Jonathan Rickard, Sales Engineer, i-PRO EMEA, discusses the developments of CCTV systems and the benefits of integrating Edge AI analytics into surveillance systems to save on storage and time.

Can you tell us the benefits of an efficient surveillance system?

Many CCTV surveillance systems are bought begrudgingly.

They (for most users) sit in a cupboard recording footage, waiting for end users to rewind them to review incidences.

In most cases, the cameras have been poorly configured and compromise of low-quality components resulting in poor image quality.

However, the developments of CCTV have come a long way.

Switching to an efficient modern system can provide unforeseen benefits to the customer.

They often compromise of high-resolution cameras and can store images effectively resulting in a more reliable system for end users.

Edge AI analytics can be utilised in CCTV systems for alarm-driven recording, reducing the amount of storage required.

The Edge AI analytics allows for footage to be found quickly and easily in the event of an incident.

This alarm-driven recording saves on time and energy, as end users do not have to scan through endless hours of footage.

Furthermore, the Edge AI analytics can enable alarm triggers to go off when certain objects are detected in the field of view; for example triggering if a person were to be walking on a vehicle access road.

With modern Edge AI analytics it’s also possible to extract rich data insights and business intelligence from the system.

By monitoring and recording for instance the number of people entering an area on a minute-by-minute basis – the operator could gain greater insight into the traffic flow within the specific area as well as the pattern of traffic.

The transformation of CCTV from in person monitoring to remote viewing is extremely beneficial to businesses and end users alike.

An efficient surveillance system can enable both remote viewing and even remote alarm verification, which is a cost and time saving mechanism to any organisation.

Can you explain more about i-PRO’s products/solutions offering in this field?

i-PRO provides Edge AI analytics on most of our S and X series cameras. These analytics range from:

• AI-VMD functions including intruder, crossline, speed, object counting and more
• AI-People and AI-Vehicle applications classifying people or vehicles
• AI-Occupancy detection counting the number of people currently in a defined area and much more

With our latest generation of X series cameras, we can take video feed from our three-year-old non-AI camera models and add the Edge AI analytics to the camera feed, further enhancing the older surveillance systems to detect and analyse footage.

Advanced features like AI Occupancy can even be used to trigger events.

Linking AI Occupancy to systems such as BMS (Building Management System) can allow, for example, the control of heating and cooling in certain areas of a venue.

In retail applications, a camera can use the AI Occupancy to notify managers when there are a certain number of people waiting at the tills.

This would enable staff members to be quickly redeployed leading to a more positive customer experience.

i-PRO’s latest generation of embedded recorders offers: Years of service, low power-consumption, integration into AI alarms from the cameras and a free Remote Monitoring System capability built on the back of leading technology and cloud providers.

The recorders are simple to operate via a mouse and monitor and can easily be connected to all the i-PRO cameras as well as many other older products and cameras from third parties.

The recorders are also built from the ground up as an embedded recorder and have many features and functions to make them cybersecure, including over-the-air update capabilities to ensure that the devices are running the latest firmware and security patches.

What challenges does surveillance help to overcome in the security industry?

Previously, event driven recording was developed using simple pixel changes resulting in many false triggers.

However, with the new AI-driven cameras, the alarm triggers are far more precise, setting off on just the pre-programmed objects of interest.

This evidently reduces on storage and reduces the events of a false alarm.

With the Edge AI analytics, end users can now programme the surveillance systems to recognise the difference between a member of staff and the public.

The challenges of CCTV systems previously causing false alarms or simply not being able to detect people’s faces or features are now rapidly reducing with the help of Edge AI analytics.

On some of i-PRO’s cameras, on-site learning capabilities can enable the camera to be trained quickly and easily on different objects.

For example, the camera could be pre-programmed to detect what the correct PPE is to be worn in a specific area, alerting the necessary individuals when someone is non-compliant.

When AI-driven surveillance is implemented day-to-day challenges within business can be reduced and challenged by CCTV allowing for smoother workdays.  

Another benefit of modern surveillance systems is remote monitoring capabilities.

CCTV systems can detect an object of interest and send an alert via an app allowing for action to be taken, eliminating the need for reviewing the live recorded footage, effectively bringing the CCTV system out of the cupboard.

Where do you see the surveillance market going in 2025 and how does i-PRO plan to be a part of this change?

The surveillance market will continue developing its cameras to capture video and data; cameras will see the development of dual roll devices.

These systems will continue to grow into larger sensory networks and collect more data.

It will be the tools on the backend of the data collection that will start to make more of a difference providing more insights into the flow of people, vehicles and other objects through the systems.

In retail it is sometimes easy to guess the busy times, but it is more difficult to see the true numbers and recognise the seasonal peaks and troughs.

Understanding and reacting to busy times is crucial to businesses; avoiding the situation of customers abandoning their shop because the queue for the till is too long, is paramount.

Within the retail space, heatmapping functions in the CCTV cameras can provide a deep insight into the routes people take and how long they stop in an area to browse.

This can result in a better understanding of the impact certain floorplans and layouts have on the customer experience.

As more AI applications become available to the camera systems, its becoming easier to proactively generate alerts in various scenarios.

Some of these already include the possibility of detecting a person in a wheelchair or walking with a cane.

Using such invaluable information allows operators to customise alerts that can be sent to staff, thus allowing them to assist quickly when they are most needed.

We expect to see more third-party Edge AI analytics being developed for our cameras over the coming year – expanding the possibilities of what the CCTV systems can do.

Already it is possible with some of our cameras to run docker containers in the cameras.

This allows for even more applications outside the scope of CCTV to be running in the cameras, potentially reducing the amount of equipment required in a system.

This article was originally published in the July edition of Security Journal UK. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.