With security concerns rising globally, improved video surveillance has become a priority for both public and private sectors, and an essential tool in fighting crime and protecting assets. With the increased use of surveillance digital video recorder (SDVR) systems, video surveillance now provides higher image quality, increased data storage archiving, and advanced intelligent video recognition.

Conventional surveillance systems aren’t sophisticated enough to differentiate a cat from a burglar, but with intelligent video surveillance (IVS) systems, such limitations are overcome. IVS software enables video equipment manufacturers and system integrators to create intelligent video solutions to see and process visual information as if by a human. Such video analytics systems can be programmed to track license plate numbers, recognize humans from animals, and send alerts for pre-defined parameters such as a person climbing over a fence.

Abundant storage is integral to surveillance systems since a week’s worth of recording at 1280x1024 resolution and 30 frames per second will fill up a 500 GB storage capacity. IVS systems typically perform their data analysis on the recorded data and not live stream, so sufficient storage space must be available until the data can be analyzed.

Using multiple inexpensive, low-capacity hard drives seems like a great idea, but it may prove to be more costly in the long run since it will produce more heat, and reduce system reliability. It is recommended to use higher-capacity, specialized surveillance hard drive in a safe and cool environment for the best performance.

Recently, Seagate and Western Digital have both announced the release of their line of surveillance HDD which they have specifically engineered for surveillance and video analytics applications. Seagate offers their ST1000VX000, ST2000VX000, ST3000VX000, and ST4000VX000 models while Western Digital offers their WD10PURX, WD20PURX, WD30PURX, WD40PURX models. Both the Seagate Surveillance HDD and Western Digital Purple HDD are optimized to withstand the rigors of 24x7 multiple video streaming by offering greater storage capacity, reduced power consumption, and increased reliability. Reduced wattage (shown in table below) directly translates to decreased temperatures which lead to increased drive reliability as heat is a leading culprit for system failure. And a 3TB surveillance drive can store a massive amount of data. (roughly 42 days of high-quality video streaming @ 1290x1024 resolution, 30fps)

* Comparison between a 3TB SeagateR Surveillance HDD and an average 500GB standard desktop drive.