10 Factors to Analyze Today’s Video Analytics Options

Let’s take a look at how installing security contractors can work with clients to recommend and design the appropriate video analytics solution.

When it comes to video analytics, security operations have turned a corner. Gone are the less-than-reliable analytics of yesteryear. Video analytics today deliver more precise, informative and far-reaching insights, to a degree that many organizations have stopped questioning whether to use video analytics, and are working to determine how and where to implement such solutions to get the most value. 

With this new focus, more companies are weighing the differences and advantages of the two main options: edge-based and server-based analytics. But whether they choose to run the software on an IP camera at the edge of the network or to install analytics software on a centralized server to which all cameras would feed depends on their environment, existing infrastructure, and needs. 

While video analytics software and the algorithms it contains are most often located in one of these two general areas, there is also a derivative of the edge approach for organizations whose analog cameras lack the computing power to run embedded analytics. In this case, the video analytics software is installed on video encoders, which are also at the edge of the network.

Each of these approaches – edge- and server-based – has its pros and cons. Some end users, especially those with multiple facilities (including remote locations with limited bandwidth), might even take a combined approach. Your customers need to understand the differences between these two approaches to make an optimal choice for their environment. Let’s take a look at how installing security contractors can work with clients to recommend and design the appropriate video analytics solution.

Checklist for Deployment Strategy

These criteria must be considered within the context of the specific environment that video analytics are meant for – remember one environment’s pro can be another’s con. 

1) Video analytics options

Determine what applications the end-user organization will need to run on its cameras. While your customers can run most types of video analytics applications on the edge, they’re typically restricted to running one application per camera due to their limited processing power. Server-based video analytics are unrestricted by processing power, which means companies can run multiple applications simultaneously and on any camera.

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