X-Stream Archive

Non-disruptive compression for footage that already exists. The platform works only on landed recording files, replaces them in place on general-purpose CPU, and proves on every single file that nothing about them has changed.

4
Invariants enforced
3
Safety gates per file
12.5 GB/s
Aggregate throughput
0
GPUs required
100%
Air-gap compatible
The real problem

Nobody is allowed to touch the running system

In a working surveillance network the video management platform, the storage architecture and the retrieval workflow behave like a precision gear train. Anything that interrupts them is not an improvement, whatever it saves.

Retrofit difficulty

The incumbent video management platform, storage architecture and retrieval flow must not be changed or interrupted.

Long retention

Public safety, transport, parks and financial environments under heavy regulation, with extremely long statutory retention periods.

Scale

Tens of thousands of streams continuously producing data, accumulating exponentially until centralised storage is at breaking point.

Absolute boundaries

What X-Stream Archive will and will not do

These boundaries are what make the platform deployable in regulated environments. They are architectural commitments, not configuration options.

Never

  • Intercept or hijack the live video ingest path.
  • Affect concurrent recording writes from the original platform's cameras.
  • Modify the original platform's preview, retrieval or playback workflows.
  • Apply AI picture enhancement — this protects the absolute authenticity of evidence.
  • Touch a source file before every verification gate has passed.

Always

  • Operate on landed recording files held in centralised open storage.
  • Scan with a configurable delay, automatically identifying scene type and selecting a matching template.
  • Replace files in place on pure CPU compute, with zero user-visible effect.
  • Verify every output against three independent gates before committing the replacement.
  • Retain the original until a configurable ageing period has elapsed.

Duration

Millisecond-level alignment keeps timeline scrubbing and positioning exact

Codec format

H.264 and H.265 carried through unchanged, so no client installs a decoder

Frame count

No frame dropping; original temporal smoothness locked in

Resolution

No super-resolution and no scaling; original frame size locked

Foundation

The four invariants

These four properties must be physically identical after compression. They are what keep the incumbent platform's indexing, playback and retrieval logic stable, and what make the footage defensible.

The guarantee they produce. Four invariants equal complete stability of the original video platform's index, playback and retrieval workflows — 100% of the time, with no operator retraining and no client-side changes.

Safety

Three gates, then and only then a replacement

A compression node produces a temporary file. If any gate fails, the temporary file is destroyed automatically and the source file is left completely untouched. The source sits behind what amounts to a safety glass cockpit.

Gate 1 — Playability

The temporary file's container and basic playback are verified before its output is trusted for anything else.

Gate 2 — Four invariants

Machine-level comparison of resolution, frame rate, codec and duration between the new and the original file.

Gate 3 — Quality risk

PSNR and SSIM evaluated against the expected envelope. Falling short halts the process instead of replacing.

Preventive circuit-breaker. If picture degradation is detected — PSNR or SSIM below the expected envelope — processing halts before the source file is touched. Repeated failures permanently stop processing that file, safely retain the original and raise an alarm.

Fallback

An abnormal-termination decision tree and an ageing rollback

Verification is only half the story. The system also has to behave correctly when something goes wrong — and leave a route back for as long as the client wants one.

  • Detect. Compression failure, verification mismatch or quality anomaly is logged.
  • Retry. The file is retried according to policy.
  • Dual retention. On success the original is kept as a backup through the transition period for client sampling and compliance review.
  • Circuit-break. Repeated failure permanently stops processing that file, safely retains the original and raises an alarm — avoiding the I/O risk of endless attempts.
  • Age out. Only when the ageing period you configure has elapsed is the original safely deleted.
Source
Landed recording fileNever touched before verification
Working area
Compression nodeProduces a temporary compressed file
Gates
PlayabilityContainer and playback verified
Four invariantsMachine-level comparison
Quality riskPSNR / SSIM envelope
Commit
Non-disruptive in-place replacementOriginal retained through the ageing period
Architecture

Pure CPU, fully distributed, horizontally unbounded

Hardware independence is what allows this to run inside a sealed government network and still scale to hundreds of terabytes of daily ingest.

No GPU dependency

General-purpose CPU instruction-set micro-architecture tuning keeps the algorithm fully decoupled from specific hardware. The platform can scale from dozens of compress nodes to thousands, supporting hundreds of terabytes of daily ingest.

Fully private internal network

Supports deployment in a 100% physically isolated network environment with no external access whatsoever.

Linear horizontal expansion

Throughput grows by adding compress nodes rather than by replacing them.

Automation

AI scene analysis and adaptive template matching

No manual parameter tuning. The platform evaluates time of day, lighting, motion level and scene complexity, then applies the strategy that scene actually needs.

Dynamic scenes

City roads, security checkpoints and commercial streets. Strategy leans toward stable quality, protecting the detail of people and vehicles.

Static scenes

Corridors, warehouses and fixed entrances. Strategy leans toward a higher compression ratio to release the maximum storage.

Mixed motion

Smart campuses, car parks and public service halls. Strategy balances space against quality.

Operations

Full-chain monitoring and precise traceability

Every action, resource consumption figure and abnormal state is recorded. The whole process is auditable.

Per-file processing log
Recorded fieldDetail
Original sizeRecorded per file
New sizeRecorded per file
Matched templateThe adaptive strategy applied
Processing timeIncluding verification
Operation resultSuccess with compression percentage, or failure reason
Failure handlingRetry count and circuit-breaker state

ROI and capacity

Original versus compressed capacity, absolute space released, and saving percentage by region.

Resource and node intelligence

CPU utilisation heat map, queue backlog state, and live status for scanner, media, compression and quality nodes.

Estate-wide alerting

Repeated replacement failure, node offline, and proactive interception of low-storage conditions.

Granular traceability

Every action tied back to the file and node that produced it.

Throughput

Aggregate processing rate across the compression cluster.

Saving ratio

Compression achieved against the original footprint, tracked continuously.

Compliance

National-level inspection backing

Cluster node with internal drive bays reverse

Inspection findings

The accredited public security inspection report explicitly records that resolution, frame count, duration and codec format are unchanged after processing — and that the result is suitable for statutory evidence.

Test results are unambiguous: after compression the authenticity and integrity of the video are unchanged. Resolution, frame count, duration and codec format remain fully consistent with the original.

  • Statutory evidence. That is what allows the output to satisfy the demanding requirements of large public safety, transport and financial networks for statutory evidence archiving and retrieval.
Applications

Where it is deployed

Telecom operator archives

Subscriber and infrastructure video retained at central scale without expanding storage.

Public safety networks

City-scale footage made defensible long term while freeing capacity for new coverage.

Transport archives

Regulated retention on hub footage, with retrieval workflows completely unchanged.

Financial networks

Branch and transaction footage held for the full audit period.

Industrial parks

Historical retention extended without new racks.

Healthcare groups

Dispute resolution footage kept for months beyond the previous limit.

Also in the range

Related products

Ask for a technical briefing

We will walk through the verification gates, the rollback mechanism and a sizing model against your current archive volume.

Request a consultationSee the solution overview