Enter the intelligent camera
The new breed of IP intelligent cameras launched by Axis Communications are based on an open standard, cut bandwidth, reduce storage, enable better images and even help address the problem of operators missing the majority of events, Colin Edwards reports
As operators can miss 95% of events after staring at a bank of screens for just 22 minutes, there is an obvious need for surveillance cameras to become smarter and more intelligent.
That was the message from Gilles Ortega, MENA regional manager for Axis Communications, the IP camera specialist, when launching a new range of smart cameras into the region.
Operators, he said, should no longer be merely ‘watchers’ as they could be missing a lot of what is happening. They need to be employed as skilled personnel able to know how to react quickly and follow the right procedure in response to events identified by the next generation of intelligent cameras.
“It is a waste of time and money to have people just watching. Let technology do the watching; let humans be trained up to react to events properly and quickly, he said. “Human detection or monitoring is obviously not good enough.”
According to Ortega, it takes only 12 minutes for humans to start missing much of what might be happening on a bank of 16 screens – some 45% of events can be missed. This shoots up to 95% of events after a further 10 minutes. “It means we have to make these systems more intelligent,” he said. “It’s not that I am saying that they are useless. What we are saying is that the way they are working today is not effective. We always need someone to monitor. If your system is intelligent you will get alarms from your system, so you need someone that is able to react and create the next event.”
Axis’s answer to this and several other challenges, such as the growing need for better image quality, manageable and affordable storage, and less bandwidth utilisation, is the roll out over the next year of some 30 new camera products based on the emerging H.264 video compression standard for IP-based and Axis’s own powerful chip technology.
Reductions in bandwidth and storage needs with the development of H.264 mean that IP-based surveillance is now becoming affordable to everyone. Ortega points out that, in the past, the use of IP only became cost justifiable compared to analogue systems for solutions comprising more than 30 cameras. Now it is for any size system.
The new standard also opens the way to higher resolution cameras. Axis is due to launch its megapixel camera next year in response, says Ortega, to customer demand for higher quality video.
As an example of how the new cameras address the storage challenge, Ortega cites the case of a 2000-camera system where the company required 24-x7 surveillance footage. Such a configuration would have required storage running into Petabytes (1000 terabytes). With the new solutions storage needs would be cut by 50% – requiring merely terabytes – a factor of 1000 times less. Bandwidth requirements also would have be significantly reduced, but picture quality would be better.
“We went back to the customer and said: ‘why don’t you just record what you need?’ This means only recording things like motion detection, which is a feature in all our new cameras, because in most instances you only need to monitor a site if there is movement. Otherwise you are monitoring a static object and wasting storage.”
The first Axis products to deliver these benefits were launched in Dubai in November. Axis released the P1311, H.264-based network camera, and a three-product range of encoders that enable analogue cameras to be incorporated onto an IP network and benefit from H.264 technology. The encoder range comprises a standalone encoder, a blade that supports six analogue cameras and a high-density rack that is able to accommodate up to 84 analogue cameras.
The new third generation Axis chips in these IP products are said to be three times more powerful and provide better image quality than the previous generation of product, but cost the same, said Ortega. He adds that the new products include video intelligence such as enhanced video motion detection, audio detection and detection of camera tampering attempts like blocking or spray-painting.
He points out that although the new H.264 technology requires more processing power in the cameras, Axis’s new chip development more than meets the extra processing demands. As the standard is an open standard, the design and development of solutions and systems by software developers and system integrators who work with Axis cameras will be easier and more rapid than any proprietary development.
“The development is an open platform. As a camera manufacturer we are only part of the total solution, so it is important to be in a position to offer products that are compliant with security systems and that offer our customers the easiest installation route. That is why we have chosen an open platform,” said Ortega.
“It means that customers who have their own development abilities will be able to develop their own modules and so integrate our cameras into their systems easily. He adds that the same applies to Axis’s 600 worldwide software development partners.
With more power in the cameras, Ortega said that Axis had been working very closely with its partners in developing more intelligent video features such as number plate recognition, people counting and object tracking.
H.264 has the flexibility to support a wide variety of applications with very different requirements. Ortega explained that applications beyond a variety of surveillance applications could include monitoring bottle-necks at retail tills so that additional resources could be allocated quickly, banks could use it for monitoring people flow, so that stations are manned at busy times such as lunch hours; or they could even be used to study labour efficiencies for certain tasks.
Power over Ethernet (POE) is also featured on some of the new cameras and a new offering from Axis is the support, in medium and high-end products, of optional SD/SDHC memory cards for temporary local recording in the camera in the event of network failure or interception or server downtime. Again Ortega pointed out that Axis’ support of open standards meant that the memory cards were inexpensive and readily available.
It is the addition of features such as these that Ortega is convinced will help Axis grow its business in the region whatever might happen to world economies. Even if there was a slowing down of the construction boom in Dubai – a major driver for the rapid adoption of IP surveillance solutions in green-field sites – Ortega sees the market growth for IP systems and H. 264 based solutions among existing analogue sites more than compensating, stressing that the encoders launched by the company facilitate the move from analogue to digital. 
KEY BENEFITS
■ H.264 is an open standard also know as MPEG-4 Part 10/AVC
■ Without compromising image quality, an H.264 encoder can reduce the size of a digital video file by 80% compared with JPEG motion files
■ Image compression means less storage and bandwidth needs
■ Megapixel cameras can now be used for better, clearer images as file size is reduced
■ Supports multiple streams for flexible viewing and storage
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