Leveraging the advantage of the latest mobile apps
- Jamie Barnfield, Senior Sales Director, IDIS Europe -

Today, the quality and performance of mobile surveillance apps is often a deciding factor when organisations are choosing their new surveillance solution.  I first noticed this back in 2014 when, during a major exhibition, a customer was immediately drawn to an early iteration of the IDIS mobile app running on a smartphone. That customer had evaluated multiple surveillance vendors for a significant upgrade, but there at the exhibition rather than paying attention to the abundance of equipment and VMS being demonstrated around him, he was attracted by the app with its quality HD live video with zero latency.

He explained that despite an evaluation process that had lasted several years, his organisation had been unable to find a high-performance mobile app for remotely monitoring and securely managing its headquarters offices, stores, manufacturing, and logistics sites out-of-hours and while on the move.  

That was over a decade ago and not surprisingly since then reputable surveillance vendors have invested significantly in their mobile apps: they are now seen as crucial to an effective and practical surveillance solution.

While the traditional, fully-equipped security control room will always provide the foundation for large-scale surveillance operations—enterprise systems and multi-site monitoring applications—in recent years, mobile surveillance apps have evolved rapidly and become highly valued tools. They have helped to transform the efficiency and convenience of security operations and the effectiveness of responses, allowing users to do more with less.

By making video management and control functions available on phones and tablets, these apps have freed monitoring staff from the need to stay glued to their screens and video walls; they’ve allowed officers and managers to respond in person but keep checking video streams. This functionality is now available wherever there is a signal, on or off-site.

And it’s not just enterprise-size users who have benefited. At the other end of the spectrum, we see small business owners, often without the need or budget for full-time security staff, who want to monitor their premises and staff without being personally present, relying even more on mobile apps for live view and playback.  Meanwhile, large-scale surveillance users now want far more sophisticated features and functions at their fingertips.

Enterprise-level remote configuration and control

Any app associated with enterprise-class VMS should replicate the key user functions of client software. While no mobile application can be expected to match a large-scale control room experience, it should be easy to set up, allow for the configuration of existing and new devices, be comfortable and easy to use on smaller screens, and enable the essential surveillance tasks while on the move.

Integrators should be able to quickly and intuitively perform camera installation and configuration tasks. At the same time, users should be able to control resolution and frame rates, pre-set PTZ cameras, and choose recording options such as continuous or event-based recording, depending on their specific requirements and changing needs.

It should allow authorised users to remotely access their cameras to check live video streams, playback recorded footage, and search by selecting a video stream or specific area. Calendar search and bookmark functions should be designed to make this easier.

Footage should be viewable in high-quality H.264/MJPEG and H.265 formats -  and filters should allow images to be brightened and defogged if necessary to make viewing on a smaller screen more comfortable. It should be possible to playback and monitor multiple channels simultaneously in real time. Ideally, mobile VMS platforms should support different viewing modes, for example, split view, dark view, portrait or landscape.

Regarding PTZ cameras, users should still benefit from full pan, tilt, and zoom functionality, with easy touch-screen controls. Simple drag-and-drop functions should also make it easy to change the size and position of the video.

The same easy functionality should allow smooth control of fisheye cameras, which are increasingly being used in large-scale systems where more affordable gap-free wide-area coverage is essential. These cameras enable mobile users to  dewarp and smoothly pan, tilt and move around to view the periphery of every scene.

Anytime, anywhere

Arguably, among the most important functions are push notifications, which notify the user if a pre-configured alarm event occurs - anything from motion detection and line cross to video loss or text-in. These alarms and alerts help to ensure that vigilance is maintained and that events aren’t missed even when the user is busy, or away from the control room, unable to keep a routine eye on video walls.

AI video analytics advances are taking this enhanced vigilance to a new level, ensuring that events of interest are automatically detected. From line cross, intrusion, and loitering detection to abandoned or removed objects, crowd, and fall detection, AI analytics are becoming ever more varied and powerful. With the best mobile apps, increasingly, the latest AI functionality and associated alerts and alarms can now be extended to security officers out in the field or on patrol and to the closest first responders and managers.  This enables them to visually verify alarms and take immediate action to deter crime, prevent losses, avoid accidents, and ensure the best outcome.

Pitfalls to avoid

Pitfalls to avoid with mobile apps include limited or reduced functionality and compatibility issues, which can arise when mix-and-match technologies from different vendors are used. This can undermine visual performance or lead to system instability. To avoid this, choosing end-to-end solutions with all devices and VMS supplied by the same vendor ensures full functionality and efficient data processing.

Cost is another consideration. Some VMS mobile apps require significant upfront investment and burden users with ongoing subscription costs. To keep system operating costs (TCO)  low, users should be clear about how fees are structured. For example, the IDIS Mobile Plus app is free to download and use and will allow instant functionality for any IDIS video solution.

Finally, with this advanced functionality extended beyond the control room, system security is essential to ensure that only authorised users can access the system. Mobile apps should always be protected using multiple authentication. Smartphones and tablets should also run adequate cybersecurity software in line with company policies