What trends and technologies do we encounter when we analyze the current state of the video security market?
When we think of the Internet of Things (IoT), we think of small devices located at the extremes, equipped with various sensors, constantly producing and sharing data on temperature, humidity, energy consumption, ambient control, and so on.
Did you know that the most data-generating IoT devices in the world are security cameras? Perhaps most do not recognize security cameras as IoT devices, but they’re all data collection machines. The amount of data security cameras produce increases every day. For reference, a 4K camera produces an astonishing 110 GB of data per hour. In 2018, reports indicated approximately 157 million security cameras were sold worldwide. That number is increasing by 23 percent every year. Today, experts say the data collected and shared by security cameras account for 40 percent of the world’s IoT-based data.
Of course, when so much data is created and collected, the classic Big Data needs to arise. Companies have reached the point where we can go over how to store this data, handle it, and generate value. This is where the importance of video analytics comes into play.
Although you’ve lined up multiple physical security operators per screen to keep hundreds of cameras under observation, it’s overly optimistic to expect them to notice something and take swift action because of the human factor. The main purpose of video analytics and AI applications is to close the gap in this field, follow events, and activate automation that will trigger alerts. Such analytics and AI solutions have long been used on the security side of the business, including facial recognition systems, fence security, and forgotten item tracking.
If you take these analytics tools and applications to the operational side of the business, you can turn your video monitoring infrastructure into an effective tool that can make your business more successful. For example, video analytics can help retailers maximize store layout and product placement, reduce crowding hotspots, uncover customer demographic trends, and accelerate real-time security response to incidents.
There are many other examples of analytics applications in the world.
- Systems that detect those who do not wear masks in pandemic conditions
- Sufficient product stocked in the aisles
- Low inventory warnings
- Send warnings to open additional checkout lanes as the queue lengthens at the checkout
- Change the priority of crossing when the number of vehicles waiting at the intersection increases.
- Actively used as part of the operation in shopping malls where the rental price is determined according to customer density.
- Scan labels of containers waiting at docks to be read and tracked by cameras, instantaneously tracking which container is in the port
To successfully address all the aforementioned projects and applications requires a reliable platform and serious knowledge—specifically when it comes to integration. At BCD, we have an ecosystem and experience that combines all three criteria. Together with our valued business partners, we are implementing many projects on a global scale throughout many verticals including public transit, universities, ports and airports, municipalities, smart cities, and road safety systems, to name a few. To successfully implement these projects, we work closely with the stakeholders that make up the ecosystem, discuss the benefits of hyper-integrated structures and new IT technologies, and create comprehensive know-how with our business partners that include solutions that address the needs of institutions. BCD is one of the most experienced and successful companies in the security industry because they have addressed the biggest challenges for the last 20 years.
BCD provides purpose-built video data infrastructure solutions to solve even the most complex of problems. By keeping a pulse on ever-changing industry trends and infusing them into business operations and product design, BCD has persistently remained a market leader in the security industry with superior need-based solutions.
We use our expertise to custom-build solutions optimized for each application. Our technology partners develop software to complement our hardware solution for higher performance.
What criteria should be considered in the journey of digital transformation of video security systems as BCD?
The main issue is to go beyond collecting data from different points, making it optimal, reliable, and fast. Additionally, converting collected data into meaningful data in terms of our customers’ operations and security needs allows the data to flow fluidly at the edge, core, and to the cloud at the point of occurrence, and to act through trusted infrastructures that allow for evaluation.
Today, video data can be evaluated as soon as it occurs and informs institutions with various AI/Machine Learning and computer vision applications, allowing us to have an operation in a more reliable world and where we manage our expenses at a more optimal level. We are talking about systems that understand the anomaly in the environment it is monitoring, allowing users to retroactively evaluate the relevant data and by calling in other related data.
There are four basic criteria that we consider in the digital transformation of video security systems:
1. IT transformation
In other words, the infrastructure you have built for your video security system consists of innovative infrastructures that overlap with your edge, center, and cloud strategies, from the perspective of manageability, orchestration, and automation
2. Application transformation
The inclusion of video analytics and computer vision technologies allows users to meaningfully transform and act in an automated way beyond the collection of video security data and images.
3. Security Transformation
Considering the cybersecurity of your video security infrastructure, determining the approach of securing your video security infrastructure, which sometimes reaches 10,000 different points, at the end and in the cloud
4. Workforce transformation
It is vital to be able to share and process video security data in a reliable and manageable way across different mediums and environments, such as using a tablet, workstation, laptop, or control center. You need to have a robust software platform that enables all users to access the data 24/7.
In summary, the criteria represent the key considerations that demonstrate our customers’ needs as well as the need for the modernization and digital transformation of video security systems.
What value does BCD bring to video security and IoT applications?
BCD has partnerships with the leading camera and VMS providers who look to BCD for expertise in designing the right storage solution to optimize video performance.
BCD’s engineering and build centers in Chicago, Fresno, and India continually benchmark performance levels on video security and IoT, which has taken BCD on a market-leading mission to develop infrastructures that address different applications and expectations under the leadership of the criteria mentioned above.
Most importantly, BCD is a video data infrastructure manufacturer that addresses problems in the video security market and solves them with purpose-built and validated solutions. Prior to deployment, BCD tests solutions in our labs where our in-house technical and global on-site field teams provide support for the lifetime of the project.