Video Analytics API Enterprise AI Vision for Developers
Add world-class video intelligence to your applications. Our REST API provides access to the same AI models powering enterprise security systems, enabling object detection, behavior analysis, and visual search capabilities in your software.
Building Video AI Is Harder Than It Should Be
You have an application that could benefit from video intelligence. Maybe you are building a security platform, a retail analytics tool, a smart building system, or something entirely new. The problem is that adding real video AI capabilities requires expertise and infrastructure that most development teams do not have.
Training computer vision models requires massive datasets, specialized machine learning expertise, and expensive GPU infrastructure. Even if you manage to build something that works in the lab, scaling it to handle production workloads is another challenge entirely. The gap between a demo and a reliable service is enormous.
Open source models exist, but they come with their own headaches. They need to be deployed, scaled, maintained, and updated as new versions emerge. Performance varies wildly across different scenarios. And when something goes wrong in production, you are on your own.
What you really want is to call an API and get back intelligent analysis of video content without becoming a machine learning company. You want to focus on your application logic while someone else handles the complexity of computer vision at scale.
Enterprise Video AI Through Simple API Calls
Surveillant API gives you access to the same AI models that power our enterprise security platform. Object detection, people counting, behavior analysis, license plate recognition, and visual search are all available through straightforward REST endpoints.
Send us video frames or RTSP streams. We return structured JSON with detected objects, their locations, classifications, and confidence scores. You focus on building your application; we handle the AI infrastructure, model optimization, and continuous improvement.
The API scales automatically from prototype to production. Whether you are processing a few test images during development or analyzing millions of frames in production, the same API handles it. Pay for what you use, scale when you need to, and never worry about GPU provisioning or model deployment.
Video Analytics API Features
Comprehensive video intelligence capabilities accessible through simple REST endpoints.
Object Detection
Identify and locate objects in video frames including people, vehicles, animals, and custom object types. Get bounding boxes, classifications, and confidence scores for every detected object.
People Counting
Count people in frames or track counts over time. Define counting lines, zones, and directions. Get accurate occupancy data for any space captured on camera.
Behavior Analysis
Detect activities and behaviors including running, falling, fighting, loitering, and crowd formation. Train custom behavior classifiers for domain-specific needs.
License Plate Recognition
Extract license plate text from video frames. Support for plates from multiple regions and formats. Get plate numbers with timestamps and associated vehicle images.
Visual Search
Search video content using natural language queries or image similarity. Find specific objects, people with certain attributes, or similar scenes across large video archives.
Stream Processing
Connect RTSP streams for continuous real-time analysis. Receive webhook notifications when detections occur. Process live video with the same API used for recorded frames.
Why Developers Choose Surveillant API
Fast Analysis
Get results in under 100 milliseconds for single frame analysis. Real-time streaming analysis with sub-second latency. Build responsive applications without AI lag.
Enterprise Reliability
Built for production workloads with high availability infrastructure. The same platform trusted by enterprise security operations for mission-critical applications.
Fully Managed
No GPUs to provision, no models to deploy, no infrastructure to maintain. Focus on your application while we handle the AI backend at scale.
Production-Grade AI
Enterprise-quality models trained on diverse real-world data. Continuous improvement without API changes. Accuracy that works outside the lab.
Simple Integration
Clean REST API with comprehensive documentation. SDKs for popular languages. Working code examples for common use cases. Start integrating in minutes.
Flexible Economics
Start free during development. Pay per API call in production. Scale costs linearly with usage. No upfront commitments or minimum spend.
Start Building in Minutes
From signup to first API call in four simple steps.
Create Account
Sign up for free. No credit card required for development. Get your API key immediately after email verification.
Review Documentation
Explore our comprehensive API docs with interactive examples. Download SDKs for your preferred programming language.
Make First Call
Send a test image to the analysis endpoint. Receive structured JSON with detected objects and their attributes.
Build Your Application
Integrate API calls into your application logic. Use webhooks for real-time streaming analysis. Scale to production.
What Developers Are Building
Applications powered by Surveillant Video Analytics API.
Security Platforms
Security software companies integrate our API to add AI detection capabilities to their VMS and monitoring platforms. Instead of building custom computer vision, they leverage our proven models and focus on their core product differentiation.
- Video management system enhancement
- Alarm monitoring automation
- Mobile security applications
Retail Technology
Retail tech companies use our API to build customer analytics, queue management, and loss prevention features. People counting, heat mapping, and behavior detection enable insights that were previously available only to large enterprises.
- Customer traffic analytics
- Queue management systems
- Shelf monitoring solutions
Smart Building Applications
Building automation developers integrate video analytics for occupancy detection, energy management, and access control enhancement. Camera-based sensing complements IoT sensors for comprehensive building intelligence.
- Occupancy-based HVAC control
- Meeting room utilization
- Access control verification
Industrial IoT
Industrial technology companies add visual inspection, safety monitoring, and process verification to their platforms. Computer vision extends beyond traditional automation sensors to provide new insights and capabilities.
- Safety compliance monitoring
- Process verification
- Equipment monitoring
Video Analytics API Questions
What video formats does the API accept?
The API accepts individual frames as JPEG or PNG images, as well as video files in common formats including MP4, MOV, and AVI. For real-time analysis, you can connect RTSP video streams directly. The API also supports base64-encoded image data for inline submission. Response times are fastest with optimized JPEG images at recommended resolutions.
How is API usage priced?
Pricing is based on API calls, with different rates for frame analysis, stream processing, and specialized features like license plate recognition. Development and testing are free up to a monthly limit. Production pricing starts at competitive per-call rates with volume discounts. Custom enterprise agreements are available for high-volume applications.
Can I train custom detection models?
Yes, enterprise plans include custom model training capabilities. You provide labeled examples of the objects or behaviors you want to detect, and we train specialized models that extend our base capabilities. Custom models are deployed to the API automatically and accessed through the same endpoints. This is ideal for domain-specific detection needs that our standard models do not cover.
What about data privacy and security?
We take data security seriously. All API communication is encrypted with TLS. Submitted images and video are processed and deleted unless you explicitly request storage. We do not use customer data for model training without explicit permission. Our infrastructure is SOC 2 compliant with enterprise security controls. Data residency options are available for customers with geographic requirements.
Is there rate limiting on API calls?
Rate limits vary by plan tier. Free development accounts have modest limits suitable for testing. Paid plans include higher limits that can be increased on request. Enterprise customers can negotiate custom rate limits and dedicated capacity for guaranteed throughput. Burst handling allows temporary spikes above normal limits.
What SDKs and libraries are available?
We provide official SDKs for Python, JavaScript/Node.js, Java, and Go. Community-maintained libraries exist for other languages. All SDKs include complete API coverage, automatic retry logic, and helper functions for common tasks. Comprehensive documentation includes code examples in all supported languages.
How do I handle errors and retries?
The API returns standard HTTP status codes with detailed error messages. Our SDKs include automatic retry logic with exponential backoff for transient failures. Rate limit responses include headers indicating when retries are appropriate. We recommend implementing circuit breaker patterns for production applications and provide guidance in our best practices documentation.
Ready to add video intelligence to your application?
Get your free API key and start building today. No credit card required for development.