PRESS RELEASE
24th January 2006

Axis sees Intelligent Video as another compelling reason to move to IP-Surveillance 

Axis Communications, leading IP-Surveillance vendor, will be unveiling its strategy for intelligent video (IV) and talking about what it will mean for the application developer community and end users at IIPSEC this year. Axis intends to provide a platform during 2006 to enable developers to easily integrate IV applications into Axis network video devices. 

Axis has committed to building a number of IV components during this year and is encouraging the 260 partners in its Application Developer Partner (ADP) programme globally, to build applications to meet specific customer needs. 

Axis has seen early interest amongst ADPs in building software applications for people counting in the retail sector as well as traffic monitoring and analysis for highways and car park management. These are likely to be early IV applications, it predicts.

Dominic Bruning, managing director, Axis Communications (UK) Limited explained:
“This year we will be launching a number of targeted and inexpensive IV components which ADPs can plug into for the development of applications which meet specific needs amongst the end-users they are serving. We are making open Application Programing Interfaces (APIs) available to ADPs so they can easily plug into these Axis tools which will sit initially on an Axis video server.”

Bruning explained further:
“IV offers compelling business and technical benefits which now need to be explained. Take for example license plate recognition as an IV application. If this capability is built into a network camera connected to a number plate database then this will have appeal to those running congestion charging schemes or policing non-payment of road tax by road users, for example.” 

Other significant advantages stemming from IV in the future will be:

•  Reduction of bandwidth consumption as IV in the camera will mean that only the necessary data (i.e. specific number plates) would need to be transmitted for action
•  Reduction of manpower because false alarms by delivering images that provide greater precision to help identify security threats
• Providing better support and intelligence for all sizes of systems so that systems support decision-making more effectively than they do today

Audio and video will be able to be analysed simultaneously so that the sound of breaking glass could trigger a PTZ network camera to automatically pan to the location of the sound once the system has pre-identified the sound to be of sufficient concern. 

Bruning concluded:
“We see IV as a natural evolution of what Axis has been doing for years. Motion detection, for example, which is now built into many of our models, is providing some intelligence which goes beyond continually streaming video to a storage device. Once our ADPs begin rolling out specific applications later this year the full potential of IV will become clearer still.”

About Axis
Axis increases the value of network solutions. The company is an innovative market leader in network video and print servers. Axis' products and solutions are focused on applications such as security surveillance, remote monitoring and document management. The products are based on in-house developed chip technology, which is also sold to third parties.

Axis was founded in 1984 and is listed on the Stockholmsbörsen (XSSE: AXIS) Attract 40-list. Axis operates globally with offices in 16 countries and in cooperation with distributors, system integrators and OEM partners in 70 countries. Markets outside Sweden account for more than 95% of sales. Information about Axis can be found at www.axis.com

For further information about Axis Communications in the UK and Ireland, please contact:
Dominic Bruning, Managing Director, Axis Communications (UK) Limited
Tel: 0870 162 0047. Email: dominic.bruning@axis.com

For all Axis Communications UK and Ireland media enquiries, please contact:
Miles Clayton / Tim Rose, Agility PR Limited
Tel: 01763 288 000. Email: miles.clayton@agilitypr.co.uk / tim.rose@agilitypr.co.uk