Live Video Tech Fuels Surge in Real-Time Surveillance Operations

Major improvements in video surveillance operations registered by applications of real-time connectivity and other advances supplied by Red5 and its partners are igniting pursuit of similar results at an accelerating pace worldwide.

By demonstrating what can be achieved through simultaneous aggregation and monitoring of multiple live camera feeds, first movers are providing convincing evidence that use of real-time streaming is a game changer, often with life-saving outcomes. Aided in part by expanding 5G mobile coverage in private and public networks and other advances enabling extensions of operations into remote areas, surveillance becomes far more useful when emergency responders are equipped with holistically synchronized views of unfolding events and the tools to identify and evaluate developments of interest

Initial experiences with real-time surveillance streaming are opening the door to new strategies and use cases. Local, state and federal government administrators are adjusting operations to enable cross-agency sharing of live camera streams from large numbers of widely dispersed assets aloft, on land and at sea. And they’re making more effective use of video output from emergency responders’ cellphones, body cams and other mobile equipment.

A Real-Time Streaming Platform Optimized for Surveillance

Red5 is far ahead in the vanguard of real-time streaming suppliers serving the rapidly evolving surveillance ecosystem. Utilizing Red5 advancements targeted to easing and expanding execution of live multi-stream surveillance, users of every description are streaming aggregated video output from devices numbering into the thousands to facilitate command center responses to criminal activity, fires, traffic accidents, extreme weather conditions, illicit border crossings, battlefield maneuvers and much else.

Several processes supported by the Red5 Pro software stack go into making Red5’s Experience Delivery Network (XDN) architecture the ideal platform for real-time multi-camera surveillance operations. Together they allow the video feeds from multiple cameras, typically transmitted via the Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), to be combined and transported as a single multi-screen stream over WebRTC for viewing and analysis by surveillance operators, all within 250ms of camera outputs.

A major contributor to these surveillance-optimized capabilities is the Red5 Mixer technology, which is software running on dedicated commodity processors that allows users to configure exactly how they want multiple camera feeds to be combined for ingestion into XDN Origin Nodes. The Mixer can perform overlays, resizing and synchronization combining dozens of live RTSP streams into a grid layout that’s converted for streaming over WebRTC to end devices, which allows browsers to process the video without the use of plugins.

Operators can dynamically adjust grids to accommodate variations in the number of feeds and how they’re laid out in the grid. Adding to surveillance efficiency, Red5’s TrueTime MultiView™ toolset provides operators the option to instantly pull from the Mixer-generated multi-camera grid any view for full-screen display with the ability to switch back and forth among camera outputs as often as necessary.

Critically, the Red5-led groundswell in real-time surveillance operations is closely tied to advances from an expanding range of suppliers whose solutions have been integrated for orchestration with XDN operations. Red5 partners’ support for AI-assisted intelligence, versatile cloud-based content management workflows, high-speed encoding for aggregating camera feeds into XDN infrastructure, portable appliances extending the reach of cloud resources hosting XDN nodes, and other innovations are transforming what can be done with real-time surveillance connectivity.

Precedent-Setting Breakthroughs in Law Enforcement & Traffic Management

Many real-time surveillance initiatives have major implications for society at large. One case in point involves what we believe to be the first foray into monitoring a high volume of live feeds from police body cams, marking a significant departure from relying on video solely for post-event analysis. In a city we can’t name at this point, officials are testing an initiative aimed at funneling body cam outputs from across an entire city into command centers for 24/7 monitoring and analysis of unfolding events.

The devices used by this police department and many others are essentially wearable computers capable of delivering valuable information that can be used with video feeds to deal with situations in real time. Wider adoption of the strategy could eventually lead to major changes in the conduct of law enforcement everywhere.

Another initiative involving use of XDN technology with far-reaching implications is underway at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), which has been using Red5’s real-time streaming over the past few years to aggregate feeds from about 800 highway surveillance cameras in Caltrans District 7 encompassing Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. Now Caltrans, which along with state highways oversees aviation, rail, bus and subway systems and terminals, is exploring plans to bring real-time streaming into play with all its surveillance resources, including drones and over 10,000 cameras along highways and in other locations across the state.

