The technology revolution promises to deliver a lot of rewards for organizations that take it by the horns and implement it. The spread of the Internet across every facet of society has meant that the traditional approach to watching videos has changed. Research shows that the average American is still fond of watching videos on the traditional television. The interest in watching TV results in around five hours per day and a whooping 149 hours per month.   

But are these stats a true representation of what is happening in American society? The average American citizen has cut down on TV viewing by more than six–eight hours per month. However, the interest in videos has not dwindled, instead it is now being directed towards what we come across on the Internet. During the last quarter of last year, an average American citizen spent four extra hours per month to stream and watch videos over the Internet. The formats and the source might change, but the love for videos and what they offer is something that will tend to remain constant over time.  

The changing trends do suggest that we are indeed a part of the video revolution. Understanding the needs of the viewers, telecom operators and Huawei have vowed to inculcate the real essence of this revolution by making videos smart.

Smart Video Society

Smart video is coming, and promises enhanced feasibility and easiness for all customers and users that contributes to the high number of viewers watching videos. Statistics suggest that video is the biggest driver of data traffic across the world. 

People long for a better video experiences, and even though that is provided through 4k videos and other innovations, the smart revolution in videos is really anticipated and is bound to produce brilliant results for the future. The traffic that is driven by videos is expected to increase and rise up to 80 percent of the whole traffic on the network during the coming years. The biggest challenge the smart video society poses is to operators. Operators have to think of ways to manage and find the means to fulfill the rising demand that  consumers have.

Smart Home Services

The smart home services facilitated by Huawei are the talk of the town this fall, as the world comes to grip with the endless realm of possibilities that come into the picture due to the smart revolution. Smart home services give homeowners the luxury to have even more control over what happens in their home.

The numerous modes in the technology allow homeowners to live their routine without worrying about their home and the electricity bills. If you are outside, you can turn on the away mode to ensure that all electrical equipment is turned off and that there is no excess electricity wastage. The cameras positioned within the home make use of video in a smart way to provide full security throughout the day. Even when your car comes in, the garage door will open up based on the video proof that has been associated with your car’s license plate.

Video Analysis through ML and AI Makes Smart Videos

As the concept of the attention economy develops, systems that tend to help overcome an information overload will become even more sophisticated. The problem of the attention economy is real, and AI kicks in here to help parse information for overcoming any information overload that may result out of viewing or being host to too much information. This concept fits perfectly on text, audio, and video information that can send you into a state of information overload. Visual tools that help information through are the new rave and will lead the way in the smart revolution. 

AI For Video Analytics

Intelligent video analytics make use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deep learning for facial recognition. A learning solution that is well trained and intelligent will provide video analytics with the mechanism to analyze and store facial data quickly. Deep learning can also process vast streams of footage that might otherwise go unnoticed by any human. By using AI in analytics, all the systems can communicate and cooperate with each other in a way that recognizes any suspicious activity and readily alerts the users about it.

Moreover, AI coupled with ML can help augment video analytics to analyze micro expressions. Facial expressions manifest a lot of emotions and allied actions, which when understood by video analytics can lead to a lot of further good. 

Use of Smart Videos in IoT

With cameras becoming affordable and videos becoming ubiquitous, smart video is indeed a vital pillar of the Internet of Things (IoT). As such, smart videos are being incorporated into many IoT markets. 

A few of the uses for smart videos in IoT and other applications of the like are:

• Transportation: Smart videos could extensively be used for the IoT in Transportation. From parking once you get to your home, to managing the flow of traffic and providing safety and security, smart videos can make transportation a lot more coherent and easier.
• Retail: Smart videos could be used to prevent undue loss in retail and to also improve operations intelligence and stock levels.
• Public Sector: The public sector can benefit from increased safety and security for people through smart videos. Moreover, an emergency response to a chaotic event can be made foolproof by implementing smart videos in the IoT.
• Home and Buildings: The concept of the smart home, as mentioned above, spurs from the concept of merging smart videos in the IoT to get the best results. Granting access to a home or a building is one of the most important aspects that can be worked on in the future.
• Industrial and Manufacturing: Machine vision can benefit from the use of smart videos. The use of robotics during industrial processes comes with a risk that can be averted through a coherent understanding and link between smart videos and the IoT.

Role of Telecom Operators

The telecom industry plays an important role here, as they have to provide the infrastructure for the videos. From the network that links them up to the Internet and to the concerned authorities, to the cameras and other sensors that need to be positioned accordingly; the tsunami of videos needs to be managed by the providers. 

We are now part of an intelligent world where all things are connected in a way and can be easily sensed. As a result of this communication and interconnection, the business for telecom organizations is drastically changing. What waits for us in the future is an abyss of unparalleled opportunities, an abyss that promises rewards, but can be deadly if we lose our way. 

Video surveillance is also becoming a promising way for all carriers to become a part of the smart video society. Through the help of video surveillance, carriers can help in the growth of government and enterprise services and develop value added services in vertical industry setup.

Tower Based Video Surveillance

Blue Sky Guard provides environmental surveillance by taking into use towers positioned in numerous places. The protection provided has resulted in a decrease of 95 percent in fires and has also meant that it takes no more than 3 years to get back a sufficient return on investment considering that 30,000 cameras are placed.

Video Surveillance to Expand Vertical Markets

By cashing on the new opportunities in the surveillance markets, companies can enjoy a share of a well positioned $100 million market. The benefits that organizations can enjoy by expanding the vertical markets are:

• Low Construction Cost: Carriers can use the existing resources to start operations and to reach a sufficient size.
• Policy Assurance: The government requires developed surveillance services to manage and look over the affairs and to guarantee the safety of the general public.
• High Credibility: There is high credibility present in all forms of security work.
• Strong Operational Capabilities: Carriers have the advantage of providing strong operational services, as they can boast of exemplary capabilities already.

“In the intelligent world, telecom operators should rethink their role and business model in the B2C, B2B and IoT markets. Huawei believes that telecom operators’ core business proposition should be centered on the concept of FMC 3.0. By building up a ubiquitous, experience-driven, agile and on-demand ultra-broadband network, telecom operators will be able to monetize the business opportunities created by vertical market digital transformation.”

David Wang- President Huawei Network Solutions

About the Author 

Ronald van Loon is an Advisory Board Member and Big Data & Analytics course advisor for Simplilearn. He contributes his expertise towards the rapid growth of Simplilearn’s popular Big Data & Analytics category.

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