Security platform software polarization trend

market situation

The importance is growing

In recent years, the domestic video surveillance market has been growing at a rate of more than 20% every year. With the widespread construction of large-scale network monitoring projects such as safe cities, high-definition IP surveillance products have been widely used, and the system point capacity and industry demand have been constantly increasing. More and more users realize that security monitoring platform software is an important performance of the overall strength of the entire system.

Functionally, most of the platform software has video preview, video playback, device management, map display and other functions.

In terms of standards, mainstream platform software supports mature industry standards. In addition to being compatible with devices from various mainstream brands via proprietary protocols, ONVIF and GB/T28181 have become the main basis for platform-compatible front-end and interconnection of different brand platforms.

On the scale, although most of them claim to support a large-scale network with tens of thousands of cameras, due to the differences in the internal level design and store-and-forward transcoding of each software, actual application cases and factual support for operating conditions are also needed.

It goes without saying that the monitoring management platform software has already established the core value in the system and has been widely recognized by users, engineers and manufacturers. In particular, IP surveillance and industry solutions are the market strategies today. Many hardware manufacturers have come a long way. We began to attach importance to the platform software product support, or cooperate or self-research to improve the consistency and integrity of the front-end and back-end products.

The main problem

In addition to the basic audio and video operation functions, the main problem faced by the monitoring and management platform software is how to construct an integrated management platform software for application services, including: unified management of video surveillance equipment in distributed locations under a large-scale network environment; Different types of video capture devices, alarm devices, and access control devices are managed in a unified manner, and different business users with different rights are managed in different departments. Although platform software has also seen great development in recent years, there is still a certain gap compared to the entire industry market. Either the functions seem to be many but are not practical, or the architecture is complex, the cost is high, or the operating environment is simple and cannot be provided. Robust scalability, or complicated operation is difficult to use. Although the importance of platform software is self-evident, in the domestic security industry, there is a lack of awareness, market size, value is difficult to reflect and so on.

Among them, the number of cameras, the large area of ​​the surveillance area, the complex system architecture, and the wide business area are the main technical problems facing the software platform, which can be summarized as follows:

First, networking and sharing. Not only is the number of camera heads in a single system soaring, but the image information between multiple systems also needs to be interoperable and multiplexed. In particular, with the expansion of the scale of monitoring systems, the needs of users have become more and more complex. Typically, such as the Safe City project, it is necessary to achieve city-level information networking and sharing, and to integrate video sites such as security, bayonet, electric police, and social monitoring. Management, its networking requirements, data storage, and business applications all place higher demands on the management platform.

Second, compatibility is open. The compatibility between the platform software and the monitoring equipment, especially the camera, is a long-standing contradiction. Because there is no uniform standard, the existing products or software and hardware are bound and cannot be compatible. To solve this problem, platform software vendors either integrate proprietary SDKs for device vendors' products, or support internationally-standard protocols onvif or pisa, or support industry-standard protocols such as GB/T28181 and SIP517.

Third, emergency linkage. From the perspective of self-control linkage and reduction of security pressure, it is not enough to handle video surveillance based on emergencies alone. Therefore, video surveillance needs to be linked with alarm, access control, intercom, and other devices or systems according to preset strategies to achieve timely response, discover hidden dangers, reduce hazards, and thus improve security levels.

Fourth, smart applications. With the maturity of high-definition video technology and the acceleration of network link construction, video surveillance has seen development from being seen clearly. The next step is to understand it. The use of intelligent analysis technology to detect images makes it possible to move from passive to active monitoring. Intelligent analysis technology enables active early warning of suspicious targets and anomalous events, thus initiating preplanning and accurate handling. At this stage, the accuracy and efficiency of intelligent analysis algorithms are still not very high, and they need to be assisted by human judgment. This is the direction of future technological research.

development trend

The history of development of security management platform software is an explosive growth with the process of networkization. The traditional video information is interconnected through IP, which makes the isolated islands of information separated and form a resource pool for video data. This merges with other business information and makes the security management platform glow with more vitality. However, the rapid application and development of mobile Internet and high-definition video has shortened the process of popularization and market accumulation of security management platforms, making the polarization a future development trend.

Bipolarity: The medium-to-large-scale software platform is vertically integrated into industrial applications, and the integrated functions and services are becoming more and more abundant. The evolution of medium-sized and small-scale software platforms to lightweight applications has resulted in more and more simple interface functions and interactive operations. The two seemingly contradictory directions are basically to solve the needs of different users. Essentially, they rely on advanced and powerful underlying structures.

