Whichever industry you’re in, having a CCTV system on your premises is a great way to protect your operation. These solutions deter would-be trespassers, monitor events as they happen and allow you to review them at a later date.
That said, reviewing footage can be a demanding task. If you have dozens of cameras recording at once or you’re not sure exactly when the event you’re searching for happened, there may be a large amount of video data to analyze.
Real-time indexing in a video management system (VMS) can help ease this burden and massively improve the functionality of your system. These tools can tell you what events happened and when, and alert you to any attention-worthy events seconds after they occur.
Understanding Real-Time Video Indexing Technology
Video indexing is the process of analyzing video footage and extracting key information to create a searchable index. This process was once carried out manually. Thanks to improved technology, indexing can now be done automatically.
Advanced technology makes indexing videos and finding footage that meets certain criteria easier. The information extracted during the process can include metadata such as:
- Date and time.
- Keywords.
- Face and speech recognition.
- Object recognition.
- Motion events.
Users can also create their own tags so they can more easily search the index, such as if a particular door was opened or a swipe card was used to gain access. The ability to quickly search video content for certain events can be hugely beneficial for those using CCTV systems, particularly when monitoring a large site.
How Is Real-Time Indexing Different From Post-Processing Indexing?
Real-time indexing is when video footage is indexed as it’s being processed. The footage becomes searchable by whichever metadata parameters your system is designed to tag. Indexing usually happens within seconds. However, this technique requires more processing power.
Post-processing indexing, also known as batch indexing, indexes the video at a later time. Needing less processing power than real-time indexing systems, this method means that video footage can’t immediately be searched by metadata tags. The length of this delay will depend on how often your video footage is indexed, be it hourly, daily, or even longer.
When deciding which solution is best for you, you have to balance the need to have your video footage indexed immediately with the cost and computational power requirements.
Key Benefits of Real-Time Video Indexing for VMS Functionality
A VMS that provides flexibility and functionality is key for any CCTV solution. Here’s how real-time indexing can help a video surveillance system better meet your needs.
Enhances Search Capabilities
By indexing video footage in real time, you can immediately search the most recent footage by your required dimensions. This allows you to reliably search all footage up to the current moment for particular events, people and more.
Real-time indexing also saves your team time. Without real-time capabilities, your team would have to manually go through every minute of footage that hadn’t yet been indexed to find what they’re looking for. Even with regular batching, this solution can be impractical for many security operations.
Improves Security Response
Through real-time indexing and pattern recognition analytics, your team can get instant alerts when certain events are detected. This can range from access being granted in a certain area to overcrowding concerns.
By flagging any events that require oversight or review, real-time indexing allows your team to rapidly respond as needed, keeping your premises safe and secure. If your team has to search for a particular incident that the system hasn’t flagged, real-time indexing can help, allowing them to promptly and effectively respond to any situation.
Supports Business Intelligence Applications
Many businesses use their CCTV systems to learn more about their operations. These insights can cover:
- Customer behavior: From how many people visit their site each day to how long they stay for and which areas attract the most interest, real-time indexing can provide businesses with access to information on their customers’ behavior.
- Employee conduct: Whether you need to review an incident or simply see how consistently your employees are following protocol, you can quickly assess your employees’ behavior with real-time indexing.
- Operational insights: Real-time indexing gives you insight into various aspects of your business’s operations, such as how long certain tasks take. This can give you the information you need to optimize how your business operates.
How Real-Time Video Indexing Can Benefit Different Industries
Real-time video indexing can be beneficial to businesses within any industry, whether it’s to gather more information about company operations or to improve security. Here’s how real-time video indexing for surveillance systems can benefit particular sectors.
Retail
Analyzing customer behavior in the retail industry isn’t new. Retail businesses use technology to analyze this information and optimize how they operate. By considering aspects of patron activity, like the route individuals take through the store, where they spend the most amount of time and what items are commonly purchased together, businesses can adapt their store to better suit the needs of the customer.
Real-time video indexing can also help with inventory tracking by flagging when items need restocking.
Transportation
Thanks to real-time video indexing solutions and video analytics, technology can monitor transportation systems. From law enforcement searching for a particular license plate to logistics companies finding the best route based on traffic congestion, real-time indexing can help the transportation industry in various ways.
Healthcare
Real-time video indexing can help businesses and organizations within the healthcare industry better care for their patients by:
- Monitoring treatment outcomes.
- Verifying correct procedure compliance.
- Ensuring medical devices and pharmaceuticals are properly handled.
Education
With hundreds or even thousands of students and staff on-site at one time, monitoring schools and campuses can be an overwhelming task. Real-time video indexing takes the pressure off school employees by immediately flagging problems, helping to find particular people and tracking attendance. Most importantly, it allows security teams to quickly respond to any safety concerns.
Hospitality
Bars, clubs and larger venues like stadiums can use real-time indexing to ensure their customers remain safe at all times. It can also be used to warn of potential problems like overcrowding before they occur. If your security team needs to quickly identify an event or person, real-time indexing can help them locate the relevant footage seconds after it’s captured.
Hardware Considerations for Effective Video Indexing
For effective real-time video indexing, your video security system will require hardware that can facilitate the following:
- Network video recorder (NVR): You’ll require an NVR with sufficient processing power to analyze and tag video footage in real time.
- Cameras: For effective real-time indexing, your cameras need to be able to capture high-quality footage, which allows for accurate meta tagging.
- Storage solutions: Your CCTV system will need ample storage to allow you to search historical video footage.
Get the Right Hardware for Your Security System
Having the right hardware for your CCTV system is vital if you want to utilize real-time video indexing in your business. At BCD, our hardware is capable of handling these needs while facilitating validated video analytics solutions.
From our all-in-one NVRs with high processing capabilities and up to 80TB of raw storage, to our video recording storage solutions, our products can help your organization supercharge security.
To find out more about our services, get in touch with one of our experts today.
