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The Beginner’s Guide To Using Smart Search In Video Surveillance

Jul 16, 2019

Picture a detective, sitting in a dark room surrounded by empty coffee cups. They’re staring at a TV that’s playing security footage from a parking lot, hoping to find evidence of a perpetrator’s car entering the frame.

Manually scouring hours of security footage is a practice that’s been undertaken by everyone from homeowners to police detectives. But few may know it better than business owners, who often turn to their security footage for evidence of property crimes like trespassing, vandalism, or theft.

Finding that evidence has always been a bit like finding a needle in a haystack, especially when you consider the mental effort it takes to focus for that long. Fortunately, that era is over.

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Smart Search is a powerful tool that turns those hours of watching footage into mere seconds, offering business owners quick and accurate results. To learn more about it, we sat down with Daniel Martinez, AVS’ Director of Business Development, to chat about the benefits of Smart Search. Here’s what he had to say.

How would you define Smart Search?

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Daniel: Smart Search is a term used to describe advanced software technology that can look at recorded video for specific results. For example, you could use Smart Search technology to scan hundreds of hours of recorded video for a specific license plate number.

What is the biggest benefit for commercial/HOA properties? How about businesses in general?

Daniel: Commercial and HOA properties are often concerned with who is accessing their property. A constant stream of residents, tenants, workers, and delivery trucks makes it easier for accidents to happen, without knowing who’s at fault.

With Smart Search, you can scan recorded footage for people, vehicles, or license plates. You can even search for the color of their clothes or the make of their vehicle to find exactly who you’re looking for.

For businesses in general, Smart Search allows anyone to conduct a very accurate audit of recorded footage. Older technology demanded a manual search of footage, which would usually take hours.

Maintaining focus for that amount of time is nearly impossible, which meant people would often miss evidence. Smart Search eliminates that problem. It also saves money, because you don’t have to pay someone to sit and watch all that video.

What are three things prospects should know about Smart Search?

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Daniel: First, Smart Search is an emerging technology that is constantly improving, so you’re going to have the ability to adopt even more benefits in the future.

Second, not all Smart Search technology is created equal. Business owners should know that there are lower-end systems that don’t offer the same capabilities as a higher-end, enterprise-level system, but not everyone needs the most advanced version. Your security professional can help you understand the differences.

And third, despite differences in features between low- and high-end systems, any form of Smart Search is going to provide a net benefit for a surveillance system solution.

How can Smart Search help optimize business processes?

Daniel: By utilizing the Smart Search function, you can find recorded evidence more quickly and accurately than ever before. Ultimately, those gains in efficiency will make it easier to prove or disprove that an incident occurred. And, instead of spending your time watching security footage, you can focus on improving your business.

When it comes to emerging security technology, Smart Search is just the beginning. Find out what’s possible for your business by downloading a free copy of our white paper, Comparing Security Options For Your Business.

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