The State of Analytics Philadelphia PA

Security dealers who have been in the video analytics business for some time come to the table bearing a historical issue in mind: often in previous transactions, they were burnt by tall orders and stuck in the middle between the end customer and the system provider. This "middle man" frustration is felt by resellers in many industries, but it's especially poignant in the video analytics business.

How can security dealers apply knowledge learned from historical events to future transactions? They must dispel myths about what video analytics can and cannot do. Purchasers want to be able to plug-and-play the system that they acquire and have it meet their needs exactly without any major customization or adaptation on their end. Sellers must understand and deliver upon this need and can do so by analyzing current video analytics trends and the most important influencers of intelligent video decision making.

There are seven influential concepts in analytics-enabled video surveillance that translate into trends changing the security operations paradigm for dealers:

1. Video surveillance is quickly transitioning from a forensic-only capability to exception-based event monitoring, enabled by video analytics. Forensics obviously play a significant role in security operations, but it is no longer the primary application for video surveillance. Exception-based video monitoring is proactive, without extended resource requirements and enables pre-emptive analysis of security video.
2. Video from security cameras is just another form of data and is searchable information that can be archived, stored and accessed in a flexible way. Much as meta tags are beneficial when used with online written content and online search engines, so too is meta data that's been generated as a component of video.
3. Knowing what video information is needed and is relevant for the future, systems now need only to store specific rather than a complete library of content, diminishing both ownership and storage costs.
4. As more and more security cameras venture online into the Internet protocol (IP) world, it heralds the end of the digital video recorder (DVR) and the continued adoption of the network video recorder (NVR).
5. Both dealers and integrators are beginning to expand their capabilities to reflect changes in network-based technologies and address the convergence of logical and physical security.
6. Practicing a "dispatch-on-demand" mentality, intelligent video enables better response and increased efficiency among security personnel due to the exception-based approach.
7. Another trend in the security director's job functionality is the transformation of security's role from "after-the-fact" to preventive.

The future for integrators

Security dealers and integrators can best prepare for the future by identifying video analytics systems that are simple to configure and use. Most often, out-of-the-box solutions are best for their needs. Also, the next generation of video analytics will be better integrated with IP cameras and its infrastructure.

In coming years, dealers must also be able to address the consideration of server-based solutions and edge devices such as encoders and cameras. No matter which technology is selected, both edge devices and server-based solutions reduce the overall storage costs associated with video management systems. Because the video analytics software tags data as it is processed, only important footage is saved. This reduces the hundreds of thousands of hours of footage from several hundred cameras to saving just the critical video documentation footage that's relevant.

Nowhere is the opportunity greater than in the video surveillance sector. In a period of 18 to 24 months, the 'best practice' approach has evolved from passive closed-circuit television surveillance (CCTV) systems with little or no monitoring to information-rich, analytics-enabled video surveillance systems capable of identifying and potentially preempting security violations. When dealers offer the right merchandise, end-user customers are better served by devices that have analytics on all channels with optimum storage capabilities, instead of being forced to choose where and when to deploy video analytics.

Nikhil Gagvani, Ph.D, is chief technology officer and vice president of engineering of Cernium Corporation.