How large-scale AI drives the evolution of video encoding to intelligent understanding

HANGZHOU, China, June 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Hundreds of millions of security cameras operate 24/7 worldwide, and the industry-wide shift to HD and 4K+ resolutions—combined with expanding channel counts and longer retention mandates—is fueling explosive growth in video storage. Meanwhile, hard drive prices remain unstable and enterprise storage budgets keep climbing. Compounding this pressure, conventional encoding applies uniform compression to every pixel, treating empty backgrounds and critical targets identically. With roughly 70% of video security footage consisting of static or low-value scenes, this one-size-fits-all approach wastes enormous storage on non-essential content.

The next evolution moves beyond compression toward AI-powered semantic analysis. Technologies like Hikvision's Guanlan Encoding leverage large-scale visual AI models to enable selective compression based on regions of interest (ROI). Critical targets such as people and vehicles retain high-definition detail, while static backgrounds undergo aggressive compression, drastically reducing storage without sacrificing essential information.

SourceSecurity.com and Hikvision have collaborated to release a new white paper examining how intelligent video encoding, powered by large-scale AI, is redefining storage efficiency and video usability.

Key benefits of large-scale AI-powered video encoding:

• 30–50% Storage Savings: For a project with 2,000 video channels (1080P @ 2Mbps) and 90-day retention, Guanlan Encoding reduces hard drive requirements by 50% (from 403 to 202 units). This translates to 50% savings in hardware, rack space, and electricity costs, significantly lowering project costs without efficiency loss.
• HD Detail Preservation: Precision ROI segmentation preserves high-definition details for dynamic subjects like people and vehicles, while static backgrounds undergo ultra-high-ratio compression, significantly reducing bitrates. By contrast, traditional compression treats the entire scene uniformly, often blurring critical targets and degrading downstream AI analytics. Guanlan Encoding eliminates this trade-off, keeping key details sharp and enabling true encode-on-demand.
• Bandwidth Optimization: By prioritizing critical content, intelligent video understanding delivers HD-quality video over SD bandwidth, lowering consumption during transmission and review. For remote viewing, users access HD-level detail using far less bandwidth than conventional streaming, ensuring critical information remains accessible even over constrained networks.
• Seamless Deployment: Analog cameras connect directly to Guanlan Encoding DVRs without replacement. New projects benefit from AI-enabled front-end cameras, while retrofits achieve maximum cost efficiency with back-end equipment.

Download the full white paper to discover how intelligent encoding shifts video encoding from a one-size-fits-all solution toward an intelligent, encode-on-demand approach.

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SOURCE Hikvision