1. A surveillance system comprising: a plurality of cameras located in a plurality of positions to record a scene, each camera further comprising: a sensor configured to generate video data of the scene comprising a series of frames; a first network device configured to transmit the video data and feature vectors associated with the video data to a processing station; and a feature extraction processor operatively connected to the sensor and the network device, the feature extraction processor being configured to: identify a plurality of feature vectors in video data generated by the sensor; transmit only the plurality of feature vectors to the processing station with the first network device in a first operating mode; and transmit the video data to the processing station with the first network device in a second operating mode only in response to a request for the video data from the processing station; and the processing station further comprising: a second network device; a video output device; and a processor operatively connected to the second network device and the video output device, the processor being configured to: receive the plurality of feature vectors generated by each camera in the plurality of cameras with the second network device; identify an object and motion of the object in the scene with reference to the plurality of feature vectors received from at least two of the plurality of cameras; identify an event corresponding to the motion of the object in the scene with reference to a predetermined database of events; generate a request for transmission of the video data from at least one camera in the plurality of cameras; and generate a graphical display of the video data from the at least one camera with the video output device to display the object associated with the event.