by Brianna Crandall — April 1, 2015—Axis Communications, a Swedish-based provider of network video solutions used worldwide, recently introduced its Zipstream technology, which allows customers to benefit from reduced bandwidth and storage requirements without having to invest in new cameras or software.
Axis’ Zipstream technology is said to be fully compatible with the widely adopted H.264 compression standard. The technology has been developed specifically for video surveillance applications and reportedly lowers bandwidth and storage requirements by an average 50 percent or more.
“Significant progress towards better image quality with higher HDTV resolutions and increased low-light performance has also increased the requirements on the network and storage infrastructure. With Axis’ Zipstream technology we enable our customers to drastically reduce bandwidth and storage needs without compromising on important image details,” says Johan Paulsson, Chief Technology Officer, Axis Communications.
“For example, more than twice the video footage can now be stored on SD cards or NASs in small systems built on AXIS Camera Companion as well as other edge recording applications. Axis’ Zipstream technology adds a new module inside the network camera’s video compression engine which ensures that important details in the image get enough attention in the video stream while unnecessary data can be squeezed.”
Axis’ Zipstream technology analyzes and optimizes the network camera’s video stream in real time. Scenes containing interesting details are recorded in full image quality and resolution while other areas are filtered out, to optimally use available bandwidth and storage. Important forensic details like faces, tattoos or license plates are isolated and preserved, while irrelevant areas such as white walls, lawns and vegetation are sacrificed by smoothing in order to achieve the better storage savings.
Customers can use Axis’ Zipstream technology alongside other Axis network camera technologies such as Wide Dynamic Range – Forensic Capture and Lightfinder. Zipstream is fully compatible with H.264 and can be used with AXIS Camera Companion and third-party video management software installations already in place, says the company.
Axis is making available its Zipstream technology on the existing network cameras AXIS Q1615, AXIS Q1635 and in the AXIS Q35 Series, via firmware updates. The first new products with Axis’ Zipstream installed are planned to be AXIS M1124/-E, AXIS M1125/-E and AXIS P1365/-E fixed-network cameras, and AXIS P3224-LV/-LVE and AXIS P3225-LV/-LVE fixed-dome network cameras, with applications ranging from retail and other price-sensitive installations to banking and city surveillance applications, indoors and outdoors.
