New Player Revolutionizing Video Surveillance 

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When a video surveillance network that secures a facility ceases streaming or recording properly, there is a substantial risk to infrastructure security – whether it is an industrial compound, a military base, or a critical power grid site.

One of the innovative technologies in the field of video surveillance is the System-on-Chip (SOC) – an integrated circuit that combines the various components of a camera, such as image and analytics processing as well as video encoding, into a single chip.

While the advent of IP turned “rudimentary” cameras into “smart” sensors, SOCs provide surveillance manufacturers with the ability to embed much more robust tools at the edge reducing the power needed on the backend –– either in the cloud or onsite –– to perform these same functions.  

SOC technology – the new generation of video surveillance systems – is commonly used in the industry through smartphones, tablets, and digital TV as well as in the automotive industry for navigators and in the enterprise industry for printers and routers.

The processing power presented by SOCs enables enhanced capabilities, such as increased frame rates without compromising on image quality, high dynamic range (HDR) to maximize exposure in all types of lighting environments, and improved video compression:

Coping with the light management challenge, a lack of or an overabundance of lighting can spell disaster for any surveillance deployment, which is why several factors – such as camera placement to account for sunlight’s interference at different parts of the day –– must be taken into consideration during the installation process. Still, there will always be applications where lighting conditions are not ideal, but with the help of SOCs in image processing, those potential problems may be a thing of the past.

Network bandwidth consumption is another challenge that has faced IP video deployments, and ever-improving image resolutions have only added another layer of complexity to the equation. The advent of SOCs has meant that compression can now be done inside the camera itself, and this capability only continues to improve. Some compression technologies enabled by SOCs today can leverage H.264, or the newer H.265 standard, to lower video bandwidth and storage requirements by 50% or more. 

According to iotforall.com, the System-on-Chip is and will continue to play a pivotal role in the development of video surveillance technology. As deep learning and machine learning-based analytics begin to become more pervasive in the industry, the role of SOCs will become even more pronounced, and video surveillance will be defined moving forward by these enhanced capabilities.