Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - An update on Milestone Systems

The landscape of video management technology is changing fast.

Brett Henson, Country Manager for Milestone Systems in the South Pacific, recently spoke about a year of relentless change, innovation and adjustment spurred by the global pandemic. "It was like the world took its breath as the pandemic hit," he said. "We weren't sure of the severity or the duration of lockdowns. How would that affect business? What would it mean for business outcomes?"

Faced with uncertainty, Milestone Systems took an active approach. "We actually took that opportunity to find certainty," he explained. "We did over 80 webinars throughout that period, increased our training for a lot of our partners, and reached out to see what the market and the end users required during that uncertainty."

The pandemic proved to be a powerful catalyst for change, perhaps nowhere more visible than in retail. Henson pointed out how the familiar world of shopping centres was upended almost overnight. "The traditional retail video requirement is for lots of foot traffic in places like shopping centres, but that changed rapidly to click-and-collect solutions, drive-through options, and an increase in distribution centres for online purchases. COVID really was the catalyst for that."

Inside the company, innovation did not stop. "There's a few exciting ones," Henson said when asked about new products. "The first one we released in June this year was our new appliance, the Husky IVO. We're excited because it's an OEM product of Dell, and we're seeing lots of great results with it bundled with our software solution."

Despite branching out with its own hardware, Milestone remains committed to openness and collaboration. "We're still an open platform. We still collaborate with our hardware and software partners, and we're still working very strongly with partners like Dell and HP for that open solution," he said.

But hardware is only half the story. The company is set to launch another tool, Rapid Review, at the end of next month. "It's a situational awareness add-on," Henson explained, "and allows for quick and rapid response and the application for filtering of video."

Demand for smart video technology is cropping up in nearly every sector. "It's across the board and in each case it's quite different," he said. In retail, it's now about enabling new logistics models. In smart cities and government, video is leveraged to manage lockdowns, monitor foot traffic and even automate street lighting based on the number of people out and about.

"Law enforcement is using behavioural analytics in video management, and even the management of facilities can benefit – people counting can help engage everything from cleaning and maintenance to those facilities as well," he added.

The mining sector also stands out for its unique needs. There, Henson said, "the video is all about occupational health and safety. It's about ensuring that employees and contractors are wearing their appropriate PPE, are in the right place at the right time, and in worst-case scenarios, can be evacuated."

Milestone's solutions also support the critical tasks of law enforcement, especially when these crossover with local government responsibilities.

With states in Australia and New Zealand emerging from lockdown, the company is watching shifting market needs closely. "We've always been an agile organisation," Henson said. "We discovered that in the early stages of lockdown last year when we had to really understand where the market was going and what those needs were."

The rapid move to the cloud is one such trend. "There's already the capability for our product to be hosted in the cloud, but a lot of these applications are actually in a hybrid scenario," he noted. In practice, this means that clients may archive video in the cloud while keeping some on-site capabilities to ensure fast, secure access.

The company's commitment to openness is further reflected in its many partnerships, not just with hardware and software companies, but with those developing cutting-edge analytics. "We tie in with our technology partners, both in cameras, access control, server and appliance sensors. Some of these analytics are being developed on the edge, and we've got true integration back into the platform," he said.

These analytics enable organisations to utilise metadata - the information generated by video analytics, such as behavioural events or security alerts - to gain "great situational awareness on applying rules and functions around understanding what that metadata looks like."

Milestone's corporate culture has also faced its own test. "It's a key part of why I'm part of the Milestone organisation, and our key mantra is that we're a people-first organisation," Henson said. "COVID is the best way of testing that, and we truly got the outcome that we were people first."

He described how, even during extensive lockdowns that kept most team members confined to their homes, the company maintained connection and morale. "We did everything from our one-to-one meetings and team meetings, to extra activities - the gym sessions that we do together virtually in the mornings. We even encouraged our team to donate blood with the Red Cross as a way to give back to the community."

This approach, Henson believes, has kept staff morale high and helped the company stay on track. "I'm really proud of how we've embraced that people-first mindset. Our team is evident of that and we're actually growing," he said, noting that new team members are joining in Western Australia and New Zealand, and that the firm will open a second Australian office in Sydney this January.

Looking back on a year of constant disruption, Henson remains upbeat about the future. "We're growing, we're learning, we're adapting. We're coming out of this period stronger, and still putting people first," he said.