With the introduction of 4K UHD video into the mainstream video surveillance market, installers and integrators need to ensure that if an end user specifies the technology, the expectations are met. One of the significant changes that Milestone Systems introduced in XProtect Corporate 2016 is to ensure that the software is 4K ready.
While this might not sound remarkable – after all, many VMS providers claim to support 4K streams – XProtect Corporate 2016 delivers improvements that are significant when multiple streams are being managed.
This has been achieved in two ways. Firstly, software processes have been optimised to enhance video stream performance. Secondly, and more importantly, the software can take advantage of accelerated hardware decoding. This allows it to use spare processing power inherent in the server, thus taking the strain off the software itself.
The impact of this can be seen in two ways: visually when looking at multiple 4K streams, and via the software’s System Monitor.
When viewing multiple real-time 4K streams on just about any system today, you will spot the almost inevitable dropped frame.
With optimisation and hardware decoding switched off, XProtect Corporate 2016 will deliver multiple 4K streams. There will be an occasional dropped frames and the odd stutter as the system struggles. A look at the System Monitor shows why: processing is pretty much hitting its ceiling in terms of performance.
However, with optimisation and hardware decoding enabled, the processing levels fall away dramatically (we saw changes from around 90-95 per cent usage to 30-40 per cent). This is also visibly obvious from viewing the streams. Quality is enhanced, frames are not dropped and the streaming is smooth and consistent. End user expectations for 4K will certainly be met.
Benchmark selected XProtect Corporate 2016 because for installers and integrators with a need to deliver 4K as a part of their solutions, this capability will be vital to ensure that users enjoy the performance levels they have invested to achieve.
XProtect Corporate 2016 has also taken significant steps when it comes to remote connectivity. Where the VMS is used with its associated Care package, the server can send an invitation to a specified mobile device. This will allow the device to connect with a Cloud service, and the one-off connection enables configuration data to be downloaded. Once this is done, all future communications are direct between the mobile device and the server running XProtect Corporate 2016.
Other advances include the ability to move physical archiving locations without delving into the database. For anyone who has had to reconcile SQL changes, this will be a benefit.
The event manager process has also been optimised, delivering a better experience for those implementing larger complex systems.
Milestone’s XProtect Corporate has always been a leading VMS solution, but the enhancements in the 2016 edition take it to a whole new level.