CCTV software and video analytics: News and advice for security professionals

CCTV software – primarily video analytics platforms – is required to exploit the functionality offered by IP-based CCTV systems as the transition from analogue to digital continues.

The movement from traditional, analogue surveillance technology to IP (digital) surveillance solutions has given security professionals access to a much broader functionality. IP cameras can create digitised video data streams that can be carried via network cabling or via Wi-Fi.

In recent years CCTV software has meant video analytics: crunching the visual data streamed from network cameras and performing real-time event detection and post-event analysis. Harnessing the immense processing power of modern computers modern analytics platforms can now offer people counting, heat mapping, facial recognition and a host of other features allowing operators to track suspects and discern patterns amid the noise – and without constant monitoring by a human.

CCTV software can also serve particular niches, such as traffic monitoring, which often connects with ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition).

Many organisations start off with the free CCTV recording software provided by manufacturers such as Milestone, ACTi or Vivotek, and then later choose to add other programs from different vendors to suit their needs as they change.

From multi-feed monitoring to remote monitoring via a smartphone, CCTV software there are countless features and one person’s must-have feature might not even appear on the shopping list for another. Our recent (2016) white paper on the CCTV market polled hundreds of heads of security and CCTV operators on their preferred functionality, and remote access proved to be the most popular.

Traffic monitoring from ACTi’s unified solution

Latest CCTV software articles

What CCTV software can do for your business

CCTV should be part of the mix of security solutions you have in your organisation. You need to consider all the factors to be sure that you can get your desired outcome without the frustration of having a very costly but ineffectual CCTV system.

CCTV software can have a range of features to suit any organisation. It is important that you know what you want in order to pick the solution that is right for you.

As organisations tend to mix and match security cameras, a CCTV software system needs to be compatible with any webcams, analogue cams, including Wi-Fi wireless CCTV cameras. They should also be able to work with IP-cameras (including H.264, H.265, JPEG/MJPEG, MPEG-4, Fisheye, PTZ and ONVIF)

Software can be effective in finding blindspots as you can quickly figure out from looking at a range of pictures where such spots may be.

The software should also be able to record a high-quality picture and back it up, either to local storage or, increasingly, to the cloud. Video footage should also be able to be quickly and easily reviewed at a later date if necessary.

More complex systems sport additional functionality for communications and public address broadcasting, as well as remote lighting management and proactive alert systems.

Where is CCTV software deployed

CCTV software can be deployed within the control room where it can be used to monitor the business. Increasingly, the cloud is being used to bring together all video feeds that can be transmitted across the internet to any desktop or laptop computer. Some software even allows monitoring of feeds through an app on a tablet or smartphone.

One of the benefits of the cloud is that not only can feeds be monitored from anywhere, but the cloud can also offer enormous amounts of storage so an organisation need not invest in expensive on-premise storage systems.

How do you install and integrate CCTV software?

Every CCTV software package is different. So how you install it is down to the individual manufacturer. Generally speaking, the software should be installed on a computer with a network connection. It should also have an internet connection, if the solution you have chosen to implement is cloud-based.

If you are using features such as communications and public address broadcasting, the system you install the software on should also have speakers attached as well as a microphone (this can be an integrated one or an external one that can be plugged into the microphone port of the computer).

Next, you need to connect all the cameras you wish to monitor to the monitoring software. IP-based cameras should be easy to detect on the network. If you have any analogue cameras from previous surveillance installations you wish to integrate with the new system, you will need to fit an IP encoder to the device in order that it can feed video back from the camera into the CCTV software monitoring system.

If you intend to be able to monitor CCTV cameras remotely, the software should be able to connect to the internet, so that remote monitoring systems can also securely access these feeds. When that is successfully connected to the internet, you can then deploy CCTV software to remote monitoring stations, such as PCs or increasingly, smartphones and tablets.

It is important to be aware that CCTV feeds are covered by the the Data Protection Act and so any systems installed should be compliance with regulations concerning data privacy. This is increasingly important as CCTV systems have gone from being just a camera on a pole to being much more intelligent systems that can be used to identify persons of interest and record people’s activities.

Milestone XProtect Professional

Popular CCTV software

When considering CCTV software, it is important to get a feel for who the major players in the sector are. For many organisations, they will just be content to use any bundled software that comes with new IP-enabled cameras.

Surveillance cameras from D-Link, Belkin or TrendNet bundle in CCTV viewing software with their cameras. But may not be the best solution in all circumstances.

There are a number of third-party software solutions that work with a range of hardware.

Bundled with D-Link’s IP cameras D-ViewCam standard video management software (VMS) provides video recording, live view and playback management for IP cameras and video servers. The software offers management of up to 32 network cameras and up to 64 users for home, small office and small-to-medium business deployments. Features include scheduled, motion and manual recording options for individual needs. ONVIF-compliant and natively supported by major VMS/NVR platforms.

Alnet Net Station touts itself as an open-platform software developed to be implemented on installations consisting from four to hundreds of IP cameras. Users can choose from nearly 1,000 integrated IP cameras from all major manufacturers.

Luxriot is an open-architecture video management system (VMS). It accepts MJPEG, MPEG4 and H.264 as well as HD and megapixel video streams from Network (IP) cameras, encoders and video capture boards. It also features data mining with smart search filters for all analytics. It also has as add-ons licence plate recognition and video analytics.

Netcam Watcher Professional offers features such as  motion detection, alarms, scheduling, disk space management, patrolling, remote access, multi-monitor support, image enhancement and more.

How to install D-ViewCam CCTV software?

Conclusion

CCTV software provides more than just a means to record and view video; it also delivers user management, camera management, real time displays, audio support and alerts from alarms, and more. Your surveillance camera system is not complete without the software to run it. The right system for you is based on your security and safety goals.