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Bandwidth-friendly surveillance

IP surveillance no longer hindered by limited bandwidth with Visec Stream on Demand (VSD), developed specifically for AXIS cameras.

The cost of bandwidth in South Africa can be somewhat prohibitive when implementing an IP surveillance solution. As a result of this, a South African-based systems integrator, CSS&I, using the ASTII Consortium Consultant team led by Peter Bullock, was tasked with utilising 3G/GPRS exclusively to stream live video from remote sites to a centralised control room for a specific SA National Roads Agency project.

The objective of this project was to use as little data as possible while still maintaining a fully functional video management system. The system was required to monitor each of the remote sites around the clock, automatically record MJPEG images, provide live video streaming and play back remote video archives.

Visec International was approached to develop a module that could integrate with Axis products and circumvent the necessity for exorbitant monthly bandwidth costs.

The solution

It took the development team 25 days to create a world-first, a basic module that offers a solution for Axis cameras in low bandwidth deployments. Visec Stream on Demand (VSD) allows MJPEG images, refreshed at specified intervals, to be viewed until an incident or event occurs, at which point the user can switch to a live view mode for a predetermined period of time. The H.264 video stream offers uncompromised image quality as well as higher frame rates and superior resolution.

The AXIS Q7401 video encoder was selected to convert the existing analog dome pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) cameras, installed at the various SA National Road Agency sites, to a network video stream, thereby transforming the solution into an IP-based video surveillance system. The Q7401 is a single channel encoder that is capable of delivering multiple, individually configurable video streams simultaneously at full frame rate in all resolutions. It supports Power over Ethernet thus enabling the unit, as well as the analog camera that it is connected to, to receive power through the data transmission cable.

The monitoring of Axis cameras in remote sites need no longer be limited by costly or inadequate bandwidth. VSD affects bandwidth usage by allowing the interrogation of the recorded video data stored on the internal SD cards of Axis cameras and encoder to be remotely accessed in real-time, thereby eliminating the bandwidth necessary for offsite storage.

VSD provides a unique, cost-effective solution to enable the efficient operation of Axis cameras and encoders in environments devoid of dedicated bandwidth mediums. The VSD component is available for immediate application and the company will be targeting sites where infrastructure for low cost bandwidth is not available.

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