Zipstream technology – a boost for 24x7 video surveillance

Keeping pace with increasing demands for around-the-clock, real-time, crime-fighting video surveillance solutions in South Africa, Duxbury Networking has introduced Zipstream technology from its principal Axis Communications.

Positioned as a significantly more efficient video storage solution, Zipstream is designed to lower bandwidth and storage requirements by an average 50% or more for many continuous, 24/7 surveillance applications.   “Adding Zipstream technology to any current video surveillance implementation allows users to maintain their current camera resolution and frame rate while saving money by minimising costly data storage needs,” says Andy Robb, chief technology officer at Duxbury Networking.

“This is achieved by Zipstream’s ability to analyse and immediately optimise network cameras’ video streams in real time. Scenes containing interesting details are recorded in full-image quality and resolution, while other areas are filtered out to make significantly better use of available bandwidth and data storage,” he explains.   “Important forensic details such as faces, tattoos or license plates are isolated and preserved, while irrelevant areas such as white walls, lawns and vegetation are sacrificed by ‘smoothing’ in order to achieve storage savings.”

Robb says customers can implement Zipstream technology alongside other Axis network camera technologies such as Wide Dynamic Range, Forensic Capture and Lightfinder.   “Axis’ Zipstream technology is fully compatible with the H.264 compression standard, currently one of the most commonly used video compression formats for the recording, compression and distribution of video content. It can therefore be used with a broad range of third-party video management software without additional investment,” he adds.