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Save 10% on select orders over $100 and 15% on orders over $250. Offer valid on any WD or SanDisk product, and on qualifying G-Technology products (listed here), or combinations of qualifying products, bought online through the Western Digital Store. Maximum of one purchase per customer. Offer is only valid while supplies last. This offer may not be combined, used in conjunction with or used in addition to any other promotion or offer. This offer does not apply to taxes or shipping costs. Retailers, Resellers and Distributors are excluded from this promotion. This offer is not applicable for any prior purchases and may not be available in all regions of the world. Western Digital reserves the right to change or discontinue this offer at any time without notice. This promotion is valid on 5/3/21 - 5/9/21.
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Save 10% on select orders over $100 and 15% on orders over $250. Offer valid on any WD or SanDisk product, and on qualifying G-Technology products (listed here), or combinations of qualifying products, bought online through the Western Digital Store. Maximum of one purchase per customer. Offer is only valid while supplies last. This offer may not be combined, used in conjunction with or used in addition to any other promotion or offer. This offer does not apply to taxes or shipping costs. Retailers, Resellers and Distributors are excluded from this promotion. This offer is not applicable for any prior purchases and may not be available in all regions of the world. Western Digital reserves the right to change or discontinue this offer at any time without notice. This promotion is valid on 5/3/21 - 5/9/21.
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Western Digital Store is introducing an extended return policy this holiday season. Items purchased starting 22 November through 22 December 2021, can be returned until 22 January 2022, for most reasons, without exceptions. Contact Western Digital support to determine if your order qualifies, and to begin the process of a return. This policy is subject to exclusions.
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Offer valid on qualifying products listed here and purchased online through the Western Digital Store. Offer limited to a maximum of 5 SKUs of the same product per customer. Retailers, Resellers, Distributors and Western Digital Business customers are excluded from this promotion. The offer has no cash value, is not applicable for any prior purchases and may not be available in all regions of the world. Western Digital reserves the right to change or discontinue this offer at any time without notice. This promotion is valid between 9th February 2022 and 9th August 2022.
Smart Video Surveillance
See Your World in a New Way
One of the fastest growing data storage markets today, smart video is often used for and associated with security and/or surveillance. With advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and real-time analytics, the possibilities for smart video now go beyond just surveillance, such as the following.
Retail
Streamline business operations and minimize opportunities for theft.
Transportation
Improve traffic flow for pedestrians, bicyclists, and vehicles.
Smart Cities
Reduce patterns of congestion and enhance overall safety.
Western Digital answers this growing need with a specialized line of smart video storage purpose-built for demanding, 24x7 operating environments. Our solutions provide reliable storage at each camera and uninterrupted operations regardless of network availability. With a full range of products from microSD™ cards for in-camera storage and surveillance-class hard drives for video recorders, to enterprise-grade devices and platforms for back-end storage and analytics, you can customize your system to fit your smart video needs.
Learn more about what makes up a smart video system, what storage is best for each component, and how to best utilize smart video for various applications.
Key Considerations for Each Smart Video Component
Most standalone smart video systems are composed of three main components.
Camera
Cameras are the sensors that capture video footage and transmit it directly to the video recorder in real time. Available in standard and high-definition resolutions, cameras are strategically placed to provide maximum field of vision and can be monitored individually via the video recorder’s user interface.
Video Recorder
A digital video recorder (DVR) or networked video recorder (NVR) interprets footage received from the cameras into data recorded to an internal hard drive, or array of drives. The video recorder is housed in an enclosure that includes a processor, video inputs, and an internal storage drive.
Internal Storage
Most often a hard drive in a video recorder or microSD™ card in a camera, these internal storage devices hold camera footage in a continuous stream, or at a schedule set by the administrator. Higher capacity storage devices are preferred because they hold more continuous footage with less overwriting of data.
Now let’s dive into key considersations for each component.
