Today, there are a variety of video analytics solutions on the market that, at first glance, offer to the end-user similar capabilities, however, the product price may vary significantly. In this article, let’s discuss the key differences, similarities and benefits between IREX and Verkada.
Both of these security systems are video-based cloud services, however, they are built with two entirely different approaches. IREX’s offer for an annual subscription is $600 per camera, while Verkada is $200 per year. Another important distinction is that Verkada’s solution would cost you twice as much as IREX when you calculate annual expenses.
Transforming Public Safety with AI
On the surface both platforms solve the same problem. On the technical side however, these are two very different systems. In a nutshell, Verkada is a smart video analytics platform based on a combination of advanced hardware and software solutions. IREX is a standalone cloud platform with multi-brand camera support. That means it allows you to set up analytics even on the simple non-smart cameras from various vendors and update your existing security system in the blink of an eye.
Speaking about the capabilities of these systems, let’s review where IREX reigns supreme.
Search & Cross-Camera Tracking
When it comes to facial recognition, IREX provides you with an instant search of people across thousands of cameras by photo or pre-loaded database. IREX is so robust it allows for tracking missing or wanted people from camera to camera on the map, and extracts gender, age, race, glasses, and other features. Verkada’s Search & Cross-Camera Tracking features match people by selecting an existing face from your organization or by uploading an image, as well as filtering people by gender, clothing color, backpack detection, and facial matches.
But Verkada’s solution hasn’t proven its ability to work in crowds and performance isn’t guaranteed due to limited resources on the camera. While IREX has proven ability to work in crowds with 10M+ people database and production-level deployments across 15K cameras on public transportation (trains, airports, sports stadiums, etc.) during tests in Europe.
On both platforms users can view and share videos from any device. But IREX also comes with a built-in messenger as part of a Collaborative Security feature that allows sharing video and events (as well as to get notifications/alarms on the go) between security staff or law enforcement in real-time.
Vehicle Recognition
Verkada’s smart video surveillance knows how to detect vehicle attributes, including color, make, and body type. IREX takes it a step further with license plate recognition and vehicle feature detection. It can identify and track vehicles across millions of cameras and filter them by vehicle type, color, make and model.
Cloud deployment and security control
One of the key advantages of IREX smart video surveillance is the ability to run on a private cloud. The platform ships with dBrain private cloud infrastructure optimized for video processing and storage. If needed, the deployment could be switched to a third-party provider easily. In the case of Verkada, all data is retained on their servers or third-party cloud providers that they do not own.
User collaboration
Another significant difference between these two video analytics platforms is the collaboration capability. IREX comes with messenger-based Collaborative Security features, which allows sharing video and events (as well as receive notifications/alarms on the go) between security staff or law enforcement similar to WhatsApp and Slack. This function dramatically reduces the response and decision-making time when emergency situations happen. The IREX’ messenger runs on any device allowing for encrypted communication in real-time, virtual war rooms, alarm notifications, and evidence photo sharing.
Verkada security system requires third-party communication tools and can’t offer media uploads from mobile devices.
Let’s summarize the technical analysis to understand what matters to you. There are two similar systems with very different approaches in implementing key features:
Enterprise and Stadium Security: Is it All About the Money?
Technical features of Verkada have a huge limitation for existing venues: it requires the use of its own cameras. So, if you are running a stadium or business center with 1k+ cameras, then there is massive doubt that you’ll be willing to swap out all of them. Summarize the cost of Verkada cameras, their implementation, as well as annual subscription: it would cost a few million dollars of immediate investments just to install the system.
In review, what are all of the reasons IREX video analytics is likely the best option for your business? Its AI-modules are developed and supported in-house and provide users with capabilities such as:
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Facial recognition (identification, gender, age, race, and other features)
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Vehicle recognition (license plates, color, type, make and model)
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Behavior analytics (falling down, unattended luggage, crowding)
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Traffic analytics (road offenses, congestions, accidents)
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Threat detection (video-based fire and smoke detection)
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Audio analytics (noise, glass breaking, gunshots)
IREX offers more advanced capabilities in Searchveillance, but Verkada is cheaper in terms of annual payments and better positioned for the B2B segment. While IREX would be the best choice for enterprise (stadium security) and government segments.
What makes Verkada smart video surveillance seem cheaper? There are four reasons for Verkada:
1. Moving the hardware costs from subscriptions to cameras they are selling.
2. Using edge storage (not all clients use the off-site cloud backup option)
3. Edge processing (no need to spend CPU resources on video decoding).
4. Limitations in collaborative security features (no built-in communication tool)
Now it’s time to decide what is more important for you: low launch cost, high level of security and unlimited scalability, or a low cost of the annual subscription. We think you will agree that the price of people’s safety cannot be underestimated.