Video surveillance has a long history and has been widely used in the security field. It is an important means to assist public security departments in combating crime and maintaining social stability. In recent years, with the popularization of broadband, the development of computer technology, and the improvement of image processing technology, video surveillance is increasingly penetrating into various other fields such as education, government, entertainment, medical care, hotels, sports, etc.

The earlier video surveillance system was a fully analog video surveillance system, also known as a closed-circuit television surveillance system (CCTV). Image information is transmitted in an analog manner using video cables. Generally, the transmission distance cannot be too far. It is mainly used for monitoring in a small range, and the monitoring image can generally only be viewed in the control center. The fully analog video surveillance system is based on analog video matrix and tape recording equipment VCR.

With the development of digital technology, digital video surveillance systems began to appear in the mid-1990s, replacing the original analog video matrix with a digitally controlled video matrix, replacing the original long-delay analog video recorder with a digital hard disk recorder DVR, and converting the original tape storage mode into digital storage recording, realizing the conversion of analog video to digital recording. DVR combines the functions of video recorder and screen splitter, taking the first step of digital monitoring. On this basis, a fully digital video monitoring system was developed, which can form a monitoring system based on PC or embedded devices and perform multimedia management. This type of system is the mainstream of the current video monitoring market.