How Synology is transforming video surveillance and data storage
Global storage vendor, Synology creates network-attached storage, IP surveillance solutions, application solutions, networking equipment, and accessories to support its hardware products. Using digital technologies such as cloud and mobility, Synology aims to help users centralise data storage and backup, share files on-the-go, implement professional surveillance solutions, and manage networks in reliable and affordable ways.
The vendor’s business objective is to transform the way users are managing data, conducting surveillance, and managing networks in the cloud era.
According to Nick Jheng, Regional Manager Middle East, Synology provides a total solution and not just the hardware for data management. “Synology has a package centre just like the Apps Store and you can do so many things with Synology NAS.” Synology is not just about storage space, and other than data protection and surveillance, Synology also offers collaboration, through email.
Synology solutions support end users across home, business, data protection and surveillance use cases. For the home segment end users, Synology provides solutions supporting file sharing, file syncing, and media backup and archiving.
For the business segment end users, Synology provides solutions supporting file sharing, storage for virtualisation, business email, file transfer acceleration and secure wifi.
For data protection, Synology provides data protection solutions for VMware backup, Saas backup, Personal backup, network attached storage protection, and ransomware protection. For surveillance, Synology supports solutions for small, medium and large business end users.
Synology’s product range starts from models for small office and has about 20-30 types of models. “We used to focus on home user because that is where we began. But now we focus more on small and medium business and even enterprise customers,” says Jheng.
Synology’s flagship products are its networked attached storage, Diskstation Manager and Surveillance Station. By managing storage in an intelligent fashion, Synology has been able to build its strength in the area of deep learning for network video recording. Synology is also active in the area of enabling solutions such as Active Backup Suites, Synology Drive, Virtual Machine Manager.
Deep learning and video
In August 2019, Synology launched its deep learning product NVR DVA3219, an on-premises surveillance solution that provides accurate video detection results and minimizes environmental interference with deep learning technology. DVA3219 comes built-in with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU to power 4 real-time video analytics tasks, and up to 32 concurrent video feeds. Synology is bringing in deep learning video analytics on-premises, offering situational awareness to physical security, while ensuring customer privacy. DVA3219 delivers the full potential of video analytics in Surveillance Station, optimised by deep learning algorithms.
Another strong point for Synology’s solutions, is the range of compatibility it has built with other device environments including mobile devices. Synology network attached storage works well with Windows, Windows Phone, Apple iOS, Linux, Android, amongst others. “All the common device operating software have been integrated, and are compatible with Synology network attached storage,” says Jheng. “This is what we are good at,” he adds.
To provide similar total cost of ownership benefits in the area of surveillance solutions, Synology has invested in its own video management system. This has helped to integrate a large portfolio of industry standard IP cameras. Synology has integrated 7,000 models of IP cameras from 120 vendors. Even if the surveillance camera is a basic model, end users can leverage Synology’s video management system and its Surveillance Station product to enhance the operating and recording features.
“Any IP camera you name it, you can use almost any of them with Synology network attached storage, to manage your camera and to restore your recording,” explains Jheng. End user organizations that require cost effective, reliable and quality storage use Synology solutions. The largest Karaoke chain store in Taiwan is a Synology customer, as well as TV stations and other media channels, indicates Jheng. Regionally, some of the end users include Unilever, Holiday Inn in Riyadh, and Department of Land and Survey in Jordan.
Depth of applications
Synology is more about applications, rather than utility. “We have our own hardware and our own browser-based operating system, based on Linux kernel. And we have many applications on top of our operating system. So, it is a total and multifunction solution not only for storage and not just for data protection,” explains
From a competitive point of view, Synology as an end to end storage solution provider, has multiple strengths. Synology is not a pure play hardware vendor. It bundles value added applications with every hardware product. This has a positive impact on the total cost of ownership of all Synology products.
According to Jheng, most home and small office customers would look at Synology product as a hardware asset and would focus on its technical specifications and purchase price. However, as the size of the end user business scales up to small and medium businesses and enterprises, the end to end use cases that can be supported by a Synology solution become more important. This moves the focus to the total cost of ownership of the Synology solution, rather than just the asset cost.
Says Jheng, “Business users do care about the price, of course, but they care more about TCO, what we call total cost ownership.” The typical questions that get raised are: Your product seems to be workable and affordable. But what are the hidden costs, if I want to bring your product into my environment, will it be fine?
This product from Synology contains next-generation features such as LiveCam and Smart Time Lapse, which are redefining the limits of deployment and surveillance applications. Reaching beyond the current features and management structure, the fully-evolved Application Centre, and other functionalities are bringing the user experience and management efficiency to a whole new level.
On top of more than 6,000+ cameras already supported, the all-new App LiveCam is forging the link between the cameras on mobile devices and Surveillance Station. With the first-ever extensive integration with IP speakers, analog-to-digital conversion is being introduced in surveillance.
The Live Broadcast application enables you to live stream to YouTube with a simple setup process, allowing visitors to watch live footage without the need to install additional software. Surveillance Station, web API interface allows third party applications to interact with Surveillance Station.
Time Lapse fast forwards a long video and generates a shorter version that is only a few minutes or even seconds long, making it convenient to monitor the progress of ongoing tasks. The time compression factor can be dynamically reduced to display more video details when specific events are detected. Use the tool to quickly gauge the required disk space and bandwidth. Synology can recommend a suitable Network Video Recorder System based on your requirements.
The Synology network attached storage space is estimated based on the number of surveillance cameras; number of days of storage; number of daily recording hours; video format; frames per second; and Bitrate, amongst others.
Other features
- Live View, Alert: Monitor video streams from multiple cameras in real time and set up smart analytics to catch suspicious behavior.
- Recording and Playback: Manage, analyse, export, or play recordings with an intuitive interface.
- Camera Support: Compatible with ONVIF profile and over 7,200 IP camera models to support specialised camera features.
- Device Integration: Surveillance Station integrates with various devices to help manage the environment.
- Management: Manage surveillance systems with privilege settings, action rules, notification, advanced features.
- Centralised Management System: CMS is designed for multi-site and multi-server deployments.
- Mobile: Besides the PC, end users can use iOS, Android to monitor anytime, anywhere.
- VisualStation: This device can monitor Surveillance Station without a PC and works as TV wall setup.
