Microsoft to ax Azure Video Analyzer in November
Deprecation less than a year after announcement, users have until December 1 to move workloads
Microsoft's Azure Video Analyzer service is being put out to pasture, with its termination notice arriving less than a year after the preview was unveiled at the company's 2021 Build event.
The shutters will be pulled down for good on November 30 and Microsoft has warned that from December 2 2022, "your Azure Video Analyzer account will no longer function." Users were unable to create new accounts since May 2.
The advice for fans of the service is to either transition to Dynamics Connected Spaces or an open-source solution.
Video Analyzer for Media is unaffected, aside from being rebranded as "Azure Video Indexer."
The Azure Video Analyzer (AVA) Preview turned up in May 2021 as an Azure Applied AI Service.
It was an evolution of Live Video Analytics and, according to Microsoft, provided "a mechanism for businesses to automate mundane visual observations of operations and enable employees to focus on the critical tasks at hand."
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AVA spanned the edge and the cloud, and enabled the capturing of live video, which could then be analyzed and the results published to an edge or cloud application. At the time of the announcement, Microsoft showed off users including Lufthansa Cityline, which apparently used the tech to cut the turnaround time for aircraft.
So what to do? One option given by Microsoft is to connect one's Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) cameras directly to the company's Spatial Analysis container or switch to Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces, which is aimed at the retail industry.
Alternatives for customers preferring other AI models to Microsoft's Spatial Analysis will depend on where the model came from; Intel and Nvidia both have options, according to the Windows vendor.
It is unclear why Microsoft has retired the service. We asked the company for comment and will update should it respond. It does seem like the service enjoyed a very short life from announcement to termination. While switching to Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces (itself recently renamed from the "Dynamics 365 Connected Store") will work for some users, it won't work for all. ®