Video Management Software & Analytics
By Business Solutions magazine
Most Significant Trends
Analytics At The Edge Has Many Benefits — “Analytics at the edge, such as motion detection, cross-line detection, and license plate recognition, allow for preprocessing of video before it’s compressed and sent to the VMS server. This saves bandwidth and processing power needed at the central VMS server.” Robert Muehlbauer, application development partner, business development manager, Axis Communications
Remote & Mobile — “VMS integrations with storage on the edge allow integrators to design distributed storage solutions, with storage on the edge as well as storage in the center. Using this design, integrators can now provide customers with additional value of improved recording reliability as well as reduced cost by lowering network and storage costs. Additionally, the role of mobile devices is becoming more and more important in the VMS world. While viewing video on mobile devices is a common feature, some companies continue to innovate by offering new ways of benefiting from mobile technologies.” Jumbi Edulbehram, VP of business development, Next Level Security Systems
Industry-Specific Analytics Can Be Powerful — “As the industry learns more about analytics, specific well-known task-based analytics begin to take shape. An example is an analytic that identifies customer returns or refunds when a person is NOT present on the other side of the counter. What it takes to deploy this analytic, the effectiveness of the analytic, and the ROI of the analytic are being well-understood both qualitatively and quantitatively.” Dave Nieweg, GM/VP, 3xLOGIC
Tips & Advice For Success
There’s More To Resolution Than Pixel Count — “Don’t confuse megapixel with resolution. More pixels will not translate to better resolution. The technology used for video compression will determine the viewing clarity of the video more than the number of pixels.” Shahar Ze’evi, senior product manager, Tyco Security Products
Some Pitfalls To Avoid — “IT integrators often assume that just because a solution is network-based, it’s easy to integrate. In the security and surveillance market, that is not the case. IT VARs also tend to underestimate the level of networking skills required. Another issue is that integrators are not giving their customers a good estimate of recurring costs. And lastly, VARs are often not clearly showing the ROI of deploying new technology. There are so many benefits to deploying new technologies, such as mobility, remote management, added intelligence, and the correlation of security data.” Jumbi Edulbehram, VP of business development, Next Level Security Systems
Set Expectations Properly — “When it comes to analytics, it’s important to set proper expectations with the customer and take the time to effectively calibrate the software. I can’t stress this enough. When setting proper customer expectations, the goal is to identify certain behavior and limit the false alarms triggered by the system. It’s unrealistic to preach 100% accuracy for a given analytic, but you still must show an effective value to the end customer. Proper planning, camera placement, and calibration of the analytic will increase the accuracy and reduce false positives.” Robert Muehlbauer, application development partner, business development manager, Axis Communications
Involve IT Stakeholders — “The most common mistakes are not involving all of the potential stakeholders and not involving IT from the very first meeting. IT can quickly become a very big advocate for a prospective system upgrade or expansion, especially when they are comfortable with their role in the project. Not involving them could totally derail the entire project altogether. The opportunity to demonstrate how powerful the system can be to as many department heads as possible exponentially increases the likelihood of success. Make their jobs easier, and they become your extended sale force, working internally to support the success of the project.” Mike Scirica, VP of sales and marketing, WavestoreUSA
Remote Viewing Is Key — “When integrators leave the deliverables of video analytics largely undefined, the customer’s expectations will always exceed what is actually delivered. Selling open-ended video analytics is a sure way to lose money on every project.” Dave Nieweg, GM/VP, 3xLOGIC
Don’t Dismiss The Cloud — “A mistake would be to immediately dismiss the viability of cloud-based VMS solutions, due to reservations about bandwidth. Many smaller installations can benefit from a cloud deployment, which would allow them to significantly reduce infrastructure costs and remove barriers which could have otherwise impacted their ability to adopt an IP solution. Through the use of hybrid storage, bandwidth can be significantly reduced by transferring only video of interest to the cloud, while the rest can be stored on board edge devices.” Erick Ceresato, product marketing manager, Genetec