Video Trickling

Video trickling is an innovative feature from Genetec that brings even more flexibility and reliability to the recording management of an Omnicast installation. Video trickling leverages the recording capabilities of the edge devices (IP cameras and encoders) by providing the ability to transfer, on demand, the video from the edge and store it in Omnicast for long-term archiving.

Edge devices are becoming more and more intelligent and offer more and more functionalities. The capacity of recording video directly at the camera level presents a lot of benefits such as securing the video if the network connection is intermittent, and also offering more control over the way the video recording is transferred to the Omnicast Archiver with another option besides continuous real-time streaming. Therefore, video trickling allows to:

• Increase the reliability of the solution for recording
• Optimize bandwidth usage by only transferring video of interest at the right time
• Lower the cost of remote-site recording by going serverless

Description

Video trickling is an extension of the edge-recording functionality provided by more and more IP cameras manufacturers. The edge-recording functionality in Omnicast offers the possibility for an Omnicast operator to directly playback video that is recorded on edge devices. Video trickling goes a step beyond and allows recorded video on edge devices to be moved and stored by the Omnicast Archiver server for long-term archiving. The video transfer is based on specific rules created by the administrator who also has full control over when and which video is being transferred.

First of all, the edge recording can be transferred to Omnicast based on three different modes: on schedule, on event or manually. In addition to the transfer mode, the administrator can filter the amount of video to be transferred. The administrator has the choice over many filters such as:

• Time range
• Playback requests
• Events (motion, analytics, dry contact)
• Alarms
• Bookmarked video
• Interval when a unit is offline

This means that when Omnicast will transfer the video from the edge, only the filtered video will be trickled including a pre- and post-event time range. The benefit of this is to limit and control the amount of data exchanged between edge devices and the Omnicast Archiver, and to only transfer the video of interest.

Overview of video trickling functionment. Click on the picture to view a larger version.

Traditionally, the camera would continuously stream video to the Omnicast Archiver for recording. In situations when the bandwidth between the camera and the Omnicast system is limited or the connection unstable (e.g.: a retail store managed centrally, a remote location connected over Wi-Fi or cellular network, or a vehicle), it is not possible to continuously stream video to the central system for recording. In this case, video trickling can be used to transfer video on demand. The video transfer can then be scheduled while the network demand is low or after store hours, in the case of a retail chain. During the transfer, the video is downloaded from the edge devices as fast as the network connection can handle it. This allows to download one day of video in a lot less than 24 hours.

In the eventuality that the network connection is unstable and the connection between the camera and the Omnicast Archiver is intermittent, there is no lost video recording since everything is initially stored on the edge device.

Scenarios

The video trickling feature provides benefits in several situations. Below are scenarios when video trickling can not only be used for bandwidth and storage optimization, but also to reduce the cost of system maintenance.

Remote location on a WAN with only cameras (serverless)
In this scenario, Omnicast is installed at the main site, but is managing the cameras located in the remote site. Typically, a full server would be installed at the remote location to keep the recording local and avoid transmitting video over the WAN. The system is set up to trigger an alarm when there is motion in specific areas. With video trickling, it is possible to go serverless at the remote location and leverage the edge recording capabilities of the cameras.

In summary:

1. Remote cameras use edge recording.
2. Motion events are used to mark the video.
3. Omnicast connects to the remote network after hours (or while network demand is low) and downloads only the recorded video which is marked by motion events to the Omnicast Archiver.
4. No server is required at the remote location (less IT resources required, therefore reducing cost of operation).

Single-site installation
In this scenario, instead of sending the stream continuously to the recording server, the camera is used to record the video at the edge and then periodically transfers the video to the Omnicast system for archiving. Operators monitor the cameras and bookmark the video when incidents occur; they may also look at the recorded video.

In summary:

1. Cameras use edge recording.
2. Operators can access the recorded video directly from the cameras without having to wait for the video to be transferred.
3. The video is marked each time operators add a bookmark or look for playback.
4. Periodically, Omnicast transfers the video that has been bookmarked or reviewed in playback to be stored on the Omnicast Archiver for long-term archiving.

Recover video while unit is offline
In this scenario, the Omnicast system is recording the cameras using the Auxiliary Archiver. The Omnicast Archiver is responsible for downloading the video from the edge devices to fill the gap if a camera loses its connection to the server or if the server is offline.

In summary:

1. Cameras use edge recording.
2. Video streams are recorded on an Auxiliary Archiver.
3. When the connection to cameras is lost, the recording on the Auxiliary Archiver will be interrupted, but the time range during which the units were offline is kept in memory.
4. When the connection is back, the Auxiliary Archiver restarts recording and the system will automatically start transferring the video of the units that were affected by the connection failure. Only the video recorded while units were disconnected will be transferred.