IP surveillance 

There are several reasons why designing a surveillance solution using IP technology is more effective than standard analogue systems. These benefits include

- Higher resolution leads to better quality images

- Greater flexibility and agility 

- Artificial intelligence in the form of smart detection

- The ability to record and play live videos simultaneously

- More efficient use of storage as video content can be compressed 

- With the help of network video recorders (NVR), IP video makes it possible to store data in any geographic location

- IP systems improve remote viewing and control, meaning anyone with access to the network can see the video stream from any camera connected to the network. 

There has been a growing industry shift towards replacing analogue CCTV with IP surveillance systems. Top-tier vendors like Uniview, Hikvision, Axis and Huawei invest substantially in IP technology. 

IP cameras

Choosing the right IP camera for your solution is not difficult. There are many cutting edge surveillance solutions readily available at different price points, from a couple of hundred rands, all the way to multi-million-rand solutions, depending on the application and software requirements. Here are some of the most prominent smart software features found in modern IP surveillance solutions:

License plate recognition 

ANPR or license plate recognition (LPR) technology in IP surveillance is constantly improving and, together with the increasing number of license plates in local databases, has become a concrete tool for private security service providers and law enforcement agencies. ANPR systems are particularly effective in urban security systems, security estates, smart cities, city improvement districts, car park management and smart transport systems.

ANPR is a technology that automatically reads vehicle registration marks (VRMs), allowing these details to be compared against database records. An ANPR camera takes an image of a vehicle license plate, passing the image on to a reader. The reader locates the VRM and reads the letters and characters to be identified using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. An image of the license plate is then saved and checked against the database. 

ANPR is useful for offence detection, including unlicensed operators, truck and repeated bus overload offenders. Some ANPR cameras allow for the blacklisting and whitelisting of license plates. As soon as a blacklisted car drives up to the boom-gate, the system will notify all the necessary parties via an array of different customisable alarms.

Facial recognition 

Facial recognition is used to identify people in public and private spaces. Facial recognition systems use computerised pattern-matching technology to identify people's faces automatically. The video surveillance system sends the captured video and audio information to the desired central database, where the data is securely held. These images are not in the public domain but are monitored and transmitted to a central site for recording, storage and extraction in the event of a security breach.

Uniview’s smart products can comprise powerful facial detection technologies that enable them to differentiate between animate and inanimate objects, avoiding false triggers from natural elements such as wind and rain. Unlike, traditional security systems that get triggered by almost anything. These technologies can easily be set up by the user to track a specific target. Whether it be vehicles or people, this technology will abide by that programming and track exactly what the user set it up to detect.

People counting 

People counting is an advanced video analytics tool that enables businesses to detect, track, and record entries, exits, queues, and waiting times accurately, awarding businesses owners insight on how long people spend in one place and how often it is visited. This technology allows you to test the effectiveness of new displays, compare one displays foot traffic with another, evaluate new store layouts, monitor queueing times and track heatmaps of people’s movements around the store. 

Smart Intrusion Detection (SIP)

Intrusion detection systems monitor human-related activities around homes and other buildings, focusing on alerting suspicious or malicious activity. They also respond to detected abnormal movements by hindering impostors from gaining access to the premises. The main objective of SIP is to only lookout for people, vehicles and motorcycles through the use of either cross-line or intrusion detection zones. This automatically reduces false alarms, offering you more peace of mind knowing that your cameras only monitor and notify you when it matters. To top it all off, you also save on bandwidth and storage space, allowing you to have more backup days.

Choosing an IP Camera 

When selecting the correct surveillance cameras, it is critical to understand where they will be used. Quality is essential when choosing a product with most top-of-the-range IP cameras having up to 4K resolution. A wide-angle lens enables you to cover a larger area and for more flexibility, panning, tilting and remotely zooming the camera allows the user to monitor activity outside the camera’s fixed field of view. ONVIF capabilities are helpful if you have different brands installed on site. Should you need a camera with 24/7 monitoring, strong video compression is essential in helping you save storage space. The industry standard for video compression is H.265, with only a few cameras supporting ULTRA H.265. This codec can save you up to 85% storage space when converted from standard H.264 compression without sacrificing image quality.

Network Video Recorders (NVR)

NVRs are a critical component of any surveillance solution. NVRs allow you to easily manage your IP surveillance network within a single interface and provide you with centralised video controls to easily view, collect, and store your surveillance footage in one convenient and easily accessible location.

Differences between NVR and DVR

The main difference between these two technologies is the video transmission methods. DVRs use analogue video feeds and compress them digitally. NVRs use digital images which have already been pre-compressed by the IP camera. This simple contrast plays a significant difference in the strain of the CPU. NVRs share the processing work with the IP camera and allow the NVR to use excess capacity on artificial intelligent features such as face detection, rather than just compression and replay of video footage.