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New Milestone VMS

Milestone Systems announced a new version of its XProtect VMS product suite for partners and customers. XProtect 2016 R3 marks the third release of Milestone’s VMS in 2016. Milestone’s commitment to bi-monthly device pack releases supporting third-party camera interoperability, in addition to the multiple VMS releases, makes this release schedule an industry beacon to the power of true open platform software.

XProtect 2016 R3 Advanced has numerous enhancements, primarily developed based on feedback from the partner community. The rapid development cycle enables Milestone to fulfil market needs and partner demands, rapidly keeping the Milestone community agile and responsive.

Save more than 80% in disk activity

In order to minimise disk load for recording servers, Milestone has developed a new strategy for storing video in RAM before committing recordings to disk. By fully utilising the large RAM capacity in modern servers, recorded video is kept in RAM until the VMS determines the video needs to be written to slower mechanical disks. In systems not using this technology, the video is always written to disk regardless of whether it is necessary. Initial testing shows the savings in disk activity can be up to 80% and even more in scenarios with little or no motion.

Reduction in disk activity enables the recording server to handle more cameras, be more resilient and run cooler. Because disk load is reduced, less expensive disk drives can be used. The wear of the disk drives are then prolonged reducing maintenance costs.

Designed for low bandwidth camera networks

The new intelligent use of local storage in cameras supports the rising demands for cameras used in low bandwidth scenarios. This can be wearable cameras, ad hoc installations, cameras used in vehicles, trains and planes. The limited bandwidth in mobile networks often restricts these types of cameras to sending low-resolution video, making accurate situational investigation difficult. The new Milestone feature, SVQR – Scalable Video Quality Recording, changes this.

With SVQR, a low bandwidth connection can be used to send low resolution video to a command centre for real-time situational awareness. When the cameras are connected to a high bandwidth network, high quality recordings from the cameras’ local storage can be retrieved by XProtect 2016 R3 by event, schedule or manually. This means that SVQR improves evidence investigation as well as real-time situational awareness.

Support for H.265 video compression

The growing need for high-performance business video systems has led to numerous changes in Milestone software in order to meet the needs of increased performance and saving of resources. This means that one of the primary focus areas for the 2016 R3 release is to improve storage handling.

Savings in disk space is achieved by the support of the highly efficient H.265 video compression. More video can be stored on a given disk volume. Alternatively, the recording quality can be improved with the same storage use. Use of 4K (ultra high definition) is also a viable option with this video compression technology. Smaller video files means less network load creating savings in bandwidth. Milestone camera partner Vivotek specifies that H.265, can bring out twice the efficiency of H.264.

Numerous Milestone Camera Partners are already either supporting H.265 or in the process of certifying their cameras with Milestone XProtect Advanced video surveillance solutions.

Situational navigation with maps

XProtect 2016 R3 Advanced expands situational awareness on several levels. The new Smart Maps function introduces support for Google, Bing and OpenStreetMap, in addition to geo-referenced GIS maps and CAD drawings. This enables users to rapidly get an overview of a situation in an easy-use format. The maps could be used for guiding patrol guards, directing trucks to loading bays or helping retailers understand their environment.

Cyber security enhancements

In order to meet the strict demands for high security in corporate infrastructures, XProtect 2016 R3 Advanced adds support for the IT-industry safety standard Kerberos. This support adds a strong and encrypted user authentication to the VMS. The use of Kerberos makes it easy for XProtect Advanced to be integrated in corporate systems. In addition, Milestone has issued a system hardening guide enabling the partner community to configure safe and secure systems.

The enhanced focus on Milestone and its partners as one community is a continuation of Milestone’s ongoing commitment to maximise the business value of video management systems for both partners and customers. By accelerating the process of involving the partner community more deeply in to development activities, Milestone is addressing increasing market demand to deliver value faster. This means facilitating more partner-to-partner direct interaction and refining partners’ abilities to draw upon community resources and mutual marketing opportunities.

Bjørn Skou Eilertsen.

“We are extremely pleased that we are fulfilling the ever-growing needs in the Milestone community at a rapid pace. This is truly a tribute to the power of open platform technology and the energy in the partner community. It also solidifies our position as number one in the VMS market.” states Bjørn Skou Eilertsen, VP of corporate products business unit at Milestone Systems. “This release contains several industry firsts: substantial optimisation of storage, a focus on cyber security and ever-better situational awareness. This paves the way for a more exciting 2017.”

Milestone XProtect 2016 R3 Advanced VMS will be available in the fourth quarter of 2016.

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