Camera
Cameras are the eyes and ears of your security system. They can make a big difference regarding the quality and integrity of your captured footage. There are basically two types of surveillance cameras: wired and wireless. Consider these points when choosing:
Wired Camera
Advantages
Supports higher transmission rates
Leverages existing IP network, if available within the network’s range
Disadvantages
Requires cable-run, which might be difficult in some locations
Power over Ethernet (PoE) cameras may lose power if the network goes down
Wireless Camera
Advantages
Ease of installation in locations where cable-runs are difficult
Greater flexibility than wired cameras in installation location, as long as it’s within range of Wi-Fi access
Disadvantages
May not support high transmission rates
Wi-Fi interference or weak signal could result in loss of critical video capture, without on-board storage
Cameras are usually mounted at high angles pointed out and downward to capture the maximum field of vision. Multiple cameras are deployed depending on the need and capacity of the DVR or NVR. Some support four cameras, others up to eight, and high-end NVRs can support up to 256 cameras in a single system. Here are some points to consider:
Modern surveillance cameras connect to an NVR directly via Ethernet cables. In some cases, this connection can power the camera via PoE with approximately 30 watts of power, which is sufficient for most cameras.
Wi-Fi enabled cameras operate on your Local Area Network (LAN) and transmit their signal wirelessly to the NVR. However, these cameras can require a separate power source if not connected via an Ethernet cable to the NVR.
Many surveillance cameras are installed in inaccessible locations, making serving and supporting these cameras more difficult and requiring more robust design and long-lasting components such as storage technology.
Cameras can capture footage at various resolutions, depending on your requirements and storage limitations.
Infrared technology (if available on your camera) is utilized to capture footage at night or during low light conditions.
Most newer cameras can zoom in or out and rotate angles via remote control.
Video Recorder
Surveillance recorders fall into two main categories: digital video recorder (DVR) and network video recorder (NVR). Consider these points when making your choice:
Digital Video Recorder (DVR)
Advantages
Hardwired
Great as internal standalone system
Generally lower cost
Disadvantages
More difficult to install and expand
May not support higher resolutions
Network Video Recorder (NVR)
Advantages
Highly scalable; just add internet protocol (IP) cameras to the network
Wireless cameras can be used to ease installation where cable-runs are difficult
Disadvantages
Generally higher cost
May be inaccessible when internet is down
Some older, complex DVR systems require an elaborate visual interface with monitors for each attached camera. Today, most systems offer a wireless smartphone or tablet interface via a proprietary app, which gives the user full control via internet, even when remote from the DVR or NVR.
Internal Storage
Smart video demands that storage can keep up with a 24x7 workload. Standard desktop drives are built to run for short intervals, and are not typically designed for the always-on environment of a smart video system. Any disruption in recording could result in a failure that impacts multiple users or a failure to record a security event, or could even degrade the entire system. Consider these points when making your choice:
Common Challenges
System has a pre-installed hard drive that is low capacity
System has no pre-installed drives
Multi-bay system with vacant bays
How to Improve or Upgrade
Upgrade the internal storage to a higher capacity
Install surveillance-grade drives for 24x7 performance
Add more drives as capacity demands grow
The amount of security footage recorded and saved on an internal hard drive depends on several factors:
The number of cameras simultaneously recording footage
The resolution and frame rate the cameras are using
The amount of uninterrupted footage that is required
The table gives an example of approximate hard drive capacity1 used during continuous recording2:
Gain deeper insights and make better, data-driven decisions with WD Purple smart video storage. A comprehensive storage portfolio includes microSD™ cards to AI-enabled hard drives, purpose-built for always-on environments, in a wide range of capacities for greater flexibility. WD Purple is a trusted brand among system integrators, end customers, and other key stakeholders, with a reputation for reliability and quality. These solutions work in conjunction with other system components to help optimize revenue, prevent loss, and improve situational awareness for more efficient and effective surveillance and smart video operations.
A full range of smart video storage includes microSD™ cards for in-camera and cam-to-cloud, WD Purple hard drives for NVR, recorders, and edge gateways, and WD Purple Pro hard drives for VMS storage servers, back-end video analytics, and deep learning solutions.
