It is a hybrid cloud solution that employs the software's real-time intelligent video analytics on the camera stream source side. The solution comprises a cloud server and a local application that can be installed on a phone, personal computer, or cloud camera. This technology helps significantly decrease the load on channels and cloud disk space. VLC, while more or less universal as an RTSP stream player, has its limitations and drawbacks, especially in the realm of video surveillance. When using FFmpeg for video stream re-streaming or for adjusting video resolutions, significant computer resources are required. Designing proprietary libraries and players to display videos from a vast array of IP cameras is labor-intensive. As a result, many systems carry the disadvantages and problems of decades of open-source solution development.

What equipment do you need for a video surveillance system? A basic video surveillance system requires at least one camera, either wired or wireless, and a way to store your video data. If you want more advanced features, or have several cameras to manage, you can also add a video management system (VMS).

We realized that to address performance and stability issues, we had to overhaul the system entirely, moving away from relying on third-party libraries such as FFmpeg and VLC. This is no small feat. In the upcoming version, we will implement our own video stream re-streamer and a player for video viewing.

The video surveillance software market has been plagued with challenges for a long time, which include intricate setups, the need for resource-intensive external libraries, and non-standard compliance by many IP camera manufacturers. Most existing systems are burdened with issues accumulated from years of open-source solutions development, reflecting on their compatibility and stability.

A primary challenge stems from the fact that most video surveillance software relies on the FFmpeg libraries. While FFmpeg is universal, it requires specific parameters and decoding streams, which vary depending on the IP camera model. Every camera manufacturer might need different parameters set, such as frames per second, resolution, and audio and video codecs. This makes the system inherently complicated.