Held in at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn., this year’s MIPS welcomed a record number of attendees, who were treated to two days of keynote addresses and plenty of time to explore solutions from several of Milestone’s technology partners in the exhibit hall while mingling with colleagues and making new connections. 

Video management software (VMS) is evolving from a pure security solution into a tool that also provides insight on operations and more. This means more automation is coming into play, and the increased adoption of analytics has created a democratization within the marketplace.

Despite a false start many years ago, video analytics have finally emerged from under the shadow of disappointment and frustration that has long plagued the technology.

Historically, storage has been a challenge for video system designers and installers, with requirements rising along with camera resolutions. The addition of big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), integrated systems and IT applications to the mix have multiplied storage needs exponentially.

Security dealers and integrators have been securing churches for decades, but the demand has picked up in recent years, spurred largely by mass shootings in 2015 at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (also known as Mother Emanuel) in Charleston, S.C., and in 2017 at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

While cabling and transmission were at one point in time almost afterthoughts in video surveillance systems, in recent years they have come farther out of the shadows and are now fully recognized as the key foundational solutions they are. With this greater prominence has come more thoughtful consideration of the importance of getting things right through careful evaluation.

Without question, the availability of high definition over coax (HDoC) technologies has had a significant impact on security integrators’ ongoing efforts to upgrade end users from traditional analog solutions.