Wisenet 7: Excellence Through Innovation

When we started designing our Wisenet 7 System on a Chip (SoC) we went beyond simply focusing on what it could do in terms of features and performance. We thought about what it could do to truly help our customers — which features do they need to do their jobs day-to-day, and how are new technologies and project requirements affecting their purchase decisions for new surveillance products.

The SoC is the heart and brains of a camera, and its benefits can affect every device in a surveillance system. Since we developed our first chipset in 2011, we’ve continually pushed ourselves to add the right enhancements by constantly seeking market feedback to always redefine what “right” means.

And when I say “we” I mean it’s our chipset in every way. Hanwha Vision makes it in our own facilities in Korea. Many other video surveillance manufacturers rely on third-party general-purpose SoCs, mainly to avoid the sophistication, QA, resources and long development cycles that go into designing these intricate systems.

We put our own expertise to use in manufacturing purpose-built SoCs, giving us advantages ranging from NDAA compliance to end-user satisfaction. Our approach has led to ongoing SoC generations delivering increased resolution, the H.264 and H.265 codecs, intelligent video analytics and WiseStream video compression technology.

Fast forward to 2020 and the Wisenet 7 chip is our most technology-intensive SoC, taking full advantage of Hanwha Techwin’s intelligent video surveillance expertise and integrating new features that weren’t as widely embraced in security at the time of Wisenet 5: specifically ultra-high 4K resolution and support for multi-sensor interfaces.

“In the “new normal,” security is still the primary driver behind retailers’ use of video, but cameras and other devices are now performing a number of crucial functions that go well beyond surveillance.”

We’ve also strengthened its cybersecurity and ISP performance while keeping an eye on the growing use of Artificial Intelligence, which is playing a more important role in surveillance especially for public health and safety applications among others.

It’s a combination of innovations that delivers on Wisenet 7’s ultimate value.

This SoC supports up to 4K resolution and up to 4 channels of video input, meaning multi-sensor cameras can efficiently use only a single processor. Now you can have a four-headed camera running off just one chip, as opposed to needing one chip per head plus a fifth controller chip. It’s going to make the camera smaller, it’s going to keep costs down and use significantly less power.

Hanwha’s unique video processing technologies greatly enhance image quality by improving video processing performances such as 150dB 4-frame extreme WDR, advanced 3DNR, defog and lens distortion correction (LDC). The chipset also supports the WiseStream II smart codec to further process images and reduce bandwidth and storage for H.265 and H.264 video streams.

Finally, computing system development has evolved from a box-type form factor to small board-type processing systems. Now a purpose-built SoC like our Wisenet7 has advantages for miniaturization as well as providing low power consumption.

All this contributes to greater economies of scale while keeping costs, power and device size at an absolute minimum — and all with a goal of making our customers’ lives easier.

For example, we built in enhanced cybersecurity from the ground up, adding a half dozen new features exclusively related to improved system and device protection. One worth calling out is “secure by default,” meaning the camera’s out-of-the-box settings are already the recommended ones to use. This is a big difference from previous generations where a user was told “Here’s our hardening guide, now you need to turn this, this and this off while following all these steps.” We’re doing the opposite; turning most things that you don’t need off and locking down certain protocols until they’re needed. We’re also working on getting certified by the UL Cyber Assurance Program.

I’ll go a lot deeper into this and all our cybersecurity features in my next post and you can also check out our Wisenet 7 page, but this SoC also includes technologies such as secure boot, secure OS, secure storage, electronic signatures, secure JTAG and One Time Programmable ROM (OTP).

Enhanced intelligent analytics features are included to provide license-free event notification and recording, including audio detection and sound classification.

Another important piece is this chip is designed to be AI-aware, allowing future models to include an AI chip for added functionality.

The network video surveillance market has grown in complexity and scope, with many customers now requiring more advanced features and capabilities than ever before. The Wisenet 7 SoC will meet these requirements, supporting many different vertical industries, commercial environments and applications.

Wisenet 7 at a glance