Evaluating digital video recorder systems using analytic hierarchy and analytic network processes

Digital video recorder (DVR) systems are novel security products with significant potential for application in the surveillance market, which, like many other areas of security technology, is changing quickly. Consumer demand and procuring budgets of system development firms are increasingly being emphasized, motivating upgrades to system quality. Digital surveillance systems include both hardware and software. Procurers have difficulty complying with these standards due to the wide gap between the descriptions in the standards and interpretations of evaluations of digital video recorder systems such as the functions of channel, recording, playback and display, communication and remote transmission. A case study compares the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and analytic network process (ANP) decision models, and the comparison results indicate that interdependencies can affect real decisions. For network-like decision models (i.e., decision problems that can be structured in a network model form), ANP represents an effective tool for providing an accurate solution for administrators or managers of this case. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.