“We want to be contributing to the ever changing security industry”

What are the new R&D initiatives taken by Videonetics in context of Indian market?

I have launched Videonetics with a patriotic mission. After contributing more than 150 US and international patents, I am convinced that a country can get respect and become strong with its home-grown intellectual properties and culture of innovation. I am very proud of my team. They think, breadth, and goes to bed everyday with the thoughts of innovation. My R&D team will continue this mission and committed to do so. We invested a lot, and will continue to invest in our R&D towards generation of Indian Intellectual Properties resulting in “Made in India” innovative products.

Some of our latest innovations are:

Intelligent Traffic Management System:

Videonetics’ Intelligent Traffic Management System is specially designed and architected to replace tedious manual processes to track, regulate and analyses vehicle movement on roads, and to enforce traffic rules for safety of citizens and their properties. It acts as a true decision support system for traffic planners and traffic law enforcement agencies. The system is integrated with Videonetics’ Intelligent Video Management and Video Analytics solution in a unified, monolithic system architecture, so that video surveillance and traffic monitoring services complement each other, thus addressing the field issues with a holistic approach. Under ITMS, we have diversified products like e-challan, Automated Number Plate Recognition., Red Light Violation Detection (RLVD) system, smart ITMS Dashboard, Traffic Congestion Detection and Overspeed Detection system. More innovative technologies will be launched shortly.

Intelligent Video Management Software:

Videonetics’ ‘Intelligent’ Video Management Software (IVMS) is based on a unified, monolithic architectural framework to capture and handle video and audio data over IP network in an efficient and elegant way, going way beyond what traditional ‘view-recordreplay’ based DVR-like systems offer. It is not just a gloried version of old time DVR software promoted in the name of VMS by many in the market place. Our IVMS is OS agnostic, camera agnostic, sensor agnostic, storage agnostic, network agnostic, scalable, modular for integration with any IP enabled device, and customizable as per need of our country and customers. Our IVMS software is scalable across multiple verticals such as City Surveillance, Enterprise Surveillance, Banking, Retail, Traffic Management etc using the same video management software framework.

Intelligent Video Analytics:

We add sense to surveillance by automatically extracting meaningful actionable information from digital video based on a rich set of video analytics. Our analytics solutions have been applied in diverse applications such as intelligent monitoring of vehicles, crowds, infrastructure, people and objects, for automatic detection and analysis of events of interest. Especially developed for the tough Indian environment.

Video IoT:

Videonetics moved beyond Intelligent VMS, Analytics, and ITMS products toward its mission for development of a Visual Computing Platform. It is pioneering in Video IoT and Video Cloud innovation.

The latest innovation from the company is the “first” software based Video IoT solution in the market. This software can be embedded in any computing platform to make it application specific IoT device, it can also be embedded into existing IoT devices to enable it for localized video computing, or in any IP camera to make it IoT enabled. There are many VMS providers in the marketplace and each system is different. In a city surveillance or large enterprise, multiple video management systems have been installed and operating independent of each other. There is a need to unify all the existing systems in a unified platform so that any IP-enabled camera can be accessed from anywhere without interacting with the vendor specific particular video management system. Videonetics innovated the new software based IoT platform which can be installed in a server or router or edge switch to ensure this unification platform.

Cloud Platform for Video:

The company also developed the cloud framework for high compute enabled cloud backbone with sophisticated user interaction for the video and sensory data stream received by the IoT devices using this new software based platform.

This platform is intelligent and robust enough to handle millions of Gigabytes of video data. This architecture allows us to combine other sensory data in the field with surveillance video data (based on a variant of steganography principle) in a unified “single data stream” to disseminate this composite stream through wired/wireless network/Internet in bandwidth constrained infrastructure. The sensory data can be structured or unstructured from any sensor used for water management, energy management, flood management, pollution management, parking management, etc. As mentioned, all these sensory data emanating from these management systems can be embedded into the video as a single data stream. This novel approach aggregates such heterogeneous types of data with visual evidence enabling operational excellence of Smart City management including security and surveillance. Videonetics is now leading to Indigenously developed Indian IoT platform standard.

What are the current trends in the Surveillance market?

The security industry is ever-changing, with only a handful of innovators striving to come up with the next big thing in video management, central stations and many other security musthaves. But nowhere has there been more changes and innovation than in the world of video surveillance.

As more IP-based security devices inevitably replace the aging analog systems, I see wider use of security products and need of intelligent frameworks to meaningfully extract growing wealth of information from the sea of data generated from these security products. Video IoT is going to play a major role in near future. Videonetics indigenously developed the first versatile video IoT framework in India and the software framework can make any IP enabled device Intelligent and IoT-enabled.

Some of the factors that have and will continue to play a large role in the steady growth of the video surveillance industry are: increased awareness of cyber-security threats and the need for more secure solutions; savvier customers who understand the products and solutions better than ever and know what they want; a resurgence of video analytics as the technology gains a larger field of practical applications; increasing features and decreasing prices of video equipment; and the increasing acceptance of technologies such as video IoT, cloud computing, ubiquitous networking and underlying technology. Moreover, India as a nation with more than 130 billion population has its own challenges. Hence, localization and customization of products to meet Indian challenges will draw more attention. I can proudly say that “If technology works in India, it’ll work anywhere in the world”.

How Smart City initiative is boosting the Surveillance market?

Today, I see surveillance application in retail, education, government, critical installations, traffic management, hospitality, health-care, and BFSI with other verticals exploring similar solutions. The same technology, when implemented in smart city projects, reduces manual interference, predicts internal and external threats, system malfunctions and alerts authorities in times of exigencies.

As the cities grow smarter and more futuristic, Video surveillance will begin to play pivotal roles in ensuring the safety of the cities. Investing in the latest video surveillance technology with not only just highest-resolution cameras, and IT infrastructure, but also with versatile and scalable Video Computing software is very important. This is the brain of the overall system for best user experience, enhancing operational excellence to meet actual user expectation, and intelligent decision support system. This will help to make our cities smarter, with a goal of achieving fewer crimes, 24×7 surveillance, and safer environments.

Is Videonetics associated with any Indian smart city project?

We have been providing indigenously developed innovative video computing platform for making cities safer and smarter with innovation, smart traffic management, automatic detection of violators, and by contributing to safe airports, stadiums, religious places, homes, smart decision making, reducing wastage of manpower on the street, and showing the opportunity to enhance operational efficiency of the enforcement authorities. We have recently deployed our city surveillance and intelligent traffic management solution at various states like Madhya Pradesh; West Bengal, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat, aimed to reduce antisocial behaviors, crime, reduce traffic violations, enhancing disciplined behaviour to protect lives of citizens and their properties.

What are the various verticals that you have worked on and have targeted?

We understand that every industry has its unique challenges and that finding the right solution for your needs is an important decision. From reducing traffic violations to improving security in schools and airports, Videonetics has been innovating as well as deploying solutions for wide range of industries including banking, critical infrastructure, government, corporate campuses, seaports, traffic management, sports, large manufacturing plants, campuses, etc.