In a world of HD everything, CoVi Technologies isn’t just jumping on the bandwagon—they are driving it and have been at the wheel since 2002. The Austin, Texas-based manufacturer was founded in 2002 and has stuck with the same mission: offering IP-based video surveillance. Last year, CoVi released it high-definition IP-based video surveillance system. This year the company incorporates video analytics into the system, as well as launching new cameras and higher-capacity drives.

“In a nutshell, we have built an end-to-end video surveillance system that captures and records HD surveillance video,” said Barry Walker, CEO and president of CoVi. “This is kind of a trick, because imagery in HD is very fat and it takes a lot of storage capacity. The architecture to accomplish this is really blowing up the DVR and distributing it around a corporate enterprise network.”

With the CoVi system, each camera is connected to a mini DVR that is then distributed to a network. “That way we don’t burn the network with that traffic unless you are watching the video,” Walker explains. His company has focused on IP surveillance since the company was founded and one of its goals, Walker said, is to keep HD video and the company’s product IT-centric and IT-friendly.

One of the company’s newest announcements is that CoVi will include video analytics in its IP surveillance solution. The trick? “We created the ability to foot video analytics inside the camera and out at the edge of the network,” Walker said. “There are very good reasons for it being in the camera. You don’t have to move the video out on the network first. It also allows people to take a look at really high quality imagery because it has not yet been compressed.” A line of CoVi’s high-definition box cameras and dome cameras will have video analytics included.

In addition, Walker adds, CoVi has increased recording capacity for the HD system. In cooperation with Seagate, CoVi announced 500 and 750 gig versions of their high-capacity drives. “This allows us to extend recording capacity, and offer higher resolution and higher frame rate recording.

CoVi plans to continue looking for solutions to improve IP-based solutions and make them as network friendly as technology allows. “The involvement of IT in decision making processes, oversight of installations and buying processes is a very big deal for the industry, particularly from the channel perspective. It is extremely important to have architecture designed to maintain and implement cameras on corporate networks without screwing up the IP network,” Walker said.

To expand the company’s reach, CoVi also announced its membership in the PSA Security network, which will allow the company to reach additional integrators and provide its video surveillance systems to more customers. Find out more at www.covitechnologies.com.