When choosing a surveillance system powered by AI, it’s vital to select an open platform. To stay ahead in the fast-moving AI landscape, according to Brent Boekestein, the leader of Openeye’s Enterprise team, it’s more important than ever for businesses to choose an open platform that empowers them to adapt and innovate. Here he argues the point for open architecture in surveillance systems with analytics in today’s era of AI.
Boekestein argues that in contrast to closed systems, an open platform enables flexible integration with existing security and business systems. “This offers businesses a greater return on their initial security investment while still providing an adaptable model built for the innovations of tomorrow,” he says.
Below, Boekestein puts forward the benefits provided by an open system in the age of AI, and how it can potentially offer the strongest foundation to meet the goals of a business.
Having to invest in entirely new security infrastructure while simultaneously deploying AI technology presents a variety of problems and risks for businesses. A team will have to manage both rollouts for teams at the same time, driving up higher costs and more issues with training.
By selecting an open platform, businesses can apply their newfound AI capabilities to existing cameras that weren’t built with analytics originally. Instead of having to completely replace the entire system, which can involve multiple weeks, months, or years of ripping out cabling and video security infrastructure, businesses can leverage analytics on the server itself to save valuable time while reducing deployment costs.
This gives cameras a new lifespan by unlocking all the advantages video analytics brings, including basics like person and vehicle detection and line crossing analytics, to provide additional power to system alerts and visual search capabilities. An open platform also gives businesses the flexibility to scale security systems and add devices as needs evolve. This approach enables organizations to upgrade at a more optimal pace, bringing in new devices when it best fits the budget and operational priorities.
With an open platform, businesses have the ability to find and select the AI solutions that work best for them. This gives organisations greater flexibility when implementing a video analytics solution. AI-enabled devices can be added in the timeframe that works best for the business or according to its needs.
For example, if a business needs a camera with edge-based slip-and-fall analytics for just one area of their facilities, an open platform enables integration with the best solution for that specific need without having to replace the entire system. This approach ensures maximum value from investment while gaining the targeted benefits of video analytics.
Additional options could be to onboard several analytic-enabled cameras while keeping the majority of the existing system, test different analytics offerings, or slowly phase out an old system. This is all possible thanks to the open platform which gives businesses the freedom of choice to find the best solutions for their business needs.
Finally, an open platform is inherently ready for future innovations, allowing businesses to stay ready for what’s next. “AI is an advanced, intelligent technological achievement, and today is the lowest level of performance it will ever produce, says Boekestein. “The system investment you make today will need to be capable of taking advantage of the unknown but, undoubtedly, compelling features in five years’ time. As new technologies continue to emerge, businesses can expand their ecosystem through an open platform, allowing them to integrate the applications that matter most to their business without being constrained by a single proprietary solution.”
He suggests that this reduces the risk businesses may feel by committing to a single platform. Instead, they can leverage existing technology, including hardware, lowering the overall cost up front and providing an opportunity to adopt and integrate future solutions down the road. This also helps keep the surveillance current and up to date while mitigating timeline issues with the rollout of new AI features and helping to achieve the most from the investment. It also provides a way to test new solutions and continue to optimise the system for the business.
“The open video platform is one of the best ways to ensure your business is getting the most out of the exciting advancements in AI. With as many data points as there are provided by a modern security system, having a way to bring that information together in an integrated place is key. Thanks to AI, that information can be parsed more efficiently for proactive insights into potential optimisations and visibility during critical events,” concludes Brent Boekestein.
