In our last blog, we talked about the importance of organizations leveraging reliable, high-quality surveillance imagery to ensure that the footage they capture on a daily basis can be used to the best of its ability to achieve security goals. We mentioned how lighting, exposure and frame rate contribute to this level of effectiveness, and these factors are a good place to start when it comes to evaluating your surveillance technology.
But now, we’re digging deeper into this concept and taking a step further in the surveillance process: storage. Once a security operator uses and/or records footage, they must consider how that video is being stored within their on-premise or cloud-based network infrastructure. This element is critical for two main reasons: dependability and cost.
Whenever a security incident occurs, whether it’s before, during or after the fact, being able to count on the fact that your surveillance cameras can deliver the images you need (when you need them) is paramount. For investigative purposes in particular, law enforcement personnel require the ability to watch and analyze high-quality footage that can easily provide them with clues or answers. Enterprise organizations cannot afford to miss out on this crucial step due to improperly stored footage or a blurry image.
Additionally, storing and transmitting large amounts of bandwidth on a network is costly. A business — especially a small- to medium-sized facility — may not be able to afford the storage space required for its surveillance system, but the ability to maintain footage is critical for enhancing safety efforts and protecting people and property.
That’s where video compression technology comes into play. For high-resolution streaming and recording applications, the effectiveness of the video compression technology plays a defining role in minimizing the burden and cost on the network infrastructure. To put it simply, the act of compressing video condenses an image to reduce its size and the amount of space it takes on the network.
Standards have been developed to facilitate this goal, such as H.264, which is widely used in the security industry. But it’s becoming necessary to go beyond the basics and leverage advanced techniques that further compress video being transmitted and stored without compromising the final image quality.
Advanced compression technology can work seamlessly alongside standard compression techniques to increase the compression ratio. This is done by automatically differentiating between relevant and less important information in a scene, leaving only the relevant parts to be streamed and recorded at full resolution and frame rate while other areas are more compressed. This ultimately saves storage costs by significantly reducing the space used by any video recording.
Advanced compression technology also saves network infrastructure costs by minimizing the bandwidth of video data being transmitted over the network. This then allows organizations to freely access video footage — at its highest quality — at any time and from any location, which is critical when it comes to immediately identifying threats and dispatching the appropriate response.
Surveillance systems involve more than just capturing a scene and the activity taking place. Storing and transmitting this valuable data must be top-of-mind as organizations look to improve the functionality of their systems. Advanced compression technology reduces the bandwidth and storage space required per camera stream, significantly reducing TCO while ensuring peace of mind.
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