In 2017 the video surveillance community saw the emergence of video surveillance as a service. As predicted, we also witnessed an increase in intelligence in cameras, greater adoption of analytics, and more content aggregation. In addition, biometrics assumed increasing importance as a measure to prevent massive data breaches.

Soon, you may run into Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa (or an equivalent, unnamed intelligent personal assistant technology) at your local hospital. At least, the thought is not beyond the realm of possibility, especially for those who are working to bring artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions to the healthcare industry.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Paul Messenger, Partner Development &Inside Channel Manager at Milestone Systems, one of Quantum’s video surveillance Advantage Partners. We talked about the cannabis industry and how the legalization of marijuana is transitioning security and surveillance solutions to help tackle the challenges that grow houses, production facilities, and dispensaries face every day.

What can we do about our transportation challenges? How do we prepare our transportation infrastructure to support our needs in the future?

If you’ve ever used the fingerprint scanning feature to access your smartphone, you’re familiar with biometric technology. Biometrics—the use of biological (physical and behavioral) characteristics such as fingerprint, face, and iris scanning to perform identity verification—is a maturing field, and applications of the technology are expected to grow in the years ahead. In fact, it’s predicted that biometrics will be used to authenticate 25% of all electronic transactions worldwide by 2020, according to International Data Corporation (IDC).

Reese Clark and Ryan Davis discuss the latest trends in the video surveillance industry and interview system integrator Brett Curtis from Kratos to learn about the security challenges that the healthcare industry faces today.

2016 saw video surveillance and security increasingly become the focus of mainstream media conversations, with video playing a pivotal role in bringing terror suspects to justice (as it did recently in NYC) and with police body worn cameras capturing sometimes controversial incidents that spark national conversations. Behind the camera, technology has continued to evolve and storage has become an even more important consideration for anyone implementing a surveillance and security system. Integrators, resellers, vendors, and end-users can look to 2017 as a time of vigorous change for video surveillance and security.

In 2017, it’s predicted that 850PB of new surveillance data will be generated daily worldwide. As the amount of video being produced increases, camera resolutions improve, and retention times become longer, it’s imperative to understand how video storage is at the foundation of this transformation. Watch our on-demand webinars to learn how Quantum’s multi-tier storage solutions can scale with changing storage demands. Check out the Top 5 Surveillance Webinars of 2016:

Video surveillance is a mainstay in the retail industry. For years it’s been a vital tool, aiding retailers in security and loss prevention efforts. But, retailers know the value of surveillance footage is not limited to ordinary security applications, so they are continuously pursuing innovative ways to turn raw video into “video-based data.” These efforts are driving a need for more storage capacity. In fact, storage capacity used for video surveillance applications is projected to grow at 39.1% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2014–2019. If these predictions are correct, over 221 petabytes (PB) of storage capacity will be shipped to the retail sector in 2019 (IHS—2015 Retail Sector Statistics: Americas).

This month, I attended Security Canada — the largest surveillance and security show north of the United States. The show floor was bustling with security integrators, end users, and even students from nearby universities hoping to learn more about the security industry. Inspired by the students, I decided to sit in on a couple of sessions to learn more about the surveillance and security market, and particularly how it differs in Canada compared to the United States. One particular session piqued my interest, Video Surveillance and the Law. Expecting to learn about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, I instead listened to the unique perspective of a lawyer who is well-versed in cases focused on surveillance and video evidence.

Did you know that the global market for security system integrators will grow to $75.7 billion by 2020, up from $60.3 billion in 2015 (source: IHS Markit)? It only makes sense that just as the security and surveillance industry continues to transform with the move to higher resolution cameras, longer data retention times, and the increase in usage of analytics, that the security system integrators market would also transform. What these integrators may have built their business on—manned guarding, alarm and fire detection, and so on — is quickly changing to focus more on the technology solutions they can provide to their customers.

Technological change is redefining efficiency in many use cases, from retail to health care, and government to city surveillance. With the availability of new devices that can capture large amounts of data, one particular use case has begun aggregating video content at a rapidly increasing rate — law enforcement. The proliferation of body-worn cameras imposed by government mandates is adding to the many camera streams coming from police car dashboards, interview rooms, and sally ports that provide valuable insight to law enforcement agencies.

It’s been a little over a month since the Pokémon I remember as a kid was relaunched as it’s more hip and trendy cousin, Pokémon GO. Although I’m not much of a gamer myself, I will admit that the location-based augmented reality (AR) game developed by Niantic was intriguing. And the premise of the game has the potential to shift the gaming industry from the confines of a dark basement to the whole world as a gamer’s playground.