What is Zipstream?
Zipstream technology from Axis optimizes video storage and bandwidth without compromising detail crucial to image usability. It reduces bandwidth and storage needs by an average of 50% or more – all while preserving critical details like faces, tattoos, and license plates at full resolution and frame rate.
Why is Zipstream important?
It’s a given that the more storage needed in a surveillance system, the higher the cost. Limiting retention time is an option, but that’s just another kind of “cost” itself. Before Zipstream, there was always a tradeoff. Video surveillance either wasted lots of bitrate on capturing unimportant details, or bitrate was reduced at the cost of image quality. And that meant the loss of both image usability and key forensic information.
The Axis advantage
Zipstream technology doesn’t just limit bitrate. It dynamically adjusts compression in real time, ensuring that essential details remain clear while minimizing storage and bandwidth needs. That means longer retention times, lower costs, and more efficient video management – without sacrificing the detail that supports accurate decision making, accurate analytics, and forensic value.
Since the launch of Zipstream technology in 2015, we’ve been continuously improving its ability to differentiate between critical and less critical data – so users can have it all: superior image usability and lifetime cost efficiency.
A tough nut to crack.
Once upon a time, bitrate was holding the network video industry back. It wasn’t because limiting bitrate was so difficult, but doing it without compromising crucial detail was a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. So when Axis put together a team to tackle the problem, their goal was a modest 10–15 % improvement. Luckily, the results were a lot better than expected.
Innovation through diversity
The team was bright, persistent, and quite international. Different accents and cultures proved to be both a challenge and a gift. When miscommunication resulted in an algorithm that preserved the boring bits and compressed the important ones, it was a eureka moment. Why not do the opposite and compress only the irrelevant parts of footage?
Revolutionizing compression
And just like that – clarity. With or without compression, lots of bitrate was normally wasted on recording, transmitting, and storing unimportant details. The team would work on prioritizing what mattered in the frame and compressing the rest. Their job was far from finished, but now they had a clear direction. The smart compression technology that eventually became Zipstream slashed bitrate by up to 95% without sacrificing key forensic detail. Just a bit better than the 10–15% they set out to save!
Images that create value
Read more about how Axis ensures that users get what they need from their surveillance system
Automatic adjustment
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Lifecycle support
The art of fixing things without breaking them.
Usability in any light
Let there be more – or less – light!
Support for privacy
If you can’t record it, you can’t use it!
Image usability
Images that make a difference - from hardware to technology and tools, image usability is central to everything we do.