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Q&A with Scott Schnell

Intelligent video surveillance is an ­ever-evolving industry. Hi-Tech ­Security Solutions talked with Scott Schnell, president and CEO of VideoIQ. The company is launching in South ­Africa this month.

Scott Schnell, president and CEO of VideoIQ

Hi-Tech Security Solutions: VideoIQ has just launched in South Africa. Why South Africa?

Schnell: VideoIQ continues to expand, adding distributors and a robust channel throughout Africa, as well as Europe and Asia-Pacific. Since the launch of our flagship video surveillance solution, the VideoIQ iCVR, we have experienced significant momentum and demand for the product worldwide, fuelling our extension into new markets such as South Africa. Looking at the security challenges of the market in South Africa with crime rates as high as they are, we have identified a heightened need for intelligent video surveillance solutions that can help prevent crime before it happens. At the same time the SA market is looking for affordable solutions that are simple to implement and manage while really working to prevent crime rather than just providing evidence of events in the past. So we are excited to be in South Africa offering our solutions to a market that is looking for real answers to a very real problem.

Hi-Tech Security Solutions: Video surveillance is a market that continues to grow, with new products, vendors and trends emerging all of the time in South Africa. What would you say will be the biggest trends and topics we will continue to hear more about?

Schnell: Video surveillance – particularly intelligent video surveillance – will continue to see expansion. Certainly, rising unemployment coupled with crime levels is a major factor here. The current economic climate is characterised by theft and other crime that tends to increase during tough financial times. All over, people are looking to increase their security while reducing costs. People want smarter solutions that require fewer resources – they are looking for accuracy of course, and also a solution that can detect a potential threat before anything happens. Prevention is key to ensuring safety, whether it be at major events like the Soccer World Cup, in residential areas, on a school playground, or in a business district. So, not only will we hear about increased use of smart solutions that issue alarms the moment a threat is detected, but we will see a focus on how organisations manage their resources around the handling of those alarms.

I believe we will see tremendous strides forward in the ease of use and cost of implementing intelligent surveillance, making it a mainstream technology. Residents and shop owners will be able to get alarms sent to their mobile phones; car dealerships will be able to monitor their lots remotely and respond from afar; and, large enterprises will be able to rely on intelligent video surveillance for any situation that involves risk of loss.

Hi-Tech Security Solutions: Pervasive use of intelligent video surveillance is a very interesting notion but aren’t there other issues like bandwidth and storage requirements that will prevent many organisations from using intelligent IP video cameras, remembering especially the high costs of data traffic and communications in South Africa?

Schnell: There is no question that significant bandwidth and storage requirements can get in the way of using intelligent surveillance, but they do not need to. And this is where VideoIQ may be especially relevant to the South African market, considering the high network costs and a volatile currency. The answer lies in next-generation analytics and an edge-based storage architecture. Analytics can do much more than just detect events. When you combine analytics with storage, you can address the significant bandwidth and storage requirements of conventional IP cameras.

Combining analytics with storage – inside the camera itself – allows you to intelligently control storage resolution based on what is seen, and only transmit events of interest over the network, while always recording everything at the camera itself. That is why legacy IP cameras have issues – everything is recorded, stored and transmitted over the network at a very high resolution even when nothing of consequence is going on. As a result, their bandwidth and storage requirements go through the roof. However, with next-generation solutions, the days of network and storage problems are over.

Hi-Tech Security Solutions: Tell me more about “next-generation” analytics and architecture. What kind of performance can people expect?

Schnell: Next-generation analytics are what makes these security cameras so exceptional. They are the driving force behind the whole system – from enabling smarter, more accurate threat detection, to better networking and storage performance. Next-gen solutions that have an embedded DVR in the camera offer exceptional capabilities and benefits to the user, from the ease of having everything you need in one solution, to the assurance that comes from having a distributed storage architecture with no single point of failure. Plus this new generation of analytics can also dramatically speed investigations through intelligent search. For example, the VideoIQ iCVR includes network-wide object search capabilities that make it possible to search for a particular person by simply clicking on their image. All of these features boil down to one other key benefit – lowered total costs for the customer – and that is a very good thing.

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