What's Next For IP Video

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM

The new direction for video surveillance systems has offered challenges to the industry's suppliers as well as for end-users. One of the industry's biggest suppliers, Panasonic, is calling on its core strength in image capture technologies to drive its approach to the IP market, and the company is taking a total systems approach. “Our strong technology foothold in the analog world is helping us to achieve greater imaging developments in the IP world,” says Frank DeFina, president of Panasonic System Solutions Company, who offered other insights into the changing market — and Panasonic's approach to it.

Q. What influential factors have driven the rapid acceptance of IP networked video surveillance systems?

DEFINA: We recognized the potential for a networked based video solution several years ago — in fact as early as 2001 when Panasonic unveiled a multi-tiered line of professional IP video products. Even at this early stage of development, it was evident that networked systems provided an intelligent migration path for implementation of video systems.

The intrinsic benefits of networked systems are universal across almost every business application, including human resources, finance and warehousing. The benefits include virtually unlimited scalability, extensive remote capabilities, ease of installation and less dependency on hardware, since IP systems are predominantly software-driven. These all apply very well to networked video systems. Additional benefits include the use of distributed hardware that enables systems to be easily expanded as facilities realize the need for additional surveillance and security capabilities. And then there's the issue of integration of previously disparate security systems and integration on the enterprise level across all business applications. These capabilities are simply not attainable in a homogenous analog environment.

Panasonic's early IP video products served a limited number of users and applications. In most instances, these early IP video products supplemented analog-based systems for specialty applications that delivered higher levels of functionality and performance. One of the biggest inhibiting factors at the time was limited bandwidth to accommodate high-resolution video in full format and with real-time motion. These conditions have changed as a result of several factors including the implementation of large capacity networks, and new product offerings in terms of both core video products like cameras and NVRs, and traditional network devices like servers and CODECs that use bandwidth more efficiently without compromising performance.

Q: Has any specific product category or technology been the primary influencer in the migration to networked systems?

DEFINA: One significant influencer was the development of more advanced IP video products - specifically more advanced imaging technologies. Capitalizing on Panasonic's core expertise in image capture and recording technologies, we introduced the i-Pro Series of professional and intelligent IP products a few years ago. Today, we offer a number of IP video surveillance cameras that incorporate advanced imaging technologies to deliver the highest resolution and best color reproduction. These cameras continue to drive the development of new software-driven applications that offer enhanced system capabilities only possible on a digital networked platform.

IP cameras with high performance characteristics provide volumes of detailed video data that allows video analytic middleware to perform more complex operations with greatly expanded policy-driven features. Simple examples include motion detection and object-tracking. More advanced applications include license plate and face recognition. The cameras also greatly improve forensic investigations of recorded images as a result of the amount of data recorded, and offers the ability to mine data and metadata embedded in the video images.

Q: How do you see the emergence of imaging technologies like megapixel cameras impacting video systems moving forward?

DEFINA: At Panasonic, we continue to pursue new developments in megapixel imaging that deliver exceptional performance specifically with the security market in mind. Our new series of megapixel cameras, including the WV-NP304 and WV-NF302, incorporates many of these developments. As with any new technology, we can expect the price points of megapixel cameras to start dropping, bringing the cost of implementation close to that of conventional IP cameras. Concurrently, new network infrastructure offers considerably more bandwidth capable of handling tremendous amounts of data. The combination of these trends will surely increase the number of applications for IP megapixel cameras.

Q: What is on the horizon in the area of new network imaging devices?

DEFINA: We are already far along in the development of the next generation of IP megapixel imaging devices that combine new advancements in chip design with better compression technologies. HD-quality IP cameras with minimal bandwidth requirements are the next systems breakthrough - one that will further accelerate the acceptance of networked systems. With the development of H.264 compression, the bandwidth and recording capacity requirements of megapixel IP cameras will be reduced dramatically - in some cases by multiples in the double digits. Like megapixel chipsets, H.264 is not really new. It is a subset of MPEG-4 Part 10 compression, which has been used for some time in broadcast applications. The key to H.264 is that its compression algorithms are derivative components of MPEG-4 Part 10, making it affordable and suitable for video surveillance applications on a network platform - especially for existing network infrastructure where bandwidth may be limited and for newer systems that may contain hundreds or thousands of cameras.

These new H.264 megapixel IP video surveillance cameras will have a dramatic influence on the manner in which video surveillance systems will be configured, managed and recorded. The high efficiency of these IP megapixel cameras allows them to be deployed for general surveillance applications using even more advanced video analytics and push technology. This will greatly reduce the number of video displays to monitor large scale systems, the number of personnel required to monitor the displays, and the server/recorder capacities needed to record all pertinent action in real-time at full frame rates. These are all contributing factors to further reducing the total cost of ownership for networked systems.

Q: What other new products or technologies are impacting the development and implementation of video surveillance systems?

DEFINA: First it's important to define the basic system configurations that form the foundation for all systems today: analog, hybrid and IP. Panasonic addresses all of these systems models to support both legacy and new system installations. The fact is that 80 to 85 percent of all video systems sold today are analog. We recently visited a large healthcare site with remote campuses that is presently using a hybrid system and replacing its IP cameras with analog models as a result of overburdened network infrastructure. In this case, they can yield higher performance more efficiently by supplementing their system with analog satellite systems that are then networked to their central command station. In this instance, newly developed DVRs and video servers provide the cross-platform capabilities to effectively integrate these satellite analog sub-systems with existing IP video surveillance systems for centralized control via a network backbone. It's an innovative solution that exemplifies the flexibility a networked infrastructure provides.

To support such applications, Panasonic is continually developing new products that offer versatile means of bridging analog and IP devices and provide a total systems solution.

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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