Adam Rodnitzky is CMO and co-founder at ReTel Technologies, an advanced retail video analytics company. He started ReTel with two other classmates, George Aspland and Scott Roberts, while he was at business school at the University of Chicago. Before business school, he co-founded CompleteCar.com and TixNix.com.
See ReTel Technologies at reteltech.blogspot.com
Knowist: Tell me a little bit about your work.
Adam: To date, video analytics technology has not delivered on the promise of turning video cameras into advanced data gathering and reporting devices. Generally speaking, most video analytics developed to date have been able to perform simple tasks like noting that movements have occurred, or that an object is placed where one shouldn’t be. That has worked to a limited extent for physical security applications, but it has been a challenge to apply current systems to the task of gathering retail business intelligence (BI).
At ReTel, we’ve focused on building the first video analytics process specifically for retail BI. We can deliver information from video that few other companies can, and it is information that is useful and valuable to retailers and restaurant operators. We can tell retailers where consumers spend the most time in their stores, what products they interact with, specific breakdowns in gender and age range, how efficient their service processes are; and we’re adding new capabilities continually.
Knowist: What special technical challenges exist in arranging new information that originates from legacy systems?
Adam: In our world, there are a few specific challenges. We’ve had to design our system to essentially be input agnostic so as to work with the widest set of video feeds. Security systems currently in place run the gamut in both age and format. Generally speaking, most surveillance systems that are currently in place are either standard analog or IP video, but some have proprietary video formats that require banks of codecs to process.
The other challenge is that, in some instances, we simply don’t have the proper video coverage or field of view to capture decent levels of intelligence. In these cases, we can supplement existing equipment with low cost, off-the-shelf IP cameras to fill in the gaps. From our perspective, we don’t want to work under compromised data conditions, as it can diminish the value our solution delivers.
Knowist: How do you sell the idea of a "new trick for an old dog" to business owners? Does resistance to change come from technology or a customer's mindset?
Adam: I read an interesting term for what we are doing the other day: we’re creating value from exhaust. That is, the data latent in security system videos is a byproduct of their primary function, which is to provide after-the-fact verification that an event has or has not taken place. When I think of how we do what we do, we’re turning a cost center into a profit center.
If the equipment is already in place, why not leverage it to discover opportunities for added efficiency in your operations, to learn what engages consumers the most, or where opportunities exist to improve sales? Once we’re able to show the potential for ROI on an incremental technology spend, we see that resistance fade.
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