Our Regional President for Americas comments in Business Solution magazine
By Jumbi Edulbehram, Regional President, Americas, Oncam
The IP surveillance camera market has come a long way in the last decade and is constantly changing and evolving, with manufacturers that push the envelope when it comes to producing bigger and better technology. Today’s camera manufacturers create cameras with an entire system on the edge, greater frame rates, better compression, more security, increasing capabilities (such as day/night or light sensitivity), and much, much more.
The industry is currently embattled in a race for higher resolution cameras and an increased amount of functionality, which can take a major toll on the storage needs of the end user. But innovative technology providers continue to answer the problems that evolving technology produces, allowing the marketplace to reap the benefits.
Applying Analytics
Many IP cameras today are able to run video analytic capabilities directly on the camera — allowing users to automatically detect noteworthy events and data based on pre-defined criteria. There are a number of basic pixel-based analytic processes, as well as additional object-based and other sophisticated analytics (face capture, for example), that can be run inside the camera so that additional analytics software does not have to be installed.
As an example, retailers are now deploying cameras that run software to optimize business. These include algorithms that track employees and staffing levels, analyze traffic flow patterns, merchandising tactics and conversion rates.
Data collection at these levels can greatly affect available storage space. Often, data and video storage is an expensive component of any surveillance installation. But as specific video data is used for purposes other than security, a number of different departments within an organization can share the cost of upgrading to a storage solution that will be more conducive to the company’s immediate and long-term data storage needs. Additionally, creating multifunctional uses for the surveillance data can create buy-in from the C-suite and beyond.
Reevaluating Resolution
Specialty cameras are taking the idea of higher resolution to a new level — some manufacturers have developed cameras that are capable of a gigapixel (yes, that’s a billion pixels) resolution. For example, there are already cameras capable of capturing detailed images of flying planes from Earth.
As resolutions increase (4K cameras are growing in demand), compression rates need to be optimized as well. Currently, the state-of-the-art codec for compression is H.264, but H.265 is already on the horizon, which can result in up to 50 percent better compression rates.
Additionally, security is already experiencing a trend toward applying intelligence to compression techniques so that interesting objects within a field-of-view can have greater resolution than the rest of the image. Take, for example, a person’s face in a video clip. Applying intelligent compression techniques, the person’s face can appear in higher resolution while the rest of the image can be presented in lower resolution, depending on the user’s bandwidth and storage needs.
Storage Solutions
The sheer cost of video surveillance storage can make security leaders in even the largest enterprise corporations cringe. The industry is answering the calls for more cost-efficient solutions by expanding user options, such as increasing the amount of on-board storage, which reduces the need for external storage capabilities. Currently, SD cards of up to 256 MB are supported, and preliminary testing is being completed on 2 TB cards. The ability of these cameras to potentially store large amounts of high-resolution video on-board and only transmit video of interesting incidents will have a significant impact on the design and use of video surveillance systems in the coming years.
As the industry continues to evolve in regard to storage and bandwidth, the possibilities for applying intelligence to IP surveillance cameras are endless. We look forward to seeing what the future brings.
Jumbi Edulbehram is currently the president, Americas, for Oncam Grandeye, a maker of 360 degrees cameras and software. He is responsible for all sales, marketing, and business development in the Americas. Prior to Oncam, he served as the director of business development for the security division of Samsung Techwin, where he was responsible for managing strategic partnerships with technology partners, consultants/A&Es, and large national integrators. Prior to Samsung Techwin, he held positions as VP of business development for Next Level Security Systems, director of business development at Axis Communications, and VP of strategic marketing and business development at IntelliVid, acquired by Tyco/ADT in 2008. Jumbi has also worked as a management consultant at BCG and as a chip design engineer at Intel Corp.
Article published 28th July in Business Solutions. To read the original article, please click here.