Issue link: https://let.epubxp.com/i/407623
TALKING POINTS 40 Law Enforcement Technology November 2014 www.officer.com By Sean Drew T he time is 1:13 a.m. and the radio barks out ten-codes about a robbery: One man is down and the perpetra- tors are fleeing the scene by car. Law enforcement launches an aerial search, which moves from the edge of the city toward the outlying forest area. The chopper is equipped with the latest MPEG-4-enabled video system with infrared capabilities, transmitting a real- time aerial record of the search back to newly upgraded base receivers. The chase, however, leads the helicopter to fly over two smaller jurisdictions with police departments that have older MPEG-2 receivers. So instead of a direct, ongoing video link between all involved via a one-to-many communi- cations scheme, the lack of interoper- ability between the dedicated MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 equipment adds extra steps, costing the pursuit precious time. Where we are now With many installations both large and small embracing the standard, MPEG-4 video and audio encoding- and decoding-enabled equipment is a must-have for many law enforcement, fire, rescue and security operations. As it offers high-quality HD picture and audio, and metadata capabilities at one quarter to half the bandwidth of legacy MPEG-2 systems, MPEG-4 enables field operations to send out critical video instantly. This allows for its dissemination to multiple interested agencies without straining network bandwidth. Additionally, at the regional level, there is an accelerating trend among law enforcement, fire, rescue and secu- rity operations departments seeking to upgrade from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 so that they can remain interoper- able with neighboring stations. W hile moving to MPEG-4 brings operations efficiently into the future, not every- one has made the change, requiring a system that can also look backward to include the older, industry-standard MPEG-2 equipment. The goal in the move to MPEG-4-based equipment is to maintain interoperability between both systems. MPEG-2 versus MPEG-4 To meet the growing demands for the capture and dissemination of digital video and audio, the Motion Picture Engineers Group (MPEG) has pro- duced an evolving range of data com- pression standards over the years. Moving forward while looking backward Migrating to MPEG-4: