H.265 HVEC Approved By ITU – Encoders, Cameras In 2013

With H.265 video compression will come real time 8MP video streaming on broadband networks, real time 1080p video streaming on wireless mobile networks. The importance of the ITU’s ratification of H.265 is that it has the potential for such a wide ranging impact on networked electronic security solutions. 

While H.265 could mean much larger resolutions, it could also mean much smaller 1080p HD rail gauges. We’ll see remote management of surveillance networks using mobile devices, alarm system video verification in real time HD, the use of standalone edge devices as storage servers linked by wireless communications to central locations or to multiple users, real time megapixel video on dedicated CCTV subnets and ever more affordable 4k (8MP) monitors. 

It’s not a magic bullet. 4k streaming is likely to require between 20-30Mbps of bandwidth, which is certainly doable on dedicated gigabit networks. Nor are H.265 devices going to be available right away. Instead, H.265 gives the R&D hounds a sight of the fox – and the fox is more resolution in more flexible ways. 

I’m not certain that H.265 is going to appear in next-gen surveillance cameras. Instead it’s likely, given the level of competition in the market, that we’ll get pioneering H.265 encoders by the end of this year. I think we won’t get the full impact of the new compression rating until our makers shoehorn their chosen forms of H.265 nitrous into their acceleration hardware around 2014. 

It’s probably taken 3-4 years for H.264 to own the market. Remember when H.264 for the latest thing? So expect similar development latency with H.265 and you won’t go too far wrong.