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ITV AxxonSoft President answers questions from the editors of TZ
– Although the topic of the crisis may have become boring, its impact on business in general and the security market in particular cannot be denied. How do you assess the market in the last pre-crisis years and now? What has changed?
If we talk about our market, i.e. the market of video surveillance systems, then a unique situation has developed in Russia. Namely, video surveillance systems based on software, or, as it is called in the West, VMS – Video Management Software, have occupied the largest part of the market. I will not go into the reasons for this, I will only say that this has happened historically, because from the very beginning of the development of digital video surveillance, systems based on software have been ahead of systems based on hardware video recorders – DVR.
This situation persisted until the crisis. Then, primarily due to lower cost, video recorders began to crowd out software in the segment of small and partially medium systems. And VMS manufacturers focused on single-server or small-server systems simply began to leave the market.
— And what about other segments?
There are several areas where the DVR position is traditionally weak. The first segment is large systems. The video recorder solves local problems of processing, recording and storing video. But if there are many such recorders, then a workstation with special software is already required for centralized viewing of video. If we want to create a distributed system with a complex network architecture, with a centralized control and management point and with the ability to organize remote workstations, then there is no alternative to software.
The second segment is integrated systems. If you need to integrate video with other systems, such as access control and fire alarm systems, or need control over cash transactions, or recognition of car numbers, then again special software is needed.
Another very important segment that is currently actively developing is IP video surveillance. Why do VMS have an advantage over DVRs here? For example, because standard protocols for receiving data from IP cameras and managing these cameras have not yet been widely implemented. Any video recorder can support a limited number of IP device models — such video recorders are called NVR (Network Video Recorder). And if an NVR user, say, in a year needs to add another camera to his system, he may simply not find a model on sale that his NVR supports. Or the video recorder itself will need to be reflashed.
In general, tracking all the innovations in «camera construction» is a lot of work, so video recorders for network cameras are usually produced by the manufacturers of these cameras themselves. It is clear that such recorders support only one — their own — brand of cameras. At the same time, in the field of VMS, there are great developments in integrating IP cameras from different manufacturers.
In fairness, it should be noted that NVR will have great prospects when standard protocols for data exchange between network video surveillance devices, such as ONVIF and PSIA, become widespread. And when you can buy a chip with support for these protocols for a few dollars. There is no doubt that this will happen, but we are still quite far from it.
And finally, the last segment where software is undoubtedly the leader is video analytics, which is developing rapidly and, I am sure, will continue to develop just as actively for a long time.
– What is relevant in this area now?
It is relevant to transfer analytics to end devices, i.e., to cameras. Of course, we are talking about IP cameras. Also, in addition to the development of traditional video detectors, such as motion detectors, abandoned objects, line crossings, etc., several new directions for the development of video analytics have appeared that are not related to detectors.
Perhaps the most important thing I would like to talk about is searching in a video archive. The computing power of computers is growing, the capabilities of data storage systems are growing. All this allows you to save more information in the archive and in higher quality. But until recently, there was simply no video analytics that could improve the efficiency of working with an archive. Of course, it was possible to record video when the same video detectors were triggered, but then information that could be useful was lost. And there was no analytics that could work with already recorded data.
However, if the market really needs something, it will definitely appear. This is what happened with searching for data in the archive.
– And how does it work?
Usually it looks like a set of some kind of “offline video detectors” that allow you to find certain situations: crossing a line, moving in a zone, moving from zone to zone, and others. Only they do not work with real-time video, but with recorded data.
– But surely analyzing recorded video, even with the help of “offline video detectors,” should take a lot of time?
That is why such a system works not with recorded video, but with recorded metadata. Video processing is carried out in real time, when the video stream comes from the camera. Video is analyzed, all objects moving in the frame and their movement characteristics are determined — this is the metadata that is recorded in parallel with the video. It is this metadata that is subsequently searched.
– Your vision of the prospects of the video surveillance market. Where is it heading now?
I would like to talk about a trend that has been discussed for a long time. Namely, the interpenetration of the security and information technology markets. From our experience communicating with our partners, we see that the influence of the customer's IT specialists on decision-making in the field of equipping security systems has really become very significant. At the same time, IT specialists, of course, need a single standard solution for all branches, and, of course, they prefer solutions based on IP cameras. All this is another argument in favor of using software, not DVRs. But this is not the only result of the active intervention of IT specialists in security issues. The need for standard corporate solutions creates the preconditions for the emergence of a certain «SAP in the field of security» — i.e. a company that will provide a comprehensive solution based on information technology and covering all customer requirements in the field of managing technical security equipment.
Another interesting trend is the application of the SaaS (Soft as a Service) concept in the field of video surveillance. The idea is as follows: cameras installed at the facility are connected to a single data storage provided by the provider. The user pays a subscription fee for using the service, is provided with storage space and a web interface for viewing live video and archives. It is possible to use video analytics and other additional functions — this already depends on the implementation of the system. But in general, the advantage of this approach is that there is no need to deploy a full-fledged video surveillance system at the facility, no need for specialists to service it. SaaS is actively developing in the West, and there are prerequisites for the development of this direction in our country. In any case, from experience, some customers are already ready to store their video archive with a third-party provider due to the influence of the same IT specialists. So, I think SaaS has great prospects in Russia.
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