On the MinddogTV podcast, Tom Maggio explains tom Matt Nappo how ProActive is able to storage massive amounts of data more efficiently than any codec could.

Video compression is usually performed through a video codec that works on one or more compression algorithms. Usually video compression is done by removing repetitive images, sounds and/or scenes from a video. For example, a video may have the same background, image or sound played several times or the data displayed/attached with video file is not that important. Video compression will remove all such data to reduce the video file size.

Once a video is compressed, its original format is changed into a different format (depending on the codec used). The video player must support that video format or be integrated with the compressing codec to play the video file.

Video codecs., while are great for individual video files, still leave large amounts of data to be stored. That solution is still too costly for surveillance needs, considering mulitple camers and 24/7 coverage. The engineers at Proactive came up with a completely different solution, as Tom describes in the video.