Load balancing method for video decoding in a system providing hardware and software decoding resources

A video surveillance system configured to carry out a plurality of video decoding processes each corresponding to a stream of video data that originates from a different one of a plurality of video cameras, the system comprising resources for hardware and software video decoding, wherein the resources for hardware decoding comprise a plurality of graphics processing units (GPUs), and the resources for software decoding comprise a video codec module executable by at least one computer processing unit (CPU) core, wherein the GPUs include at least one GPU of a first type which is a discrete GPU and at least one GPU of a second type which is an integrated GPU provided as a chip inside the CPU, wherein the system is configured to carry out load balancing of the decoding processes between the resources by:

• monitoring loads of the GPUs;
• for a decoding process, carrying out load balancing comprising:
• determining which GPUs are suitable GPUs for the decoding process based on an implementation request for the decoding process, wherein the implementation request specifies which type of decoder the process can run on, and the step of determining which GPUs are suitable for the decoding process comprises checking the implementation request and determining suitable GPUs of the type according to the implementation request;
• determining a current load of each of the suitable GPUs;
• determining the suitable GPU as a potential GPU, when the current load of the suitable GPU is less than a threshold;
• when there are no suitable GPUs, then carrying out the decoding process by software decoding using the video codec program module executed by the at least one CPU core;
• when there is only one potential GPU, then carrying out the decoding process on the GPU;
• when there are more than one potential GPU, then selecting one of the potential GPUs to execute the decoding process.