VMS or video management system is an important part of video surveillance. This article explores what some of the user needs are and what new and unique features VMS offers to meet the user needs. In a video surveillance system, VMS is a must-have. It stores, manages, and analyzes video data recorded by network cameras. The demand for video surveillance systems has also driven the growth of VMS. According to MarketsandMarkets, the video management system market size is expected to grow from US$10.9 billion in 2022 to US$31 billion in 2027, at a CAGR of 23.1% during this period. ADVANCED FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS Today's VMS are no longer just simple recording software. They have become smarter and smarter to meet the increasingly complex video surveillance needs of users. Some of the user needs are: video analytics for various tasks, namely AI video analytics and custom AI analytics; tools for rapid investigation and retrieval of recorded video evidence, that is, intelligent search; integration of video surveillance with other security systems; and unified remote access and monitoring of distributed systems, including video surveillance, alarm processing, health monitoring, and centralized reporting,” said Alan Ataev, CEO of AxxonSoft. “AI video analytics can be provided through seamless integration within the VMS – this means that AI video analytics is part of the VMS functionality or is provided by integrated third-party modules/plugins.” That said, there are certain new and unique features in today’s VMSs to meet different user needs. These are discussed below. VIDEO MOTION DETECTION Increasingly, VMSs feature video motion detection (VMD), whereby recording only starts when triggered by motion-based events. This has certain benefits, such as saving on bandwidth consumption and storage space. “Motion detection Video is now a standard feature of most VMs and cameras. A more modern approach is AI-based detection of specific objects, such as people/vehicles, which helps filter out false alarms. Recording is based on standard motion detection set to high sensitivity, which reduces the probability of missing something important to almost zero. You can also combine VMD-based recording with AI-based real-time alerts, and linking these alerts to video footage will help find the necessary episodes faster,” says Ataev. AI ANALYTICS VMS can now integrate with a variety of analytics. “Analytics can help narrow down specific vehicles, people, and other objects using advanced metadata, and can even be trained to monitor business processes such as production flow and productivity. In this way, a modern analytics-enabled VMS can go beyond safety and security and also deliver a return on investment by minimizing the commonly accepted business losses. Many modern analytics cameras offer a number of these benefits and capabilities, and you can also purchase integrated or third-party packages. A modern VMS should be able to offer both approaches, allowing customers to choose the options that are best for their own application and simplifying the implementation of these analytics,” said Tom Buckley, Co-Founder of Qumulex. SMART SEARCH Meanwhile, smart search significantly reduces the time it takes to search for video and makes the job of operators/investigators much easier and more efficient. “The basic principle of smart search is to apply video analytics to generate metadata (scene descriptions) from the video feed as it is recorded. This metadata is stored in a dedicated database and is linked to the video footage. Once you set search criteria, the VMS quickly analyzes the metadata and retrieves video files that match your search query,” Ataev says. “Advanced VMS offer multi-criteria search capabilities: you can search by criteria such as crossing a road, entering and exiting an area, as well as the size, color, type, and speed of moving objects. AI-based search tools are also available; for example, they include searching by recognized faces and license plates and searching for objects that look similar across multiple cameras.” He adds, “Some systems offer intelligent search for third-party video: you can