As IC Realtime marks its 20th anniversary, Refresh Miami took a closer look at how the South Florida-based surveillance technology company has evolved alongside major shifts in the security industry from analog recording and early mobile surveillance to artificial intelligence and edge computing.
Founded in 2006, IC Realtime entered the market as the surveillance industry was transitioning from traditional analog CCTV systems to digital video recorders. When smartphones began changing how people interacted with technology, IC Realtime moved quickly to develop mobile access to security cameras—at a time when viewing surveillance video from a phone was still a new concept.
IC Realtime CTO Andrew Nassar recalled that the idea initially faced skepticism. Today, remote access has become an expected part of modern video surveillance, while the industry has moved on to a new challenge: turning the growing volume of recorded video into useful information.
Artificial intelligence is playing a central role in that transition. Instead of simply detecting motion, modern AI-powered surveillance systems can distinguish between people, vehicles, and other activity while making recorded footage easier to search and understand. Natural-language video search is also changing how users interact with archives, reducing the need to manually review hours of footage to find a specific event.
Nassar also discussed the potential for AI to move security beyond predefined rules by identifying changes in patterns and recognizing activity that falls outside what is normally expected. This approach could help reduce unnecessary alerts while bringing greater context to events that warrant attention.
Privacy and processing architecture are another important part of that evolution. IC Realtime continues to invest in edge AI, where more analysis takes place locally on cameras and recording devices rather than requiring all video and data to be sent to the cloud. Local processing can reduce bandwidth requirements, improve response times, and address growing concerns around how security data is handled.
The company’s evolution is also increasingly software-driven. While hardware has historically formed the foundation of professional video surveillance, customers now expect intuitive interfaces, intelligent search capabilities, remote system management, and software that continues to improve over time.
For IC Realtime, the progression from traditional recording systems to connected surveillance and now AI reflects a broader philosophy that has shaped its first two decades: continuing to adapt as the way people use and what they expect from—security technology changes.