Reinventing VMS: Why On-device AI is the Future of Video Surveillance
For decades, Video Management Systems (VMS) have been the cornerstone of security and surveillance, primarily serving as a tool for passive recording and manual review. The promise of AI was to make these systems smarter, but the common approach of sending entire video streams to the cloud for analysis has created significant bottlenecks: crippling bandwidth costs, delayed alerts, and a model that simply doesn’t scale efficiently.
At DEEPX, we see a more intelligent path forward. We are fundamentally changing the VMS paradigm by moving AI processing from the distant cloud to the “edge”—directly where the video is captured.
The Problem with Traditional AI for VMS
Conventional VMS setups integrated with cloud AI are often inefficient. Every stream from every camera must be transmitted, stored, and then analyzed, which leads to:
- Massive Data Costs: Constant video streaming to the cloud consumes enormous bandwidth and racks up expensive data storage fees.
- Critical Delays: The round-trip journey of data from camera to cloud and back means that by the time you receive an alert, the critical moment has passed.
- Scalability Challenges: Adding more cameras exponentially increases the load on your network and cloud infrastructure, making expansion prohibitively expensive.
The DEEPX Advantage: Powerful, Efficient Hardware for Every VMS Scenario
DEEPX’s high-performance, low-power AI accelerators are purpose-built to transform a reactive VMS into a proactive, real-time security solution. Our hardware provides tangible value, whether you are upgrading a single camera or building a large-scale analytics server.
- For Upgrading Cameras and NVRs: The DX-M1 Module Our DX-M1 is an ultra-efficient AI accelerator module in a compact M.2 form factor. It delivers an impressive 25 TOPS (Trillion Operations Per Second) of AI performance while consuming as little as 2-5 watts of power. This breakthrough in efficiency allows VMS integrators to easily upgrade existing IP cameras or Network Video Recorders (NVRs) with powerful, real-time analytics capabilities without needing costly redesigns or complex cooling systems.
- For High-Density AI Servers: The DX-H1 PCIe Card For on-premise VMS servers that need to process dozens of high-resolution video streams at once, our DX-H1 PCIe card is the ultimate solution. The DX-H1 provides scalable performance, offering over 100 TOPS in a single card at a fraction of the power consumed by traditional GPUs. This enables the creation of powerful AI NVRs and edge servers capable of running sophisticated analytics across an entire network of cameras simultaneously.
Technical Scenario: The Shift from Cloud to Edge
Let’s consider a common security setup: a mid-sized commercial building with 30 cameras.
As-Is Scenario (Cloud-Based AI): All 30 cameras stream high-resolution video 24/7 to a central cloud server. The cloud is responsible for everything: storing terabytes of raw footage and running AI models to detect events. A security guard watching a monitor might get an alert that a person was detected in a restricted area, but that alert comes after the video has been uploaded, processed, and the result sent back. This latency, often several seconds, can be the difference between prevention and post-incident review. Furthermore, the monthly bill for the required network bandwidth and cloud storage is substantial and grows with every camera added.
To-Be Scenario (with DEEPX): Each of the 30 cameras is now an intelligent edge device, upgraded with a DEEPX AI accelerator like our DX-M1 module. The AI processing happens directly on the camera in real-time. Instead of streaming endless video, the camera now understands what it sees. It analyzes the feed internally and sends only tiny, actionable metadata packets to the on-premise VMS server (e.g., “Person detected, Zone A, 14:32:15” or “Vehicle license plate XYZ123, Entrance, 14:33:02”). The full video is recorded locally and can be instantly retrieved based on these metadata tags. The alert is instantaneous, bandwidth costs are slashed, and forensic searches that once took hours now take seconds.
This architectural evolution is visualized below:
By integrating this hardware, your VMS gains immediate, tangible benefits:
- Real-Time, Intelligent Alerts: Our AI processors analyze video feeds as they are recorded for instant detection and prevention.
- Drastically Reduced Bandwidth and Storage: By processing video at the source, you can cut network traffic and storage needs by up to 90%.
- Lightning-Fast Forensic Search: Find specific events in seconds, not hours, using intelligent metadata tags.
The future of video surveillance isn’t about recording more video; it’s about generating more intelligence. DEEPX provides the core technology to unlock that intelligence right at the source, making your VMS more powerful, efficient, and scalable than ever before.
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