Milestone Systems, the open platform company in IP video management software (VMS), joined forces again with Axis Communications to demonstrate the two companies’ latest integrated solutions.

Tuesday the 5th of November shined a spotlight on the newest trends in IP-based video surveillance, when these two producers of software and hardware for digital video surveillance invited the Scandinavian security industry to an Open House showcase at Milestone headquarters in Copenhagen. 

More than 100 attendees were able to experience hands-on new solutions possible today with state-of-the-art video surveillance. Different business scenarios were shown, illustrating what value-adding integrations between network hardware and open platform video management software now have to offer. Visitors could see, for example, how video connected to cash register systems can track suspicious transactions and help manage loss prevention in retail businesses. Or how a video solution can detect and trigger an alarm in the event of failure-to-pay at self-service checkouts, which more stores in the retail industry are using these days. 

Milestone and Axis also showed how customers such as airports and banks — where it is critical that the video surveillance system never goes down — guard against such risks by using edge storage of video on the cameras with a sophisticated security architecture. In case of network hardware failure, for example, a camera can continue recording in the same quality, storing the video locally on the camera until the server is ready to receive the recordings again for the central, longer term archives in the VMS. This ensures a company against losing incident documentation when evidence is required.

Visitors to the Milestone-Axis showcase could also see how perimeter security and recordings with thermal cameras guard against unwanted intrusion, regardless of day or night lighting. Video recording and live alerts can be triggered automatically when a moving object crosses a defined space (cross-line detection). Thermal cameras detect heat and are therefore not dependent on illumination, helping to manage vandalism, break-ins or burglary during the dark hours.

“Video surveillance can do so much more these days,” said Raziel Bareket, sales director for Northwest Europe, Milestone Systems. “With this event we aimed to demonstrate together just some of the new possibilities with video surveillance, which go beyond live monitoring. We wanted to inspire our partners and customers by showing them how to get the most out of developments in the software from Milestone and hardware from Axis — and how many opportunities can be leveraged when the two work together.”

Many residential areas, schools and public institutions are exposed to vandalism, also of their cameras, so Milestone and Axis developed a solution to address this problem. When a vandalism alarm is triggered in the system, security guards are notified immediately that a camera is covered up or otherwise disrupted. By installing and configuring multiple cameras intelligently, other PTZ cameras can move their view to take over the angle of a camera that is ravaged, so a perpetrator can still be caught on video.

 “As the two market-leading global brands for digital video surveillance software and hardware, and as close alliance partners with the same open mindset, it is natural that we take the lead to show what can be done with today’s video surveillance. The technology moves so fast and we continually learn from each other to provide new innovations,” said Daren Lang, business development manager at Axis Communications. “This event was also a good opportunity for us to engage with our customers and partners to hear what’s on their minds. There is an impressively higher level of expertise in the industry, which helps to give us more feedback to define what we produce tomorrow."