It’s no secret that video surveillance has become ubiquitous in our world today. Whether your goal is to protect your business, monitor your home or record evidence of crime, video surveillance can be an excellent tool to help you achieve those goals. Video analytics are software programs that use artificial intelligence to recognize behaviors and activities captured on video footage.
They can be programmed to alert you to suspicious events like people sneaking around your property at night or employees stealing from you during the day. These programs greatly expand the capabilities of basic video surveillance, so it’s important to understand their importance in keeping your business or home safe.
What is surveillance analytics and why do you need it?
The purpose of video surveillance analytics is to improve security measures and solve problems as they arise. With video analytics. You can detect abnormal activities (like a car driving on a sidewalk or people crawling under fences) faster than human analysts can. You can also use video analytics to eliminate false alarms and extend your existing camera network by adding cameras at critical areas with no cabling needed.
Your existing cameras will take care of watching over secondary areas while other cameras watch over primary ones, giving you even better coverage for less money. Implementing video analytics for your surveillance system allows you to automate workflows and provide real-time analysis that maximizes efficiency and minimizes cost, which ultimately makes it an integral part of your business’ security strategy.
4 Examples of When it’s Critical to Have Video Analytics
There have been several instances of armed robbers successfully escaping with loot after holding a business up. Because their cameras were unable to capture any usable images. On the other hand, many businesses have been saved by having a surveillance system. That did capture useful video evidence, leading to arrests and even recovery of stolen merchandise.
Here’s what we mean: * Security cameras can be an effective way to deter potential burglars from targeting your home or office space. However, if there isn’t security monitoring available 24/7 at these locations, criminals know they can easily enter and exit as they please before anyone realizes it. As a result, it becomes nearly impossible for authorities to build a case against them later on.
A Deeper Dive into How Analytics Really Works, with Examples
If you’re thinking about implementing video analytics, you already know that having an eye on what’s happening inside your business can be invaluable for lowering operational costs and keeping a pulse on what’s going on. In some cases, there may be legal reasons for doing so. For example, protecting intellectual property or combating workplace violence. But whatever your motivation is for installing cameras and video surveillance systems, there are some factors to consider before diving in. First and foremost is whether you need full-fledged advanced analytics or simply basic motion detection.
Questions every user should ask about video analytics
- Is it recording? If you have a camera, it should be sending footage to a DVR. This is non-negotiable. Without a DVR, there’s no way to go back and find what you missed if something happens.
- What kind of storage does it have? A camera without enough storage will run out quickly, which means that evidence could be lost forever if your camera doesn’t record long enough before hitting capacity. (or if someone tampers with your DVR). Not sure how much storage you need for your system or what other factors should come into play when selecting storage for video surveillance solutions? Check out our white paper: Choosing Storage Solutions for Video Surveillance 3.
The Basics of Video Analytics Technology Today
Video analytics is a technology that was developed to enable computers to automatically detect and track people or objects of interest in surveillance video streams. For example, video analytics can be used to detect a person entering a store through a door and walking around while on camera.
To do so, it will use advanced computer vision algorithms combined with knowledge of your environment (the position of doors and shop layouts) to determine which objects should be tracked at any given time. When designed correctly, these systems result in increased safety for customers.
What Video Analytics Can do for You Today
It’s no secret that video surveillance can provide valuable information about patterns of activity over time. But even with video, you have to be able to access and make sense of your data. This can be difficult, as data volumes continue to increase rapidly as we collect more and more footage. As a result, organizations are turning to analytics solutions that help them reduce risk and make better business decisions. Here’s how they’re doing it.
By automatically identifying unusual events in motion-capture video such as people behaving suspiciously. Or vehicles passing through an unattended gate video analytics help security professionals gain insight into what’s happening.
By visualizing large amounts of data into a structured format. These systems make complex information easy to digest for non-technical users. Using analytics tools for monitoring operational status or performing statistical analysis, companies can proactively address issues before they escalate. Video analytics enhance situational awareness by providing critical insights into specific areas where intelligence is lacking.
Read more: The Five must-haves for a Reliable Video Surveillance System
Conclusion
There is no simple answer to why analytics is important. For many, it provides a way to analyze data and make informed decisions that affect profits and losses. For others, it’s a means of identifying a problem that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Using video analytics can also be an inexpensive way to add surveillance capacity as well as provide additional information. Such as foot traffic, shoppers’ average age and gender, length of time spent at an outlet etc. Which help retailers tailor their marketing strategy for optimal success. Not all analytics are created equal, choose yours wisely by researching key features such as accuracy. Frame rate support and ability to detect objects across varying light conditions when making your decision. Don’t forget to budget for upgrades too!
