope not wishful thinking especially considering it can be quite easily done with today's technology. Technology to call home and RED when stolen and activated with power turned on which is available in a basic ipad and other computers and devices. Will make a camera a whole lot more valuable to the owners and valueless to the thieves when the chances of being stolen are drastically reduced because recovery is easy.
As for metadata will be slightly inconveniencing for the RED assemble line as it might increase assemble time per camera by a couple more seconds but I am sure nothing that RED cannot do and will not do for us the loyal costumers. Let see which camera company comes up with this first. Will RED be the first company to OBSOLETE their camera thefts ??

Imbedded metadata containing owner identification, camera serial #'s should be automatically passed through down to deliverables, would also help in copyright issues. But all camera and software companies must agree to make this data pass through mandatory, as well as clients not buying footage without it, like a title to a car. Finally steps to make the data hard coded and uneditable, that's the hard part. Think about all the ways we can be guaranteed royalties, or at least credit, and rendering this type of equipment theft obsolete. Wishful thinking?

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

You could solve this far more easily through a different route that would keep things confidential and less intrusive: clean lists.

RED releases regular REDCine-X updates. Just post a simple black-flag list in every REDCine-X build with the latest stolen camera Serial#s. Then if footage shows up it could pop up a warning in REDCine letting you know a clip was from a stolen camera along with a link to report the footage to RED. RED could then put the editor or post person in contact with the owner of the camera to see if they are willing to provide more information. I assume most people would be perfectly happy to comply with a voluntary system and you wouldn't need REDCine phoning home or collecting data on your edits.

You could also make it a part of the firmware upgrade process. Every firmware update could include the list of black flags. If you try to upgrade to the latest firmware it will refuse on a flagged serial number. So you would have a camera that would be un-upgradeable and whose footage would show up as stolen to every editor who opens the footage. That would I would think diminish the value of a stolen camera and it should avoid the legitimate concerns that such a security system might pose.

 

[Peter Majtan]

You could solve this far more easily through a different route that would keep things confidential and less intrusive: clean lists.

RED releases regular REDCine-X updates. Just post a simple black-flag list in every REDCine-X build with the latest stolen camera Serial#s. Then if footage shows up it could pop up a warning in REDCine letting you know a clip was from a stolen camera along with a link to report the footage to RED. RED could then put the editor or post person in contact with the owner of the camera to see if they are willing to provide more information. I assume most people would be perfectly happy to comply with a voluntary system and you wouldn't need REDCine phoning home or collecting data on your edits.

You could also make it a part of the firmware upgrade process. Every firmware update could include the list of black flags. If you try to upgrade to the latest firmware it will refuse on a flagged serial number. So you would have a camera that would be un-upgradeable and whose footage would show up as stolen to every editor who opens the footage. That would I would think diminish the value of a stolen camera and it should avoid the legitimate concerns that such a security system might pose.

We have discussed this several times before. The main issue is that all the footage shot with the stolen camera before it was stolen would also trigger this "alert" and if you implement a "date from" based alert - all you need to do is to change the date in the stolen camera to avoid this...

A lot more thought have to go in any security measures and I for one do believe that RED is at the very least investigating this...

:sifone: Peter

 

[Michael Ou]

Or simply adding an optional security lockout consisting of an 8 character alphanumeric PIN code with each reboot? A primary master code and a time based 4 digit renter code given to clients. Clock cannot be changed without master code.