Business Intelligence technologies automates the way millions of security camera images are viewed

Kevin Shahbazi, CEO of Avocado Security explains the growth and advantages of new Business Intelligence (BI) technologies.

Society is constantly striving for better security, especially with the heightened concerns for safety in both the public and private sector.  Whether those concerns include protecting your business, securing your work environment or home, each of these concerns are contributing to the ongoing demand for video surveillance technologies that are simple, reliable and easy to understand.  

With security camera technologies being so largely integrated into the way society lives and works, millions of security images are being generated each day to give security personnel the visual imaging needed to prevent illegal activities and solve crimes.  Just one security camera will produce about 2.6 million pictures in one day.  In addition, a typical video surveillance system with an average number of 16 security cameras (the amount most businesses will have) will produce about 1.24 billion pictures in one month.  With so much video imaging being produced, can anyone be trained to look at all these pictures on a monthly basis and still render good decisions?  Not likely.

That's why new Business Intelligence technologies are being introduced into the security market.  Some of these new technologies can automate the way you look at security images by translating security camera footage into meaningful information, including: data, statistics, graphs, charts and gauges.  Instead of security personnel looking at images across a variety video, they can have intelligent information about each of those images so that real-time security decisions can be made.

Intelligent security technologies can increase productivity and security

The type of intelligent information that can be derived from security images includes: the number of times someone has entered the front door of a building, how often an elevator door was opened, or why there is extra traffic at a particular entrance or exit.  By looking at security monitors and images alone, such information cannot be extracted.

Security-driven Business Intelligence solutions are also designed to address many common frustrations that remain inherent in managing large amounts of video footage.  Some of these frustrations include cameras pointing in the wrong direction; the production of fuzzy imaging or blobs in the video footage; the disconnection of camera equipment; or, the equipment simply malfunctioning.  These problems become more complicated, since CCTV implementations are not heterogeneous. 

For larger organisations, this becomes paramount, as there may be many different brands of cameras and DVRs from various manufacturers.  All of these diverse components will respond to alarms differently.  But now, with intelligent security solutions in the market, security sensors, CCTV cameras and appliances can be integrated regardless of the brand, working together to ensure business continuity and the maximum operation of security equipment.  If equipment is disconnected or malfunctioning, this technology can instantly send alerts about the malfunction so that adjustments can be made immediately.

The combination of physical security with Business Intelligence (BI) is also driving greater operational efficiencies for organisations.  With this new convergence shift in IT and physical security, transformation is not only occurring in the way companies protect their assets, but also changing the way they are able to gather security and marketing details across multiple departments.

Until recently, only security guards and loss prevention officers were able to have access to security camera information but with Business Intelligence platforms, detailed security information about one location - or even multiple locations - can be shared across departments with managers and executives, providing them with ongoing information about the operational intelligence of their organisation.  A CEO can access information on how their entire organisation is running, the Vice President of Marketing can verify why there is more traffic in a particular area of a store, and the Vice President of Sales can validate cash register (point of sale or POS) figures with security images to effectively understand how to up-sell the next product - turning security cameras into intelligent security devices as well as into "money-making" machines.

This new technological shift is bringing innovative security solutions for customers who desire to improve the way they manage their personal and business security. 

Kevin Shahbazi
CEO
Avocado Security