There are many notable trends on the horizon for the physical security and surveillance industry. In the growing area of low-latency live video streaming applications, we will see the continued move to HTML5 playback. For the security industry, live video streaming is an enabling technology that provides many opportunities for dealers and integrators to leverage additional services for the customers.
To be effective, the technology needs to be able to stream consistently and reliably from a variety of devices, platforms, browsers and mediums, such as NVRs, on-premise servers or the cloud. HTML5 is now an effective replacement for often-vulnerable Flash browser technology in live streaming workflows.
Flash, a plug-in to current browsers, has been a lightning rod for hacking vulnerabilities and malware. As such, most modern browser providers have begun to disable Flash by default, requiring additional actions by users, while support for the technology may be discontinued altogether in the near future.
HTML5 implementations can be either cloud-based, or peer-to-peer streamed without Flash technology. Users who can stream live from camera to their choice of device, while enabling low-latency HTML5, gain greater efficiencies and less-expensive platform bandwidth costs.
In addition, peering live streaming video directly from on-premises cameras and NVRs will take off for security applications, based, in part, on the significant reductions possible in direct operating costs, and a lower total cost of ownership for the end user.
Peer-to-peer streaming reduces bandwidth costs and infrastructure requirements by streaming directly from IP cameras, mobile devices, drones, loT devices, to browsers, phones and tablets. It effectively removes implementation challenges from the physical IT infrastructure, while still permitting precise client control of content.
Other significant trends will include continued integration of traditional security and live video streaming products and applications into emerging home automation standards including Apple’s HomeKit, Google’s Home and Amazon’s Alexa. We will also see the ongoing move to metadata-driven analytics and smarter, real-time event notifications directly benefiting the physical security industry and providing a deeper, more targeted proactive response.
These will be the losers in 2018: Manufacturers or software providers who continue using Flash-based players will begin losing significant market share; any company not looking to be more open with their integrations and APIs will lose ground as deployments become increasingly interconnected.
