Content-aware computer networking devices with video analytics for reducing video storage and video communication bandwidth requirements of a video surveillance network camera system

A method of reducing video communication bandwidth requirements within a video surveillance camera network, the method comprising:

• associating one or more video cameras with one or more network devices positioned within the network, the network including one or more network communication paths between the one or more video cameras and one or more client devices, the one or more video cameras being configured to produce packets of video stream information based on scenes observed by the one or more video cameras, the one or more network devices including video analytics and being further configured to analyze video content within the video stream information using the video analytics;
• receiving at the one or more network devices the packets of video stream information and routing configuration information;
• analyzing and routing the packets of video stream information from the one or more video cameras to the one or more client devices via at least one of one or more network communication paths based on the routing configuration information, the routing configuration information defining an event of interest in a scene and configuring the one or more network devices to prepare managed video in response to the video analytics detecting the event of interest in the video content, wherein managed video including the event of interest in the scene is prepared at a first quality level and managed video not including the event of interest in the scene is prepared as a second quality level;
• storing the managed video in a local mass storage device that is contained in or connected to a housing of the one or more network devices;
• and
• distributing the managed video through at least one of the one or more network communication paths such that distribution of the managed video consumes substantially less network bandwidth than would be consumed by distribution through the at least one of the one or more network communication paths in the absence of analysis by the video analytics.