Coming on the heels of our integration with MICROS-Retail back in December, earlier today, we announced our newest API-based integration with with SureView Systems. This is just another example of the growing number of 3VR partners to execute a full API-based integration with our platform. Check out the full release here.

This new integration enables security personnel to instantly view video of any event that has triggered an alarm to SureView's Immix® management platform, and conversely, to set up alerts for specific actions captured by 3VR’s advanced video analytics. The integration also enables security personnel to receive alerts from other systems like access control, alarm and other sensor systems into Immix® which matches these signals to video footage from 3VR SmartRecorders.

These capabilities not only add unprecedented visibility into events so monitoring professionals can make more informed, quicker decisions on how to respond to any given alert, but also enable central stations to maintain a much more complete view of security activities. It also significantly reduces false alarms by allowing central station operators to immediately distinguish real security threats from false ones.

We've got a bunch of other partnerships and API-based integrations in the works that are advancing market innovation and offer our technologies to other industry leaders in a collective effort to advance security solutions and reduce crime. Many more to come. Stay tuned!

According to an article in Monday’s The New York Times, the U.S. military is struggling with the same issue security operators in the public and private sectors face: How to manage and prioritize the significant amount of surveillance video being collected by today’s video systems?

The article, Military is Awash in Data from Drones, reports that Air Force drones — remote controlled spy planes — have collected nearly three times as much video over Afghanistan and Iraq last year than in 2007, amounting to roughly 24 years’ worth of video if watched continuously. This amount of video is only expected to increase as more drones are added and some take-off with multiple cameras in tow (there are even plans for some to record video in 10 ways at once.)

As any business with a video surveillance system knows, sifting through hours and hours of video is a daunting process and today, the task of managing and understanding this vast amount of data falls under a security operator’s purview. Yet, it is a known fact that the human eye simply cannot process all the video we collect but we continue to rely on people to make decisions based on what they think they see in video footage. The Air Force is a prime example of this. It has a group of “young analysts” in place to watch every second of live video that is streamed into Langley Air Force Base and it is their jobs to monitor, and pass warnings about insurgents or roadside bombs to troops on the ground. But how can these operators make sense of all this video in an effective and timely manner, especially when lives are at stake?

Video analytics could be an answer. Analytics help operators make sense of video and in the case of the military, they could use metadata extracted from video analytics or correlated sensor streams to index video. One example would be to use geographic coordinates from on-board GPS, enabling analysts to easily compare past and present video at the same location. They could accomplish this by reindexing each camera’s video according to the position of a specific drone or a ground coordinate that a camera is focused on. The sliced and re-indexed video could then be stored on geographically dedicated servers as part of an overall enterprise solution.

In essence, this is labeling the video with geographic metadata, and by doing so, the retrieval of relevant and important video is far quicker and more specific because an operator can now search based on this metadata.

Businesses, from small retailers to large enterprise-sized banks, can use extracted metadata to organize, manage and search through large datasets of stored video. A retailer can use video analytics to determine traffic flow patterns in his store to more advantageously price retail shelf positions similar to how Google prices search words. License plate recognition results from video cameras can be used to search for suspicious plates over an extended period without combing through months of video footage. Facial surveillance capabilities can even be used to search for that person’s face.

Leveraging advanced video analytics not only helps organize surveillance information but it makes it immediately understandable to operators, whether they are monitoring video from a bank or military base. Quite simply, advanced solutions, like video analytics and intelligent search, work to help people make sense of a world of otherwise overwhelming video data and technologies like these become incredibly important the amount of video we collect across the globe continues to grow.

Hard to believe but there are only eight shopping days remaining until the Christmas holiday.

But as retailers roll up their sleeves in hopes of experiencing strong returns in this dismal shopping year, these companies also have to be on guard. More shoppers, coupled with the economic struggles many consumers are facing, potentially leads to an increase in retail crime and more loss.

Return fraud is a significant issue as well. In 2009, $9.59 billion in losses were attributed to return fraud, the National Retail Federation reported in its Return Fraud Survey 2009, and retailers can expect to lose $2.7 billion this holiday season. Much of the loss was due to the return of stolen merchandise and the return of merchandise purchased with fraudulent or stolen tender, such as counterfeit checks or stolen credit cards.

According to recently finalized results of the National Retail Security Survey, conducted by the University of Florida, retailers reported losing $36.3 billion to theft in 2008. This number includes shoplifting, employee theft and vendor fraud. More eye raising than the $36.3 billion lost is the fact that this is the highest percentage of loss retailers have reported in six years. Yes, six years. And this was in 2008, before the brunt of the financial crisis was upon us.

A vigilant loss prevention department has a significant effect in the reduction of shrink but unfortunately, many retailers have been forced to reduce staffing levels in 2009 due to significant decreases in sales. This is where technology becomes a more important piece of the puzzle. Technology, especially video surveillance, can help augment the skills of a retailer’s LP team.

