Interview: Paul Such about Enhanced Integration of Avigilon's AI Software

In August 2018, Motorola Solutions announced the first major step in integrating Avigilon Control Center video management software into CommandCentral Aware for command center operations. At Intersec in Dubai, the company announced that it has enhanced the integration to include Avigilon’s patented self-learning video analytics. GIT SECURITY had the opportunity to speak with Paul Such, Vice President for EMEA Sales at Avigilon, about this integration, Artificial Intelligence and Avigilon’s product and solution pipeline.

GIT SECURITY: I can imagine that from a c­ompany perspective the integration of­Avigilon’s VMS into CommandCentral Aware is a big step to demonstrate the synergies within Motorola Solutions. What advantages does it offer to users?
Paul Such: Security officers in a control center now have one integrated source for the actionable information they need to help first responders on the front line. In addition to Avigilon video intelligence, CommandCentral Aware provides them with access to incident details, computer-aided dispatch and records intelligence, geospatial data and real-time alerts from multiple sources. CommandCentral Aware provides analysts with a detailed operating picture of what is happening at the scene of an incident. Our Avigilon video analytics technology can automatically alert them to critical events that may need further investigation, helping to proactively keep people safe and assets protected.

Video analytics and Artificial Intelligence are hot topics here at the show, but still not ­everyone sees a real value in AI. Can you give us an idea what value Avigilon offers here?
Paul Such: Video analytics tools are part of our software offering for many years and we believe AI has the power to overcome some of the biggest challenges our industry faces. We developed Avigilon Appearance Search technology, which is a sophisticated deep learning Artificial Intelligence search engine that sorts through hours of footage with ease, for example to quickly locate a specific person or vehicle of interest across an entire site, or multiple sites that are connected to the same Avigilon Control Center Client software. New updates include searching for someone using physical descriptions such as age, gender and clothing color.

It looks like you are very happy with the ­advances in the product offering and the product pipeline for this year.
Paul Such: Yes, everybody in the organization is very motivated and proud of what we can offer our clients in addition to high-resolution cameras. Our products are getting more and more powerful with new CPUs that allow us to do faster analysis and offer value-added services. The search for incidents or objects within the VMS or at the edge is much faster than before. The H4 Multisensor, our most advanced multi-sensor camera featuring up to 32 MP total resolution, is just one example. It offers self-learning video analytics, H.265 compression and content adaptive infrared technologies. At the show, we are already giving our customers a preview into the future of video analytics capabilities of our next generation camera line, which is expected to be launched this year.

GDPR is another challenge the industry faces. What does Avigilon do to ensure that your video security solutions include features and functionality that support GDPR compliance?
Paul Such: Meeting GDPR requirements  is very important for a lot of our customers. Although technology such our Avigilon Control Center (ACC) video management software cannot itself be GDPR compliant, we always consider how our products and solutions can assist enterprises in deploying and operating a GDPR compliant system. ACC for example, offers control over user permissions, ensuring security personnel can only access the video data that they need to do their job and ACC will control the resolution of the video displayed based on user permissions. We make sure that explicit user permissions are necessary to access search functionality that uses personally identifiable information such as personal appearance, access control identity cards, license plates, or point-of-sale-information. Helping our customers to become standard-compliant, Appearance Search results can now be exported by ACC while blurring the images of all other subjects except for the person of interest. The new Blurred Export feature helps customers ensure compliance with new data protection and privacy measures of GDPR.

In the past, Avigilon was concentrating more on proprietary end-to-end solutions making the integration of 3rd parties not very easy. You mentioned that this has changed. Can you comment how Avigilon is opening-up?
Paul Such: As Avigilon continues to expand our advanced video analytics portfolio, the demand to leverage these technologies to provide true actionable results is rapidly growing. In response to this, we have rolled out important initiatives within our go-to-market strategy as it relates to integrating our cameras and video analytics technology with Genetec, Milestone, as well as other video management systems (VMS) providers. As such, we have increased support for Avigilon cameras on third-party VMS platforms, introduced integration of Avigilon video analytic events and alarms with third-party VMS platforms, and we have opened up support for our Pro Series (8 MP, 12 MP, and 16 MP H4) cameras to third-party VMS platforms.