Using Video and IoT for Business Continuity and Intelligence
When it comes to information gathering, one constant remains: video is central to the goal of assembling and disseminating intelligence across the globe. Every size business — from large, multinational corporations to small, local stores — rely on video to not only protect their assets but provide valuable insight into how their businesses function on a day-to-day basis. But to achieve intelligent results, three things have to be in play: centralized video data management, analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT).
There’s an old saying in the technology industry when it comes to handling data: “garbage in, garbage out,” and the same is true in video surveillance. Collecting video data in a large multi-national organization is no different from collecting data in a rural village shop: it needs to be high-quality, crystal clear, reliable, and deliver as much coverage as possible without sacrificing any of the aforementioned traits.
Physical security strategies are also far more comprehensive than they were 10, or even, 5 years ago, and should be designed with the best tools for the job in mind. However, one common attribute among all successful surveillance systems is their simplicity in integrating with other security products to make that comprehensive strategy coherent. There isn’t a security director out there that wants to spend their time puzzling out complex integrations processes between uncooperative technologies.
The foundation for this comprehensive security strategy is the secure, centralized management of the video cameras and video data, especially in the heterogeneous physical security environments that exist in today’s security infrastructure. Having the ability to seamlessly integrate with a variety of VMS vendors and other IoT sensors ensures that organizations can focus on protecting their assets; but more importantly in this data-driven world, gain actionable intelligence that can be used to improve the business through video and business analytics.
Video analytics has undergone a resurgence in the last few years, given the continual improvements in video resolution, image quality and storage practices. The ability to drive complex video processing through low-cost GPUs has also made video analytics a necessity in almost all security-conscious operations.
The previous “garbage in, garbage out” statement still applies since it is very difficult to analyze poor quality video.