Vertical application of industry

Driven by the extensive construction of the security system, the role of the management platform software is also being repositioned. It is necessary not only to achieve horizontal integration within the security monitoring system, but also to integrate system resources such as video surveillance, alarm processing, access control, and geographic information. Realize the vertical integration of security systems and other business systems of users, expand the application of monitoring at all levels of production safety and social security, and improve the level of security management services. In addition to the traditional patrol video playback and unified processing of audio and video alarms and other data, it also provides users with application services for management and business to improve the efficiency of security management and promote process transparency and mechanism innovation. This is the so-called Security industry, which makes the security system toward the diversification of the business sector, the diversification of needs, multi-level management organizations, as well as the complexity of the operating environment and the scale of the system to the direction of expanding, a large-scale video surveillance system, Ordinary networking software is far from meeting the needs of the current market. The management platform software that supports multi-service applications, flexible system architecture, and easy management and maintenance must be selected to operate and operate. The application software of different industries also has a big difference.

Take Tiandiweiye as an example, in 2004, Tiandi Weiye will regard industry as a development strategy and create hardware and software products that meet the needs of industry users. The integrated management platform is the main carrier for collecting information and providing business applications. In addition to the actual combat platform for public security, it also has an intelligent traffic control platform, a digital supervision platform, a technology court platform, a digital interrogation platform, a public security preliminary review platform, and a digital financial platform. , forest fire prevention platforms, electronic patrol examination platforms, and unattended platforms. Because of different construction models and standards in different industries, the number of applications has large differences, among which there are many application sites in the public security and legal industry. Taking the Tianyiweiye Easy7 smart city integrated management platform as an example, the public security combat system adds functions such as video investigation, case study and judgment, and technical combat methods to the traditional public security prevention and control business, providing advanced methods for public security users' case detection and traffic control. The system adds functions such as signal control, situation monitoring, special service planning, performance management and other functions to the bayonet electric warning service. The long-distance calling system adds remote video access and remote transcript check to fixed and portable digital interrogation services. , recording voice broadcast and other functions.

In the fields of public security, procuratorates, courts, prisons, campuses, and computer rooms, there are major differences in security management applications. In the actual use process, there will be a lot of customization requirements. Because of differences in specific industry characteristics, it will lead to Different business logic and management models require software platforms that can be tailored to the characteristics of the industry. At the same time, platform vendors need to develop long-term cooperation with higher-level authorities in the industry, transform individual users' innovative needs into standard versions that can be promoted and modeled, promote industry standards, and implement them.

The security monitoring and management platform must not only support large-capacity data concurrency and storage, but also support more professional business applications. This requires the platform architecture to support modular expansion. In order to solve the contradiction between the upper layer of complex applications and the underlying stable access, more advanced middleware technologies are needed as technical support. The middleware shields the operating system's underlying complexity and the heterogeneity of heterogeneous platforms, provides different forms of communication services, and provides a uniform interface to external developers so that developers do not have to care about portability of the system platform. User programs do not have to care about the framework structure. , Execution flow, call to system-level API, etc., and more focus on the application logic of the upper application, which can shorten the development cycle to a certain extent, reduce technical difficulty, reduce the burden on the programmer. Regardless of how the underlying computer hardware and system software are updated, as long as the external interface definition of the middleware remains unchanged, the access part of the application software needs almost no modification, thereby protecting the investment cost of the networked platform in design implementation and operation and maintenance. Based on the middleware, not only the software vendors themselves can coordinate resources and have a unified architecture, but third-party vendors can also rapidly deploy applications based on protocol interfaces. Middleware makes business-oriented and rapid construction of differentiated software application platforms possible.

Lightweight application to expand the basic market

The security monitoring software is faced with many security personnel who are not familiar with the software or even do not understand the computer. It is difficult to master familiar terms, interface structures, and menu layouts. Unreasonable software design does not meet user habits and affects the use of emotions. , difficult to get user recognition. Only the most concise and practical features can meet the needs of users most effectively. The simpler the application, the more users like it, in order to keep users sticky.

With the innovation of security product technology, we will add more features and functions to the management platform software to cope with fierce competition. In fact, a large number of users actually need or prefer only some functions. Too many features make products become bloated and difficult to use, confusing their core functions. Especially in the relatively simple basic application market, subject to system budget and usage scenarios, the target users are completely different, and there are great differences in usage habits, methods, mentality, and time. Direct copying or cutting of functions from industry platform software It's hard to make a difference and even cause a drop in user experience.

Take Tianyiweiye’s latest Easy7 Smart client software as an example. Compared with the previous generation, the “subtraction” has been drastically implemented, and a large number of additional functions of the old version have been hidden. The conventional functions and system settings have been merged into the front page, and conventional The function menu can be defined by the user, improving the screen wall template, round robin plan and user permission settings. The interface becomes more fresh and concise. Let the user learn how to operate in a minute or two. In addition, some manufacturers of hardware monitoring devices built-in UI and plug-in, connected to the monitor or notebook, you can use directly. Under the wave of mobile Internet of Things and civilian security, WeChat has become one of the entrances and carriers for video lightweight applications.