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Public Safety Video Quality

Seeking Public Safety Practitioners for Audio and Video Testing

We are seeking active or retired public safety practitioners (police, firefighters, EMS (emergency medical service), FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), etc., and their command staff) with experience using audio or video in their jobs.

Click to Register Participate in our latest subjective audio and video quality tests between JUL 26 and AUG 20, 2010. Register by JUL 26, 2010. Information here.
 

Project Description

SNAPSHOT

Anyone who has seen video action break up or block out while watching a live televised sporting event knows the frustration of missing a key play because of a poor picture. For public safety practitioners using incident video services, however, a clear picture (watch a demonstration of too much compression) could mean the difference between life and death.

Currently, manufacturers are setting the agenda as to what public safety can and can’t have with regard to video capability. The PSCR (Public Safety Communications Research) program, on behalf of DHS/OIC (Department of Homeland Security/Office of Interoperability and Compatibility), is helping to develop quality requirements for public safety video applications.

BACKGROUND

Public safety’s forays into video deployment continue to be fractured. A lack of coordinated information causes agencies to implement one-off or stove-pipe systems. PSCR has identified this issue and has studied public safety’s video use and quality for the following application areas:

“Video is becoming an increasingly important tool for public safety. Responders can wear cameras to provide incident commanders with situation information in a burning building while looking for victims or during a SWAT raid. Aerial videography can aid decisions for deploying personnel by providing a bird’s eye view of a wildfire or the pursuit of a suspect on foot or in a car. Video remote controlled robots can dismantle bombs.”

– Evidence Magazine

  • Tactical video for law enforcement

  • Surveillance video, live monitoring, and forensic analysis

  • Structural fire (i.e., identifying fire characteristics)

AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH

Alongside the public safety practitioner community, PSCR:

  • Designed and conducted subjective viewing experiments that enable definition of performance parameters, ensuring video implementations by manufacturers will meet the operational needs of public safety.

  • Filled a void in the public safety community by developing this subjective testing methodology. PSCR’s work has now been incorporated into ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union) standards.

  • Formed the VQiPS (Video Quality in Public Safety) project to coordinate efforts between organizations and agencies that are developing standards for their own use of video, to minimize duplication of effort. In February 2010, PSCR hosted its second workshop of the VQiPS working group to gather stakeholders in support of this goal.

Picture shows a person walking, object in hand, in a front of wall.
An example of a task-based video quality assessment method where viewers watch moving or still video imagery and are asked to identify objects or information in the scene.
Picture shows a question in a computer software window and provides responses the user can choose from.

VALUE TO PUBLIC SAFETY

Video has been used by public safety organizations for years; it is not new. But as public safety agencies migrate to more powerful broadband systems, the use of video will undoubtedly increase. PSCR has become the bridge between diverse agencies with potentially duplicative or competing efforts to define and deploy video systems. Currently, vendors tell public safety agencies what they need in order to support video, rather than vice versa. PSCR is acting as an objective technical resource to ensure manufacturers are driven by public safety’s requirements.

RESULTS

By working with practitioners, PSCR defined video requirements, liberating public safety from manufacturers’ claims of “good enough” systems and equipment. These requirements are published in the Statement of Requirements (SoR) for public safety communications interoperability, which is available on the SAFECOM web site.

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Right-click Public Safety Video Quality to save or download this one-page project summary PDF (Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format) file.

For more information, contact: Carolyn Ford