To date, in the notoriously difficult traffic environment of the LA region, Caltrans has been able to make use of its existing surveillance camera and networking infrastructure with implementation of the XDN streaming platform in the AWS cloud to greatly enhance system performance. Instant high-quality video feeds from new and legacy cameras aggregated for simultaneous viewing at imperceptible latencies in multi-screen displays supported by Red5’s Mixer and MultiView technologies allow traffic managers to respond to issues as they happen.

With this experience Caltrans knows it can go statewide operating real-time surveillance using existing assets at high load capacities on a network infrastructure utilizing multiple generations of wireline and wireless facilities. Ongoing network expansion through use of private or public mobile connectivity is assured by Red5 APIs that allow Caltrans to broadcast RTSP streams live from any iOS or Android device. 

Working with Red5 and looking at the highly versatile cloud-based content management support supplied by Red5 partner Nomad Media, Caltrans recognizes statewide expansion will benefit from custom development support that has already produced major operational enhancements. These include functionalities like supporting RTSP authentication for cameras, enabling control over pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) camera functions via signals delivered from video walls and ATM Security clients, and the ability to optimize video reception by choosing between reliance on adaptive bitrate streaming or locking in on a set bitrate.

With a live real-time surveillance ecosystem operating statewide, Caltrans will be able to support a wide range of goals beyond basic highway traffic management. These include providing new visibility in operations under management of the state’s port authority, railway administration, air traffic controllers and highway patrol. At any moment in time respecting any contingency, relevant responders will be able to call up any number of camera streams on their dashboards for multi-screen visibility into developments of interest wherever they’re in play. And they’ll be able to instantly record and archive all or selected segments of those feeds for future investigation.

Notably, Caltrans isn’t the only government entity in California taking advantage of XDN architecture in real-time surveillance. Another agency setting an example that’s gaining traction elsewhere is the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. The department is operating a drone streaming command center with shared access to other agencies where all parties can control and simultaneously view a virtually unlimited number of drone camera feeds through an easy-to-use interface provided by Nomad Media.

Extending Real-Time Surveillance into Remote Areas

In all the surveillance operations described here and the multitude of others supported by XDN architecture, there’s now an opportunity to expand coverage into previously unreachable territory. Two distinct approaches to extending XDN reach are enabled by Red5 partner integrations, one supporting remote use of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and the other tapping Dejero’s cloud-based solution for optimizing remote network connectivity.

OCI, which hosts the Red5 Cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS), has made it possible to extend instantiations of XDN infrastructure beyond the reach of fixed datacenter resources currently spanning 50 geographic regions on six continents. This is accomplished through use of portable Oracle Roving Edge Infrastructure devices, which enables XDN surveillance use cases where speed-of-light latencies imposed with use of conventional OCI resources are too high.

Much faster, more knowledgeable responses to emergency and battlefield scenarios can be executed when it’s possible to aggregate and analyze surveillance camera feeds from aerial and maritime drones, body cams, mobile phones and remote fixed locations in relatively close proximity to the action. Now XDN points of aggregation can be positioned in conjunction with ancillary command centers to ensure that no matter how far flung those assets might be, responders will still be able to maintain real-time vigilance over what’s happening.

The key components in the Oracle Remote Edge Infrastructure portfolio are the Roving Edge Device (RED) and the Roving Edge Ultra (Ultra). The RED is a two rack-unit (2RU) compute- and storage-optimized server that can be ruggedized to operate in remote environments. Its CPU capacity and processing speeds, solid-state and storage memory capacity and 10 gigabit Ethernet network interface make it a viable substitute for OCI datacenter servers in the execution of XDN operations.

The Ultra is an even more compact device designed for easy portability in remote aerial, terrestrial or under-water surveillance. With a wider operational temperature range, enhanced ruggedization and less storage, memory and compute capacity than the RED, at 5-lb. Ultra can be used to extend OCI support for XDN-based surveillance operations to the farthest reaches of agency jurisdictions.

Dejero’s appliances and cloud platform, which are used by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, bring another dimension to meeting the remote surveillance challenge by providing cameras network connectivity that would otherwise be unavailable or subpar in hard-to-reach areas. Utilizing Dejero’s network aggregation and real-time encoding support to deliver remote camera feeds to XDN infrastructure can be vital to enabling surveillance in remote locations. 

Dejero leverages relationships with mobile, fiber, broadband and satellite network providers to create software-defined cloud-managed network-of-networks solutions. The cloud platform can instantaneously provide customers access over whatever link can be used to deliver the best throughput with no interruptions switching from one network to another. The software applies AI-enabled analytics to track results and allows users to put containerized microservice solutions into play to accommodate nuances in surveillance use cases.

Dejero provides three types of hardware appliances for use in the field. Its 5G mobile transmitters work with unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), i.e. drones, or other wirelessly connected video sources with reliance on the cloud platform to connect with the best available fixed locations.There’s also a gateway device for use when satellites or landline connections are involved and an appliance with edge computing support that’s designed for use in vehicles and fixed locations.

Red5’s integrations with OCI and Dejero edge infrastructures provide a path to extending live multi-camera surveillance to the fullest extent possible. When Dejero’s network of networks and encoding technologies come into play with XDN architecture, RED or Ultra appliances hosting XDN nodes can be used in conjunction with remote extensions of command centers to enable real-time surveillance operations just about anywhere.

Red5 Partner Affiliations Expand Options in Real-Time Surveillance

The Nomad, OCI and Dejero integrations with XDN architecture cited here are complemented by other Red5 tie-ins with solutions essential to effective real-time surveillance operations. For example, high-speed encoding integrated for use with camera feeds into XDN nodes is more broadly available beyond the support provided by Dejero through mobile encoders supplied by Red5 partners Videon Labs and Osprey Video. In all cases, encoding speeds are compatible with XDN end-to-end latency performance at 250ms or less.

Another important area of collaboration involves enabling the use of AI-assisted intelligence to help operators sort through massive amounts of surveillance input delivered in multi-screen grids over the XDN infrastructure. A case in point is the actionable intelligence platform provided by Accenture Federal Services (AFS) through the Novetta technology it acquired in 2021.

Red5 customers in defense, federal law enforcement and government intelligence are employing the AFS platform for analysis in surveillance operations. For example, U.S. Army and Border Patrol units are using the real-time multi-intelligence solution to deliver actionable insights derived from sensors and radar as well as video feeds from drones, Humvees, underwater vehicles, body cameras and even canine patrols to remotely dispersed command centers.

The cross-platform web application enables multiple functions essential to coordinating operations across dispersed command posts. Through integrated chat services, event/report sharing, and remote sensor control, operators can collaborate in real time to quickly understand what is happening around them in their areas of operation.

Red5’s partnership with OCI continues to bring new capabilities into the surveillance domain. One significant case in point involves OCI’s support for integrating live AI-assisted speech-to-text transcriptions on its platform. Red5 surveillance customers operating in the OCI domain can identify and rip out relevant transcriptions from the camera feeds at any time to aid in situational analysis.

Through other affiliations Red5 is enabling XDN users in surveillance operations to execute facial recognition on a per-frame per-video basis across the aggregated camera feeds. And another partner’s solution can be used to automatically anonymize content in the video feeds as prescribed by privacy regulations.

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As evidenced in all the developments described above, the application of surveillance technology is entering a new era thanks first and foremost to Red5’s support for the real-time aggregation and transmission of virtually any number of camera feeds from any location for wide-area assessment of unfolding events. With the foundation provided by XDN architecture, a host of applications available through Red5 partners are helping to make real-time multi-camera surveillance the new norm in law enforcement, transportation, firefighting, and everything else where there’s a need for better approaches to keeping the world safe.

To learn more about the benefits of XDN-based surveillance contact info@red5.net or schedule a call.