The Idea

Founded in 2007 and based in Bedford, Massachusetts, VideoIQ is a pioneer in self-learning video analytics and prevention-based video surveillance solutions. Their all-in-one cameras and encoders offer a comprehensive security system, combining advanced video analytics, edge storage, and optimized video management software. These capabilities enhance security, improve response times, and increase ROI by reducing costs and improving on-site monitoring efficiency without the need for extra infrastructure.

VideoIQ’s solutions allow customers to detect, analyze, verify, and respond to events in real-time. A mobile app was essential to this strategy, empowering users and security professionals to respond from anywhere. The goal of the VideoIQ mobile app was to provide a simple, efficient workflow for receiving and responding to alarms, reinforcing VideoIQ’s value as a prevention-first solution.

Our Strategic Approach

The challenge was to collaborate with 5 different companies to create an app, accounting for sheet music, digital rights, and a store.

While determining how to translate a sheet music store and playback to the iPad, we faced several engineering challenges.

The Notestar app integrated Yamaha’s eCommerce engine with Noteflight’s Publishing Server, as well as the Digital Rights Management servers for Hal Leonard and MusicSales.

Rocket Farm had to utilize the signal processing capabilities of the iPad to handle pitch correction and tempo changes on the iPad in real-time, so users could speed up or slow down playback to match their own speed.

Finally, there was the graphics processing — the display of music scores with advanced animation of page-turning, all tightly synchronized with the playback of one or more audio tracks.

Design

The Experience

UI Design

What is the right mobile strategy?

VideoIQ engaged Rocket Farm Studios to develop a long-term mobile product strategy. The focus was to extend VideoIQ’s event notification and response capabilities to mobile devices, starting with the iPhone and later expanding to Android and tablets.

Rocket Farm worked closely with the VideoIQ executive team to create a product release roadmap, ensuring a swift market entry for their mobile solution. The team used user-centric design exercises to align the app with the needs of small business owners and property managers, enabling them to monitor their facilities from any mobile device.

Migrating to the Cloud with Mobile-Friendly APIs

With a mobile strategy in place, Rocket Farm moved into the design and development phase. The challenge was to create a seamless experience where users could navigate through pending security events, view live video feeds, and even activate the “talk down” feature to engage suspicious individuals—all from their mobile devices.

At the same time, VideoIQ designed a cloud-based video management architecture. Rocket Farm collaborated with VideoIQ to identify and develop mobile-friendly APIs optimized for bandwidth and data exchange, ensuring smooth performance on mobile networks.

Rocket Farm provided a thoughtful and innovative process that got us through a lot of design challenges in a short time. Their work on NoteStar demonstrates the ability to create products that are smooth running, innovative, and well designed.”

- Joe Berkovitz CEO of Noteflight

Development

Making it work

Rocket Farm faced several challenges while developing the iOS application. One major hurdle was enabling users to switch between live video streams and video history efficiently. Rocket Farm developed an intuitive interface that allowed seamless navigation between live and recorded footage.

Another key feature was the "audio talk-down" capability, where users could remotely communicate with intruders via their smartphones. This required secure streaming protocols, and Rocket Farm implemented low-level HTTP tunneling to VideoIQ’s cameras to ensure reliable communication.

The app also needed to handle the complex environment of real-time video streaming, push notifications, and incident management while remaining responsive and robust. Rocket Farm’s design ensured that VideoIQ Mobile would deliver on its promise of prevention in the palm of your hand.

The player portion of the app handled scaling note sizes, allowing for changes in pitch and playback speed. The app had to support page-turning by both the user and the app when in playback mode.

There were also other unique interaction challenges: setting loop points to practice a section repeatedly, adding annotations to the score, and selecting different pitches. With all these , Rocket Farm undertook separate design phases.

The first was focused on the eCommerce store and the other on the playback experience. We actively tested user interactions as they were implemented. This approach was critical as these were ground-breaking features that required more than great paper designs, but the iterative incorporation of real user feedback to get it right.

Rocket Farm Studios were extremely agile in how they presented and iterated on design – whether for the HTML5 store portion or the much more expressive set of interactions incorporated into the playback aspect of the app.”

- Joe Berkovitz CEO of Noteflight

Technology Used