If your video system isn’t linked to “real” information, it is providing only a mere fraction of the value it could be.

The future of video surveillance lies in how to manage all the data being collected and turn it into something useful. Our ability to collect ever more massive amounts of data is growing at a rapid pace. Video management systems are part of the reason we can more easily collect such data.

However, most surveillance video is not extremely valuable until it is accompanied by some kind of information that makes that video searchable. In fact, without information to give context to the video, it is not valuable at all. That information might come from a person sitting in front of a video who knows something about what is going on or it might come from a door access control system or a point of sale system. Given the sea of video out there, one must have some help from automated data systems.
This is the premise of Steve Hunt’s PSIM acronym which he talks about at his Security Dreamer blog.

I think Steve would agree that the value of turning video data into “information” goes well beyond Physical Security and is especially pertinent to the broader category of business intelligence. When it comes to business applications, Steve points out that security is really not the point; rather the ability to improve one’s business is a huge factor driving growth in video.