Altera and Eutecus provide FPGA-based video analytics solution for multi- channel D1 resolution video surveillance systems

HONG KONG: Expanding its leadership in FPGA-based video-surveillance solutions, Altera Corp. announced a new four-channel, standard definition (SD) video analytics solution targeting digital video recorders (DVRs) and network video recorders (NVRs) for surveillance systems.

Jointly developed with Eutecus, Altera’s latest video analytics solution allows customers to analyze four D1 480p/30fps (frames-per second) video channels simultaneously using a single FPGA. Customers can quickly and cost-effectively add this capability to their existing SD surveillance investment without having to purchase new cameras with integrated analytics.

Altera’s video analytics solution includes a low-cost, low-power Cyclone IV FPGA and Eutecus’ Multi-Core Video Analytics Engine (MVE) intellectual property (IP) core, which performs the analytics functions in the FPGA. Compared to a DSP or traditional server-based approach, this solution allows designers to reduce cost by replacing multiple DSP processors with a single FPGA while lowering power consumption to under 3W. Altera’s FPGA-based video surveillance solution is ideal for customers designing a wide variety of applications, including banking, education, city, industrial, government and traffic surveillance systems.

This FPGA-based video analytics solution is highly flexible and allows designers to
customize their own video surveillance system. The Eutecus' MVETM IP combines massively parallel algorithms and specialized multi-core coprocessors with multiple Altera Nios II cores integrated into a Cyclone IV FPGA. The solution comes with a software GUI that allows designers to customize the event-detection parameters and rules for their specific applications.

The Eutecus' IP includes a robust application programming interface (API) that interfaces with a customer’s video management systems or can be used to develop custom GUI solutions.

"Altera and Eutecus’s high performance, low cost and low power FPGA-based video
analytics solutions are designed to provide developers of video surveillance systems a flexible platform that allows for end system differentiation," said Jeff Waters, senior VP of the military, industrial and computing division at Altera. "Giving designers the ability to quickly and easily acquire hardware and IP enables our customers to get to market quickly and to expand their analytics capabilities in existing surveillance equipment."

"Altera's Cyclone IV FPGA and its Quartus II software environment offer the ideal
modular design environment for Eutecus' new generation of MVE solutions," said Csaba Rekeczky, CEO and president of Eutecus. "Video analytics customers can take advantage of the close co-operation between our companies for both single channel IP camera and multi-channel DVR/NVR products by leveraging Eutecus' highly modular, flexible and scalable IP cores and Altera's low-cost, low-power, customizable FPGAs."

Altera’s portfolio of low-cost, low-power video surveillance solutions target both high-definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) resolution systems. In 2011, Altera and Eutecus introduced the industry’s first FPGA-based video analytics solution capable of delivering the processing power required for full HD 1080p/30fps real-time video processing.

Using the same processing engine, the two companies were able to quickly customize the HD engine for four-channel D1 resolution systems servicing additional customer requirements for a lower resolution multiple channel solution.