A majority of retailers already use video surveillance in the fight against shrink. The 2008 NRSS reported that 90.5 percent of survey respondents have digital video recording systems at 90.5 percent and 86.7 percent use CCTV cameras. But retailers can’t rely on traditional systems. The complexity of retail crime requires intelligent solutions that will enable retailers to be more effective and efficient. These video systems help retailers not only investigate crimes but be proactive in their response. Solutions that incorporate robust search features and video analytics, and have the capability to interact with other retail systems — such as POS — are going to be more effective than a traditional CCTV solution.

Look at Redner’s Market (see previous post). The LP team at Redner’s has been able to reduce the time spent searching through video by 50-75 percent by leveraging an intelligent video platform and can now spend that time being more proactive with its shrink management and loss reduction programs.

But retailers also need technologies that go beyond traditional surveillance applications. For example, a store could rely on a people counting application for marketing analysis or to monitor staffing levels. Joe Davis, senior manager, south region loss prevention for T-Mobile, said his view is that retail LP must begin to select products that can multiple capabilities.

“Most systems deployed in the last 10 years are dedicated to security-only applications,” he noted. “In our evaluation of products, we look for technology that is both applicable to the needs of our team and able to solve other existing business issues.”

Earlier this week, Convenience Store News' Tammy Mastroberte sat down with Cory Deily, director of security and loss prevention at Redner's Markets, to speak more about how he came across the 3VR solution at the FMI Show in March 2008 and what benefits he has seen since installing the first pilot about two years ago, particularly around ORC and internal theft.

One anecdote Cory mentions is the grocery chain's ability to bust an ORC group that other big companies -- Safeway and CVS included -- were trying to get. With 3VR, Redner's was easily able to pull up the pictures, identify the persons involved and apprehend them at one of their locations.

As the article details, Cory hopes to have 3VR installed all Redner's locations by June 2010 and also implement LPR technology to further their fight against retail crime:

"The police may get a stolen credit card used at Walmart, Target and Redner's, but they always come to Redner's first because they know the technology we have," he said. "The license plate recognition is the next step for us in working with them."

Check out the article in full here.

A number of new reports on the market share of IP video surveillance are shedding light on what the future may hold for the industry. Three reports from IMS Research, In-Stat and IP Video Market Info, all forecast that the market will rebound from the economic downturn of 2009 but the numbers are varied.

The latest data from IMS Research forecasts that the growth rate for global IP video surveillance equipment is likely to exceed 15 percent in 2009 while analog sales will remain flat.

Market research firm In-Stat reports that 2009 was a difficult year for the sale of IP cameras, due to their high cost but forecasts that revenue from both analog, IP cameras and NVRs/DVRs will grow to $19 billion in 2011.

In-Stat specifically reports that DVR channel shipments are currently growing faster than cameras shipments, with hybrid DVRs that can connect to both analog and IP cameras increasing at the highest rate.

Released Tuesday, IP Video Market Info’s report forecasts IP video surveillance product sales will increase by 200% total between 2010 and 2012, overtaking analog CCTV sales.

That’s a significant increase especially in light of IP Video Market Info’s determination that IP video spending would slow to 66 percent from 2008 to 2009 as the economy stalled.

As many in the industry have experienced and as IP Video Market Info is reporting, advances in IP products, including the fact that hybrid DVRs allow users to migrate to IP at their own pace, are propelling the surge in the market share of IP devices over the next two years.

The promise of IP holds many benefits but for customers that have heavily invested in legacy systems, it is cost prohibitive to replace all existing analog products with IP-based cameras.

Hybrid DVRs, which are growing at a significant rate according to In-Stat’s research, offer a solution. These products enable operators to take advantage of the benefits of IP while still leveraging existing technology. Users can work closely with their integration partners to upgrade to IP over time and can continue to leverage analog cameras alongside newer and more sophisticated IP devices. Not only does this increase the existing analog system’s return-on-investment, but it also helps users take the steps toward a larger IP installation as technology improves and evolves.

As the industry continues to make the slow transition to IP, it is paramount that product manufacturers help users convert to newer products as simple as possible. Hybrid DVRs are one of today’s innovative features that does this and in the process, helps users further enhance the security of their organizations.

We're very proud to announce that our director of engineering, Tom Faulhaber, has received the 2009 Security Industry Association Service Award. Check out the full release here.

Recognized for his outstanding service and leadership on the SIA Standards Subcommittee, Tom received this award at the ISC East conference along with fellow industry innovator, Video IQ’s Mahesh Saptharishi.

Earlier this year, Faulhaber was selected as the chair of a subcommittee with the goal of augmenting SIA’s ANSI Digital Video Interface (DVI) standard for communications and data exchange between smart cameras, DVRs and other security components. Already making major strides, he has worked with industry leaders from companies including Cisco Systems, Salient Systems, VideoIQ, Cernium, Pelco, Honeywell and ObjectVideo to establish a standard data format for video analytics technologies used in both physical security systems and DVRs.

We're honored to have Tom's expertise, leadership and enthusiasm as we continue to pursue open standards and drive innovation in the industry. Congratulations!!