Introducing the Ava camera line—Coverage beyond security

With great excitement, I am proud to announce the general availability of the Ava intelligent cameras (formerly known as Vaion vcam), a camera line with integrated directional audio analytics. Ava Dome and Ava 360 embody our ambition to deliver exceptional image quality with unprecedented audio and video intelligence for a wide range of security scenarios.

A recent IHS Markit white paper reported that 770 million cameras were operating globally at the end of 2019. The US alone amounted to 70 million installed surveillance cameras, not to mention the colossal amount of video they record.

How many of these cameras use outdated technology? And how much of the data recorded is relevant for real-time assessment and action? How many can do more than just see?

Disrupting the security industry with an intelligent, versatile, and seamless to install and manage camera was one of the reasons we founded Ava. We saw great potential in delivering a simple portfolio of best-in-class devices with modern features fit for the current and future needs of organizations.

The Ava cameras come in two form-factors suitable for any deployment, from commercial and industrial facilities, schools, to retail stores or hospitals and their surrounding areas. The 8 MP Ava Dome delivers outstanding video clarity, while the 9 MP Ava 360 additionally secures locations that require 360° coverage. Engineered in Norway and the UK and manufactured in Taiwan, both models are vandal-resistant (IK10) and perform exceptionally well, even in the harshest weather conditions (IP66).

With built-in IR LED illumination and multi-exposure line-based HDR, the Ava cameras deliver high-quality video in scenes with both bright and dark areas and with fast-moving objects.

We’re making integrated directional audio analytics a reality. The Ava AI cameras not only detect unusual sound patterns, but they also alert operators of their origin. Their built-in acoustic sensor identifies loud noises, broken glass, shouting or verbal aggression, and gunshots even when the camera points in a different direction. We lower the incidence of false-positives by programming the sensor to ignore ambient noise or conversations. Useful in cases of burglaries in retail stores or physical aggression in schools or prisons, our audio analytics help operators react to incidents before they escalate.

Because we value privacy, by default, the camera doesn't record any audio and only listens to sounds to raise alarms. For scenarios where the audio alarm is necessary, you can configure the Ava cameras to store the audio corresponding to the alarm.

Worried about the storage costs for your video footage while preserving all the forensic details you might need to solve cases? Ava Dome and Ava 360 use computer vision to identify and record in full resolution only interesting activity and details (motion, people, vehicles, etc.). At the same time, irrelevant background areas in the same frame are recorded in a lower resolution saving storage and money.

In our current connected world, security cameras are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Password reset flaws, compliance issues, outdated firmware, or unencrypted communication are current issues hackers can easily exploit. At Vaion, we build products secure by design, so the Ava cameras are never a business liability.

We’ve integrated the Ambarella CV22 chipset-powered secure boot to prevent hackers from taking control of the device. We also use end-to-end encryption to stop them from eavesdropping on your feeds.

What’s more, to protect your video library, you want to be able to set detailed user access privileges easily. To help you, we added extra layers of security by using factory-installed certificates on a trusted platform module, only support for encrypted protocols, and strong authentication to limit access to authorized personnel only.

When paired with the Ava Aware video management system (formerly known as Vaion vcore), Dome and 360 identify people, objects, events, anomalies, and similarities to keep your people, assets, and data protected in real-time. And it only takes a couple of clicks to get software upgrades from Aware to keep your cameras updated with our latest features.

If you would like to learn more about Dome and 360, and their innovative features, please sign up for a custom demo with a member of our team.

Originally published Jan 28, 2020, updated Sept 01, 2020.