Case Study: McCormick Place achieves unified high-resolution surveillance and advanced analytics with Axis Communications video encoders

Trading up with Axis video encoders

McCormick Place, North America’s largest convention center in Chicago, struggled with a hybrid surveillance estate: a new West Building outfitted with more than 300 Axis network cameras while the rest of the campus relied on 25‑year‑old analog cameras and separate DVR‑based systems. To unify monitoring and raise image quality across tradeshow floors, McCormick Place engaged Axis Communications, deploying Axis video encoders (AXIS Q7401 and AXIS Q7404) to bring legacy analog cameras onto the IP network.

Axis Communications’ encoders network‑enabled hundreds of analog cameras so all video could be managed in Milestone XProtect Enterprise, with AXIS Camera Management for remote configuration and diagnostics. The upgrade produced substantially better resolution than the old DVRs (surpassing 4CIF), delivered clearer forensic detail (faces, uniform insignias), centralized live feeds on a command‑center video wall, and enabled analytics such as BriefCam Video Synopsis (up to 60:1 compression) to compress hours of footage into minutes—improving investigations and prosecutions while extending the life of existing cameras without a full rip‑and‑replace.

McCormick Place

Frank Solano

Security Systems Engineer for SMG, Management Company