Milestone launches XProtect Rapid REVIEW for forensic video analytics

COPENHAGEN, Denmark—Milestone Systems, a leading provider of IP-based video management solutions, has introduced XProtect Rapid REVIEW, an intelligent video analytics solution for customers to accelerate investigations and find what they are looking for with speed and accuracy.

Powered by video analytics technology from BriefCam, hours of video recordings can now be reviewed in minutes, bringing enhanced decision-making and momentum to any investigation.

Keven Marier, Vice President of Technology Partners at Milestone, told Security Systems News that XProtect Rapid REVIEW allows security operators and investigators to efficiently search through hours and hours of video recordings and pinpoint exactly what they are looking for in mere minutes.

“It is a forensics tool that uses video analytics to allow customers to quickly create a case, and then in an on-demand way, extract the metadata from that particular device, and then be able to present that in a patented technology called SYNOPSIS, which allows them to present hours of video within a very short clip of minutes,” Marier explained. “They see one hour of video in one minute, basically.”

Partnership with BriefCam

Marier noted that the collaboration with BriefCam, a leading provider of video content analytics solutions, on the launch of XProtect Rapid REVIEW is a win-win for both companies.

“It’s no secret that this is technology from BriefCam,” Marier said. “It is a well-established product. It’s a well-established brand, and part of the reason why we’re seeing it as something that’s ready to bring to scale is this maturity that the product has.”

He added that through the partnership with BriefCam, Milestone is bringing XProtect Rapid REVIEW to market “in the Milestone channel, to Milestone resellers, with Milestone business rules. We have over 30,000 resellers globally, and we go through distribution at two very different levels of scale that a smaller company like BriefCam hasn’t been able to do.

“We’re making the product much, much more addressable, or available to the mass market. In doing so, we’re focusing on the biggest segment of our users, which is below 200 devices per site. Basically, not the top end of the market that everybody likes to talk about, but the everyday market – the everyday systems integrator, the everyday system. This is a part of the market that has never really been addressed at scale over the past decade and a half of video analytics.”

He continued, “BriefCam and many of its competitors have tried to do it on the very high end of the market, but it never scaled down into the mass market. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to bring VIDEO SYNOPSIS to the market at scale.

“What this requires is an easier set of business rules. For example, there’s no minimum requirement, which has been a business rule that has artificially been in place. The minimum with BriefCam previously was 50, with us you can buy one channel. You can buy as many channels as you want, independent of the number of cameras you want, which is another important business rule. It provides a lot of flexibility for our customers who might not be convinced they want to try it. Now they can buy a few devices and they can say, ‘Wow, that worked great, so I’ll buy more.’”

“We will look for that market to be just below 200. It can go above that, and we’ll work with the end customer, the reseller, to properly size and position that for above 200, but the target market is the mass market.”

Marier noted that XProtect Rapid REVIEW also fits into the mass market pricing wise, with a $180-per-channel starting price. “No base required, just $180 and away you go,” he said. “It’s priced very competitively in the market.”

Forensic Tool

XProtect Rapid REVIEW is an add-on product that is seamlessly integrated into Milestone’s video surveillance tool, XProtect Smart Client.

“It’s forensic only,” Marier noted. “It’s post incident, it’s post recording. The reason why that’s important is most of these below-200 camera sites, they don’t have somebody sitting there watching the video. There really is no live analysis going on. This is why the forensic aspect, the post incident, is a really good tool. It is also a key aspect where there are under 200 cameras per site.

“They also don’t have a lot of time and they’re not very sophisticated users, typically, so it has to be very easy to use, and in having it be on demand, it also reduces the hardware footprint, so there’s no expensive hardware piece that you would need.”

Premium Forensic Video Analytics

XProtect Rapid REVIEW enables highly accurate, cross-camera video searches and filtering, based on an expanding suite of classes, attributes, behaviors and visual layers that help investigators pinpoint people, objects, and behaviors of interest. The VIDEO SYNOPSIS technology gives the operator the ability to visualize objects simultaneously that appeared at different times within the video.

“XProtect Rapid REVIEW is an ideal solution for Milestone XProtect customers looking to enhance their VMS investment with premium forensic video analytics,” noted Gili Rom, VP Strategy and Alliances at BriefCam. “BriefCam is thrilled to tap into a segment of the market not currently addressed through Milestone and its vast partner ecosystem.”

Bjorn Skou Eilertsen, Chief Technology Officer at Milestone, added, “Clearly, XProtect Rapid REVIEW is an important tool for our customers to help them speed up their investigation and in general work smarter with their VMS. Bringing the best solutions for our customers is our key focus.

He added, “The launch of XProtect Rapid REVIEW is a strategic partnership to bring video analytics closer to our core product and add further value to our customers’ XProtect investment.”

Eilertsen also pointed out that Milestone wants to enable businesses and governments to harness the power of data insights, which can help them address scarcity of resources, security threats, and other challenges.

“Sometimes we may find that the best option is to integrate analytics in XProtect,” he pointed out. “That said, openness is built into Milestone’s DNA, XProtect remains an Open Platform VMS, and we continue to deliver the video management solutions that best solve customers’ needs through strong partnerships with our technology partners.” 

Marier was very optimistic about XProtect Rapid REVIEW’s potential in the area of forensic video analytics, especially with the market that Milestone is targeting. 

“We wanted to bring in a technology partner in BriefCam with their patented technology, and we wanted to bring that to a mass market that they’re not currently serving, and as a whole, from an industry standpoint, has been underserviced,” he said. “If we’re successful, we would see millions of channels and tens of thousands of customers starting to take advantage of its forensic analytic capability.” 

XProtect Rapid REVIEW will be available starting Oct. 27, 2021 and is supported on all paid XProtect VMS products.