Powering the Next Generation: A Look at Hanwha Vision’s New Wisenet 9

The future of security requires smarter, more efficient and secure solutions, and Hanwha Vision is helping to drive this transformation with the launch of its most advanced AI-powered System on a Chip (SoC), Wisenet 9.

After nearly four years of extensive research and testing, Wisenet 9’s advanced features help elevate our cameras into a new AI-driven era, setting a new standard for performance, accuracy, and security.

“With Wisenet 9, you can count on the superior image quality that delivers the best possible video in the toughest environments, as well as the accuracy of the AI-generated data, whether statistical or event-driven,” states Andy Ryu, Chief Product Officer at Hanwha Vision. At its core lies an AI-based Image Enhancement, meticulously designed to harness the power of deep learning at the edge.

The AI Revolution at the Edge

Wisenet 9’s enhanced edge-AI capabilities are essential in this era, where the volume and complexity of security threats demand real-time, accurate analysis. By drastically elevating edge-device performance, AI empowers systems to quickly analyze vast amounts of video data and discern crucial patterns and anomalies.

A key differentiator driving this transformation is the two dedicated Neural Processing Units (NPUs), which have improved inference performance by 3x compared to the previous-generation Wisenet 7. While one NPU handles image processing, the other focuses on object detection and advanced analytics. We introduced this dual NPU concept to ensure the video quality and analytics have independent resources, preventing one function from impacting the performance of the other.

Unveiling Hidden Details

Wisenet 9 goes far beyond simply improving image quality; it uses AI to analyze visual data with greater precision. By leveraging a powerful NPU, the system moves past traditional image processing to extract critical information, unlocking previously unseen details with remarkable clarity in a tough environment.

This enhanced visual intelligence is achieved through a suite of sophisticated AI features:

• AI-based Extreme Wide Dynamic Range (WDR): Users experience superior clarity in high-contrast scenes. This feature can handle tricky lighting situations, like when parts of an image are very bright and others are very dark, ensuring everything is clearly visible.
• AI-based Noise Reduction (NR): This technology uses 3-step AI processing to provide exceptional low-light clarity by significantly reducing the noise generated by both sensor and digital gain.
• AI-driven Image Enhancements: AI processing enables various image enhancements, such as natural dynamic range expansion, image sharpening, and color optimization, which improve visual clarity and quality.

Combined, these technologies deliver exceptional clarity, even under the most challenging conditions. The AI-driven image enhancement, powered by an independent NPU, ensures that every detail, no matter how subtle, is captured and analyzed.

This allows security professionals to generate critical insights from video footage, regardless of the prevailing lighting conditions, transforming video from simple images into actionable intelligence.

AI Efficiency Redefined

AI is powerful, but it can also be resource-hungry. Wisenet 9 flips that script. It’s not just smart; it’s efficient, optimizing every aspect of its operation.

By intelligently reducing noise, Wisenet 9 itself achieves a remarkable level of efficiency in data volume reduction compared to its previous generation, resulting in significantly reduced bandwidth consumption and storage requirements yet with a significant increase in video quality.

This core efficiency is further bolstered by the latest H.265 compression technology. The H.265 codec provides high video quality with optimized bandwidth, ensuring reliable, real-time video processing and transmission—critical for uninterrupted 24/7 security. Furthermore, this optimized H.265 support enables consistently high performance in demanding environments, essential for system stability, and streamlines data management in cloud environments, efficiently controlling storage and transfer costs.

Wisenet 9’s H.265 codec, aligned with current industry standards and ONVIF profiles, ensures broad hardware compatibility and seamless integration with your existing security infrastructure and provides a dependable foundation for long-term system reliability—a key consideration for mission-critical video surveillance deployments.

Beyond this, Wisenet 9 leverages AI for advanced analytics. Its enhanced AI technology provides detailed attribute analysis, including color, bag, face mask, glasses, age, and gender, along with new analytics like people and vehicle counting, slip and fall detection, crowd detection, heatmap, queue line management, and more, enabling faster and more informed decision-making.

To further amplify its capabilities, Wisenet 9 incorporates several key technologies that power the next generation of efficiency, including:

• Re-Identification (RE-ID) for Enhanced Person Tracking & Searching: RE-ID technology is a deep learning-based approach to matching visual identities across non-overlapping camera views. RE-ID extracts feature vectors representing unique visual attributes, enabling the Video Management System (VMS) to recognize and track individuals even with changes in appearance or environmental conditions. For example, it can identify a person entering a building with an orange jacket and later recognize the same person leaving with the jacket unzipped and a hat, across different cameras.
• Dynamic Privacy Masking (DPM): This AI-based feature efficiently safeguards biometric personal data at the edge, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations. Wisenet 9 offers flexible masking options, including both opaque and mosaic masking, allowing users to tailor privacy protection to their specific needs and preferences.

Expanding Horizons with Expandable AI

Recognizing that security demands are as diverse as the industries they serve, we have engineered Wisenet 9 with unparalleled AI expandability. This empowers users to tailor their security systems with specialized functionalities, moving beyond generic surveillance to targeted, intelligent solutions.

• AI Packs: Wisenet 9 is compatible with AI Packs (Traffic, Retail, Factory, etc.), designed to deliver actionable insights specific to various sectors. For example, our Retail & Business AI Pack can analyze customer traffic patterns, while Factory & Safety AI Pack can detect potential hazards like unauthorized access to restricted areas and unsafe equipment operation.
• AI Sound Classification: AI-based sound classification enables rapid detection and directional awareness of critical events like gunshots, glass breaks, and screaming. This proactive capability enhances situational awareness, allowing for faster and more effective responses.
• Hanwha Vision Open Platform: Wisenet 9 empowers users to create customized security solutions by providing the flexibility to tailor their systems with custom applications for video analytics, storage, and other functionalities, thus expanding camera capabilities beyond standard operations.

Improved End-to-End Protection

Wisenet 9 significantly enhances end-to-end protection by building upon the robust security foundation of Wisenet7. It inherits essential features like Secure Storage, OS, and Boot, which protect critical chipset data and prevent unauthorized software execution.

Moreover, the inclusion of a FIPS 140-3 Level 3 elevates security to an exceptional standard. This certification guarantees that the chipset adheres to rigorous security protocols, assuring users of comprehensive data protection.

Learn more about the new Wisenet 9 camera lineups here.

_{*Features and performance may vary by camera model and deployment environment.
*RE-ID, AI Sound Classification, and compatibility with AI Packs will be available in upcoming months.}