Will BRS Labs Revolutionize Video Analytics?

Recently, BRS Labs announced its company to great fanfare.  Indeed, BRS Labs has a very interesting offering but great questions remain about its use and its competitive viability.  This report examines what BRS Labs is offering and what potential impact it may have in security operations. [Update: BRS Labs reports $12 M USD in new funding].

BRS Labs claims to alert on generally suspicious or abnormal situations without having to define specific rules or activites of interest (the way today's video analytics do).  Here is a summary of the key points:

• Their offering is fundamentally different than any commercial product.
• It has the potential to solve significant security problems not possible with existing video analytics.
• BRS Labs needs to determine what applications they will focus on.
• If they focus on applications served by existing analytic providers, the probability is high they will lose.
• The highest potential is in reducing loads on actively monitored video surveillance systems.
• It remains to be seen what the performance levels and cost structure they can achieve – a huge factor.