Research: HD Video Surveillance Spurs Big Data

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The influx of high-definition (HD) video cameras has sparked an “extraordinary deluge of data” in the surveillance business, according to research firm IHS.

Market analysts expect the global daily data dump to more than double to 859 petabytes by 2017 due to the increase in HD surveillance camera shipments, according to the “Enterprise and IP Storage used for Video Surveillance” report. The research firm predicts that the overwhelming quantity of information will promote the use of technologies designed to handle and process big data in the surveillance market.

“HD-compliant products are set to account for an increasing share of video surveillance camera shipments during the next four years,” says Sam Grinter, senior surveillance analyst at IHS. “These cameras are gaining acceptance because the quality of their video can be superior to standard-resolution products that formerly dominated the market. But because each HD camera produces far more data than each standard-definition camera, the quantity of data generated by the surveillance market is growing to massive proportions.”

The surveillance business is adopting several technologies designed to accommodate and mitigate the rising tide of data. New data compression algorithms should help cut down on the quantity of data, according to the report. For example, there are claims that the high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard, also known as H.265, doubles the data compression ratio when compared to H.264, which should reduce the amount of data produced per camera in the coming years.

Video content analysis (VCA) also proves to be a promising development. The technology can reduce the amount of time a video surveillance camera is recording by using virtual tripwires and no-entry zones. These features can trigger a camera to record once a predefined event has occurred, such as a person entering a parking lot.

Using this technology, surveillance cameras will only record important events rather than continuously recording. As deployments of VCA increase, the technology has the potential to reduce the amount of data produced per camera, according to the report.

The final area of innovation is in hard disk drives (HDDs), where capacities are increasing. While the amount of data produced per camera is expanding, so is capacity to record that data — either on site or via networked systems.

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