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Smarter and safer with video analytics

Professionals in charge of delivering smart and safe city programmes can now accelerate review of camera footage, more rapidly identify risks to public safety and infrastructure and easily derive valuable operational intelligence from video content.

This is due to a new bi-directional analytics-driven integration between BriefCam and Synectics’ Synergy command and control platform.

In addition to allowing control room teams to apply sophisticated video analytics filters – colour, face matching, direction of travel for vehicles, clothing attributes etc. – to surveillance footage, the integration enables rapid footage review by presenting objects and events of interest (that appeared over the course of a filtered time period) on screen simultaneously.

“The advantage”, explained Synectics’ product manager, Sree Namelil, “is that authorities can dramatically reduce the amount of time and effort needed to investigate and interrogate footage; a huge benefit for teams tasked with monitoring and managing hundreds, if not thousands of cameras. These are the teams tasked with protecting the public.”

The solution also allows users to receive real-time alerts when specific, pre-defined analytics criteria are met; for example, the detection of certain matches for face images, vehicle licence plates or people counts. On receipt of the alert, users then can easily access footage to quickly attain situational awareness, monitor events as they unfold and make informed decisions about how to respond.

Analytics-based alerts can also be used to trigger dynamic workflows to support effective management of the specific scenario in question, from dealing with potential Covid-related overcrowding risks to coordinating a multi-stakeholder response to a criminal event.

Additionally, the integration has significant implications for intelligence-driven town and city planning as it supports the secure, data protection-compliant ‘mining’ of historical video footage for trends and insights vital to future ‘Safe City’ developments.

Namelil added: “What areas need more community support officers? Which access routes to bus and train stations need to be redeveloped to cope with changing foot traffic? Where might additional street lighting help to reduce crime rates? Thanks to this new development, the answers are just a few clicks away.”

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