These dependable products are purpose-built for 24x7 operating environments and rated for high endurance and demanding workloads. The WD Purple microSD™ card is environmentally rated to meet in-camera temperature and humidity specifications.
WD Purple drives are optimized for smart video and video analytic AI applications, featuring built-in support for inbound video stream storage with concurrent outbound video streams for video data access.
Western Digital continues to lead the way in video storage technology with AllFrame and AllFrame AI to help reduce dropped frames, and video stream detection, analysis, and write placement on WD Purple hard drive.
Robust drive health management features include proactive health analytics for hard drive and microSD™ storage devices and Western Digital Device Analytics (WDDA) for recorders and video management systems.
WD Purple devices’ quality, reliability, innovation, and leadership let you build out your surveillance and smart video system with confidence, and come backed with a limited warranty1 for extra peace of mind.
WD Purple microSD™ Cards
Gain additional peace of mind with on-camera storage designed for continuous 24x7 recording in the event your camera loses connection with your video recorder.
WD Purple Hard Drives
With three times the workload rate of standard desktop drives, WD Purple drives are tuned for write-intensive, high stream-count applications typical to most smart video systems.
WD Purple Pro Hard Drives
Designed for high-end AI-enabled recorders, video analytics appliances, deep-learning servers, and cloud solutions, WD Purple Pro drives are engineered for advanced smart video solutions.
Once you have set up your smart video system, it’s time to start capturing footage. There are two ways to do this: continuous monitoring or motion-triggered.
Continuous monitoring means your video capture remains on at all times and records every minute of footage to the DVR or NVR. This can eat up capacity quickly on your NVR, so make sure you have a big enough hard drive (or multi-bay system) installed in your recorder to accommodate as much footage as needed.
Motion-triggered means you can set capture to happen only when the camera detects motion in its field of vision (provided your camera can detect motion, most new ones do). Some systems allow you to manage ‘hot spots’ for video triggering. When movement is detected in a hot spot, it automatically triggers recording.
Surveillance footage is captured on the internal hard drive as long as there is space to do so. Once maximum capacity is reached, the NVR will start rewriting the disk from the beginning, erasing any previously recorded footage as it continues. To avoid losing captured footage you can either:
Swap out the internal drive with a fresh, blank, formatted drive.
Expand your capacity by adding more drives (if you have available bays in your system).
Back up the old footage and erase or overwrite the drive with new recordings.
Backing up your footage on a regular basis to a separate device is crucial to maintaining a reliable archive of your captured surveillance. A WD My Book desktop storage is an ideal device to perform this task. (Tip: Choose a model that exceeds the capacity of the drive you are backing up.)
Shop our complete line of desktop storage solutions ideal for backing up your DVR or NVR, like the WD My Book drive.
Smart video is the evolution of traditional surveillance. Data collected by cameras can be leveraged by smart apps like facial recognition. Smart video uses cameras to analyze incoming video in real time to extract valuable insights that allow decisions to be made without human intervention. That’s how you can unlock your phone with your face without entering any data manually.
Another example of smart video is smart cities. Smart cities use different types of electronic Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and devices to operate municipal cameras, control signal lights, reduce congestion and pollution, and improve people’s lives. Insights gained from that data are used to manage assets, resources, and services more efficiently. When collected information is pooled together, it’s referred to as big data, which can then be used to improve the operations across the smart city.
In smart factories, smart video can detect manufacturing inefficiencies, and in some cases, perform better quality control. In smart retail, analyzing foot traffic can help identify prime locations for product promotion and placement.
So, how does smart video work? Smart video employs artificial intelligence (AI), either in the NVR or on the camera. AI requires deep learning and that can take place in the NVR or more likely, in a deep learning server on the back end or in the cloud. Deep learning requires massive amounts of reference video data to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the AI.
Smart video can impact every aspect of surveillance from cameras, to recorders, to back-end servers. Consider that more effective AI requires higher resolution video, higher frame rates, and more visual detail. All this leads to the need for more and more reliable data storage.
Learn more about our array of enterprise-class storage solutions like Ultrastar and WD Gold data center drives.
